This is banned in Germany – with Windows 7
A patent dispute between Motorola and Microsoft has now escalated with a German court ruling that the Xbox 360 cannot be sold within the country. Also included in the banned list include Windows 7, Internet Explorer and the Windows Media Player.
This could be banned in the US by Motorola
Motorola appears to have an early win with the US’ International Trade Commission against Microsoft and its Xbox 360 console. The ITC has issued a preliminary report that has said that the Xbox 360 did infringe five of Motorola’s patents.
Germans won’t be getting push email anytime soon with Apple’s appeal to the Mannheim regional court failed. The court basically sided with Motorola Mobility, and agreed with an earlier decision that saw the company forced to remove the service in Germany earlier in February.
Microsoft has agreed to buy over 800 patents from AOL, and license the remainder still with the company, in a deal that is worth US$1.056 billion. And since the payment is in cash – this will give AOL a much needed cash injection for its long-term strategy to become a huge online media player.
Yahoo has launched its lawsuit against social networking company Facebook, claiming that it had infringed on 10 of its patents – all relating to social networking, customisation and advertising on the web. And, of course, it launched it before Facebook’s IPO coming up this year.
Is it Yahoo’s last stand? A report by the New York Times has revealed that the company is threatening Facebook with a patent lawsuit if it does not pay licensing fees for 10 to 20 patents it owns, which include advertising, web page personalisation, messaging and social networking. Yes, the signs of a dying company are definitely present.
A new patent has been recently granted to Apple that would see iMovie and Final Cut Pro implement a teleprompter feature – allowing you to read what you were going to say within the app, or possibly even on the iPad.
Kodak has announced that it and all of its subsidies have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, in a move to restructure the company “to focus on its most valuable business lines” after years of ignoring the rise of digital cameras.
Dolby has launched a lawsuit against the BlackBerry maker RIM and could see – if victorious – sales halted as part of an injunction.
Dolby claims that RIM has used Dolby’s audio compression technologies in its smartphones and the Playbook tablet without the proper licenses. The lawsuits, filed in both the United States and Germany, are also seeking damages.
Welcome to the Morning Briefing for Tuesday 28 December, where we highlight the tech stories from across the web and what we are watching here at TECHGEEK.com.au.
Here’s what we are watching:
Joining the list of companies Apple is suing, Motorola now faces the raft of Steve Jobs after the company has filed two separate lawsuits claiming that Motorola has infringed on its patent on multitouch – and no surprise, the devices claimed are all using the Android platform.
Well, that didn’t take long. Nokia has filed a lawsuit against Apple against the iPad after claiming the device has infringed on five of its patents. The case is the second (or third) case that both parties have been involved in, all in a back-and-forth attempt to say the other infringes on its patent. Nokia has also put this in Wisconsin, not Delaware.
Apple might be in trouble with its restrictions after all, and it took them this long? Reports coming from the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission are looking in beginning who will be taking on Apple on an antitrust complaint on developing applications for the iPhone – the main question, however, is who will it be?
A US Court of Appeals judge has upheld a $290 million jury victory against Microsoft for infringing a patent held by Toronto, Canada-based i4i in its Word program.This effectively means that Microsoft cannot sell either Office 2007 or Word 2007 unless they remove the infringing code from the program – well, from January 11 of next year.
Remember in October when Nokia filed a lawsuit against Apple for patent violations that relate to wireless handsets? Well, we are never going to hear the end of this since Apple has filed a countersuit against Nokia for basically the same thing, but this relates to a range of patents that include scaling and rotation on a touchscreen. Apple is also asking for monetary damages and legal fees.