Samsung has a tough time on its hands battling Apple over tablet patents. But in the process of fighting hard, it seems to have made some questionable calls when it comes to choosing evidence—including the use of sci-fi footage to prove its case. More »
If you’ve seen most of Microsoft’s design language for nearly three years, there’s only one word that sums it up: Metro. In spite of that urban look being the underpinning of Windows Phone, Windows 8 and even the Zune HD, Microsoft now claims to ZDNet and others that it’s no longer fond of the Metro badge. Instead, it’s supposedly phasing out the name as part of a “transition from industry dialog to a broad consumer dialog” while it starts shipping related products — a funny statement for a company that’s been shipping some of those products for quite awhile. Digging a little deeper, there’s murmurs that the shift might not be voluntary. Both Ars Technica and The Verge hear from unverified sources that German retailer Metro AG might waving its legal guns and forcing Microsoft to quiet down over a potential (if questionable) trademark dispute. Metro AG itself won’t comment other than to say that these are “market rumors,” which doesn’t exactly calm any frayed nerves over in Redmond. Should there be any truth to the story, we hope Microsoft chooses an equally catchy name for those tiles later on; Windows Street Sign Interface Windows 8-style UI just wouldn’t have the same ring to it.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software
Microsoft downplays Metro design name, might face a lawsuit over all that street lingo originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Aug 2012 17:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Broadcast-streaming startup Aereo is busting out tweaked price plans and a free trial for New Yorkers to try the service gratis for an hour a day. $8 per month will buy you unlimited access, live pause, rewind and 20 hours online DVR, while $12 a month doubles your storage allocation to 40 hours. Annual customers can pay $80 (plus tax, naturally) to get a deep discount off the monthly price, but for the commitment-phobic viewer, 24-hours access can be purchased for a dollar, or you can try the service for an hour each and every day without need of a sign up. Unfortunately, due to legal wrangling, it’s only available within the boundaries of New York City on any iOS, OS X, AppleTV or Roku devices. There’s PR and Video after the jump if you’re yet to be convinced — but think, now you catch all of Good Morning America as you walk down Broadway.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Tablet PCs, Internet
Aereo unveils free trial and new prices for its NYC-based internet TV service (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Aug 2012 11:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We’ll leave labeling of InterDigital to the individual — whether you prefer patent troll or non-practicing entity, the semantics don’t concern us. What does concern us, however, is the IP firm’s ongoing legal battle with Nokia, and its recent victory over the Finnish manufacturer in the US Court of Appeals. The ruling reverses a previous decision handed down by the ITC that found Nokia did not violate InterDigital’s patents, but the trio of judges hearing the appeal disagreed. The claims in question relate to 3G radios and networks — the same patents that the firm used to target ZTE and Huawei. It doesn’t appear that there will be any immediate repercussions for Nokia, either in the form of import bans or settlement fees. The Windows Phone champion is considering its next move, which may involve appealing the appeal.
Filed under: Cellphones
InterDigital wins appeal in never-ending Nokia patent battle originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Aug 2012 09:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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You can’t follow the technology industry without being familiar with patent trolls. Patent trolls routinely hit any and every company they can think of with suits in an attempt to get the company they are targeting to pay licensing fees to use their patents. Typically, patent trolls don’t produce products they simply buy up patents in hopes that they can sue enough people to make a profit.
When a patent troll sues large company such as Apple or Microsoft, the defendants have the deep pockets to defend against the suit. However, when a patent troll sets its sights on a much smaller company that may just be starting out in the technology industry, the suit, frivolous or not, could be the end of the start up. A new bill has been introduced in the US House of Representatives in an attempt to prevent frivolous patent lawsuits being brought against other companies by patent trolls.
The bill is called the SHIELD (Saving High-Tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes) Act. The bill is being sponsored by Representative Peter DeFazio and representative Jason Chaffetz and is limited to patents that relate to computer hardware and software. The basis of the new bill is that a plaintiff who brings a patent suit against the defendant could be liable to pay a defendants entire legal costs if the court finds that the plaintiff “did not have a reasonable likelihood of succeeding.”
One of the most interesting things about the bill is that the plaintiff could be on the hook for legal costs regardless of whether or not the defendant is using the technology covered by the patent in question. The SHIELD Act also seeks to define exactly what the software patent covers and would change the general language used in courtrooms that has remained static since 1952 concerning patents. A software patent is defined under the bill as “any process that could be implemented in a computer regardless of whether a computer is specifically mentioned in the patent.”
“The SHIELD Act ensures that American tech companies can continue to create jobs, rather than waste resources on fending off frivolous lawsuits,” Chaffetz said. “A single lawsuit, which may easily cost over $1 million if it goes to trial, can spell the end of a tech startup and the jobs that it could have created.”
[via ArsTechnica]
SHIELD Act seeks to stop patent trolls is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Thought you’d seen all of the iPhones (and iPads)-that-never-were? If you did, then you were wrong as Apple industrial designer Christopher Stringer testified as a witness in the case vs. Samsung today, revealing many details about the company’s design process. That included more pictures of phone and tablet prototypes being filed as evidence, while he reportedly also brought a few along for show and tell. The Verge has a few galleries of CAD shots and pictures of rejected designs, including more of the lozenge edged types we’d seen before, and iPads complete with a curved grip around the edge. AllThingsD chimes in with a few interesting tidbits from his testimony, including the revelation that Apple designers actually sit around a kitchen table to debate the progress of current projects, and explaining that earlier iPhone prototypes were labeled iPods either because they had not yet decided on a name, or were already trying to obscure iPhone identity from potential leaks. There’s more info at the source links, take a careful look at the iThings around you and imagine what might have been.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablet PCs
Apple designer takes the witness stand in Samsung case, brings more iPhone / iPad prototypes along originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jul 2012 23:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
In May of last year, our free ride came to an end. US carriers started blocking third party tethering apps in the Android Market. Not long after, the built in feature was turned off on most phones. Our fortune may be reversing, however. The FCC has ruled that Verizon violated the rules governing the C Block of LTE spectrum by preventing consumers from using any application of their choice. The end result: Big Red will have to open up its airwaves and allow customers to circumvent its $20 a month tethering plan using apps from the Play store — so long as you’re on a “usage-based pricing plan.” Though it’s not explicitly stated, we assume that means those of you lucky enough to be grandfathered in to the unlimited data plans are left out. In addition to unblocking apps such as PdaNet and Barnacle, Verizon must pay a $1.25 million settlement to put an end to the investigation. For a few more details of the plan put in place to ensure compliance with the ruling, check out the PR after the break.
Continue reading Verizon to stop blocking tethering apps, settles with FCC for $1.25 million
Filed under: Wireless, Software
Verizon to stop blocking tethering apps, settles with FCC for $1.25 million originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jul 2012 15:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The trial between Apple and Samsung, which is kicking off today, will apparently be moving forward without a key witness that could have helped Samsung’s case quite a bit. All Things Digital reports that Shin Nishibori no longer works at Apple and has said that he will not be appearing in court to testify, despite being subpoenaed. According to a letter sent to Judge Lucy Koh (which was penned by Nishibori’s lawyer), Mr. Nishibori is currently in Hawaii trying to “recover from several health issues,” and claims that the subpoena was not properly issued under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Therefore, he will be staying where he is and won’t be attending the courtroom tussle between Apple and Samsung.
Nishibori would have been a good witness for Samsung to have up on the stand, as he created Sony-influenced designs for the iPhone back in 2006. If Samsung could have shown that the original iPhone was initially inspired by Sony products, it would have potentially made for a stronger case against Apple, which is claiming that Samsung infringed on Apple-held patents with smartphones of its own. Instead, it seems that the trial will proceed without any involvement from Nishibori, much to Samsung’s annoyance we imagine.
Apparently, Nishibori wrapped up his ten-year career at Apple earlier this month, but at this time we’re not sure why he left. Perhaps its related to these health issues he’s reportedly suffering from? Whatever the reason for his departure, it’s clear that he doesn’t want to get involved in this massive lawsuit, and frankly, we can’t really blame him if he’s in poor health.
There’s currently a ton of buzz surrounding this Apple-Samsung lawsuit, with both parties now suing each other, and each wanting a significant amount of money. In the coming weeks, Apple and Samsung will both be presenting their cases to a 10-person jury, and it’ll be up to that jury to wade through various patents and convoluted laws to determine who’s in the right. We’re expecting most of the process to be incredibly boring, but the suit has already revealed a few early Apple prototypes that proved to be rather interesting. Maybe there are more pleasant surprises like those prototypes on the way? We can only hope!
Key witness in Apple-Samsung trial won’t testify is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Things just went from bad to worse for some of the folks at Zynga. Earlier this week the company delivered a less-than-stellar quarterly financial report, and now Ars Technica is reporting that some executives and shareholders are under investigation for dumping over $500 million in stock before the bad news hit and Zynga’s stock price took a dive. In other words, a few Zynga higher-ups could be in a whole lot of trouble.
The word “could” is key here, as you naturally can’t get in trouble for just selling off your shares. What five law firms want to find out, however, is whether or not these people sold off their stock with the knowledge that a bad quarterly report was on the way. The sell-off evidently occurred back in April, when Zynga’s stock was selling at $12 per share. These days, thanks in part to that underwhelming report for Q2, it’s selling at only $3 per share, so you can see why law firms are interested in the circumstances surrounding the sell-off.
Some of Zynga’s biggest players are being investigated, including CEO Mark Pincus, COO John Schappert, and CFO Dave Wehner. Strange as it may seem, Google is also included in this investigation, along with a number of venture capital firms. Zynga has yet to be hit with a lawsuit, but Ars points out that with so many law firms conducting the investigation, it may not belong before the company finds itself dealing with a class-action lawsuit from investors. If that happens, it’ll be nothing but bad news for the social games maker, so stay tuned.
Zynga hit with investigation over questionable stock sell-off is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Google, as you may already know, is in deep trouble with a number of authors who don’t like that the company has scanned their books into the Google Books database. The long-running lawsuit is turning seven years old this year, and now Google is asking for its dismissal after a judge refused a proposed $125 million settlement last year. The authors suing Google – backed by the Authors Guild – were granted class-action status earlier this year in May.
Google submits that the authors involved in the lawsuit don’t have much a claim here because they haven’t demonstrated how Google Books’ online offerings, which is now comprised of more than 15 million books, have caused them any loss. In fact, Google claims that by scanning excerpts from books and putting them into an online database, the company is actually helping the authors out. The Authors Guild sticks by its claim that the company’s Google Books endeavors amount to nothing more than “massive copyright infringement.”
Reuters reports that the authors have until August 24 to file a response to Google’s move for dismissal. Google could be dealing with more than just angry authors before long, however, as Judge Denny Chin says that graphic artists and photographers may also join the case against the company. If they do, Google could have a pretty big mess on its hands, so it’s no wonder the company is making the move for dismissal. Stay tuned.
Google moves for dismissal of digital books lawsuit is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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