And so, the Facebook v. Yahoo! courtroom tussle has come to an end. The two Silicon Valley giants have agreed to a legal truce and cross-licensed a bit of each other’s IP, meaning that’s one less legal donnybrook we have to worry about upsetting consumer sensibilities. Not only have the two settled their differences over their respective advertising and social networking patents, but they’ve also agreed to an ad sales partnership, too. Now, if only all those other, myriad tech litigants could amicably settle their differences with such alacrity. Perhaps they should all take a gander at the PR after the break to see how it’s done.
This week the folks at Facebook and Yahoo have been reported to be settling things between one another in regards to a collection of patent suits that were being fired at one another earlier this year. According to sources close to the dealings speaking with AllThingsD, a deal will be announced later today in which no money will change hands, somehow or another. Instead it seems that a strategic deal has been met and will be working with joint online advertising sales and patent cross-licensing.
When Yahoo sued Facebook back in March, the former said that the latter had infringed on 10 patents, some of which included bits on online advertising technology. This situation prompted Yahoo to claim that Facebook was “one of the worst performing sites for advertising” before they started using Yahoo-owned ideas.
Facebook responded with a lawsuit just a month later, claiming that Yahoo was prioritizing “litigation over innovation” and that Yahoo’s claims were bogus. Now it seems that the two have shaken hands in favor of moving beyond the situation entirely! Stay tuned for more as the full extent of the situation is revealed (or so we expect) later today.
For all the heat it dishes out elsewhere in the world, Apple has had a hard time catching a break in China — between having to settle with Proview over the iPad trademark and a recent, smaller dispute over Snow Leopard, it’s been primarily on the defensive. The latest rear-guard action is in Shanghai, where Zhi Zhen Internet Technology claims that Siri’s voice command charms infringe on a patent used for the Xiao i Robot voice system on phones and the web. We’re just hearing about the lawsuit now, but Zhi Zhen insists that it’s been long in the making with accusations filed in June and a patent application dating all the way back to 2004. Apple is characteristically silent on how it will tackle the case. We suspect it’ll be more than a little eager to fight back in court: in addition to the lawsuit presenting a very conspicuous roadblock to bringing Siri to China with iOS 6, it comes from a company that hasn’t been shy about plastering the Siri icon all over its home page.
Apple’s legal troubles in China continue. This time Cupertino is being sued by a company called Zhi Zhen Internet Technology over voice recognition patents. Zhi Zhen claims it holds patents for a Chinese voice language assistant used for its Xiao i Robot service, and that Siri infringes those patents. There’s quite a big gap between Siri’s introduction in October and the lawsuit that’s just been filed, although the company says it reached out to Apple back in May and heard no response.
Zhi Zhen reportedly filed the patent back in 2004, and is going ahead with the case as a result of Apple’s Siri language expansion in June to include Mandarin and Cantonese. A spokesperson for the company has said that it wants Apple to stop infringing on its technology and bear the cost of any legal fees.
Apple settled a case with Chinese company Proview not too long ago, paying out $60 million over an iPad trademark dispute in mainland China. Apple has also recently been sued by another Chinese company, Jiangsu Xuebao, over a Snow Leopard trademark. That company claims to have filed a trademark for the word “Xuebao”, which translate to “Snow Leopard.” The company is seeking CNY 500,000 (~$78,700) in damages and an official apology.
Apple and Samsung had both been asked in the past to drop patent claims from an upcoming lawsuit, due to be held on July 30th, for fear it would overwhelm a jury. Both companies complied, and now it looks like the duo will be dropping even more. FOSS Patents reports that Judge Koh wants to streamline the case even further, as well as restricting the amount of time both companies have to present their case.
Due to the strict time limitations, both parties will find it hard to argue a wealth of patent and intellectual property claims, resulting in this additional reduction. While both Apple and Samsung have narrowed their cases, Judge Koh will ultimately have the final word on what will make it to trial. Apple is said to have dropped a patent relating to a “multipoint touchscreen”, as well as a trade dress claims against Samsung’s packaging.
Samsung has reduced its number of claims from 15 to 9. The company will be making two claims against each of its three patents, and one claim each on another three patents. Judge Koh is expected to make a final verdict relating to the reduction in claims fairly shortly. The trial for the case will begin on July 30th.
Well, Apple had a few legalvictories over the last couple of weeks, but it’s just been handed a significant defeat by Judge Christopher Floyd. The UK court handed down a ruling that HTC does not violate four Apple patents, including the infamous slide-to-unlock claim. What’s more, the judge ruled that three of the four patents in question were not valid, among them the aforementioned unlocking design. The only one of the four patents that stood at the end of the day was related to scrolling through images in the photo management app, but HTC did not infringe upon the claim. This follows the ITC refusing an emergency ban on HTC products in the US. Don’t think you’ve heard the last of slide-to-unlock, however. As HTC, Apple and Samsung have repeatedly shown, they’re just as interested in competing in the court room as they are on store shelves (if not more so).
Back in December 2011, Samsung, Sharp, and a handful of other companies were fined $553 million over price-fixing claims. The companies reportedly met to fix LCD prices between 1999 and 2006, eventually being caught out by a investigation. At the time, LG Display, Toshiba, and AU Optronics Corp had yet to settle the case, but Toshiba was yesterday hit with a $87 million fine for its involvement.
Toshiba has denied the charges and said it was appeal the verdict, with the company saying: “While Toshiba appreciates the jury’s time and effort, Toshiba believes that the jury’s verdict is in error as to the finding of wrongdoing.” Richard Heimann, co-lead counsel on the case, said that he was “very pleased the jury found in favour of the plaintiffs and found that Toshiba violated the law.”
The company will have to pay approximately $70 million to customers who purchased their TVs, and around $17 million to affected manufacturers who built the TVs. This latest verdict comes after AU Optronics was found guilty of pricing fixing back in March. AU Optronics also says it will appeal the verdict.
This week has been a bad one for the lawyers in charge of keeping Samsung’s mobile products on the shelves as not only the Galaxy Tab 10.1 but the Galaxy Nexus have now had bids to end their preliminary sales ban in two separate Apple court cases. Apple is currently working on legal suits against Samsung in regards to alleged patent infringement and has won preliminary sales bans on both the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Galaxy Nexus in the USA until the court cases take place. In other words – good luck trying to find either device for sale in the USA until the cases are resolved.
Just yesterday it was ruled that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 preliminary sales ban would be upheld despite protest by Samsung. Now with the Galaxy Nexus held up until its own case is resolved, Samsung finds itself in a bit of a precarious situation with a whole lot of product sitting in the back room with no legal means for sales.
“Samsung is disappointed with the court’s decision that denied our motion to stay. We believe today’s ruling will ultimately reduce the availability of superior products to consumers in the United States.
We will continue to pursue an appeal of the GALAXY Nexus preliminary injunction, which we filed on July 2 to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Meanwhile, we are also working closely with Google to resolve this matter, as the patent in question concerns Google’s unified search function.” – Samsung spokesperson
Have a peek at the Samsung Galaxy Nexus timeline we’ve got sitting below to see the short history of this case as well as some of the fabulous hands-on posts this device has been getting into as of late. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is Google’s current hero phone showing off their latest Android operating system version 4.1 codename Jelly Bean, complete with advanced search functions as well as voice recognition to go with it. We’re fully expecting the Nexus 7 to also fall under this Apple patent umbrella as the iPad has similar functionality – we shall see!
UPDATE: It’s being reported that Samsung and Google will also be seeking to implement a software patch that will take out “local” results in its updated voice search to help get the Galaxy Nexus out of this jam. Hopefully this update isn’t true – we’ve been loving the hot Google Now action we’ve seen thus far!
Happy Independence Day, Apple. Reuters reports that Samsung’s request to have the preliminary injunction against the Galaxy Nexus lifted has officially been denied. This follows a similar ruling yesterday, when the Korean firm’s plea to have a similar ban on its Galaxy Tab 10.1 also fell on deaf ears. This means that there will be no more Samsung Nexi on store shelves until either a workaround can be implemented or the case is resolved. And, according to All Things D, Google and Sammy have already got a workaround ready to go and the software patch implementing it will be pushed out “imminently.” So, in actuality, the news isn’t that bad for Android lovers, but it does put another feather in Apple’s legal cap.
Update: In case you weren’t sure what “no more Nexi on store shelves” means, the phone is currently listed as coming soon in Google’s own Play store, pending that software update that hopefully clears it for sale in the US.
Toshiba decided not to settle when faced with allegations of price fixing, and now the company may have to pay the price. A jury handed down a verdict in the District Court for the Northern District of California today, hitting the company with $87 million in damages as part of a class action suit. The civil suit, separate from the criminal charges some of its alleged co-conspirators faced, wrapped today with the decision to award consumers $70 million and gave $17 million to manufacturers who purchased the company’s panels. Toshiba may not actually have to pay up, however, thanks to settlements struck by others caught up in the same scandal, which could cover the damages. Regardless, the company maintains its innocence and actually plans to pursue “all available legal avenues” to reverse the decision. For more of Toshiba’s response, check out the PR after the break.
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And so, the Facebook v. Yahoo! courtroom tussle has come to an end. The two Silicon Valley giants have agreed to a legal truce and cross-licensed a bit of each other’s IP, meaning that’s one less legal donnybrook we have to worry about upsetting consumer sensibilities. Not only have the two settled their differences over their respective advertising and social networking patents, but they’ve also agreed to an ad sales partnership, too. Now, if only all those other, myriad tech litigants could amicably settle their differences with such alacrity. Perhaps they should all take a gander at the PR after the break to see how it’s done.
Well, Apple had a few 
