Hasta La Gadget!

If you thought that maybe Apple’s victory over Samsung in the US was the first step towards the end of the patent war, you would be wrong as that was merely a battle victory as the war is far from over. Over in Germany, it seems that Apple has managed to win a rather substantial victory against Motorola where the Munich I Regional Court awarded Apple an injunction against a variety of Motorola devices that allegedly infringed upon the “rubber banding” patent. In case the name wasn’t obvious enough, this “rubber banding” patent refers to an animation that bounces back when reaching the top or bottom of a list (if you own an iOS device, you should give it a go if you don’t know what we’re referring to). Of course we expect Motorola to appeal this injunction, but for now it looks like Apple has the upper hand. If you’d like to see how this one plays out, be sure to check back with us at a later date where hopefully we will have more information to share.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Apple reportedly reaches licensing agreement with Motorola in Germany, ITC rules that Apple did not violate Motorola’s patent, remands case back to judge,

For me, the Jammie Thomas case illustrates all that is broken and loathsome about the RIAA and our legal system today. The Thomas case has been ongoing for many years now, as the woman was found guilty of sharing copyrighted songs in 2007. RIAA originally accused the woman of sharing 1700 copyrighted tunes and later chopped the number to 24.

The jury awarded four major record labels a combined $222,000 in damages. The original decision was then thrown out after the judge presiding over the case acknowledged he had made a mistake in his jury instructions. On retrial, the jury in the case awarded damages of $80,000 for each of the 24 songs the woman was accused of sharing for a total of $1.92 million. Again, the verdict was thrown out.

The judge presiding over the case lowered the damages for each song shared to $2250 leaving her owing music labels a total of $54,000. That wasn’t enough money for RIAA who appealed the decision, and the appeals court has now reinstated the original jury damage award. That means that after losing another appeal Thomas is on the hook for $222,000 again.

Thomas’ legal team promises to appeal the ruling all the way the Supreme Court if needed. The woman’s legal team believes that damage awards outlined by Congress were meant for punishing organized criminal groups rather than individual online file sharers. The woman’s attorneys argue that the massive fine is cruel and usual punishment and is therefore, unconstitutional. Damages of $222,000 certainly mean that the average American would be destitute for the remainder of their life in order to pay the damages.

[via CNet]

Jammie Thomas loses appeal as court upholds $222,000 fine for music sharing is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple may have a tougher than expected challenge persuading a US court to invalidate HTC LTE patents, with the trade judge presiding over the trial already agreeing with HTC on key issues of ownership. Justice Thomas Pender said he would likely dismiss Apple arguments that HTC does not correctly own the two patents in question, Businessweek reports, telling the Cupertino firm’s lawyer that “I don’t care if they bought these patents to sue you or not.”

“[The patents] are a property right” Judge Pender concluded. HTC bought the patents as part of an overall portfolio for $75m back in April 2011, and promptly used some of the IP to sue Apple. At the time, HTC said its strategy was “to protect itself and its customers from these aggressive tactics and to preserve its ability to compete in the United States.”

Apple, however, argues that the patents are invalid, a stance it sounds like Pender will take plenty of persuading on. “Clear and convincing means something to me,” the judge said, “I have to be pretty darn certain a U.S. patent is invalid.” ”Clear and convincing” are the two elements a company or individual must satisfy to prove a patent invalid once granted.

Pender has already shown he is clued into the tech scene, asking Apple’s lawyers whether the September 12 event is, indeed, to launch a new LTE-enabled iPhone. “It will be thinner and the screen bigger?” he asked  lawyer Michael McKeon, pointing out “that’s what the blogs are saying.”

However, McKeon declined to comment on the new phone, saying he had not been informed of Apple’s launch plans.

Not all of the case has been swinging HTC’s way, however. Pender rejected some of HTC’s patents, which the company had acquired from Google, over concerns that the agreement between the two companies did not, in fact, give it sufficient ownership control.

Apple has already been feathering its war chest of LTE IP. The company has bought and developed around 434 LTE patents to pre-emptively protect its devices, having been publicly warned by Samsung that the South Korean company would aggressively challenge any 4G Apple devices.

[via CNET]

Apple faces uphill challenge invalidating HTC LTE patents is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Former German first lady Bettina Wulff isn’t happy with Google. She is the wife of former German President Christian Wulff. Apparently, during her husband’s term in office, there were persistent rumors that she worked for an escort service before marrying her husband.

If you begin typing her name into the Google search engine, auto complete does this behind-the-scenes magic and links her name up with some popular searches. The autocomplete terms angering Wulff read “bettina wulff escort” and “bettina wulff prostituierte.” Wulff wants Google to stop linking her name to those searches.

A German publication called Süddeutschen Zeitung has reported that she is going to file suit against Google for defamation that she claims has destroyed a reputation. The problem for Wulff is that Google isn’t the one leaking her name to prostitution. The algorithm in place for autocomplete simply suggests some of the most common searches made using her name.

That doesn’t mean she can’t win in court though, Google has lost suits relating to autocomplete in the past. Google settled with multiple French groups that sued over a violation of antidiscrimination laws in France when autocomplete started suggesting the term “juif” with the names of certain celebrities and other media figures. A Japanese court ordered Google to delete auto complete terms that linked a man with crimes he claims to have had no part in. Wulff may have a case after all considering there is a precedent in this matter in other countries.

[via TechCrunch]

Former German first lady rumored to sue Google for defamation is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Book publishers have reached a settlement with the Department of Justice over the e-book price fixing ring of which Apple was allegedly kingpin. That settlement is great news, because it means we’ll be able to buy cheaper e-books really soon. More »