Hasta La Gadget!

Despite neither Samsung nor Apple gaining the upper hand in their court fight in South Korea, it looks like Samsung might be worse for wear as the Korea Fair Trade Commission has started to investigate Apple’s antitrust claims against Samsung. The Cupertino company is claiming that Samsung is abusing its wireless technology patents to give themselves an advantage over their competitors in the mobile industry. At the same time, Samsung is also facing similar investigations over in Europe as the EC is looking into whether Samsung’s standards-essential FRAND patents violate the EU’s antitrust laws. No word on when this investigation will be complete, but it certainly looks like Samsung has their plate full, what with other lawsuits with Apple pending in other countries and their appeal in the US which will hopefully get them out of paying Apple $1 billion in damages.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Apple looking to add Samsung’s Galaxy S3 to their injunction, Apple loses patent case against Samsung in Japan, injunction request denied,

As most of you guys are aware by now, Apple has gained a pretty big victory over Samsung in their legal battle over in the US, with the courts ordering Samsung to pay $1 billion to Apple in damages (assuming Samsung’s appeal falls through), and with Apple also asking for an injunction against many Samsung devices. Thankfully the list at that time did not include some of Samsung’s newer devices, like the flagship Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Note, but that might not be the case now.

According to the reports, Apple has asked a federal district court in San Jose, California to add more products to their injunction list which includes both the Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Note. It remains to be seen if Apple’s request will be granted, but if it does, it looks like Samsung’s newest flagship device could be banned from the US market which is one the largest markets that many manufacturers hope to break into. In any case we’ll be keeping an eye on the situation so be sure to check back with us at a later date for more updates!

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Apple loses patent case against Samsung in Japan, injunction request denied, Apple injunction on Samsung set for December 6th showdown,

Bruce Willis may not be the most likely candidate for a war on Apple and digital media licensing, but the Die Hard star has apparently engaged the lawyers in order to preserve his iTunes library legacy. Willis was supposedly outraged to discover that, upon his death, the licenses to his music, video, ebook, and other media purchased through iTunes will not be passed on to his children, The Sun reports, and is exploring ways to work around the rules.

Unlike physical media, digital downloads are only licensed – in effect “borrowed” – from the store they were bought from, rather than purchased outright. Although the discrepancy is little known among users, the outcome is that an entire library of content cannot be legally accessed once the person who bought those rights to playback has died.

Willis is supposedly setting up a trust, in which his downloads will be held, so that they can be made available to his children after his death. That’s probably not something every regular user will do, though the somewhat vague promise that the actor is now “backing legal moves to increase the rights of downloaders” might at least draw extra attention to exactly what rights you have when you hit “Buy” in iTunes or other download stores.

Whether, as has been reported, Willis will actually “sue” Apple over the rules remains to be seen. Digital Rights Management and issues of licensing have caused numerous headaches as downloads gain favor, with rival cloud playback services being unable to store and stream each other’s tracks and videos because of limitations around sharing.

[via Forbes]

Bruce Willis reportedly livid over iTunes death rules is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The USA legal case between Apple and Samsung has been amended to add several devices including the original Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet, and Galaxy S III. This complaint does not yet include a request for a ban on these products, but does make it clear that Apple wishes to include them in the set of Samsung devices that Apple says infringes their patent rights. The full list also includes such devices as the Galaxy S II, Galaxy Nexus, and Galaxy Player devices as well.

Thus far Apple has won over $1 billion USD in damages from Samsung in the USA case which has had a verdict read just days after the month-long trial took place. The results of the trial are currently set for appeal per Samsung’s request, and no cash has been exchanged thus far. The newest additions to the list of Samsung products in the trial include several of Samsung’s newest hero products. The full list of devices Apple has suggested should be included in the list of devices that have infringed upon their patent rights is as follows:

“the Galaxy S III, Galaxy S III – Verizon, Galaxy Note, Galaxy S II Skyrocket, Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch, Galaxy S II, Galaxy S II – T-Mobile, Galaxy S II – AT&T, Galaxy Nexus, Illusion,Captivate Glide, Exhibit II 4G, Stratosphere, Transform Ultra, Admire, Conquer 4G, and Dart smartphones, the Galaxy Player 4.0 and Galaxy Player 5.0 media players, and the Galaxy Note10.1, Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus and Galaxy Tab 8.9 tablets.”

These devices have been specified as being “imported into, offered for sale, or sold in the United States.” Apple has added that Samsung has “continued to flood the market with copycat products,” since the first filing of the case that’s just been completed – so to speak. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus specifically was a device Apple was able to get a temporary injunction against earlier this year – Samsung was granted a stay pending appeal which has allowed the device to continue to be up for sale throughout the USA today. The complaint in that case had to do specifically with Apple’s ’604 “Unified search” patent.

Check the timeline below for more key points in this trial since its first verdict reading. Also stay tuned as Samsung and Apple continue to kick back and forth until they’re satisfied in the legal realm or one of them gets knocked out of business entirely. In other words, expect yourself to be watching this story for some time to come!

[via Apple Insider]

Galaxy S III and Note devices added to Apple case vs Samsung is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

So while Apple might have claimed a rather substantial victory over Samsung in the US, it looks like in other countries Samsung is doing pretty well. The latest news in the Apple versus Samsung patent war is that Samsung has gained a victory over Apple in Japan as the Japanese courts have ruled that Samsung did not violate Apple’s patents and denied the Cupertino company’s request for an injunction. The patent in question was over the syncing of media files between devices and eight of Samsung’s Galaxy devices were named as the ones infringing upon it. Samsung released a statement after the verdict and they had this to say:

“We welcome the court’s decision, which confirmed our long-held position that our products do not infringe Apple’s intellectual property. We will continue to offer highly innovative products to consumers, and continue our contributions towards the mobile industry’s development.”

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Samsung report shows how it used the iPhone as a reference to improve the Galaxy S, Former Apple designer says she once mistook a Samsung phone for an iPhone,