Hasta La Gadget!

Samsung says it is working on an anti-Apple legal plan with Google, confirming the search giant’s direct involvement with its legal issues for the first time, and suggests a patent settlement is in the pipeline. Having seen the Galaxy Nexus slapped with a preliminary injunction last week, which it promptly appealed, Samsung now says it has a “game plan” with Google, The Korea Times reports, on how to squeeze more royalties out of its Cupertino rival.

Exactly what that plan might entail is still a secret, with Samsung refusing to detail it publicly. “It’s too early to comment on our game plan [with Google] in the legal battle; but we will do our best to get more royalties from Apple, which has benefited from our technology,” a supposed Samsung insider told the Korean site. “The fight is becoming more dramatic and the possibility of a truce in the form of a cross-licensing deal, seems to be becoming likely.”

Samsung has a demanded 2.4-percent royalty rate for iPhone and iPad units using technology it has patented, but Apple argues such a fee is not in keeping with the FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) licensing terms. Complaints by Apple, among other, have seen Samsung made the subject of an antitrust investigation by the European Commission.

Google has already publicly lent its support to HTC in a previous case of patent-related war with Apple, and in fact sold HTC a set of patents it went on to use in a counter-strike against the iPhone maker. The Galaxy Nexus case is potentially even more threatening to Android, however, as the smartphone is Google’s de facto flagship device, and in which it had a significant hand in designing and guiding to market.

Samsung is currently waiting to hear whether the preliminary injunction will be frozen or not. The company argued that Apple had not sufficiently demonstrated that the infringed patent in question causes substantial  damage to iPhone sales.

Samsung: We’re working on an Apple attack with Google is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple has settled its iPad trademark suit with Proview, agreeing to a $60m pay-out in order to use the iPad name for its tablet in China. “The iPad dispute resolution is ended,” the Guangdong High People’s Court confirmed in a statement. “Apple Inc. has transferred $60m to the account of the Guangdong High Court as requested in the mediation letter.” Proview had argued that Apple’s apparent purchase of the iPad trademark back in 2009 was not legally valid.

Apple had believed it was securing the naming rights when it dealt with a Taiwanese affiliate of Proview for around $55,000. However, Proview subsequently argued that the affiliate had no legal right to sell the name, and that its 2001 registration of the use of “iPad” in China still stood.

Skepticism around Proview’s motivations was quick to surface, especially amid rumors that the company was facing bankruptcy and under significant pressure from its Chinese bank backers, among others, to extract as much money from Apple as possible. Proview’s lawyer says that while “this is a result that is acceptable to both sides,” the company had hoped for as much as $400m, and that it still faces the possibility of bankruptcy.

Apple is yet to comment publicly on the settlement, which according to Chinese statements was actually agreed on June 25. “As we all know that Apple has made iPad such a big name, I don’t think that brand could do Proview a lot of good even if Proview won it” Proview’s attorney said.”

If you’ll miss the constant, confusing axe hovering over Apple’s branding, feel free to relive each step of the beautiful journey to $60m silence in the story timeline below.

[via Morning Whistle; via NYTimes; via WSJ]

Apple pays Proview $60m for iPad trademark is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Samsung has appealed against the preliminary injunction blocking US Galaxy Nexus sales, arguing Apple cannot prove that iPhone market share is legitimately threatened by the Android phone. Apple secured the early injunction late last week, convincing a US judge that the Galaxy Nexus is likely to be found infringing on at least one of four patents the Cupertino company holds. However, Samsung insists that Apple’s case fails to prove that the potential loss of market share caused by the third-gen Google phone is as “substantial” as the Federal Circuit’s requirements.

“The Court’s finding that Apple will suffer irreparable harm was based on legally insufficient evidence that Samsung and Apple are competitors” Samsung’s retort suggests. “The Court’s order is inconsistent with the Federal Circuit’s directive that market share losses must be substantial.”

What Apple has not yet demonstrated, Samsung reckons, is that the substantial loss alleged is attributable to the feature said to have infringed. In this case, that’s technology covered by patent 8,086,604, “Universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system,” which covers search and filtering systems.

“The Court’s causation finding as to the ’604 patent was erroneous, or at a minimum raises substantial questions” Samsung argues. Judge Lucy Koh, who granted Apple the preliminary injunction, has interpreted the ’604 patent as relevant to Siri, the virtual personal assistant which has been a central point of Apple’s advertising for the iPhone 4S.

However, Samsung is hoping that the appeals court will see ’604 as covering a far narrower range of functionality than Judge Koh, and says that Siri is a “different feature than the unified search covered by the ’604 patent.”

Samsung has asked that the preliminary injunction be stayed, either as long as the appeal against the decision in Apple’s favor take, or alternatively – and for a shorter period – until the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit comes up with a decision itself. Apple is yet to comment on the motion.

[via FOSS Patents]

Samsung demands Apple’s Galaxy Nexus ban be frozen is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple has been granted a preliminary sales injunction against the Samsung Galaxy Nexus in the US, with the Cupertino company now required to stump up a $96m bond in order to secure the ban. The decision was tweeted by Reuters’ Dan Levine, and follows a win earlier this week for Apple against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, with the US court granting a preliminary injunction against the Android tablet in the US.

The judge responsible for that tablet block, Justice Lucy Koh, is the same that has granted today’s Galaxy Nexus injunction. The financial stakes are significantly higher for the Nexus smartphone, however: Apple only needed to post a $2.6m bond in order to enact the Galaxy Tab 10.1 injunction, perhaps a reflection on its comparatively lower sales potential and the fact that it has already been superseded.

Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus, however, is still the flagship Google own-brand smartphone. In fact, the search giant announced a discounting promotion at Google IO this past week, cutting the handset down to $349 unlocked and SIM-free.

According to Judge Koh, “Apple has articulated a plausible theory of irreparable harm” in its argument against Samsung and the Galaxy Nexus, because of “long-term loss of market share” along with “losses of downstream sales.” The patent in question is the so-called ’604 Siri-style quick search patent, which describes a system “using a plurality of heuristic algorithms to operate upon information descriptors input by the user, the present invention locates and displays candidate items of information for selection and/or retrieval … Thus, the advantages of a search engine can be exploited, while listing only relevant object candidate items of information.”

If the last injunction is anything to go by, Apple will waste no time in posting the required bond, and Samsung will move equally swiftly to appeal the decision.

Update: According to FOSS Patents, Apple apparently managed to convince Judge Koh that all four of the patents it asserted were, in fact, likely infringed by Samsung. However the injunction was only applied based on the ’604 patent.

Apple granted preliminary sales ban of Galaxy Nexus is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Being a lawyer isn’t perhaps as much fun as it seems in the movies, in reality involving weeks of reading incredibly boring documents. Which is why many of them are probably now celebrating, as a recent court ruling suggests that computers can take over part of their job for them. More »