Hasta La Gadget!

Earlier today, we reported that Samsung allegedly hired the UK judge that forced Apple to publicly apologize over patent infringement that it committed against the Korean-based company, saying that the judge, Sir Robin Jacob, could help the company out with its lawsuit with Ericsson due to his patent expertise. However, Samsung has denied that they were involved with hiring Jacob.

Samsung says that “Sir Robin Jacob is not a legal representative of Samsung Electronics,” but he is now a contractor for “a law firm that represents Samsung Electronics in its case against Ericsson.” In other words, Jacob doesn’t work for Samsung, and he had no interaction with Samsung during the hiring process. He was merely hired by the law firm that represents Samsung.

Jacob is now a retired judge, but his expertise will no doubt prove useful for any law firm or company he works for. However, it’s possible that his patent expertise was one of the main reasons he was hired by this law firm, and that his main duties in this law firm will be working with Samsung, which in turn is about as close as you can get to working for a company without actually being an employee of theirs.

Obviously, we already know what side Jacob is one as far as the battle between Apple and Samsung, so there’s no doubt that Jacob would be a good fit in representing Samsung in any future court battles, but it may still shake a few feathers from competitors, including Apple. However, we’ll have to wait and see what Jacob’s roll will be in the coming future.

Samsung denies any involvement in UK judge recruitment is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Samsung has hired the ex-judge that ruled in its favor against Apple and forced the Cupertino firm to make a public apology on its homepage, calling Sr Robin Jacob as an expert in its ITC case with Ericsson. Apple was made to post a statement conceding it had been “false and misleading” in how it initially fulfilled the court-ordered public explanation by Judge Jacob in the UK in November 2012, but now the retired judge who demanded that has been included among nine experts retained by Samsung as it battles Ericsson in the US, controversial legal commentary site FOSS Patents highlights.

While no impropriety has been explicitly suggested, the decision by both parties is already prompting controversy. Sir Jacob is acknowledged as an expert in patent law, which was in no small part the reason that he was invited back to the bench in 2012 – having officially retired from the Cour of Appeal in 2011 – to rule on the Samsung v. Apple case; that’s undoubtedly the same reason that Samsung wants to secure his services.

Nonetheless, some industry observers are questioning whether Samsung’s perfectly legal decision to retain the former judge is a road to PR problems, with FOSS Patents’ Florian Mueller suggesting there is potential for allegations that the Korean firm is somehow “rewarding” Sir Jacob for his earlier decision. Given that the tensions between the Apple and Samsung camps seldom run quiet, it’s likely to be further grist for the controversy mill. That’s not least because Mueller is himself a point of contention, since he has previously been retained by both Oracle and Microsoft, Groklaw reported back in August 2012, while still commenting regularly on cases involving each company.

The situation is particularly awkward given the embarassing degree to which Apple was scolded in the 2012 ruling. The original judgement demanded the Cupertino firm add a visible statement to its UK site linking to an explanation that it had falsely maligned Samsung, something which the company duly posted.

However, Samsung – and the court – took issue with Apple’s initial phrasing, which included references to other international rulings in a way which appeared to call into question the legitimacy of the UK decision. As a result, the court ordered Apple to replace it with one more in keeping with the intention of the initial ruling, and extended the period for which it had to be kept online.

The final spanking was a higher-than-usual award of cost damages to Samsung, which at the time Judge Jacob described “as a mark of the court’s disapproval of a party’s conduct, particularly in relation to its respect for an order of the court.”

Sir Jacob will advise in an unspecified way on Samsung’s case against Ericsson, in which the company is seeking a US sales injunction after alleging patent licensing attempts have fallen flat. The suit follows an early blast by Ericsson seeking to pressure Samsung into renewed licensing negotiations by threatening an import ban of its own.

Samsung hires ex-Judge who demanded public Apple shaming is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Weary of the neverending legal back-and-forth between Apple and Samsung yet? No, we’re not either (that’s a terrible lie), and the latest exciting development comes from a courtroom in Japan, where it was decided Samsung does not hold rights to certain data transmission tech it accused Apple of pinching. So, what are the repercussions? None, really — the status quo remains unchanged, and Apple can continue selling the products Sammy wanted off the shelf. The Times of India notes that cases in the US and South Korea over the same patent have gone one a piece, meaning Apple is up 2-1 in this particular bout. But, when you’ve been battling for this long, you’ve bound to win some, and lose just as many.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple, Samsung

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Source: Reuters

On January 26, it officially became illegal to unlock mobile phones without the carrier’s permission, but a White House petition ended up being started to fight back on the ruling, and called for the government to “champion a bill that makes unlocking permanently legal.” Just a couple of days before the petition was about to meet its deadline, it edged past the 100,000 signature mark, where it will now be passed onto the Obama administration for consideration.

The petition passed 100,000 signatures earlier this morning, and the White House will now take a look at the law to see why exactly it’s illegal to unlock a phone. It took just under a week for the petition to reach a third of its goal, but took several more weeks to achieve the last two-thirds. Either way, the petition is on its way to the White House.

The Library of Congress decided on the ruling last month that unlocking your mobile phone without the permission from your carrier would be illegal. Of course, the chances of getting a carrier to say “yes” to unlocking phones is slim to none, so essentially, it’s become more of a challenge to unlock phones legally now.

In any case, we’d like to be optimistic and say that there’s a good chance that the Obama administration will at least highly consider overturning the new law, but we’ll ultimately have to wait and see what they say. There’s no word on when officials will make a public statement about the petition and the law, but it should be fairly soon.

Petition to legalize phone unlocking reaches 100,000 signatures is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

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