Well, look who finally showed up to the patent party! The Federal Trade Commission announced on Friday that it has opened an inquiry into "patent assertion entities," a.k.a. patent trolls. Start popping some popcorn, folks. This could get good.
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As if smartphone maker HTC doesn’t have enough to worry about in an Android space so saturated with Samsung-branded hardware it’s driving HTC’s sales back to 2010 levels. But now the Taiwanese company is facing the prospect of having to fork out for damages if haptics company Immersion gets its way. Immersion, which counts Samsung among the licensees for its “touch feedback technology”, had been content to stay a U.S. lawsuit against HTC — in order to wait for the completion of an International Trade Commission investigation into whether HTC has been infringing some of its patents. But, given HTC’s recent performance in the mobile space, Immersion has decided this strategy is no longer appropriate and today said it plans to ask for the stay of its lawsuit to be lifted — so that it “may prosecute its claim against HTC for damages immediately”.
The ITC action was originally scheduled for “final determination” on October 28, 2013 — after which Immersion may have been able to secure an exclusion order against HTC preventing infringing devices being imported into the United States. But with HTC’s fortunes in the doldrums, Immersion reckons it can get a better outcome via the U.S. District Court route, where it can win damages, attorneys’ fees, and potentially injunctive relief.
“Given HTC’s recent performance in the mobile market, we believe an exclusion order preventing HTC from importing infringing devices would no longer be an impactful win, and we are turning our energies to seeking damages for past and ongoing shipments of infringing devices,” noted Immersion CEO Victor Viegas in a statement.
Immersion filed its original complaint against HTC (and also Motorola) with the ITC on February 7, 2012, alleging infringement of six U.S. patents relating to the use of haptics technology — namely: 6,429,846 (“the ’846 patent”); 7,592,999 (“the ’999 patent”); 7,969,288 (“the ’288 patent”); 7,982,720 (“the ’720 patent”); 8,031,181 (“the ’181 patent”); and 8,059,105 (“the ’105 patent”).
A multi-year license for Immersion’s haptics technology signed by Samsung last week included a patent license covering “Samsung’s prior and future use of simple forms of haptic effects, sometimes referred to as Basic Haptics, in its smartphones and other mobile devices”, according to the company.
Immersion, which was founded back in 1993, says it has more than 1,300 issued or pending patents in the U.S. and other countries.
In the latest episode of the Apple vs. Samsung legal drama that’s been playing out in the U.S. district court of Northern California, the pair met again at an appeal hearing on Thursday to argue their respective corners. Judge Lucy Koh is reviewing the jury’s $1.05 billion verdict against Samsung.
Apple is hoping for a ban on the sale of Samsung devices the jury deemed to infringe its patents when they returned their verdict back in August, while Samsung wants to reduce the damages award against it — or trigger a new trial.
The judge made a plea for “global peace” between the warring gadget makers — who are also doing battle in other courtrooms around the world. “If there is any way this court can facilitate some sort of resolution, I’d like to do that,” the FT quotes Koh as saying. “I think it would be good for consumers and good for the industry.”
Apple recently settled its remaining legal disputes with another mobile maker, HTC — by agreeing a licensing deal — an outcome Koh is likely hoping could be used to end the Apple vs. Samsung battle.
According to the BBC, Samsung’s arguments on Thursday focused on calling into question the jury’s calculations when it determined the amount of damages. To counter this argument, Apple urged the Judge not to probe the jury’s reasoning on a device-by-device basis — however Koh did not appear to be swayed by Apple’s argument. ”I don’t see how you can look at the aggregate verdict without looking at the pieces put together to make that verdict,” she is quoted as saying. ”If there is a basis to uphold the damages award, by the record, then I am going to uphold it. But I think it is appropriate to do analysis by-product.”
Samsung also asked for the verdict to be entirely dismissed and for a new trial to be held. One of its main arguments reportedly centers on the impartiality of jury foreman, Velvin Hogan. However Reuters quotes Christopher Carani, a partner at Chicago-based intellectual property law firm McAndrews, Held & Malloy, Ltd, commenting that Samsung’s juror misconduct argument is “unlikely to have much traction”.
Meanwhile, Apple asked for an increase in the damages award — and for a permanent ban on the U.S. sales of eight Samsung smartphones the jury deemed infringes its patents. The FT reports that Apple’s legal representative dubbed the billion-dollar award a “slap on the wrist”, and argued the court needs to “establish a line” that would “change behaviours” — an argument we’ve heard Apple make before.
According to Reuters, Apple is attempting to add more than $500 million to the $1 billion damages award — on the grounds that the jury found Samsung willfully infringed its patents.
Thursday’s court hearing concluded with Judge Koh saying she would rule at a later date.
Dolby spinoff Via Licensing has shone a signal into the night sky and assembled some of the world’s biggest telecoms players to form a patent supergroup. AT&T, NTT DoCoMo and Telefonica are some of the names that’ll pool their standards-essential LTE patents to prevent getting embroiled in litigation over FRAND licensing. While there are some notable holdouts to the team, we suggest company president Roger Ross coax them over by hiring Michael McCuistion to write them a rockin’ theme song.
Continue reading Via Licensing assembles an LTE supergroup to share standards-essential patents
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile
Via Licensing assembles an LTE supergroup to share standards-essential patents originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Oct 2012 01:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Northern District Court of California has overturned a sales ban against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 won by Apple in patent litigation against Samsung, Reuters is reporting.
This follows a ruling at the end of last month by the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals that U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh could decide whether or not to lift the ban on U.S. sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1-inch tablet. Koh had previously refused to rule on the matter.
“We are pleased with the court’s action today, which vindicates our position that there was no infringement of Apple’s design patent and that an injunction was not called for,” Samsung is reported as saying in a statement.
We’ve contacted Apple and Samsung for further comment and will update with any response. Samsung provided the following statement: “On September 28, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit made a ruling, permitting the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to consider our request to lift the preliminary injunction on the GALAXY Tab 10.1. We will continue to take all appropriate measures to ensure the availability of our innovative products.”
Apple filed for a preliminary injunction against Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet back in May ahead of the trial. In the U.S. the dispute focuses on the iPad D’889 design patent — Apple’s trade dress — but the jury in the Apple vs Samsung trial subsequently decided Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 had not infringed this design patent, effectively invalidating the earlier ruling banning U.S. sales.
However it’s not necessarily the end of the road for the Tab 10.1 design disputes — FOSS Patents’ Florian Mueller notes that after a hearing scheduled for early December Apple can still win a permanent injunction against Samsung’s slate “over the D’889 tablet design patent if it prevails on the related part of its Rule 50 (“overrule-the-jury”) motion”.
Apple won an E.U.-wide preliminary injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 last year – although this was subsequently lifted in all countries except Germany, where the sales ban was granted. The dispute over the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the E.U. rested on Apple’s Community Design 000181607 for the iPad.
Fujitsu’s bank balance may be a little lighter today, since Acacia Research Corp. has reported that subsidiaries of both companies have signed a settlement deal over patent disputes. As usual, Acacia is keeping tight-lipped about exactly what the patents cover, but a little digging on our part has revealed they are related to flash memory and RAM technologies. The agreement resolves lawsuits in the works at district courts in Texas and California, which is probably a good thing. After all, these cases can get pretty messy when they go to court.
Filed under: Cellphones, Laptops, Tablets
Fujitsu and Acacia resolve patent disputes with settlement, keep it out of the courts originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Aug 2012 10:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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