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.

Apple’s iWatch has been making the rounds lately, and we’ve seen our fair share of mockups and possible ideas going behind the rumored smartwatch. Today, for instance, a new patent filing suggests Apple is working on a slap bracelet of the future, complete with a small AMOLED flexible display. It comes straight out of Apple’s R&D labs with the name “bi-stable spring with flexible display.”

Of course, the watch would be able to communicate with your iOS device and could things such as view recent calls, view and reply to text messages, manage music playlists, and look up addresses on Apple Maps possibly. The patent also describes a number of ways of powering the smartwatch, including using a solar panel or possibly even kinetic power sources.

Of course, this is only a patent application, which most of the time means that these things usually ever come to fruition in real life. Apple is all about setting trends, but we don’t think that means bringing old trends back from the early 90s with a new slap bracelet that you can also hit your classmates with (remember that?).

An Apple smartwatch certainly isn’t farfetched — users are already using iPod Nanos as watches, but we have a hard time believing that Apple would use a slap bracelet design for their official iWatch. Of course, we’re not really sure what they might do as far as design, but it’s safe to assume that it could be something fairly mindblowing.

[via Patently Apple]

Apple iWatch wristband patent shows the future of slap bracelets is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

President Obama lashed at the Patent Trolls during his Google+ Hangout and said that his administration’s attempts at patent reforms had only gone about half way of where they should have been. In response to an entrepreneur, who raised concerns about her friends being afraid of starting new businesses because of patent trolls, President Obama said “They don’t actually produce anything themselves. They are essentially trying to leverage and hijack somebody else’s idea and see if they can extort some money out of them.” (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Acrylicize Walls Up With LEGO Minifigs, Nikon Lenses Major Rebate Plan For Announced,

Blackberry in a bid to redesign their phones has applied for a 180-degree hinge patent. The patent comes at a time when flip phone form factor has taken a back seat with designers.  Blackberry has been known to experiment with their smartphone designs, and have come up with phones like the Storm, which came with a touchscreen or the Torch, which has a sliding keypad.  The hinge patent is pointing to a new experiment.

However, do keep in mind certain things about mobile companies filing for patents. With patent wars and costly lawsuits being very common, companies file patents all the time, even if the actual design might never be added to a device. Also this specific patent deals only with the hinge, and it is uncertain at this time if the hinge will be a part of a new smartphone or maybe it will be utilized in a tablet.

Blackberry has been aggressively tackling the smartphone market, first with the company name re-branding and then with the launch of the Z10 and Blackberry 10 OS. The hinge design might just prove to be the next amazing breakthrough from Blackberry. Would you like to see this feature in your next smartphone ? Read up on the Patent at the official US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) website.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Slacker Music Application Rebranded, DIY Circuit Board Wedding Invitation Is The Bomb,

Google isn’t letting BT’s Android patent lawsuit go unanswered, even if it’s taking its sweet time. Over a year after BT struck first, Google has filed a countersuit against BT that claims the provider is infringing four patents relating to IP-based conferencing and quality of service delivery. The search firm makes clear that its lawsuit is leverage for a possible truce: it’s using the action as a “last resort” to fend off both BT and the patent holding companies that BT uses as proxies, according to a Google spokesperson. BT hasn’t had a chance to respond — or to be formally served, as of this writing — but we can’t imagine that a company which once sued over hyperlinks will simply agree to a stalemate.

Filed under: Networking, Internet, Google

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Via: Reuters

Source: TechCrunch