Hasta La Gadget!

A federal jury has just taken a bite out of patent licensing firm WiLAN’s business plan, ruling that HTC, Sony, Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson didn’t infringe any of the four patents it sued them over. The latter two companies fended off three wireless base station claims, while Sony and HTC defended a fourth involving handset technology. HTC said it believed that WiLAN “exaggerated the scope of its patent” to extract royalties, while a spokesman for Alcatel-Lucent said it believed the company “was stretching the boundaries of its patents” — all of which were invalidated by the court. WiLAN has been fighting such battles on numerous fronts for many years, including one reported to have resulted in a large settlement with Intel. Though it said it was disappointed by the decision, the IP firm still has pending litigation against Time Warner and Comcast, among others. Those cable firms may be hoping a White House patent reform bill will be tabled sooner rather than later.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Sony, HTC

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Source: WSJ (subscription), Bloomberg

The International Trade Commission has become increasingly tired of all the patent mischief it’s forced to deal with, just as we’ve become tired of reporting on it. That’s why its latest defense against time-wasters could potentially be a very good idea. According to Reuters, the ITC will soon demand upfront proof that the complainant in a patent case has a “significant presence in the United States” and isn’t merely a fly-by-night outfit created for the purpose of pursuing litigation. The new rule has already been trialed in a pilot program, and Google, Intel, HP and others have voiced their support. It can’t fix everything, of course, since major companies will still be able to game the system to hamper their rivals, but with the FTC and the White House also taking steps to subject “patent-assertion entities” to greater scrutiny, it feels like the wheels of government may be starting to catch up with the trolls.

Filed under: Misc

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Source: Reuters

Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology.

Back when the PlayStation 2 was the world’s most popular game console, the original Xbox was struggling to gain a post-Halo audience and the GameCube was a cute diversion with a couple decent titles, I trolled gaming message boards. I was so sure that anyone who bought anything other than a PS2 was out of their mind that I set on the most immature mission in history: to inform the masses, proselytize the word as handed down by Hirai-san, and ridicule those who were wasting their time with The Wind Waker.

Those who were active gamers at the time probably read that paragraph and are now either annoyed or cracking a wry smile in understanding. The latter are the ones who played Ico. Those who weren’t gamers at the time can insert their own products into the mix for context.

Filed under: Internet

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