Hasta La Gadget!

Score one for the little guy. An East Texas jury recently awarded a relatively small computer firm a pretty hefty settlement in a patent infringement suit that named Google, Yahoo, Amazon, AOL, and Myspace as defendants. The jury awarded Bedrock Computer Technologies LLC $5 million for a patent concerning the Linux kernel found in the software behind Google’s servers. The patent in question is described as a “method and apparatus for information storage and retrieval using a hashing technique with external chaining and on-the-fly removal of expired data.” It appears Google is the first of the defendants to face a judgement, but we have a feeling this decision might have set a precedent. Of course, no infringement suit would be complete without a healthy helping of appeals — and considering the decision came from a district court, we can almost guarantee this case is no exception. You didn’t expect the big guys to stay down for the count, did you?

Google ordered to pay $5 million in Linux patent infringement suit originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Apr 2011 22:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple awarded design patent for iPhone 4 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Apr 2011 10:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Whoa! In the world of big-time lawsuits, this must be just about the biggest. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple has sued Samsung Electronics for copying “the look and feel” of its iPad tablet and iPhone smartphone. This relates to the Samsung Galaxy S 4G, which bears more than a passing resemblance to the iPhone 3G / 3GS models, and the slightly less obvious Epic 4G, Nexus S, and Galaxy Tab (presumably the older 7-inch model, since the newer ones aren’t out yet) devices. The claim for intellectual property infringement is phrased as follows:

“Rather than innovate and develop its own technology and a unique Samsung style for its smart phone products and computer tablets, Samsung chose to copy Apple’s technology, user interface and innovative style in these infringing products.”

The lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of California on Friday and seeks injunctions against Samsung, damages (both actual and punitive), and a finding that the infringement was willful. Lest we forget, the rarest outcome in such legal tussles is for an actual judgment to actually be handed down, so the greatest likelihood is that this will just lead to another round of grudging handshakes and licensing going one way with money going the other way, but still, it’s fun to see the big dogs barking at each other.

Another aspect to these proceedings that shouldn’t be overlooked is that, on the software front, they boil down to iOS versus Android (again). When Apple calls Samsung uninventive in its user interface, it’s talking more about Android’s perceived imitation of the iPhone’s interface than whatever TouchWiz tweaks Samsung has slapped on top. And hey, if you’re going to sue Google indirectly, you can’t leave a major player like Samsung outside the courtroom, it just wouldn’t be fair.

Apple sues Samsung for ‘copying’ the iPhone and iPad originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Apr 2011 16:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A dual e-ink and LCD screen could save your gadget’s battery life and your eyesight. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Many iPad owners have complained that its backlit screen is just too bright for bedtime reading.

A recently unearthed patent shows that Apple has plans to fix such a problem by developing a hybrid display: part LCD or OLED, part low-power electronic ink.

Uncovered by Apple Insider, the patent, “Systems and Methods for Switching Between an Electronic Paper Display and a Video Display,” illustrates a method for displaying static content in e-ink while other portions of the screen appear using standard LCD technology.

Apple’s idea to combine a traditional display and an “electronic paper” display isn’t new. Last year, Pixel Qi developed a hybrid LCD screen for netbooks that lets the user toggle between a low-power reading mode and a brighter, standard LCD mode. Also, a startup called Entourage has made a hinged dual-screen folding tablet with an LCD on one side and e-ink screen on the other.

E-ink, or “electronic paper” as Apple refers to it in the filing, doesn’t rely on backlighting, resulting in a screen that is highly readable (even in bright sunlight) and low on power. The technology is dominated by the black and white displays produced by E Ink, such as the screen of the Amazon Kindle, but color e-ink displays are also on the horizon.

Apple’s method would involve a screen with “multiple composite display regions” with individually activated backlights, so content could be displayed in “electronic paper” mode if, for instance, it’s mostly text, or in “video display” mode if it involves high-resolution video or animations. The operating system would control the switching.

Apple Insider says it could be accomplished by sandwiching a clear e-ink display between a capacitive touchscreen and an OLED or LCD.

Such a hybrid display seems like it’d be great for extending your iPad or iPhone’s battery life, giving the backlights a break if you’re reading from iBooks or Instapaper. Not to mention a welcome breather from staring at bright, retina-searing screens all day.

Google and Nortel have agreed on the princely sum of $900 million to start off a “stalking horse” auction — wherein outside parties are still free to outdo Google’s bid — for the acquisition of Nortel’s rather vast patent portfolio. The sale comes as part of the latter company’s bankruptcy selloff and involves some 6,000 patents and patent applications, which encompass both wired and wireless communications, semiconductors, data networking, voice, and the internet — going so far as to even touch on web search and social networking. The thing is, Google’s not really enamored with these tidbits of intellectual property to the tune of nearly a billion dollars. No sir, a rather bitter blog post from the company this morning makes it quite clear that Google’s acting in order to bolster its own intellectual property library and to “create a disincentive for others to sue.” Both Android and Chrome get obliquely mentioned in Google’s announcement as benefiting from the move, which should be completed by June of this year pending other bids and regulatory approvals.

Update: Microsoft has noted that it has “a worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free license to all of Nortel’s patents that covers all Microsoft products and services, resulting from the patent cross-license signed with Nortel in 2006.” That license will also transfer with the sale of the patent rights. All that means is that Microsoft cannot be sued for infringing on that bundle of rights as it is already licensed to use them. That means Microsoft is extremely unlikely to participate in this auction — other than, of course, as a means to prevent others from obtaining the same rights.

Continue reading Google bids $900 million for Nortel patent portfolio, will use it as shield against patent trolls (update)

Google bids $900 million for Nortel patent portfolio, will use it as shield against patent trolls (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 12:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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