Hasta La Gadget!

Much ink has been spilled about Oracle’s lawsuit against Google for Android’s allegedly unlawful use of Java, and rightfully so, considering Team Ellison’s seeking to take more than a billion dollar chunk out of Google’s bottom line. Just because Oracle’s damage calculations add up to ten figures doesn’t mean that the court will agree with them, however. And, there’s a long legal road to be tread before the court can assign a dollar value to the case — namely it must determine if the patent claims and copyrights are valid and whether Android actually infringes them.

That’s why Google requested the USPTO re-examine the patents asserted by Oracle, as the process gives Google a shot at invalidating them outside the courtroom. It looks like the strategy is paying off, as one of those re-exams recently resulted in a rejection of 17 of the patent’s 21 claims — which reduces the number of claims Oracle can assert in court accordingly. Of course, those four remaining claims plus the 118 contained in the other six asserted patents (should they survive the re-examination process) could still spell doom for the little green bots, but it is a victory, albeit a modest one, for the team in Mountain View. So, Oracle may have a few less IP bullets to fire Google’s way, but it’s still got plenty of other legal ammo left. We’ll keep you posted when next shot’s fired.

Oracle v. Google update: USPTO rejects several patent claims, leaves chinks in Oracle’s IP armor? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Jun 2011 22:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A selection of Nokia's innovative phones. Photo: Gary Barber on Flickr

Apple has settled a patent dispute with Nokia that has been rattling through the courts since 2009. The struggling Finnish mobile giant sued Apple, claiming that it had infringed on ten patents, and then added another 36 to the mix in the following years. These patents covered everything from touchscreen scrolling to Wi-Fi to “multitasking operating systems, data synchronization, positioning, call quality and the use of Bluetooth accessories.”

Apple of course counter-sued, but it appears that it wasn’t in as strong a position as it would have liked and was finally forced to back down. Both companies have now settled all legal action against each other.

The terms of the deal are a secret, but we know that Apple will first pay a cash settlement and then an ongoing license fee to Nokia. If the troubled Nokia’s business continues to go downhill, this could become quite a significant source of income.

In fact, Nokia CEO Steven Elop hinted that patent-trolling might be big business in the future. “We are very pleased to have Apple join the growing number of Nokia licensees,” he said in a statement, continuing that it “enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile-communications market.” If that doesn’t signal patent-trolling, I don’t know what does.

The lack of official figures hasn’t stopped analysts from guessing at the amounts involved. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Swedbank’s Jari Honko pulled the figure of €500 million (around $722 million) out of the air.

Meanwhile, speaking to MarketWatch, MKM partners’ Tero Kuittinen also had a crack at guessing the numbers. “I am assuming that the licensing fee would be probably 4 euros per iPhone” he said. And the Globe and Mail reports that “Analysts said Nokia could be estimated to get between 1 and 2 per cent of iPhone revenue.”

We may get an idea of the amounts involved when Nokia makes its second quarter earnings announcement, the targets for which it lowered two weeks ago. Of course, this probably won’t make a huge difference to a company whose shares have fallen by 43% already this year. To really bounce back, Nokia needs to concentrate on making a kick-ass phone that uses all of its clever patents, instead of whining when somebody else does it.

Or we guess that it could just sue Android.

Nokia enters into patent license agreement with Apple [Nokia]

As Apple rushed to allay privacy concerns over its handling of location data, it also let slip that it was working on a “crowd-sourced traffic database”. Now a patent application dating from 2009 has been made public which suggests Apple is thinking of this technology not merely as an add-on to iOS Maps, but as something which could feed into other areas such as calendars and alarms. The implicit suggestion is that if Apple can figure out how long it will take you to get from A to B, then it should be able to adjust your appointments to make sure you get there on time without having to go on a rampage. Until then, if everyone just stays out of the way, then no one will get hurt.

Apple wants to make your calendar sensitive to location and traffic, get you there on time originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Jun 2011 15:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It took complete failure to do it, but it looks like Modu founder Dov Moran finally found that new source of capital he went hunting for last November. In an effort to pay back creditors and unpaid wages, the firm’s patent portfolio is slated to be snatched up by Google for roughly $4.8 million. What’s Mountain View going to do with a mess of ultra-lite modular phone patents? It didn’t come up, but we wouldn’t be too surprised if it had something to do with its Danger-powered hardware wing and Android Open Accessory. Putting Modu to rest hasn’t phased ‘ol Dov, though; Israeli news source Calcalist reports that he’s already invested three million smackers in a mysterious new start up — about which Moran remains tight lipped. Goodnight, Modu; we’ll always remember you as the audacious underdog who had the brass to tell Nokia to say their prayers.

Google to buy Modu patents, hopefully leave Nokia alone originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 May 2011 23:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple's App Store is home to 400,000 apps from third-party programmers. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

If your pockets aren’t deep enough to fight a corporate giant, then sue the little guys for milk money.

That’s the idea behind a patent company’s legal threats against several independent iPhone app programmers rather than Apple.

Several iOS programmers on Friday morning said they received a legal complaint from Lodsys, a patent-holding firm.

Lodsys is accusing the developers of infringing a patent related to the usage of an “upgrade” button that customers can use to upgrade from a free version of an app to a paid version, or to make purchases from within an app.

Apple provides the payment technology that programmers embed inside their apps, but the Lodsys complaint is instead aimed squarely at the programmers using Apple’s in-app purchasing system.

Programmers who say they have received the complaint include James Thomson, creator of the scientific calculator app PCalc; Dave Castelnuovo, creator of the best-selling game Pocket God; and Matt Braun, developer of the popular iPhone kids game MASH.

Many apps use Apple’s in-app payment system, so the number of companies to receive the legal threat could soon grow much larger.

“Just got hit by very worrying threat of patent infringement lawsuit for using in-app purchase in PCalc Lite. Legal docs arrived via fedex,” Thomson tweeted Friday morning.

Programmers who have received the complaint say that Lodsys is demanding that they negotiate for a license to use the “upgrade” technology within 21 days, or a lawsuit will be filed.

This incident is an example of a practice that many in the industry would call “patent trolling,” which means using patents for little purpose other than to sue other companies until they cough up damages or licensing fees.

Lodsys did not respond to a request for comment.

On its website, Lodsys claims ownership of patents related to technologies that “provide for online purchasing of consumable supplies” and “sell upgrades or complimentary products,” among others.

Lodsys is based in eastern Texas, which is home to a federal court that often sides with patent holders. Patent lawyers around the world know that the easiest and quickest way to win a patent-related dispute is to file the complaint in Marshall, Texas. As a result, many defendants choose to settle instead of fight.

“One concern is that if we are the lightning rod, it could end up being pretty expensive for us, because they would choose to sue us no matter what our argument is,” Pocket God creator Castelnuovo told Wired.com.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment. It’s unclear whether the company will get involved in the patent dispute.

However, it seems likely that Apple will intervene. If Lodsys sues or imposes licensing fees on iOS programmers, it would deter developers from building apps for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, and would hurt the ecosystem as a whole. Also, Apple takes 30 percent of each in-app sale, so it would lose money if Lodsys were to succeed.

See Also:

• Patent ‘Troll’ Sues Apple, Google Over Wireless E-mail
• EFF Decries ‘Sham’ Copyright-Troll Legal Tactics
• Apple Sued Over Keyboard Patent: Troll Suspected
• Paul Allen Files Patent Lawsuits Against Entire Web … Except Microsoft