Patent

Patents recently published by the United States Patent & Trademark Office (via Engadget) show Google successfully patented at least the ornamental design of its “Project Glass” augmented reality glasses unveiled last month. It does not look exactly like the prototypes shown off in the concept videos, nor the pair worn by Sergey Brin, but we expect the design will be altered somewhat before it eventually hits the market.

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According to a report from Bloomberg, U.S. International Trade Commission Judge Thomas Pender has ruled in favor (PDF) of Motorola and claimed Apple’s devices infringe on one Android-related patent owned by the company. The ruling is only a partial victory for Motorola’s attempt to receive an injunction on iPhones and iPads, because the judge’s decision will still have to be reviewed before import blocks can be achieved:

ITC Judge Thomas Pender said Apple violated one of four Motorola Mobility patent rights. The patent relates to Wi-Fi technology. The judge’s findings are subject to review by the six-member commission, which has the power to block imports that infringe U.S. patents.

As for the Wi-Fi patent in question (# 6,246,697), Apple spokesperson Kristin Huguet told AllThingsD that Motorola refused to license its industry-standard technology on “reasonable terms”:

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So, everyone is aware that Java platform maker Oracle is amid a courtroom grapple with Google over whether Java patents were infringed in the search engine’s mobile operating system Android, but not everyone is clued in to the defendant’s intriguing side of the story.

According to Google’s money slides (via ZDNet), the heart of Google’s defense is summarized in three clear-cut points: Java code was free and openly available to the public; Google did not violate any patents or copyrights when developing Android; and, Oracle is disgruntled due to its and Sun’s failed attempts to market a Java-based platform for smartphones.

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With Microsoft and numerous regulatory bodies nipping at Google’s heels and decrying the Internet giant of shady advertising practices and loose privacy standards, one would think the Mountain View, Calif.-based Company might lie low for a while.

Well, that is not the case: The Next Web reported on a Google patent today that introduced technology for analyzing the environmental conditions (or background sound) of phone calls. The action would essentially allow Google to exhibit advertisements based on the clamor its science heard.

The patent, called “Advertising based on environmental conditions,” described how the method recognizes signal outputs from environmental conditions using a sensor coupled with the remote device (such as a smartphone). Google would then serve personalized ads based on the data gathered. In other words, if Google noticed a NASCAR race in the background of a phone call, it would then promptly offer ads for motor sports…

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The war between Samsung and Apple continues as Apple requests a United States Preliminary Injunction on Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus. The request was filed in a U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Thursday, and the documents were released Friday. FOSS Patents discovered that Apple is basing its request for an injunction on four recently granted patents:

1. The “data tapping” patent that the ITC ordered an import ban against HTC.
2. A patent related to Siri and unified search that must be a huge concern to Google with a view to its core business.
3. A new slide-to-unlock patent that even had the head of the Taiwanese government profoundly worried.
4. A word completion patent that provides major speed improvements for touchscreen text entry.

The second patent (seen above) concerns Apple’s Siri technology. Google has similar a voice technology, and Apple wants to slash the accurate but not as robust feature out of the picture. The third slide-to-unlock patent is something that Apple has been after for a while, based on earlier patents. Apple also recently sued Samsung in a separate lawsuit over the fourth autocorrect patent.

Will the injunction be granted? Probably not, but it is interesting to see Apple keep trying. A judge will make a ruling in the coming months.

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In a new report from the Wall Street Journal this evening, the publication said the Justice Department is set to approve Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility as early as next week. This approval will give Google a good size push in to completing the acquisition.

The U.S. Justice Department is poised to clear Google Inc.’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. as early as next week, according to people familiar with the matter, giving Google a powerful armory of technology patents to deploy in the smartphone wars.

However, antitrust enforcers in the U.S. and Europe remain concerned about Google’s commitment to license Motorola patents to competitors on fair terms, those people said, and will closely monitor Google’s use of the patents. The European Commission has set a Monday deadline to decide whether to approve the acquisition.

Google is set to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, and it is doing so to primarily add Motorola’s large array of patents to its arsenal. Google is currently working to get approvals in Europe, too. A new report surfaced yesterday claiming that Google was going to send letters to European groups in order to smooth over the approval process. We will keep you updated.

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Newsweek‘s Dan Lyons reported today that Apple’s “thermonuclear war” on Android smartphone manufacturers is fading fast, while a new rumor surfaced among the suits’ lawyers claiming the company spent $100 million on its initial set of claims against HTC.

Imagine how much Apple spent on other Android makers, such as Motorola (who is near locking Apple products out of Germany in retaliation) or Samsung (the biggest Mobile Communications patent holder in the world), if it spent so much on just HTC.

“Who knows if it’s true, but if so, Apple didn’t get a lot for its money,” wrote Lyons on his RealDanLyons’ blog Jan. 23.

Apple’s legal claims are abruptly junked left and right, and its only minor victories to date are so inconsequential that Android device makers can dance around the momentary obstacles with just a few minor tweaks to products, explained the Newsweek reporter.

The technology giant’s case against HTC with the International Trade Commission began in February 2010, when the Cupertino, Calif.-based company wanted the ITC to block HTC from importing products into the United States. The case originally had 84 claims based on 10 patents, but it was dwindled down to only four claims by the time a judge became involved, according to Lyons.

The rulings —for the most part— were a score for HTC. One patent was invalid as Apple did not have a rightful claim to it, and HTC did not infringe upon two of the other patents due to Apple apparently not implementing them into its products. In other words, Apple did not have a right to seek an injunction, because ITC injunctions can only occur if it is provable that both parties are “practicing” the patent in question, which Apple could not demonstrate against HTC…

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Claiming Samsung copied the iPad’s design, Apple has successfully achieved their mission in getting an Australian judge to block Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 from being sold in Australia, reports Sydney Morning Herald. Apple says that Samsung is infringing on two patents, and the judge ruled until changes are made the Galaxy Tab 10.1 can’t be sold from this point on.

Apple and Samsung have current litigation continuing over in Europe and the United States. Apple has already successfully blocked the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany and hopes to do so elsewhere.

Samsung won’t start addressing the core patent issue (screen patent) with the Galaxy Tab 10.1 quite yet. They want to prepare a proper defense against Apple.  The fight continues.

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Update: He’s wrong.  We’ve heard from an impeccable source that Google plans to have invites out “in the next day or so and there is no patent delay.

We reported earlier that Google and Samsung were delaying the release of the new Nexus Prime phone and Android 4.0 “Ice cream Sandwich” out of respect for the passing of Steve Jobs.

“We believe this is not the right time to announce a new product as the world expresses tribute to Steve Jobs’s passing,” the companies said.

But according to often (but not always) correct blogger Eldar Murtazin, there are patent issues at hand which need to be addressed before the devices and OS  ship.  Specifically, Google is slicing out features which may be subject to Apple’s Patents…

See Steve Jobs introducing multi-touch in 2007 below, saying “Boy have we patented it!”.  
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According to the Wall Street Journal, Kodak has started the process of auctioning off some or all of its lucrative patents. Kodak’s demise is well documented as the once $30B company has seen its market cap slide to around $800m as the digital imaging company has continuously lost share to competitors. According to the WSJ one potential bidder is “a large, strategic buyer in the wireless industry looking to use the patents for defensive protection.”

This news comes on the tails of this past Monday’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility by Google for a whopping $12.6B in cash. Google has long been rumored as potential suitors of multiple patent-holding companies such as InterDigital, Kodak and of course Motorola Mobility. If these Kodak patents do sell, they will not gather nearly as high of a price as the Motorola deal, but could likely see Kodak’s stock take a nice move up.  This morning’s news of one analyst saying Kodak’s patents could be worth 5x the company’s market cap sent shares up more than 25% and are currently up more than 5% in after hours trading on the latest Wall Street Journal news.  Meanwhile, InterDigital saw a pop in its shares today as another rumor was swirling that an auction will take place after Labor Day weekend and that there are multiple interested parties.
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So the war continues… Motorola has been around for quite a long time, so it’s no secret they have a pretty big patent portfolio. During a keynote at the Oppenhimer Technology & Commmunications conference Motorola’s CEO Sanjay Jha had this to say regarding their pool of patents:

I would bring up IP as a very important for differentiation (among Android vendors). We have a very large IP portfolio, and I think in the long term, as things settle down, you will see a meaningful difference in positions of many different Android players. Both, in terms of avoidance of royalties, as well as potentially being able to collect royalties. And that will make a big difference to people who have very strong IP positions.

To sum it up Jha and company may plan to collect royalties from other Android handset manufacturers like HTC, Samsung, etc.

Houston, we have a problem.

(TechCrunch, via Unwired View)

In January of 2010, Kodak sued  Apple and RIM for infringing on their patent to preview photographs. The lawsuit is still going on, but today Wall Street Journal is reporting that Kodak is currently looking to sell 10% of their patent portfolio, which includes the patent Apple and RIM are bring sued for.

The 1,100 patents include patents covering  capturing, storing, organizing and sharing digital image. WSJ credits the sale to Kodak’s loss in profit over the last two quarters.

Chief Executive Antonio Perez has been using Kodak’s intellectual property as a means of funding the company’s long and expensive transformation. In 2008, Mr. Perez put forth a goal to generate between $250 million and $350 million a year from Kodak’s patent portfolio.

Google is fresh off acquiring 1,000 patents from IBM and is likely still in a buying mood as it battles everyone from Oracle to Microsoft to Apple-by-proxy in the courts.  Apple, who outbid Google for the Nortel patent portfolio is obviously on the offensive.

Corss-posted from 9to5Mac.

In order to acquire more patents, Wall Street Journal is reporting Google is in talks with InterDigital regarding an acquisition. In past weeks, Google lost the bidding war against Nortel, which would of landed the company numerous amounts of patents. Currently, Google has a small portfolio of patents which could lead to lawsuits over Android. For Google, the only logical thing is to acquire more. As CNet notes:

“We continue to be optimistic about the prospects for the company under its current business plan,” Terry Clontz, InterDigital’s chairman, said in a statement. “That said, over the past year we have seen the value of intellectual property rise substantially as major players in the mobile industry increasingly understand the strategic and economic value of this type of asset.”

As of now these talks with InterDigital are preliminary and no price has been set.  Apple is also rumored to be involved.

TechCrunch is reporting that Google is hiring numerous amounts of lawyers in order to acquire more patents. Currently Google only owns 701 patents, a very small number for such a large company. In contrast Microsoft was awarded 3,121 patents just last year. Google will continue to get slammed with lawsuits if they don’t acquire more patents.

On its Job page, Google is listing six open positions involving patents . TechCrunch points one out:

For example, the strategic patent licensing and acquisitions manager evaluates and values potential patent acquisition and licensing opportunities, and negotiates these deals (a.k.a. finds more patents for Google).

Perhaps Google will go after Richard “Chip” Lutton Junior, the chief patent counsel that just left Apple yesterday.

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