intellectual property

With patent litigation becoming an increasingly common part of the technology space, the last thing many folks want to see is another company have the sole goal of defending patents. If you're one of those folks, close your eyes.

Unwired Planet, formerly known as Openwave Systems, has completed the sale of its Mediation and Messaging product businesses to Marlin Equity Partners, the company announced today. Now that it has gotten those products out of the way, it plans to focus solely on its patent portfolio.

"Unwired Planet will now be focused exclusively on a multipronged Intellectual Property (IP) … Read more

Apple has managed to tick off the judge hearing a case between it and Motorola.

Judge Richard Posner of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois will preside over a patent lawsuit between Apple and Motorola due to hit the courts in June. But the judge last week chided Apple for filing "frivolous" motions, according to Foss Patents' Florian Mueller.

"I deny the second half of Apple's motion (seeking prohibition of the deposition) as frivolous and the first half (seeking substitution) as untimely. I've had my fill of frivolous filings by … Read more

A ruling by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office may have added a small twist to Oracle's battle against Google.

Late yesterday, Oracle told the court that a patent previously rejected by the USPTO was certified last week, allowing it to be used in the database giant's Java patent case against Google, according to Foss Patents' Florian Mueller.

Google sees it differently.

"The USPTO ruling is on the prior art that was submitted at that time, not on the inherent validity of the patent itself," a Google representative said. "It is important to note … Read more

Sony's slow but sure descent is also about Japanese companies' obsession with doing things their way, even if it's the wrong way.

I lived in Japan during the peak of its technological and manufacturing heyday -- from 1983 till 1993. The final eight years in Tokyo. Not only did I visit scores of Japanese electronics and computer companies as a journalist (and analyst) but I was also irresistibly drawn to (read: I spent way too much time in) Akihabara -- Japan's electronics retail Mecca at the time.

The reason for the success of companies like Sony and … Read more

Sun Microsystems' years-long effort to profit from Java has come to this: the chief executives of two of tech's most powerful companies, Oracle and Google, being grilled in court.

Scrapping over copyrights, patents, and licensing deals is an ignominious outcome for a technology that a decade and a half ago spooked Microsoft and seemed poised to inject dynamism into a largely static Web. Back when it debuted, Java was a brand that carried impressive power.

Though Java has been technologically influential, its brand clout with the average person has diminished as other software such as Apple's iOS and … Read more

Samsung continues to ramp up its patent battle against Apple.

The Korean mobile phone maker yesterday filed its own counterclaim to a prior Apple patent lawsuit, alleging that the iPhone maker has infringed on eight Samsung patents.

Filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California, Samsung's action was taken in response to a suit brought by Apple in February calling for a ban on U.S. sales of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone.

As described by Florian Mueller at Foss Patents, two of the patents are "FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory)-pledged" that Samsung maintains are … Read more

Twitter today announced what could lead to a reduction of hostilities in the patent wars threatening to engulf Silicon Valley: a pledge to do no evil.

The pledge, which could become a kind of Hippocratic Oath for tech companies with patents, gives Twitter employees more control over their inventions -- and, most importantly, promises that the patents will only be used for defensive purposes, not to block other companies from innovating.

"One of the great things about Twitter is working with so many talented folks who dream up and build incredible products day in and day out. Like many … Read more

Nearly a year after filing a request to intervene in a controversial case involving app developers being sued for using in-app purchase features, Apple has been given the go-ahead by a district court judge to step into the fray.

Intellectual property tracking blog Foss Patents reports that Texas judge James Rodney Gilstrap today granted Apple's original request, saying it could become a part of the proceedings as long as the company's role was "limited to the issues of license and patent exhaustion."

The case Apple's getting into is one kicked off by Lodsys, a Texas-based … Read more

Amazon's latest addition to its Appstore could very well ignite the ire of a litigious patent holder, and cause a new legal and monetary headache for app makers.

Amazon yesterday announced its in-app purchase service, offering developers a way to let users spend money inside of apps. While not a new feature among mobile apps, it adds new ways for developers to make revenue after an app has been downloaded, whether it was paid or free.

That particular mechanism, which has been available for app makers on Google's Android and Apple's iOS platforms for some time now, … Read more