Week 13 Blog 2 - It is ZTE

Last week, I talked about Microsoft and Hon Hai signing a patent deal so that the latter would not have to worry about infringing on the former's patents anymore. In particular, this was the 20th Android license agreement for Microsoft, so I wondered when the 21st one will happen. Well, it happened today.
ZTE, a Chinese multinational telecommunications equipment and systems company signed a patent license deal for its use of the Android and Chrome operating systems with Microsoft. According to the author, this Chinese company has agreed to pay Microsoft royalties for such devices, similar to Hon Hai.
This is once again bad news for Google. As I mentioned last week, Google has yet to admit that their products are infringing on Microsoft's patents. In fact, although one billion Android devices would be in use by the end of this year, the majority of those sales will be involved with Microsoft, since around twenty different companies have taken third-party Android patent licenses!
Likewise to the author of this article, I wonder when Motorola Mobility will show up on this list of Microsoft's patent deals. Microsoft is already claiming that Google is infringing on their patents, but Google keeps fighting back by making separate infringement claims of its own. I wonder how high the chances of Google are to avoid another huge loss.

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/just-like-one-week-ago-when-foxconn.html

Week 13 Blog 1 - Another Update on Nokia vs HTC!

An article from Foss Patents immediately caught by eye, as it was an update on the battle going on between Nokia and HTC! What surprised me is how hard HTC is fighting. While RIM (Blackberry) and ViewSonic were quick to admit their infringement on some of Nokia's patents, HTC has been defending itself for almost a year (!), according to the author of this article.

However, this is working pretty well for HTC. Recently, some judges in Germany have announced the dismissal of Nokia's assertion on two of its patents against HTC. The first patent is the EP1581016, which is about a communication network terminal for accessing the Internet, and the second patent is the EP0792077, which is about a multi-service mobile station. Nokia has claimed that one of the most popular application on Android devices, Google Play was infringing on the first patent because it allows third-party application developers to provide date to the end-user devices. Since this assertion was dismissed, I guess this was pretty good news not only for HTC but also for Google. I think this was pretty significant for Google, since it looks like they have not been getting very good news lately.

Going back to how hard HTC is fighting, they have also countersued Nokia multiple times. Although HTC ended up losing against Nokia over a battery conserving method patent, HTC has come out strong, stating that this particular settlement would not affect them in any way, since they have come up with an alternative solution.

When I first started reading about the battles going on between these two companies, I thought HTC did not have a chance in successfully defending itself. Therefore, reading about this recent news, I am quite surprised how things have turned out so far. I will for sure be following these collection of lawsuits.

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/german-court-dismisses-another-nokia.html

Week 12 Blog 2 - Microsoft's License Agreement

I read an article on Foss Patents about Microsoft and Hon Hai, a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturing company and who is the parent company of Foxconn, signing a patent deal for Android and Chrome devices. With this patent license agreement, their clients will now be protected from patent claims from their uses of the Android and Chrome operating systems. Thus, they will not have to worry about infringing on Microsoft's patents anymore!
Hon Hai has basically agreed to pay royalties to Microsoft for its Android and Chrome devices. According to the author, this is bad news for Google since it has been denying that their devices do not infringe on any of Microsoft's patents.
However, this was not the first Android license agreement  for Microsoft; in fact, this was the 20th one. They have also signed patent deals with LG, HTC, Samsung, General Dynamics Itronix, Barnes and Noble, Nikon, Acer, and several others. The author of the article is wondering what the 21st deal will look like. What was special about this particular agreement between Hon Hai and Microsoft was that it came out as a big surprise. No one predicted this was going to take place as no rumors existed about the deal.
Likewise to the author, I don't think it will take too long for a negotiation between Google's Motorola Mobility and Microsoft to take place...what do you think?

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/foxconn-parent-hon-hai-signs-with.html

Week 12 Blog 1 - Sony vs. Red Digital

On Patentlyo, I read an article about a battle going on between Sony and Red Digital Cinema Camera Company. While I was pretty familiar with Sony, I did not know about Red Digital. I found out that they are an American manufacturer of digital cinematography tools, and that many of their products have been used to shoot several TV shows and movies. Their stylish cameras have gained widespread attention, along with the fact that the founder of this company, Jim Jannard is also the founder of Oakley.
The battle between these two companies started when Red Digital sued Sony over two patents a couple months ago, for U.S Patent #8,358,357 and #8,174,560. In this lawsuit, Red Digital demanded Sony to stop the production and also destroy their infringing products, such as the F65, F5, and F55 models.
Well, Sony has come back this month and countersued Red Digital for patent infringement. They have actually sued them over seven patents, for U.S Patent #5,442,718, #5,523,795, #5,999,213, #6,009,233, #6,423,993, #7,138,617, and #7,304,287. These patents are all directed to digital camera technology, as  they are about "a method of and apparatus for setting up electronic device" and an "apparatus and method for recording and reproducing a video signal with camera setting data."Similar to Red Digital's demands on the Sony products, Sony has also demanded Red Digital to stop the production of their products such as the Red One, Epic, Redmote, and Scarlet cameras, and to also destroy any remaining ones in the market.
It appears like this is an intense battle. The author of this article discusses how although this case is only taking place in the United States for now, Sony is attempting to enlarge this dispute by bringing it to a global scale. This may be a disadvantage for Red Digital as Sony is a large company than them, meaning that Sony also has a stronger patent portfolio. I think that Red Digital may suffer to defend itself.

http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2013/04/sony-v-red-digital-redcom.html
http://www.worldipreview.com/news/sony-and-red-digital-cinema-locked-in-patent-tussle

Week 11 Blog 2 - Apple's Loss

I just read about an article on Foss Patents that talked about how Apple's slide-to-unlock patent was invalidated. This was very interesting to me as it was the first time I read about such a case.

This lawsuit happened in Germany, where the court ruled that Apple's patent was invalid since it failed to meet one of the requirements under the patent laws of Europe. In Europe, in order for software to be patent-eligible, they must solve a technical problem with technical means. Thus, the court ruled that a sliding gesture to unlock a phone was not a technical innovation.

I know how different countries have totally different aspects on certain things, but I didn't know that this was the case for patents as well. In the United States, "everything under the Sun made by Man" is patent-eligible, but this certainly is not the case in Europe. How interesting.

The author mentions in the beginning of the article that this was a "win" for Samsung and Google's Motorola Mobility. I'm not too sure how this will affect those companies' products though. It seems like they are doing completely fine in the United States, where they have come up with alternative ways for users to unlock their smartphones. I'm just curious to see whether changes, if any, will be made to their products sold in Europe.

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/apples-slide-to-unlock-patent.html

Week 11 Blog 1 - More on Nokia

I am going to discuss another battle that is going on between Nokia and HTC. As I have mentioned in my previous posts, Nokia has a pretty exceptional patent portfolio, making it difficult for companies to win lawsuits against them. Well, this is exactly the case for HTC.

This lawsuit is taking place in Germany over the EP1312974 patent. The author of Foss Patents describes the patent, saying that it "covers the idea of a light guide integrated into a display that leads light to a sensor. The brighter it is outside, the more the background light of the display has to be turned up so as to adjust to the needs of the user's eyes. Conversely, if you use your phone in the dark, you don't need a bright screen, since it would hurt your eyes in that scenario." Nokia is asserting that HTC infringes on this patent. In addition to suing them in Germany, they have sued their equivalent U.S Patent 7,106,293 also in the United States.

If Nokia were to win this lawsuit in Germany, HTC would have to make changes to their hardware or stop selling their products in Germany. Although it would be best if HTC could come up with an alternative method for their products, the author discusses how because that feature is expected by every mobile phone user nowadays, HTC will most likely have to start paying royalties to Nokia so they can continue using the method.

Like every other lawsuit, HTC is trying its best to defend itself by claiming that this patent is invalid. The author says that this case will come to an end by late 2014 or early 2015, so we'll see what happens!

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/01/htc-demands-132-million-bond-from-nokia.html

Week 10 Blog 2 - Another Case Involving Nokia

I've discussed several cases in which Nokia has filed claims on other companies because of patent infringement, but I found another one. Android likely infringes on Nokia's patent #5,884,190, which according to the author of this article, is about "a method for making a data transmission connection from a computer to a mobile communication network for transmission of analog and/or digital signals." In other words, this patent is basically about the tethering feature on mobile phones, which allows sharing the Internet connection of the mobile phones with other devices such as laptops.
Nokia has already defeated Google and HTC for the proper legal interpretation of this patent, meaning that it would be very difficult for both of these companies to successfully defend themselves by denying use of this patent. Thus, the author suggests how unless Google and HTC are able to prove that this patent is invalid, an import ban on Android devices may happen.
I had no idea that Nokia (Symbian) had so many valuable patents. I mean, I know that they are a major telecommunications equipment company, but nowadays, the majority of mobile device users do not use their phones! But I guess that was different several years ago...
Also, this patent is only one of 40 patents Nokia has sued HTC on (I have a discussed several of those in my previous blogs). I am getting the idea that Nokia's patent portfolio is highly exceptional, and that they will continue to make a good number of assertions against companies on their patents.

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/03/android-likely-infringes-nokia-patent.html

Week 10 Blog 1 - Google's Pledge

Several days ago, Google announced that it would not assert ten of its patents against any user, distributor, or open-source software. The author of Foss Patents discusses how this patent giveaway for Google was not generous at all. Not only does the company own at least 17,000 patents (which means that they gave out less than 1% of its patents), other companies in similar industries such as IBM and Sun Microsystems pledged 500 and 1,600 of their patents, respectively. Moreover, the author discusses how that most of the time, these pledges do not turn out to be too helpful. To illustrate this point, the ten patents Google gave out did not include any search-related patents. Reading about the contents of those ten patents from another article, I found out that they are related to MapReduce, a computing model for processing large date sets.

An analyst of WiseHarbor, Keith Mallinson explained how Google is not a company that makes money out of licensing fees, so this patent pledge was quite unsurprising. Also, Google stated how their intention is to make patent peace without making money and also to encourage other patent holders. Thereofore, it appears as if Google wanted to make a positive image of itself to the public by making such a move. 

Like the author from Foss Patents claims, Google's pledge appears to be pretty ungenerous, after reading about those other companies such as IBM and Sun Microsystems. However, I think it is a little too quick to completely judge that their move was stingy. It might turn out that some user, distributor, or open-source software adopts one or several of those ten patents and create an innovation! 

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/03/googles-promise-not-to-assert-10.html

http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/google-pledges-not-sue-open-source-users-or-developers-over-specified-patents-215408