Indie developers turned to the Web hours after receiving warning letters from Lodsys last month, but larger devs took a more traditional approach , leaving the communication and finger-pointing to lawyers instead. Two such companies, the New York Times and OpinionLabs, came to light after filing suit against the patent troll yesterday, seeking declaratory judgements to invalidate Lodsys’s patents. A nine-page complaint filed by NYT lists four Lodsys patents, including 7,222,078, which had previously been used to target smaller developers. NYT’s ad click-through system and OpinionLabs’ surveys were both also targeted, and if the suits are successful, Lodsys would be responsible for all legal expenses, and wouldn’t be allowed to collect on its patents in the future. We spoke with Julie Samuels of the EFF , who explained that filing for a declaratory judgment could theoretically enable NYT and OpinionLabs to have trials held in California and Illinois, where the declaratory judgments were filed, instead of the Eastern District of Texas — the notoriously plaintiff-friendly court where Lodsys filed its suit against seven devs on May 31st . Other devs who received letters but have not yet been sued can also do the same. The suits brought by NYT and OpinionLabs formally call the validity of Lodsys’s patents into question, but unfortunately don’t change the game for devs Lodsys already sued, who would still be responsible for licensing fees and other damages if the court determines the patents to be valid (and their apps to be infringing). New York Times, OpinionLab sue Lodsys seeking declaratory judgement originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 13:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Posts Tagged ‘intellectual property’
New York Times, OpinionLab sue Lodsys seeking declaratory judgement
June 15th, 2011 
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Posted in engadget 
Tags: change-the-game, indie, intellectual property, intellectualproperty, ios developer, law, notoriously, patentinfringement 
No Comments »Lodsys hits devs with lawsuit, $1,000 offer, and 1,000 words of eloquent prose
June 1st, 2011 jedwan Are you sick of hearing from Lodsys ? We know devs are, but the rather outspoken patent troll is at it again, hitting the blog to defend its good name. Hidden among today’s posts is an announcement that the firm is taking the next steps with its accusations, filing a lawsuit against some of the developers it previously targeted and, get this, blaming Apple. It explains: “Lodsys chose to move its litigation timing to an earlier date than originally planned, in response to Apple’s threat, in order to preserve its legal options.” We’re not sure which developers are targeted by this suit, specifically, but the firm has promised a $1,000 payment to each dev, “if it turns out that the scope of Apple’s existing license rights apply to fully license you with respect to our claim relating to your App on Apple iOS.” Devs may be tempted to spend that promised gift on a well-deserved vacation (or a WWDC conference pass ), but with layers of LLCs protecting the man behind the curtain at Lodsys, we wouldn’t be surprised it the firm disappeared before anyone sees a cent (or 99) of payment. Unfortunately, it appears that the saga continues, so if you’ve had enough of the patent troll, feel free to enjoy the rest of our content, Lodsys free . [Thanks, Andrew] Update: We’ve been told that the list of devs named in the lawsuit include: Combay, Iconfactory, Illusion Labs, Shovelmate, Quickoffice, Richard Shinderman, and Wulven Game Studios. Lodsys hits devs with lawsuit, $1,000 offer, and 1,000 words of eloquent prose originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 May 2011 18:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Posted in engadget Tags: apple, apple ios, apple-iphone, appleios, breaking-news, conference-pass, developers, intellectual property, iosdevelopers, iphone, lodsys, paten, patentinfringement No Comments »Motorola and Huawei drop pending lawsuits, enter into new info-sharing agreement
April 14th, 2011 jedwan After months of fighting on the playground, Motorola and Huawei have finally come to an agreement to settle their differences once and for all. Both parties have now dropped their pending lawsuits, with Motorola originally accusing Huawei of stealing trade secrets from its former employees, and later on Huawei getting all worried about Motorola leaking confidential information over their partnership to the rivaling Nokia Siemens Networks. The new agreement will now allow Motorola “transfer its commercial agreements with Huawei to NSN for a fee,” which would then permit NSN use this info to service Motorola’s networks that utilise Huawei’s equipment. Aww, isn’t it nice when money solves everything? Press release after the break. Continue reading Motorola and Huawei drop pending lawsuits, enter into new info-sharing agreement Motorola and Huawei drop pending lawsuits, enter into new info-sharing agreement originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Apr 2011 01:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Posted in engadget Tags: after-the-break, huawei, intellectual property, lawsuit, playground No Comments »Microsoft seeking patent for Windows Phone 7 Series panoramic GUI
April 3rd, 2010 jedwan The US Patents and Trademark Office has today made public a Microsoft patent application (serial no. 240,729) related to the graphical user interface found on the hotly anticipated Windows Phone 7 Series mobile OS. Filed in September 2008, this application describes a “contiguous background” that extends beyond the dimensions of the screen (either vertically or horizontally, but not both) with anchored “mixed-media” elements being littered atop it — all of which is to be served on a “media-playing device.” That should sound pretty familiar, given that it’s the central navigational concept of both Windows Phone 7 and the Zune HD , and as such it makes a lot of sense for Microsoft to seek to legally protect its uniqueness. Before you start wondering about potential conflicts with other UIs , take note that this requires a continuous graphical background rather than a tiled or repeating image, plus space-orientating graphical elements, which should make it sufficiently nuanced to avoid any more patently unnecessary squabbles should Microsoft’s claims be validated by the USPTO. Microsoft seeking patent for Windows Phone 7 Series panoramic GUI originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Apr 2010 21:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
iPhone facing potential trademark issues in China?
July 2nd, 2009 jedwan Filed under: Handsets , China Unicom , Apple Apple’s on-again , off-again deal with China Unicom to officially bring the iPhone to China may still be up in the air, but it looks like it could now also be facing some trademark issues that could potentially further hold up its release.
Posted in engadget Tags: accessories, china, china-unicom, chinaunicom, games, handsets, intellectual property, iphone, trademark No Comments »
