Everything patents
With court-madated settlement talks between Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung CEO Choi Gee-Sung scheduled to begin tomorrow, Samsung Mobile's JK Shin took a moment to discuss the potential for resolution.
Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked during Apple's Q2 2012 conference call how he felt about ongoing patent litigation, and whether he might be more open to a settlement or resolution than his predecessor, Steve Jobs might have been. Cooks answer was pretty much the same now as it was before he became CEO -- he doesn't like litigation, but he also doesn't like other companies using what he feels are Apple innovations to sell competing products.
Apple and Samsung CEOs will be meeting in San Francisco within the next 90 days to hopefully put an end to their ongoing patent feud. This was partially forced by Northern District of California judge Lucy Koh, who ordered that both parties reexamine their availability for Alternative Dispute Resolution.
Apple is going to owe Motorola damages for infringing on push e-mail patents currently being used by iCloud and Mobile, so sayeth the Mannheim, Germany regional court.
Apple has been granted permission to step in against Lodsys, a holding company which was intent on suing iOS developers for infringing on in-app purchasing patent .
Apple is trying to take a little of the sting out of it's proposal for a nano-SIM standard by offering the rest of the industry a royalty-free license for the technology.
A German appeals court has issued a temporary ruling that prevents Motorola (currently in the process of being acquired by Google) from enforcing a ban on Apple iPhones and iPads based on what may be FRAND-absuing terms. Bloomberg reports:
The U.S. Department of Justice recently approved Apple's acquisition of various Nortel and Novell patents. The need to clear these purchases with the DoJ was for anti-trust purposes; after all, Apple already has a huge market lead, and any patents that could put competitors out of business would result in less choice for American consumers (which I think we can all agree is a bad thing).
Apple is increasingly playing defense against lawsuits from Samsung and Motorola that seek to take iPhones and iPads off the shelves and out of stores. Apple is trying to do the same to their competitors, of course, but there's a subtle difference -- Samsung and Motorola are suing Apple over FRAND (Fair, Reasonable, And Non-Discriminatory) patents and are apparently seeking licensing that's anything but fair and reasonable, and may in fact be discriminatory.
