In an age of which there are smartphones coming out everyday, there’s no mistaking that a patent infringed, perhaps on purpose, perhaps not. Or in Microsoft’s case against Motorola, nine different infringements that relate to “synchronizing email, calendars and contacts, scheduling meetings, and notifying applications of changes in signal strength and battery power.” This is quite a doozy, and it only comes to show that companies “love” suing each other (not really, but you get the idea.). Press release by Microsoft is below.
Tag Archives: lawsuit
Microsoft Sues Motorola Over Android Phone Patent Infringement
Italian Court Finds Google Execs Guilty For Video They Were Not Part Of
Scarily a new post on the Google blog called “Serious Threat to the Web in Italy” has emerged to explain why three Google employees were convicted and charged for a crime they did not commit. The issue here was a video uploaded to Google Video in 2006 depicting an autistic student getting bullied by peers. The Italian police informed Google of situation; Google pulled the vid and helped the police figure out who uploaded it. Pretty reasonable, right? Well not quite. Instead of being thanked for and let go, four Google employees where charged with “for failure to comply with the Italian privacy code” and criminal defamation. The employees did not know the people in the video, did not remove (apparently some other employees did), and did not even know it existed until after it was removed. One of the employees left Google in 2008, all of which Google is defending. Currently under Italian law there will be no jail time for the employees since a sentence less than 3 years is typically commuted in Italy for those without a criminal record.
Google’s VP and Deputy General Counsel Matt Sucherman said the following on the issue:
“It attacks the very principles of freedom on which the Internet is built. Common sense dictates that only the person who films and uploads a video to a hosting platform could take the steps necessary to protect the privacy and obtain the consent of the people they are filming. European Union law was drafted specifically to give hosting providers a safe harbor from liability so long as they remove illegal content once they are notified of its existence. The belief, rightly in our opinion, was that a notice and take down regime of this kind would help creativity flourish and support free speech while protecting personal privacy. If that principle is swept aside and sites like Blogger, YouTube and indeed every social network and any community bulletin board, are held responsible for vetting every single piece of content that is uploaded to them – every piece of text, every photo, every file, every video – then the Web as we know it will cease to exist, and many of the economic, social, political and technological benefits it brings could disappear.”
If they don’t win this, it could be a major blow to the freedom and creativity of the Internet itself. This backwards lawsuit would mean that executives (at Google) are responsible for the content users upload, which is entirely false.
Microsoft now forced to stop selling Word by Jan 11
For those of you who were following this waayyy back in May, Microsoft appealed in a patent infringement case against i4i, a 30-personnel Canadian company. The cause of the case was that certain XML tags were used in both Word 2003 and 2007 without i4i’s consent. You can tell where this is going: Steve Ballmer is going to start practicing how to sign bigger checks. As for continuing sales with Word 2003 and 2007, Microsoft will no longer be allowed to put them on store shelves on January 11. The good news is: one, OpenOffice users have nothing to worry about, and two, the beta version of Office 2010 and full version of Office 2010 won’t have any worries either.
Psystar is officially finished
It’s finally done with Psystar. They can no longer sell, distribute, or help in the process of making Hackintoshes. The shortest possible translation is that Psystar essentially doesn’t exist. They have until December 31th to comply with current terms. But here’s the catch: there wasn’t really any final judgement for the $50 Rebel EFI, which allows the buyer to install Mac OS X on a PC. Although there was one warning by the way:
What is certain, however, is that until such a motion is brought, Psystar will be selling Rebel EFI at its peril, and risks finding itself in contempt if its new venture falls within the scope of the injunction.”
So that settles that — but wait, would Psystar make one final, deadly move? Maybe.
It’s war: Apple countersues Nokia
Apple publicly announced that they’re suing Nokia over 13 different patents, 3 more than Nokia sued for when they went to court accusing Apple of copyright infringement.
And did I mention that Apple is also accusing Nokia of stealing? The fabulous punch-line:
“Other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours.”
That statement was made by Bruce Sewell, Apple’s General Counsel and senior vice president. Hit the link for Apple’s press release and the filed court documents.
Verizon & AT&T: We’re friends, not to worry anymore
Now this is some outcome, isn’t it? No more court dates, no more attacks, nothing more. Just a calm landscape between AT&T and Verizon; so don’t expect to see Luke Wilson staring into your face, pleading that AT&T has the better network. Or maybe we will see more of him? (Cringe on that thought). Now somebody get moving with your network to claim the “Most Reliable 3G Network” award (and tagline) so something like this doesn’t happen again. In the meantime, this is done.
Verizon poking Sprint for “nation’s dependable network” claim
Here we go again. After Verizon’s victory over AT&T, they’re going after Sprint. But this time it makes lots of sense. Sprint has been famous for its ad that says they have the “nation’s most dependable network” even though according to Verizon, a test by Nielsen shows that Verizon dropped fewer calls than Sprint did. Now Sprint is coming swinging out the gate to say that one test cannot possibly tell the whole story. Yeah I know, Verizon is out to get the “best network award”. But maybe they do deserve it?
[via Engadget]
Verizon’s response to AT&T’s lawsuit: “the truth hurts”. It does.
This is the true declaration of war between AT&T and Verizon Wireless. As many of you have heard, AT&T filed a lawsuit against Verizon claiming that Verizon’s “There’s a Map for That” ad misleads customers into thinking AT&T’s 3G coverage sucks, which is actually true. In return, Verizon released 3 more ads mocking AT&T once again. Now things have reached boiling point, and here’s Verizon’s introduction:
AT&T did not file this lawsuit because Verizon’s “There’s A Map For That” advertisements are untrue; AT&T sued because Verizon’s ads are true and the truth hurts.
The truth does hurt, and that’s probably hurting AT&T right now. Here’s another part of the legal docs that Big Red filed:
In the final analysis, AT&T seeks emergency relief because Verizon’s side-by-side, apples-to-apples comparison of its own 3G coverage with AT&T’s confirms what the marketplace has been saying for months: AT&T failed to invest adequately in the necessary infrastructure to expand its 3G coverage to support its growth in smartphone business, and the usefulness of its service to smartphone users has suffered accordingly.
Verizon looks like they are thinking alot about the consumer from the above statement. Check out all 53 documents over at Engadget.
[via Engadget]
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