Category: Law

The war between Google and Oracle is far from over, but the big G keeps racking up tiny victories in what are admittedly modest battles. Now the Redwood Shores-based company has been told to go back to the drawing board with its damages report. Originally Oracle sought $2.6 billion, but its theories were largely dismissed and Judge William Alsup suggested an alternative starting point of roughly $100 million. The company still has an opportunity to present a new report, one that will likely seek much more than the proposed $100 million, but things are looking increasingly tough for the claimant. It wasn’t all good news for Goog, though. While the judge told Oracle to narrow its focus from Android as a whole to just specific infringing features, he did agree that related advertising revenue should be included in the theoretical royalty base. He also offered harsh criticism for what he viewed as its “brazen” disregard for intellectual property rights. The trial is still scheduled for October, so we should have a better idea of how this whole thing will play out by Halloween.

Judge tells Oracle to rethink $2.6 billion claim against Google originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 03:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nevada prepares itself for the imminent rise of driverless cars originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Jun 2011 11:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You probably know the drill by now — Cupertino introduces a new product with a name that ostensibly belongs to someone else, and for better or worse that someone decides to take Apple to court. Today, it’s iCloud Communications charging out of the left corner to sock Apple’s iCloud square in the wallet. Arizona-based iCloud Communications appears to be a VoIP equipment and service provider, though in court documents it claims to be a cloud computing company as well, and says that it’s been using the term iCloud (and the above logo) to sell such services since 2005. It’s asking the court to destroy all of Apple’s iCloud marketing materials, pay damages and even invalidate the iCloud trademark that Apple bought from Xcerion — the only registered iCloud trademark so far — but what’s probably going to actually happen here is a nice little settlement out of court. We’ll let you know if there’s any reason to break out the popcorn.

[Thanks, Tamaine M.]

iCloud Communications sues Apple for obvious reasons originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 12 Jun 2011 01:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung lawyers recently asked the court to make Apple show them the as-yet-unannounced iPhone 5 and iPad 3, claiming that they need to know what Apple’s products will look like ahead of time to avoid future lawsuits and uncanny similarities.

If only it were this easy.

Visualized: Samsung wants to see the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 May 2011 20:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s suing Samsung! Samsung’s wants to sue Apple! But Samsung sells Apple lots and lots and lots of components every year! So how are the legal squabbles affecting their relationship? According to Apple COO Tim Cook on Apple’s earnings call today, Samsung remains a “very valued” partner, no matter what the lawyers say, despite having “crossed the line in mobile.” I’ve seen this episode of Divorce Court. I just want to know who gets to keep the dog. More »

Apple: “You ripped off our shit! Intellectual property robbery! You owe us a bunch of money!” More »

Want some numerical context to last night’s revelation that Apple is suing Samsung Electronics for copying the iPhone and iPad? How does $5.7 billion sound? That’s how much Apple spent on buying up parts from Samsung last year, according to the AFP, which cites the Cupertino company as Samsung’s second-biggest client after Sony. Given the breadth of Samsung’s component manufacturing, these expenditures can and probably do span everything from flash storage and RAM to processing chips to displays. What’s fascinating here — and illustrative of the psychopathic nature of corporations — is that in spite of this massive interdependency, Apple’s lodged a broadly worded patent assault on a major prong of Samsung’s business (smartphones and tablets) and now Samsung’s been quoted as saying it has “no choice but [to] respond strongly.” A company official has apparently expressed the belief that Apple may be infringing on some of Samsung’s wireless patents, which means we can probably look forward to another fat batch of papers being submitted to the Northern District of California court. Lovely.

Apple spent nearly $5.7b on Samsung parts in 2010, faces ‘strong’ response to its patent suit originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 04:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Watch this gentleman, who seems to be under the influence of drugs of some sort, flee a police officer by jumping off California’s Bixby Bridge. I think the only thing more satisfying would be escape by jetpack. [Reddit] More »

There are official 20% fewer penis enlargement emails hitting your spam folder, thanks to the efforts of the Russian government. How’d they do it? By making an effort. More »

Webcam-spying school district settles out of court, FBI declines to press charges originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Oct 2010 07:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Overheating devices have plagued Apple for a few years now. But two stories today have highlighted the issue: a lawsuit in federal court concerning overheating iPads, and the Japanese government’s demand for an official iPod Nano overheating explanation. More »