Patents

Microsoft Corp. must face a lawsuit that seeks hundred of millions of dollars in damages over patents for a process to improve images on computer screens, a court ruled. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington reversed a judge's findings that three patents owned by Research Corporation Technologies Inc. couldn't be enforced. It sent the case back to the lower court for rulings on validity and infringement.

A district court jury in Northern California cleared Google of infringing patents held by Oracle in six claims brought by the company. But the verdict isn't the end of the case. Oracle sued Google in August 2010, alleging Google's Android phone software infringed patents and copyrights covering Java. The first part of the trial over Java copyright claims ended in a mixed verdict.

Callaway Golf Co., the maker of Big Bertha and Steelhead golf clubs, traded lawsuits with Fortune Brands Inc.'s Acushnet Co. over its redesigned Titleist Pro V1 golf balls. Acushnet's new versions of Pro V1 golf balls, modified after a previous infringement suit by Callaway, infringed two other patents, according to a complaint filed Monday in Wilmington, Del. Acushnet countersued, claiming Callaway's patents are invalid and that the Carlsbad, Calif., company infringed nine of its patents.

The heads of Apple Inc.and Samsung Electronics Co. will sit opposite each other in settlement talks this week, even as the rival smartphone makers continue to blast each other with patent infringement claims. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook was scheduled to participate in a mediation conference with Samsung Chief Executive Gee-Sung Choi in front of a San Francisco judge Monday and Tuesday to discuss how to speed the resolution of a high-profile U.S. patent case. The 13-month-old case in the U.S. District Court in Northern California is one of many around the world that are amounting to a bruising patent war. The two companies have repeatedly accused one another of copying the look and function of their rival's tablets and smartphones.

Lipitor is the most prescribed name-brand drug in America - nearly 3.5 million people take it every day to control their cholesterol. Since the statin entered the market in 1997, it's earned New York-based pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. $81 billion, making it the best-selling prescription drug of all time, according to IMS Health, a Danbury, Conn.-based healthcare information company. So when Lipitor's patent protection came to an end Nov. 30 and a generic alternative became available, an awful lot of patients had a decision to make: Should they stick with the drug they knew or switch to something less expensive?

Razor USA persuaded a federal judge for now to bar more than a dozen competitors in the kick-scooter market from selling what could be the most popular toy this holiday season. U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real in Los Angeles issued a temporary restraining order that prevents companies such as Gen-X Sports Inc. and K2 Inc. from selling their brand of scooters between now and Dec. 4.

A prolific inventor who has spent more than a decade proving toys aren't all fun and games has been awarded millions of dollars by a federal jury, which said toy giant Mattel Inc. infringed on his patent with its popular "Hot Wheels." "I am floating on cloud nine," 66-year-old Jerome Lemelson said Friday, a day after the judgment. "My hope is that as a result of it, toy inventors will get a fair shake from the industry." The jury awarded Lemelson $24.

When does a great idea become a patentable invention? That was a question easier to answer when Thomas Edison came up with the lightbulb and Whitcomb Judson devised the zipper -- Industrial Age innovations that clearly fit with old ideas of what it meant to invent something. But a recent case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit points up the difficulty of making such judgments in the age of the Internet. Bernard Bilski and Rand Warsaw of WeatherWise USA Inc.

Are you struggling with a multiremote system at home? Do you wish you could control your television, DVR and DVD player with one single remote that wouldn't be a pain to program? Do you think that remote should be your iPhone? Then get psyched: On Thursday Patently Apple turned up a patent filed by Apple that shows the company is hard at work designing the remote control of your dreams. Apple's patent, which the company filed in the third quarter of 2010, would allow you to take a picture of an existing piece of electronic equipment - your television for example, and send it to the iCloud, where Apple would determine the type of device you want to control as well as the make and the model of that device.

It seems patents have been playing an increasingly crucial role in the business ecosystem. Microsoft just flipped to Facebook for $550 million a portion of its recent $1-billion bundle buy of patents from AOL. The companies said Facebook is buying about 650 of the 925 patents and patent applications.  "It is interesting to see that Microsoft paid $1.14 million per patent property while Facebook paid $850,000 for part of the...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Microsoft, which just bought patents from AOL for more than $1 billion, is now selling most of them to Facebook for $550 million. The two companies said Monday that Facebook is buying about 650 of the 925 patents and patent applications. Facebook will get a license to use the rest of the patents. Microsoft will also get a license to use the patents that Facebook is buying. “Today's agreement with Microsoft represents an important acquisition for Facebook,” said Ted Ullyot, Facebook's general counsel, in a written statement.

It seems patents have been playing an increasingly crucial role in the business ecosystem. Microsoft just flipped to Facebook for $550 million a portion of its recent $1-billion bundle buy of patents from AOL. The companies said Facebook is buying about 650 of the 925 patents and patent applications.  "It is interesting to see that Microsoft paid $1.14 million per patent property while Facebook paid $850,000 for part of the...

SAN FRANCISCO - Larry Page, the co-founder of Google Inc. who returned as its chief executive one year ago, has commanded respect for making decisive, bold moves to recharge the search giant. But the usually self-assured Page appeared uncomfortable on the witness stand Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. He was there to dispute allegations that his company infringed Oracle Corp.'s patents and copyrights to build its Android mobile software, which now powers more than 300 million mobile devices.

SAN FRANCISCO — It's being called the World Series of intellectual property trials. Oracle Corp. has accused Google Inc.'s top executives of swiping a crucial bit of technology to build its Android software that now powers more than 300 million mobile devices. The showdown between the two Silicon Valley heavyweights got underway in a San Francisco federal courtroom this week with a blast of high-tech star power as the dueling multibillionaire chief executives, Oracle's Larry Ellison and Google's Larry Page, took the stand.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Oracle and Google were facing off in the second day of a high-stakes intellectual property showdown in a San Francisco federal courtroom Tuesday when Twitter made a surprise announcement: It pledged that employees who created its technology would exercise control over the patents so they could not be used as a legal battering ram against other companies. The “Innovator's Patent Agreement,” or IPA, would give legal rights to inventors and ensure that patents are not used to “impede the innovation of others,” the San Francisco company said in a post   on its official blog.

AOL's surprising sale of 800 patents to Microsoft for about $1.06 billion gives the company a cash infusion that Wall Street seems to like. Although neither company is saying what the patents cover, what Microsoft actually bought was leverage. "Patents are nothing but a license to sue," to exclude others, said Alexander Poltorak, chairman and chief executive of General Patent Corp. A license to sue, but an opportunity to strike a deal. "Only [between] 3 and 4% of patent lawsuits end up in trial," with most ending up in an arrangement beneficial to both companies, he said.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Oracle and Google were facing off in the second day of a high-stakes intellectual property showdown in a San Francisco federal courtroom Tuesday when Twitter made a surprise announcement: It pledged that employees who created its technology would exercise control over the patents so they could not be used as a legal battering ram against other companies. The “Innovator's Patent Agreement,” or IPA, would give legal rights to inventors and ensure that patents are not used to “impede the innovation of others,” the San Francisco company said in a post   on its official blog.

National Semiconductor Corp., which makes high-performance computer chips, accused smaller rival Micrel Semiconductor Inc. of infringing two patents used in the chip-manufacturing process. In its suit, Santa Clara, Calif.-based National Semiconductor says it is the owner of patents awarded in 1982 and 1984 protecting methods used for controlling corrosion and regulating voltage. Officials of Micrel were not immediately available to comment on the suit.

Facebook is mounting an aggressive legal defense against Yahoo, claiming Yahoo is infringing on 10 of its patents. Yahoo sued Facebook for infringing its patents last month. “From the outset, we said we would defend ourselves vigorously against Yahoo's lawsuit, and today we filed our answer as well as counter-claims against Yahoo for infringing 10 of Facebook's patents,” said Ted Ullyot, Facebook's general counsel in an emailed statement. “While we are asserting patent claims of our own, we do so in response to Yahoo's short-sighted decision to attack one of its partners and prioritize litigation over innovation.” Facebook's counterclaim filed in a San Francisco federal court Tuesday claims Yahoo services such as the photostream and a recent activity feature in Yahoo's Flickr photo-sharing service infringe on a Facebook patent, among others.

European regulators are investigating whether phone maker Motorola Mobility overcharged Apple and Microsoft for use of its patents in products such as the iPhone and Xbox, in violation of antitrust laws. The European Commission, the antitrust watchdog of the 27-country European Union, said it has opened two investigations into whether Motorola is requiring unfair fees for licensing its patents essential for 2G and 3G wireless technology standards as well as for Wi-Fi connection and H.264 video compression, based on grievances filed by Apple and Microsoft, respectively.