Patents

A federal judge has denied Apple's request to increase the size of the $1.05-billion judgment a jury awarded the company last summer in its patent infringement case against Samsung.  Apple had requested that the size of the verdict be tripled because Samsung had "willfully" infringed Apple patents. U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose disagreed. PHOTOS: Devices in the Apple-Samsung trial Koh also denied requests from both companies for a new trial based on portions of the original verdict they did not like.  Apple has already appealed Koh's denial of its request to ban 26 Samsung products that were covered in the original trial.

Apple has appealed a federal judge's denial of its request to ban 26 Samsung products that were part of a sweeping patent infringement case it won in August.  In that case, a jury awarded Apple $1 billion after finding that Samsung had violated several mobile-related patents held by Apple. Following that verdict, Apple had asked the judge to increase the size of the awards, as well as permanently ban the 26 Samsung products in question.  PHOTOS: Devices in the Apple Samsung trial But in December, Judge Lucy Koh denied Apple's motion to block the  sale of the smartphones - including the Fascinate, Epic 4G and Galaxy S II. Koh wrote in her decision that Apple had failed to make the case that the features covered by the patents played a decisive role in consumers' purchase decisions.

In denying Apple Inc.'s motion to ban sales of some Samsung Electronics Co. products that a jury had determined infringed its smartphone patents, legal observers say a federal judge delivered a potentially troublesome message to the technology giant: These violations are small potatoes. That might sound odd, considering that a jury in August found the patent infringements serious enough to award Apple $1.05 billion in damages. But U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh made it clear in a ruling this week that the scope of the violations was tiny relative to the enormous number of features contained in a smartphone.

Bankrupt Eastman Kodak Co. said it will sell about 1,100 digital-imaging patents to a group that includes Apple Inc., Google Inc. and Facebook Inc., for about $525 million. The consortium of 12 companies, led by Intellectual Ventures and RPX Corp., also includes a collection of other major technology companies including BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., Adobe Systems Inc., Huawei Technologies Co. and HTC Corp. Fujifilm Holdings Corp., whose digital-camera innovations were said to be a factor in Kodak's decline, is also part of the group, according to a motion filed in bankruptcy court Wednesday.

A Delaware court ruled Thursday that Apple's iPhone infringes three patents held by Sony and Nokia, according to a report from Bloomberg .  The case was brought by MobileMedia, a holding company owned by  Sony, MPEG-LA and Nokia that controls those companies' patents. MobileMedia is charged with enforcing about 300 patents, but because it doesn't make any products, it can't be countersued. Neat, huh? Lest you think that tactic is a bit dodgy, it should be noted that Apple has its own patent holding company: the  Rockstar Consortium . Rockstar was created after Apple joined with Microsoft and Rimm, among others, to acquire 4,000 patents from Nortel.

The U.S. Supreme Court said it would decide whether pharmacy companies violate antitrust laws -- and drive up costs to consumers -- by agreeing to let brand-name drug makers pay rivals to delay selling lower-priced generics. In the last decade, several federal courts have upheld such agreements on the grounds that they are settlements of disputes over patents. The Federal Trade Commission, however, has been challenging the so-called pay-for-delay agreements as illegally stifling competition and preserving monopolies.

SAN JOSE - A federal judge signaled Thursday that she might reduce Apple Inc.'s $1-billion jury award in its patent infringement case with Samsung Electronics Co. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh did not specify by how much she might shave the award, but during a marathon afternoon hearing in federal court in San Jose she said it did appear that the jury had miscalculated damages. In August, after three days of deliberations in the complex patent case, a jury awarded Apple more than $1 billion.

Apple and HTC announced a surprise settlement to their patent litigation last month, but the details were kept tightly under wraps. Then a federal judge this week granted a motion by lawyers for Samsung requesting that they be able to see a copy of the settlement.  Apple complied, and Wednesday night Samsung lawyers filed a copy of that settlement with a U.S. Federal District Court. The 140-page document, however, is heavily redacted.  A copy is pasted below for your early-morning viewing pleasure.

Mobile rivals Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. return to a San Jose federal court Thursday to renew their high-stakes legal wrangling that could ultimately determine control of the red-hot smartphone market. Samsung wants the court to toss out a $1-billion jury verdict against it for patent infringement. Apple wants to block sales of some Samsung smartphones in the U.S, including the Galaxy S 4G, the Galaxy S II, and the Droid Charge. The hearing is crucial for both companies as each tries to gain leverage in the fast-growing, $150-billion global market.

When he died in 1974, George Abraham Simmons left a bulky legacy: boxes and boxes of drugstore pills, salves and potions - enough to fill multiple cargo containers. What to do with it all? His family was stumped. Pharmaceuticals and botanicals, rouges, deodorants and still-sealed packs of cigarettes - he'd accumulated around 85,000 items. Photos: New life for old corner drugstore To label Simmons a hoarder, though, would be oversimplifying. Take a moment to understand his world.