Post 18 Facebook Phone!?

If you think Samsung, HTC, Motorola and LG would still be the main smartphone bands for android phones in the next few years, you may be wrong. On Mar 28, Facebook invited members of the press to attend a media event at its Silicon Valley headquarters. The invite said, "Come see our new home on Android."

Facebook is working closely with HTC on this first device, according to anonymous sources cited by The Wall Street Journal, though other manufacturers are on deck, too. It is not surprising that HTC would be Facebook's first choice so far. In 2011, HTC released the Status, a QWERTY-equipped Android smartphone that had a dedicated Facebook button. Using the Facebook button made it easy for Status owners to share content such as pictures, video, Web links, and so on, directly to the social network. Sure Samsung, as the largest android phone producer, is in the mix.

It will be very interesting to see how the joining of Facebook will stir the smartphone market, especially on the patents end. I am pretty sure that Facebook does not have many patents involving smartphone hardware/software. But will Facebook be subjected as the hottest target of the heated smartphone patent war which involves Apple, Nokia, Microsoft and RIM? It's still too early to judge. But I am sure we will have more insight after Facebook's press conference on April 4.

This is not an actual Facebook phone design. Just a concept art by Michal Bonikowski
(Source: http://www.designscene.net/2012/08/facebook-phone.html)

Post 17 Apple seeks full injunction against Samsung

According to Foss Patent Blog, ITC judge issues preliminary ruling on Apple v. Samsung case six days ahead of schedule. I think this case is a good indicator on the flexibility and efficiency of ITC cases.

In December 2012, a federal judge denied Apple a permanent injunction against Samsung despite multiple findings of infringement at a trial held last summer in the Northern District of California. Apple is appealing that denial, but it shifts to the ITC investigation the find the opportunity to obtain injunction against Samsung in the U.S.

The complaint filed by Apple is responded by ITC Judge Pender, who set the target date for the further process and said his remand determination would issue no later than April 1, 2013. He actually filed it six calendar days ahead of schedule on March 25, 2013. Although this does not move up the target date for the final Commission decision, which is still August 1, 2013, it shows ITC is more flexible and efficient comparing to general courts. However, I found that even Judge Pender had handed down his initial determination in October 2012 and held Samsung to infringe four Apple patents, the time to let the Commission to make the final decision may be enough for Samsung to workaround its products to avoid further products infringement of other Apple patents filing to ITC in the mean time. Even so, if the judge approves a workaround, the decision is based exclusively on whether the workaround falls outside the legal scope of the relevant patent, and unrelated to commercial considerations.

Post 16 Andriod's Internet Tethering may infringe Nokia patent

According to Foss Patent Blog, Android's popular tethering feature, which enables mobile phones to act as network routers in order to share their Internet connections with portable computers, appears likely to infringe on a key Nokia patent.

At the United States International Trade Commission (USITC), Nokia has just defeated Google and HTC with respect to the proper legal interpretation of U.S. Patent No 5,884,190 on a "method for making a data transmission connection from a computer to a mobile communication network for transmission of analog and/or digital signals". Note that this patent was file on June 7, 1996, which is almost a decade before Google implements this function to its smartphone platform Android.

After ITC's victory, Nokia will sure extend this patent infringement case to the courts around the world where they can do financial damages to HTC. Again, the claim of this patent is pretty board, and thus make it very lethal even through I question the patent inventor(s) had though about the application on smartphones in 1996:


"Method for making a data transmission connection from a computer to any one of a plurality of mobile communication networks for transmission of analog and/or digital signals, wherein the computer is connected with one of the mobile communication networks via a telecommunication terminal which is in local data transmission connection with the computer; and wherein the data transmission connection utilizes at least a first operation mode for connection with a first of said telecommunication networks and a second operation mode for connection with a second of said telecommunication networks, the method comprising steps of:

• testing said communication networks to determine which of said plurality of mobile communication networks are available for a connection to be made via the telecommunication terminal;

• selecting one of the available mobile communication networks;

• at the telecommunication terminal, setting an operation mode corresponding to the selected one of the mobile communication networks; and

• setting the data transmission connection for transmission via the selected operation mode."

HTC (and Google) tried to narrow the meaning of two passages of the claim language, the judge rejected all the arguments made to defend the patent infringement. If the judge eventually favors Nokia, HTC and Google may need to ask the ITC Commission to overrule the judge if they wanted to avoid an import ban. But that means there are chances that HTC smartphones may face an import ban of all its android smartphones (internet tethering is a default function of android system). This may also means other Android phones made by Samsung, Motorola and LG may face the ban since this Nokia patent applies to all Android phones.

Post 15 iPhone 5S and its design rumors

According to sources from the upstream supply chain of Apple phone, the new iPhone 5S will not receive a major upgrade and may just be a slightly enhanced version of iPhone 5. The conclusion is drawn by citing their latest specification data. Meanwhile, there are also rumors stating that Apple also plans to release an iPhone model using plastic chassis to push its global smartphone market share, the sources added.

There are rumors that to offset the cost and make the price to be more competitive, Apple's new phone will have a plastic shell rather than metal casing. While Apple has not commented on any of these reports, it would be interesting to see the the adoption of plastic shell will trigger the design patent infringement cases with Samsung. Samsung Galaxy smartphone products are currently the major opponent of Apple's iPhone products. Due to the result of Samsung vs. Apple patent law case in 2012, Samsung was ordered to pay Apple $1.05 billion (which recently changed to $599 million) for multiple patent infringements. One major patent infringement involves the smartphone outer case design. Although the shape of the phone is the main focus of design patents, I think by choosing plastic case, the new Apple iPhone may be too similar to the Samsung Galaxy phone.

Note that Samsung's phone design has infringed the Apple iPhone design. Now if Apple iPhone uses the same material (high-end plastic) as Samsung Galaxy phones, I believe it would bring more controversy to the design patent infringement.

Post 14 Petition and Complaints filed with USITC Part 2

Today I am going to continue my share on the latest petitions and complaints filed with the USITC. This case is particularly interesting since I had discussed so much about wireless devices, yet hadn't covered the other aspect of wireless communication industry: the wireless network providers. The complaint #2934 on "Wireless Communications Base Stations and Components Thereof" was filed on Jan 24. This complaint was filed by USITC IP trial attorney, Daniel E. Yonan, on behalf of Adaptix Inc. Adaptix is a company that has been recognized as one of the first developers of OFDMA-based wireless systems and 4G-related technologies. Adaptix is now pursuing an import restriction on the products developed by Ericsson, the world's largest maker of equipment for building mobile telecommunications networks.

This complaint involved a patent infringement of U.S. Patent No. 6,870,808, regarding to the wireless network application of the base station using an orthogonal frequency-division multiple-access (OFDMA) protocol. Again, because the case is relatively new, according to the news released on Feb 25, the court have not make a decision yet. But note that USITC guarantees a target date for completing the investigation within 45 days after institution of the investigation, which is generally much faster than a court investigation. I am curious about whether this would affect the mobile network operations if this complaint get approved since ITC can only penalize the violators by import restrictions. While Adaptix sure have similar products as the Ericsson's base stations, I doubt their software and communication protocol will be the same. So the result of this complaint may result in some headaches not only to Ericsson, but wireless network providers companies (Verizon, AT&T, T-mobile, Spirit ... etc.) that uses Ericsson's base stations for their mobile networks.

Post 13 Petition and Complaints filed with USITC Part 1

Recently I checked on the information about recent petitions and complaints filed with the USITC. It's not surprise that many cases are related to the wireless devices related industries and products. The followings are the list of petition and complaints filed since 2013:

Docket No.	Received		Type		Commodity	Investigation No.
2944	2013/03/14		103 Request		North American Free Trade Agreement Rules of Origin	Pending Institution
2943	2013/03/12		337 Complaint		Certain Electronic Devices having Placeshifting or Display Replication Functionality	Pending Institution
2942	2013/03/11		337 Complaint		Microelectromechanical Systems ("MEMS Devices")	Pending Institution
2941	2013/02/22		337 Complaint		Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Products	Pending Institution
2940	2013/02/20		337 Complaint		Products Having Laminated Packaging, Laminated Packaging, and Components	Pending Institution
2939	2013/02/19		337 Enforcement Complaint		Dimmable Compact Fluorescent Lamps and Products	Pending Institution
2938	2013/02/08		337 Complaint		Integrated Circuit Devices	337-TA-873
2937	2013/01/30		332 Request		United States-Korea Free Trade	Pending Institution
2936	2013/01/29		337 Complaint		Omega-3 Extracts from Marine or aquatic Biomass	Pending Institution
2935	2013/01/28		337 Complaint		Compact Fluorescent Reflector Lamps	337-TA-872
2934	2013/01/24		337 Complaint		Wireless Communications Base Stations	337-TA-871
2933	2013/01/18		337 Complaint		Sealing Rings for Utility Meters	Withdrawn
2932	2013/01/14		337 Complaint		Electronic Bark Control Collars	337-TA-870
2931	2012/01/10		332 Request		Generalized System of Preferences	Pending Institution
2930	2012/01/04		337 Complaint		Robotic Toys	337-TA-869
2929	2013/01/02		337 Complaint		Wireless Devices with 3G and/or 4G Capabilities and Components	337-TA-868

From the list, we can see three complaints are related to the wireless communication industry. I am going to start with case #2929, the complaint regarding to "Wireless Devices with 3G and/or 4G Capabilities and Components." The complaint was filed by Bert C. Reiser, a member of the Latham & Watkins’s Intellectual Property Practice Group and International Trade Commission (ITC) Patent Litigation Practice Group, on behave of several telecommunication companies. The list of targets in this complaints, are very interesting:

 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Korea; Samsung Electronics America, Inc., Ridgefield Park, NJ; Samsung Telecommunications America, LLC, Richardson, TX; Nokia Corporation, Finland; Nokia Inc.,White Plains, NY; ZTE Corporation, China; ZTE (USA) Inc., Richardson, TX; Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., China; Huawei Device USA, Inc., Plano, TX; and FutureWei Technologies, Inc., d/b/a Huawei Technologies (USA), Plano, TX.

So, Samsung, Nokia, ZTE and Huawei were all subjected in their wireless devices with 3G/4G capabilities. However, according to this web page, ITC has not yet made any decision on the merits of the case. I am very curious to see what would be the result of this complaint and what impact it would make to the product sales of these companies in the US.

Post 12 An Update on Google vs Microsoft in Germany

Here is an update on the latest German lawsuit of Microsoft against Google-owned Motorola Mobility. The focus is still on the core android app, Google Maps, may infringe of a key Microsoft patent, EP0845124 on a "computer system for identifying local resources and method therefor", which is the European equivalent of U.S. Patent No. 6,240,360.

If Motorola Mobile loses this court cases, it may be just a start of massive patent lawsuits between Microsoft and Google on the android app "Google Maps" around the world. According to Mueller on his FOSS Patents, "Google has not been able so far to convince the court that the patent is highly probable to be invalidated at the end of a parallel nullity proceeding." The ultimate goal of Microsoft is to process a German patent injunction against the Google Maps service, the Google Maps Android client app, and web browsers providing access to Google Maps. It means Google would have to "disable access to Google Maps from computers using a German IP address, discontinue shipping the Google Maps Android app in the German market, and distribute web browsers in Germany only if they block access to Google Maps."

While Google's situation is not optimistic, the German court inclined to ban Google Maps before it has a conclusive decision. I am very curious how would this goes and what Google will do to response to defend against the charges.

Source: http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/03/google-about-to-lose-patent-spat-with.html

Post 11 Google faces patent fire from Microsoft & Nokia ... in Germany

According to German lobbyist Florian Müllera's blog, FOSSPatents, Google now faces patent infringement rulings from both Microsoft and Nokia on its android apps Google Play and Google Map. Mueller pointed out that "the more difficult it is for innovators to obtain timely patent infringement rulings and meaningful remedies in U.S. courts, the more popular and relevant certain German courts, especially the ones in Mannheim and Munich, become."

The cases involving Google and Microsoft started with Google-owned Motorola Mobility suing Microsoft. During the court investigation, Microsoft was managed to counter Motorola Mobility with its own sue, in which the target is the android app - Google Maps' infringement of patent EP0845124 on a "computer system for identifying local resources and method therefor".

On the other hand, Nokia is suing HTC in Mannheim over its distribution of the Google Play app and content store client. HTC, as a major android-platform smartphone manufacturer, are attacked by its pre-loaded Google Play app, which is claiming to infringe patent EP0812120 on a "method for using services offered by a telecommunication network, a telecommunication system and a terminal for it".

While there are many patent lawsuits happening everyday in the United States, it's not surprise that the "patent war" will spread to any major countries with patent laws. Interestingly, the lawsuits in Germany seemed to be more aggressive in my opinion. As you may know, Google Play and Google Map are the core android apps that every android-platform phones are pre-loaded with. It means these two lawsuits directly firing against every android phone on the planet. While patent laws, in theory, are very similar, it's not surprise that court decisions would vary among courts in different locations/countries. It's interesting to see how these two cases develop in Germany, and how Google, which headquartered in the US, will response to it.

Sources:
http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/03/google-faces-critical-week-in-german.html

Post 10 Samsung's damage payments to Apple slashed

Just to share a quick news to you guys. According to EE Times, a U.S. federal judge, Lucy Koh, cut the $1.05 billion award Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. had been ordered to pay Apple Inc. by more than 40 percent today. It means Samsung now has reduced the payment to Apple to around $599 million.

Judge Lucy Koh of the U.S. District Court Northern District of California in San Jose also denied a request by Apple to increase the damage award. "Because the court has identified an impermissible legal theory on which the jury based its award, and cannot reasonably calculate the amount of excess while effectuating the intent of the jury, the court hereby orders a new trial on damages," Koh wrote in a 27-page opinion.

Note that last year Apple had been actively seeking as much as $2.71 billion in damages in charging patent infringement of Samsung over multiple patents. Apple scored a significant legal victory when the jury ruled that Samsung must pay Apple $1.05 billion plus a verdict of willful infringement on many counts. It is interesting to see even Apple got its full victory on court, the actual damage to Samsung is actually not immediate. It shows that patents legal cases require a long period of time to process, and it takes a serious degree of infringement to cause immediate impact to companies which infringe other's patents.


http://www.eetimes.com/design/microwave-rf-design/4408121/Samsung-s-damage-payments-to-Apple-slashed