patents

Struggling Eastman Kodak is alleging that Apple's and HTC's smartphones and tablets infringe on its digital imaging technology, and has filed a complaint and lawsuits with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, it said on Tuesday.

Reduced natural barriers to entry, like development time and cost, should have entrepreneurs considering artificial barriers to entry, like patents and other intellectual property rights

The legal battles over mobile technology patents intensified in 2011, with Apple, Samsung and Motorola squaring off in courts around the world.

Apple this week was on the short end of three out of four international court rulings involving patent disputes.

Like all makers of devices using Android, Barnes and Noble was approached by Microsoft to pay patent royalties on their Nook ebook readers. But BN revealed the patents used, and Microsoft should be embarrassed

In a Goliath versus Goliath battle, Microsoft sues Google over Android patents, while Google lawyer Tim Porter claims Microsoft lobs lawsuits when their products are losing in the market place.

Microsoft sells Windows 7 phones, but not very well. Android phones sell more more units than Microsoft. But thanks to patent lawsuits, Microsoft may make more money from Android phones than from Windows.

Samsung took a step toward finding a kind of "pax tabletica" with arch-foe Apple in an Australian court last week, offering to remove features from its Galaxy Tab to avoid a court ban on sales of the device in that country. But what's really interesting about the case isn't the technical litigation, but the underlying attempt to define how much of a product's design is actually protected under existing, fragmented international laws.

Will patents fuel the next 100 Years War? Apple is blocking Samsung's Galaxy Tab, reviewed as the best non-iPad tablet, in the courts. Samsung promises to get more aggressive, and now chipmaker VIA Technologies is filing to block iPad and iPhone sales in the U.S. because of, yes, patent infringement.

Lest we forget that Microsoft still insists Linux violates 235 of its patents, Microsoft issued a reminder today. It announced a patent licensing deal with Casio Computer Co. Ltd. that "among other things, will provide Casio's customers with patent coverage for their use of Linux in certain Casio devices," Microsoft says.

If patent battles are modern corporate warfare, Google just got more than a thousand reinforcements. After buying over a thousand patents from IBM back in July, Google bought another thousand in August.