patents

Oracle's Java infringement case against Google has come a long way since the heady days of $6.1 billion in damages.

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

Microsoft continues to be involved in free and open source projects. Given the long history of enmity, how should the community react?

A Sony Ericsson executive reiterates the Android manufacturer's support for Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility.

Oracle's Java infringement case against Google isn't going well for the database giant these days, with another setback delivered by the USPTO in the form of a patent reexamination this week.

Plus: Facebook photos secured legally if not actually.

A patent troll wins minor damages against Linux user Google. Don't write off Linux yet.

In a seeming reversal, the holding consortium formed by Apple, EMC, Microsoft, and Oracle, known as CPTN Holdings, LLC, withdrew its application from the German Federal Cartel Office, leaving many hoping if this was a sign of the end of a patent deal that has sent shock waves through the open source community. This was not what happened.

Continuing its ongoing legal battle against Apple, Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia on Thursday said it has filed infringement claims against the iPhone maker in the U.K., Germany and the Netherlands covering more than a dozen patents Nokia asserts are its own.

Microsoft's role in snapping up the 882 Novell patents for $450 million makes no difference in how Microsoft regards open source and how open source regards Microsoft. Not one bit of difference at all.

There's been some talk that the lawsuit between Oracle and Google proves the ineffectiveness of the Open Invention Network and the Linux Foundation. If either organization had been effective, the argument goes, then this lawsuit would not have happened.