John Paczkowski

Recent Posts by John Paczkowski

Game of Phones: Apple’s Legions Strike Blow Against Motorola Defenses

Another victory for Apple in its endless, sprawling legal battle with Motorola Mobility. On Thursday, a German court granted Apple an injunction against Motorola, ruling that a number of the company’s Android phones infringe an Apple patent titled “Portable Electronic Device for Photo Management.”

Among the enforcement options available to the iPhone maker: Requiring Motorola to pull all infringing devices from store shelves and destroy them.

Not that that will ever happen. Motorola will almost certainly update its software to work around Apple’s patent. That said, the ruling does give Apple some new leverage in negotiating to turn back on the iCloud features in Germany that Motorola recently forced it to turn off.

Update: In a statement to AllThingsD, Motorola said, “Today’s ruling in Munich, Germany on the patent litigation brought by Apple concerns a software feature associated with performing certain functions when viewing photos in a ‘zoomed in’ mode on mobile devices. We note that the Court ruled that performing the functions in a ‘zoomed out’ mode does not infringe on this patent. We expect no impact to supply or future sales as we have already implemented a new way to view photos on our products that does not interfere with the user experience.”

This thing is well on its way to becoming the 100 Years War of intellectual property battles.

Twitter’s Tanking

December 30, 2013 at 6:49 am PT

2013 Was a Good Year for Chromebooks

December 29, 2013 at 2:12 pm PT

BlackBerry Pulls Latest Twitter for BB10 Update

December 29, 2013 at 5:58 am PT

Apple CEO Tim Cook Made $4.25 Million This Year

December 28, 2013 at 12:05 pm PT

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Just as the atom bomb was the weapon that was supposed to render war obsolete, the Internet seems like capitalism’s ultimate feat of self-destructive genius, an economic doomsday device rendering it impossible for anyone to ever make a profit off anything again. It’s especially hopeless for those whose work is easily digitized and accessed free of charge.

— Author Tim Kreider on not getting paid for one’s work