legal action

HTC to Apple: We Built a Touchscreen Phone Before You Did

John Paczkowski in News on March 18, 2010 at 6:05 am PT

The surprise HTC expressed earlier this month at being sued by Apple has finally turned into something a bit more substantial: “strong disagreement.” The company issued a statement this morning denying Apple’s allegations and vowed to fight the suit. The gist: HTC has been making phones far longer than Apple, including a touchscreen device called the XDA that predates the iPhone by about five years.

Xerox to Google, Yahoo: If You Need Additional Copies of the Lawsuit, You Know Whom to Ask

John Paczkowski in News on February 23, 2010 at 11:33 am PT

Xerox is not a name that springs to mind when one thinks of search. It is, after all, a 100-year-old global document-management company best known for its office and production equipment. Odd, then, to hear that Xerox has accused Google and Yahoo of pilfering its intellectual property.

Another Kodak Moment: ITC Agrees to Investigate Apple, RIM

John Paczkowski in Mobile on February 17, 2010 at 4:02 pm PT

The U.S. International Trade Commission has agreed to investigate claims that Apple’s iPhone and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry infringe on Kodak’s intellectual property. At issue here: Two patents generally covering image preview and processing, which Kodak claims have been used illegitimately in the iPhone and BlackBerry. At stake for Apple and RIM: A ban on U.S. imports of both devices.

A Priceless Kodak Moment for Apple and RIM

John Paczkowski in Mobile on January 14, 2010 at 9:30 am PT

Emboldened by the settlement it won from Samsung in a recent digital camera patent dispute, Kodak is seeking similar arrangements from Apple and Research in Motion. In a handful of lawsuits filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, Kodak accuses both companies of illegally leveraging its digital-imaging patents in the iPhone and BlackBerry.

Plurk Milking This Microsoft Thing for All It’s Worth

John Paczkowski in News on December 17, 2009 at 6:58 am PT

As earnest as it might have been, Microsoft’s apology to Plurk, the microblogging service whose code and design it copied, has not eased the start-up’s outrage over the incident or its desire to squeeze all the PR it can out of it. Though Microsoft has taken responsibility for the offense–perpetrated by a third-party vendor with which it contracted–it has not offered accountability, says Plurk. And that makes the microblogging outfit inclined to pursue legal action, or threaten it, anyway.