Not Guilty: HTC, ZTE and Huawei did not infringe on camera patent says ITC

Patent infringement cases heard in front of the ITC are often times very worrisome for the defendants. That is because the agency has the power to issue exclusion orders, with the president's signature of course, that could ban sales of an infringing product in the U.S. On Friday, a trio of smartphone manufacturers were able to exhale following a ruling from the ITC that HTC, ZTE and Huawei did not infringe on a camera patent owned by FlashPoint Technology. The latter is a spin-off from Apple.

Last September, an administrative law judge made a preliminary finding that the HTC Vivid and the HTC DROID Incredible 4G LTE both infringed on one patent belonging to FlashPoint, while ZTE and Huawei were cleared. The ITC reviewed the prior ruling, and in a final decision the commission found that none of the companies had infringed on any FlashPoint patent.

Back in December 2011, HTC was also cleared by the ITC in another case involving alleged patent infringement of camera related patents. In that particular case, HTC's fellow defendants included RIM, LG and Nokia.

source: Reuters
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Apple might turn the iPhone into an answering machine, a recent patent suggests

The Cupertino giant has just patented an audio call screening feature, which might enable iPhone users to listen to a voice message while the caller is leaving it. Apple's US Patent No.8,666,034 allows "a user to screen messages being left at a hosted voicemail system from a telephone terminal".

What does this mean, exactly? Simply put, it's an answering machine for your iPhone. Just as the conventional answering machines for landline phones, Apple's audio call screening system allows you to listen to a voicemail message while the caller is leaving it. If you decide that the call is important, you can answer the phone, thus cancelling the further recording of the given voice message. Of course, you can allow the caller to leave his voice message.

It seems that this call screening system creates a conference call between the caller, the voicemail server, and the telephone terminal. Apple's newly-obtained patent states that "the telephone terminal is equipped to open only the speaker channel for monitroing the message and will provide a fully bi-directional connection using a microphone channel".
This patent was one of the roughly 6,000 patents that Nortel, a network equipment manufacturer, sold to Rockstar, a consortium between Apple, Microsoft, Sony, ant others. After Nortel went bankrupt back in 2011, it sold this plethora of patents to Rockstar for some $4.5 billion.

Only time will reveal if this audio call screening system will make its way to the next iPhone. What are your thoughts on the matter?

US Patent No.8,666,034 images Fullscreen More popular slideshows

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Vringo Sells Infomedia Its Mobile Content Business To Sharpen Focus On Patent Suits Against Google, ZTE And More

Vringo, a publicly-traded patent-holding company that has been locked in infringement lawsuits against Google, ZTE, (TechCrunch owner) AOL and others, today announced that it has sold off the last remaining assets of its mobile business that were not directly related to those patent suits, throwing its hat into the ring as a full-on patent chaser.

Infomedia Services, a UK-based company that provides CRM and mobile monetizing platforms to third parties, is buying Vringo’s “video ringtone,” Facetone and other mobile products, existing mobile partnerships, and a portfolio of internally developed patents related to them. It is an all-share deal, in which Vringo will take an eight percent stake in privately held Infomedia.

A spokesperson for Vringo declined to give a valuation for that stake.

Infomedia — which works with publishers like Gameloft and EA Games; carriers EE, Orange, T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile; and mobile device makers Samsung, HTC, Sony and Alcatel — had revenues of $20 million in 2013 and says that included “over 750 million mobile engagements, 300 million portal sessions, 75 million billing transactions and over 5 million downloads.”

It will now add video ringtones (for little clips to play when people call you), “Facetones” (a Facebook integration that lets profile pictures appear when a friend calls, example pictured here), a DIY music video product called Remix, and a fan loyalty platform to its portfolio.

The idea behind the sale is that it will mean Vringo can focus more of its attention on existing patent lawsuits and those it may file in the future, effectively transforming the company into more of a full-fledged patent assertion entity (or patent troll, if you are less charitable).

“We believe this transaction with Infomedia unlocks additional value,” said Andrew Perlman, Vringo’s CEO, in a statement.  “Infomedia has achieved consistent high growth and we believe that combining our global distribution platform and research and development platform with Infomedia’s product offerings and services will create a valuable synergy.  Vringo looks forward to being an equity owner of Infomedia and working closely with the company as it continues to grow.”

As part of the deal, Perlman will join Infomedia’s board of directors after the transaction closes (by March 31, 2014).

Existing Vringo lawsuits include an ongoing search patent case between I/P Engine (a subsidiary of Vringo) and Google, AOL Inc., Google, IAC/InterActiveCorp-owned IAC Search & Media, Gannett Co Inc. and Target Corp.; a multinational case against ZTE (which most recently saw ZTE receiving an injunction on selling base stations in Germany) ; and a case against ADT and Tyco.

Microsoft, which had also been in I/P Engine’s crosshairs, last May agreed to pay Vringo a settlement of $1 million, and enter into a licensing agreement for future use of search patents.

Provisionally, Vringo has won the larger I/P Engine case, too, although without as lucrative a finish as it had hoped. The company had been asking for $696 million in damages, but in the end the judge ruled for $30 million.

There are some more developments on that case to come. The Vringo spokesperson says that his company is meeting with defendants in a settlement conference on January 22, and there is also an appeals court meeting after that, likely at the end of Q1 or early Q2.

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Samsung, Apple in talks to end patent battle, report says

Samsung and Apple are trying again to come together on a possible patent accord, according to a new report.

Despite a two-year legal battle that appeared to have no end in sight, Apple and Samsung have started discussing the possibility of inking a royalties deal and putting an end to all of their litigation, an official at the Korea Fair Trade Commission told the Korea Times in a report published on Sunday.

According to that official, the talks are in their "working-level" stage right now, and the companies are attempting to reduce "differences over royalty payments." The Korean regulator is also working with American and European antitrust watchdogs to aid in arriving at a deal.

Related storiesNokia wins injunction against all HTC devices (in Germany)Apple 12 Days app offers 'Hugo' or 'Home Alone' for freeApple's Siri could one day find your photos via your voiceSamsung chip advance paves way for phones with 4GB memoryHow much would you pay for a 110-inch Ultra HDTV?

Apple and Samsung have been suing each other all over the world over the last few years. Last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung Electronics chief Choi Gee-sung tried to hash out an agreement to end their patent dispute, but those 17-hour talks failed. Apple has since won an important patent infringement case in the US, which might have prompted Samsung to make a move on arriving at an agreement. That case alone could see Apple net $890 million.

At this point, Apple and Samsung both believe the other company is being unfair in the dollar values they want to place on the overall settlement. Samsung is willing to enter into a "cross-licensing" deal with Apple, where both companies can get the intellectual property they need for a set price, sources told the Korea Times. Apple is asking Samsung to pay a more than $30 fee for every device found to be in violation of its patents, according to the report.

If the companies can't arrive at a deal, a long, arduous legal process awaits. Early next year, the companies will again wage a patent-infringement battle, followed by several others.

CNET has contacted both Apple and Samsung. We will update this story when we have more information.

Topics: Corporate and legal Tags: Apple, Samsung, patents, mobile

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Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s 43-Day Assault On The Patent Troll

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Sony patent hints at a touch-enabled PlayStation Move controller

Sony's PlayStation Move controller has helped bring motion-enabled gaming to PlayStation consoles for over three years, but hasn't exactly set the world alight. To better compete with Microsoft's controller-less Kinect and Nintendo's Wii motion accessories, the company has been looking to extract more functionality from its wireless joystick, as evidenced in a recent filing with the US Patent Office. The patent, entitled "Flat Joystick Controller," describes a controller not dissimilar to the PlayStation Move handheld we've come to know and kinda love, but Sony hints that an upgrade could come in the form of a touch-sensitive surface on the front of the handle.

The company says the new controller "enables control for a variety of applications and simulations while providing an intuitive interface," allowing gamers to better control in-game characters and select elements without having to alter their grip. While the patent suggests Sony is only experimenting with the feature, similar to the hybrid DualShock/PlayStation Move controller patent it filed last year, we know that the company mulled an all-touch PS4 controller before settling on the DualShock 4, indicating that touch still has a big part to play in PlayStation's future.

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Via: Joystiq

Source: USPTO

Tags: controller, gamepad, motion, playstation, playstation move, ps3, ps4, sony, touch Next: Microsoft adds

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