The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Apache Software Foundation, and the Computer & Communications Industry Association filed an amicus brief in support of Microsoft today, asking the U.S. Supreme Court for a ruling that would have a major impact on patent litigation.The EFF brief, filed alongside 10 others - including ones...
RIM, the company behind Blackberry smartphones, is getting into the smart billboard business, according to twopatent applications it filed recently. But what would a smartphone maker and roadside advertising have in common? It could be a new way to serve up "adaptive" advertising according to data gathered from nearby Blackberry...
The notorious U.S. patent 6,411,947, a broad "method" for automatically classifying and responding to email inquiries known as the Firepond/Polaris patent, has finally been invalidated after 12 years on the books.The patent was on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's list of top ten most bogus patents because it claimed nothing more...
The story about Microsoft and Salesforce.com's patent dispute is far from over for the enterprise market.According to eWeek, the settlement may signal coming turf battles. SaaS companies are developing technologies that overlap with existing on-premise vendors. That may create more patent disputes like the one between Microsoft and Salesforce.com.Microsoft charged...
If you want a bike computer that can export data to your desktop, you're looking at spending a minimum of a couple hundred dollars. Apps like MapMyRide can be great for estimating distance and speed, but there's nothing like getting the info straight from your bike's moving parts instead of...
Microsoft announced today it has settled its patent dispute with Salesforce.com. The press release says "Although the contents of the agreement have not been disclosed, Microsoft indicated that it is being compensated by Salesforce.com based on the strength of Microsoft's leading patent portfolio in the areas of operating systems, cloud...
Three new patent applications that just became public on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) website reveal that Apple is now patenting ideas for mobile applications. Specifically, these patents applications describe iPhone apps that would aid in making travel arrangements, booking hotels and shopping. The patent applications were uncovered...
It seems that every week we hear about another patent lawsuit between tech companies claiming the exclusive rights to various technologies and methods. With large corporations like Apple, Google and Microsoft frequently defending patents in court, smaller companies may get the idea that patents are the best way to protect...
When the Supreme Court ruled last month on the Bilksi case, denying Bilski's patent claim that Bilksi's patent but not making any real statements on the overall patentability of business methods or software, several opponents of software patents, including VCs Jason Mendelson and Brad Feld expressed their disappointment. As Feld...
A decision has finally been reached in the Bilski case, a pivotal patent law case that has been in the appeals process since 2008. According to TechDirt, the Supreme Court narrowly ruled that Bilski's specific patent was invalid while supporting the Federal Circuit's "machine-or-transformation" test.The key question in the Bilski...
Salesforce.com, the world's leading SaaS vendor, is suing Microsoft for patent infringement, Business Week reported today. As we've reported, Microsoft filed suit against Salesforce.com for patent infringement last month. Salesforce.com has hired David Boies who represented the U.S. Department of Justice in its antitrust case against Microsoft.TechCrunch reports the patents...
RIM filed patents for technology that prioritizes different components of a Web page when loading and displaying it according to GoRumors. Specifically, it should make BlackBerry Browser load and display a page's main content before processing CSS and Javascript files. The patents further RIM's efforts to improve its mobile browsing...
If you have been working in the startup industry, then you may already be well aware of what venture capitalist Brad Feld calls "a massive tax on and retardant of innovation" - software patent litigation. In his blog post this morning, Feld points to the circular court battles of companies...
Microsoft filed a lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle, against Salesforce.com for infringement of nine Microsoft patents, according to Horacio Gutierrez, vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing.Although the frequent target of such suits, the Redmond, Washington-based...
Based on a patent filing that was published by the USPTO today and first discovered by Patently Apple, Apple could soon enter the location-based social networking market. The patent, which was filed in September 2008, describes a scenario where a group of users with mobile devices like the iPhone come...
It looks like while half the Web will be holding its breath over how Facebook will wield its newly-found patent power, with its patent of the news feed, the other half just found a reason to take a big gulp of air and look around. Google was awarded last Tuesday...
Facebook has been granted a patent on the Newsfeed, "displaying a news feed in a social network environment." Nick O'Neill at AllFacebook found the patent first and says it could be "one of the most significant social web patents" in a decade.If all algorithmic ranking and delivery of social activity...
Apple just received a very interesting patent for a method of sharing location data during a phone call. Assuming that Apple implements this idea in its phones, you could soon press a button during a phone call on your iPhone and request location data from the person you are talking...
You're walking down the street. Your phone buzzes, a map or a screen overlay pops up and you're shown a note left in that location by one of your friends - along with an ad for your favorite pizza. Walk into the pizza place and your phone buzzes again -...
When we wrote our year end posts for 2009, we should've added patent trolling to our list of trends. In the past year we've covered a number of patent disputes including the Word-blocking patent against Microsoft and VoloMedia's patent on podcasting. Union Square Ventures' Brad Burnham wrote an excellent piece...
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