Apple recently won an injunction that could prevent HTC from importing several Android phones into the United States, and now it has been granted a patent for a technology that may drastically affect how Android vendors design their devices and user interfaces. The Cupertino-based company was granted a patent titled “Portable electronic device with graphical user interface supporting application switching,” which basically means Apple has been awarded a patent for switching apps while on a phone ...

Apple has reportedly told a German court that it will owe $2.7 billion if it loses a patent lawsuit against Motorola. The two companies have been locked in a legal battle in which Motorola has accused Apple of infringing on a patent related to email sync technology. As a result, Motorola recently won an injunction against Apple Inc. “In light of this risk, Apple’s lawyers have asked the court to determine that MMI will have to give a 2 billion euro bail (US$2.7 billion based on today’s excha...

FOSS Patents is reporting that Motorola has won an injunction related to a patent infringement lawsuit in Germany, Europe’s largest market. According to the ruling by a Mannheim Regional Court, Apple is barred from selling any mobile device that infringe on two Motorola Mobility patents filed in April of 2003. Motorola is also reportedly owed for past damages. One of the patents in question relates to GSM, UMTS and 3G, and it is unclear what the second patent covers. If Motorola Mobility actually has wo...

HTC on Wednesday filed a patent complaint against Apple with the U.S. International Trade Commission. The new filing is actually an amended complaint filed previously with the ITC, but it now cites nine new patents previously owned by Google but transferred to HTC just last week. Prior to being held by Google, four of the patents were registered to Motorola, currently the $12.5 billion apple of Google’s eye. Motorola had apparently transferred the patents to Google at some point over the past year. Th...

Early Monday morning, Google announced that it will acquire Motorola for $12.5 billion. Google CEO Larry Page explained the acquisition will help bolster the tech giant’s patent portfolio and that his company will continue to “work with all [of its partners] to deliver outstanding user experiences.” While it may seem that Motorola will now have the upper hand in creating Android smartphones, execs from Samsung, Sony Ericsson, HTC, and LG have all issued statements in support of the acquisiti...

HTC’s CEO Peter Chou spoke with investors recently and promised that its ongoing patent battles with Apple will not hurt the company. “Many lawsuits nowadays are results of being successful; it’s part of the business,” Chou said. “We will not bring the company to a dangerous position.” Earlier this month the United States International Trade Commission ruled that HTC was infringing on two of Apple’s patents related to a “system and method for performing an action on...

Speaking with Bloomberg recently, HTC’s chief financial officer Winston Yung said that his company is open to cutting a deal with Apple over various patents the two companies are currently fighting over. “We have to sit down and figure it out,” Yung said. “We are open to all sorts of solutions, as long as the solution and the terms are fair and reasonable. On and off we’ve had discussions with Apple, even before the initial determination came out.” Earlier this month, an International ...

According to a report by Citi analyst Walter Pritchard, Microsoft may be making more money off Google’s Android operating system than it makes off its own Windows Phone platform — five times more, in fact. Pritchard states that as a result of a patent settlement, HTC is required to pay Microsoft $5 for every Android phone sold. Analyst Horace Dediu estimates that HTC has sold 30 million Android smartphones to date, which adds up to $150 million in the bank for Microsoft. Dediu notes that Microsoft h...

Earlier this month a company called Lodsys began sending letters to iOS app developers using Apple’s in-app billing system, asking each to license its technology separately. In a blog post on May 15th, Lodsys explained on its website that “the scope of [Apple's] current licenses does NOT enable [Apple] to provide  ’pixie dust’ to bless another (third party) business applications.” On Monday Apple issued a response to Lodsys explaining that iOS developers are safe under its licen...

The “is Android open?” question is one that constantly fades in and out of focus on blogs and in the tech media. The latest snippet that will undoubtedly reinvigorate the argument was revealed this past weekend, and this time it’s not a pretty one for Google. As part of Skyhook Wireless’ lawsuit against Google, which alleges that the company interfered with a contract that placed its services on Android phones sold by Motorola, several internal emails have been made public by a Massa...

It didn’t take a crystal ball to see this move coming — Samsung on Friday filed multiple patent infringement suits against Apple. Just four days following Apple’s filing of a lawsuit alleging Samsung smartphones like the Galaxy S “copy Apple’s technology, user interface and innovative style,” Samsung has filed three separate suits alleging infringement of a total of ten patents. The suits were filed in Seoul Central District Court, Korea; Tokyo, Japan; and in Manheim, Germa...

On Monday The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple filed suit against Samsung for intellectual property violations in its Galaxy S, Galaxy Tab, Nexus S, and Epic 4G devices, and now, Samsung is fighting back. “Samsung will respond actively to this legal action taken against us through appropriate legal measures to protect our intellectual property,” the company said in a statement obtained by Korea’s AFP. “Apple is one of our key buyers of semiconductors and display panels. However...