Legal Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Swiss company SmartData sues Apple over Apple TV, iPhone

by Chris Rawson (Feb 9th, 2012)

Another company you've probably never heard of before today is after a slice of Apple's pie. This time it's Swiss company SmartData, who claims Apple is willfully infringing its patent on a "modular computer" with the Apple TV, iPhone, and Remote app. As noted by Electronista, SmartData doesn't ...

Court says reworked Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N can be sold in Germany

by Mike Schramm (Feb 9th, 2012)

Apple's been going back and forth in German courts over the Samsung Galaxy Tab, suggesting it "borrows" a few too many features from the iPad, but the latest ruling has fallen in Samsung's favor. A German court has now decided that the Galaxy Tab has "clear differences" from the iPad, and thus can ...

Google after 2.25% of every iPhone sale

by Kelly Hodgkins (Feb 9th, 2012)

Google is in the process of acquiring Motorola and its 17,000 patents. Everyone from analysts to tech pundits are wondering if the search company will adopt the handset maker's aggressive patent litigation strategy. Legal experts criticize Motorola for violating the terms of FRAND, which requires ...

Australian pilot sues because he doesn't have an iPad

by Mel Martin (Feb 8th, 2012)

Virgin Australia Airlines First Officer David Kloster is suing his employer for almost one million dollars, claiming he hurt his back while lugging around almost 40 pounds of charts and manuals. Documents filed with the Queensland Supreme Court on Kloster's behalf state that the airline "...failed ...

Motorola wants 2.25 percent of Apple sales to license patents

by Chris Rawson (Feb 4th, 2012)

The ongoing patent spat between Motorola and Apple has reached an interesting crossroads. Just recently a German court granted an injunction against sales of many of Apple's 3G-bearing products, including older model iPhones and the iPad. That injunction held for less than a day, however, pending ...

Apple and Motorola scuffle over iCloud and push email

by Kelly Hodgkins (Feb 3rd, 2012)

Motorola scored a victory against Apple today when it won a permanent injunction against the company's iCloud and MobileMe push email service. According to FOSS Patents, the injunction is "preliminarily enforceable," which means Motorola can enforce the ruling right away by posting a 100 million ...

Apple ban on original Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 stands in Germany

by Steven Sande (Jan 31st, 2012)

Apple achieved a quasi-victory today in the ongoing intellectual property battles with Samsung when an appeals court in Dusseldorf, Germany upheld Apple's requested preliminary ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1. The court's decision also covers the Galaxy Tab 8.9, but not the Galaxy Tab 10.1N -- the ...

MacPractice introduces an iPad app to go with its healthcare software

by Mike Schramm (Jan 28th, 2012)

We've mentioned MacPractice a couple of times before -- professional software for the Mac designed to be used by doctors and dentists to do things like track patients' appointments, keep and share health information, and do all the things a small-to-mid-sized health clinic needs to do. We were ...

Motorola after an injunction against iPhone 4S, iCloud

by Chris Rawson (Jan 25th, 2012)

Motorola has filed a new patent suit against Apple and now seeks an injunction against both the iPhone 4S and iCloud. FOSS Patents notes that the terms of Google's proposed acquisition of Motorola stipulate that Motorola can't initiate new intellectual property suits without Google's approval; ...

Apple seeks to broaden HTC import ban

by Chris Rawson (Jan 25th, 2012)

While Apple won a partial victory in December in its patent battles with rival smartphone maker HTC, the scope of the ruling was both fairly tame and narrow enough for HTC to develop a workaround a mere two days after the ruling. According to FOSS Patents, Apple filed an appeal against the ...

Apple targets Galaxy S II, other Samsung phones in new German suit

by Kelly Hodgkins (Jan 17th, 2012)

According to a Bloomberg report, Apple filed a new lawsuit in Germany that targets ten of Samsung's Android handsets. This new suit gives Apple a fresh start to argue for its EU design rights, which were recently called into question by Germany's Dusseldorf Court. It also gives the company an ...

Kodak sues HTC, Apple

by Kelly Hodgkins (Jan 11th, 2012)

In a desperate bid to keep itself afloat, Kodak has filed another lawsuit against HTC and Apple. The struggling company is now claiming that Apple and HTC infringe on four patents related to the transfer of digital images. A previous lawsuit against Apple focuses on technology for previewing ...

Elmer-DeWitt: Apple in "no hurry" to settle iPhone patent lawsuits

by Steven Sande (Jan 9th, 2012)

To Apple-watchers -- in particular tech bloggers -- it seems like Apple is taking forever to settle the lawsuits that are pending against Samsung and other smartphone manufacturers for allegedly infringing on the company's intellectual property. On Fortune's Apple 2.0 site today, long-time Apple ...

Italian court denies initial iPhone 4S ban

by Chris Rawson (Jan 5th, 2012)

Samsung has lost another battle in its ongoing patent war with Apple. Its request to have iPhone 4S sales banned in Italy has been denied by the Italian courts. This comes barely a month after France similarly denied Samsung's request for a sales injunction against the iPhone 4S. Samsung had ...

Apple loses bid to keep information sealed in Psystar case

by Chris Rawson (Jan 4th, 2012)

In its ongoing suit against unauthorized Mac clone maker Psystar, Apple has been denied in its bid to keep certain information about OS X sealed from public view. According to Bloomberg, Judge William Alsup noted that information Apple claims are "trade secrets" are already publicly available on ...