Symbol, Proxim settle WLAN patent case
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Symbol Technologies and Proxim Corporation said Tuesday (Sept. 14) that they have settled a patent infringement case focusing on wireless LAN (WLAN)technology.
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Company settled legal disputes Monday with two of its largest remaining antagonists in a move that will ensure its antitrust deal will not be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. -The Washington Post
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In what could be the final word on the subject from a patent authority, the International Trade Commission has upheld a ruling last October stating that networking technology supplier Qualcomm did indeed infringe upon a critical patent held by technology developer Broadcom.
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Cisco Systems Inc. and Apple Inc. said yesterday they have settled the trademark-infringement lawsuit that threatened to derail Apple's use of the "iPhone" name for its new iPod-cellular phone gadget.
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(InfoWorld) - Motorola plans to acquire wireless mobile device developer Symbol Technologies for $3.9 billion, the companies announced Tuesday. Symbol makes a range of devices for businesses, including handheld computers that may include bar code scanners, RFID (radio frequency identification) technologies and WiFi. They are widely used by workers in warehouses and large retail outlets, and by delivery services. The acquisition would fit with Motorola's history as a developer of mobile phones and two-way radios, and advances its push into companies' mobile computing strategies, it said. Motorola has traditionally catered to businesses, notably with is push-to-talk technology used by Nextel in the U.S., and with its Canopy broadband wireless infrastructure business. While Symbolâs products have a broad customer base the company has faced hurdles in the past few years. In 2004, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fined Symbol $37 million fine for fraudulent accounting practices. Eleven executives were charged with securities fraud including the former chief executive, who subsequently fled the U.S. Rumors had surfaced over the past few days that Symbol was looking for a buyer. The deal is expected to close later this year or early in 2007, subject to regulatory and other approvals. Symbol will become a Motorola subsidiary and continue to operate from its headquarters in Holtsville, N.Y.
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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has settled a complaint against a company that owns patents to a widely used Ethernet standard, saying the patent owner was attempting to collect huge license fees despite a prior commitment to the contrary.The settlement with Negotiated Data Solutions, or N-Data, will protect computer users from higher prices and ensure competition, the FTC said in a news release.N-Data, in 2003, had obtained two Ethernet patents from Vertical Networks, a spin-off of National Semiconductor. N-Data attempted to collect larger patent license fees than National Semiconductor had negotiated with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a standards body, back in 1994, the FTC said.National promised the IEEE that if the group adopted a standard based on National&#39;s NWay technology, National would offer one-time licenses of US$1,0000 per company to computer manufacturers and sellers of products using the IEEE standard. But N-Data and Vertical Networks had begun collecting license fees &quot;far in excess&quot; of $1,000 per company, according to the FTC complaint.N-Data obtained the patents knowing about National&#39;s commitment, and realizing the computer industry had become committed to the standard, the FTC said. N-Data refused to comply with National&#39;s commitment, and it began demanding royalties after it became expensive and difficult for the industry to switch to another standard, the FTC said in its complaint.The settlement bars N-Data from enforcing the patents unless it has first offered the patent license based on the terms offered in 1994.In addition to higher prices, consumers would be hurt by N-Data because the company&#39;s actions would cast doubt on the reliability of standards-setting agreements, the FTC said. &quot;The cost of ignoring this particularly pernicious problem is too high,&quot; the commission majority wrote.Vertical Networks, which ceased operations after it turned the patent over to N-Data, had estimated that more than 70 percent of the world&#39;s Ethernet port shipments used the NWay Ethernet patents. In early 2002, Vertical Networks set letters to more than 60 companies demanding additional licensing fees, according to the FTC complaint.NWay technology allows two devices at opposite ends of a LAN link to exchange information and automatically configure themselves to optimize their communication, a process sometimes called autonegotiation. Standardizing on a single autonegotiation technology allowed devices made by different manufacturers to work with one another and with different generations of Ethernet equipment.N-Data, based in Chicago, didn&#39;t immediately respond to a request for comments on the FTC settlement.The FTC voted 3-2 to approve the settlement. N-Data violated federal law by engaging in unfair methods of competition, the FTC said.FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras voted against the settlement, saying the majority didn&#39;t establish an unfair method of competition. &quot;The novel use of our consumer protection authority to protect large corporate members of a standard-setting organization is insupportable,&quot; she wrote in her dissent.
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SEPTEMBER 14, 2004  - Wireless networking provider Proxim Corp., today announced that it has reached a settlement agreement with Symbol Technologies Inc.
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Hewlett-Packard Co., a leading maker of personal computers and printers, has agreed to pay &#36;141 million to settle patent disputes with software maker Intergraph Corp., both companies announced Friday.
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Motorola has settled a long-running patent dispute with Metrologic Instruments, a maker of bar-code scanners.Motorola inherited the lawsuit as part of its 2006 acquisition of wireless handhold device maker Symbol Technologies. Symbol and Metrologic had been engaged in the spat since early 2002, when Symbol sued Metrologic, claiming that the company had failed to make adequate royalty payments.Symbol was a maker of wireless barcode scanners that are used by delivery and warehouse workers to keep track of inventory.In 1996, Metrologic licensed Symbol&#39;s barcode scanning technology for use with its handheld scanners, paying Symbol royalties of $10 per scanner. However, in 2001 Metrologic stopped making these payments, claiming that &quot;product changes had pushed the scanners beyond the scope of definitions laid out in the agreement,&quot; according to Symbol.The actual amount in dispute had been less than $500,000 Metrologic has said.In June 2003 Metrologic counter-sued, claiming patent infringement.Monday&#39;s agreement settles all pending litigation and enters Motorola and Metrologic into a patent cross-license deal that covers barcode scanning and mobile computing technology, they said in a statement. Terms of the settlement were not released.
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A U.S. district court has dismissed an  antitrust suit filed by microchip maker Broadcom Corp.   against Qualcomm Inc. , but Broadcom said it would  continue to pursue the case.
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Cisco(R) and Apple today announced that they have resolved their dispute involving the "iPhone" trademark.  Under the agreement, both companies are free to use the "iPhone" trademark on their products throughout the world.
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Vonage Holdings Inc. and Nortel Networks Corp. have settled their patent litigation, allowing for cross-licensing of the telecom companies' technology.
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AT&amp;T Wireless and AT&amp;T Corp. have resolved a dispute over branding and reached a new agreement ahead of Cingular Wireless&#39; planned purchase of AT&amp;T Wireless, the three companies said Monday.
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Firms finalize a quick settlement in a patent infringement claim over VoIP technology.
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Sprint Nextel Corp. S.N said on   Thursday it settled a patent infringement dispute with tglo.com   Inc. and Theglobe.com Inc.
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VoIP provider Vonage and Nortel Networks are coming close to a settlement in their patent dispute.
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Aruba Networks&#160;countersued two divisions of Motorola&#160;Wednesday, adding a new twist to a wireless LAN (local area network) patent-infringement case that affects some of the biggest vendors in the business.Symbol Technologies and Wireless Valley Communications, both of which are now&#160;owned by&#160;Motorola, sued Aruba&#160;in August. They claimed Aruba knowingly used technology covered by several patents they own, and are seeking an injunction and damages.But in its response to their complaint, filed Wednesday, Aruba claimed Symbol knew enough about Aruba&#39;s products in 2003 to say they might be infringing Symbol&#39;s pending patents. Aruba also argues both Symbol and Wireless Valley withheld information they were required to give to patent examiners. As a result, the patents are invalid and Symbol and Wireless Valley&#39;s complaints should be dismissed, the company said.Aruba also countersued, seeking declaratory judgments that it didn&#39;t infringe and that the patents are invalid and unenforceable. Aruba wants Symbol and Wireless Valley to pay the costs of the suit and its attorney fees.In 2003, when Symbol was an independent company, it came close to buying Aruba, according to the filing. Throughout the first half of that year, as the companies discussed the proposed deal, Symbol had &quot;essentially unfettered access&quot; to information about how Aruba&#39;s products were designed and made, Aruba said. Among the engineers inspecting its technology was the inventor on two of the patents involved in the suit, they said. The talks eventually broke off because the companies couldn&#39;t agree on terms, the filing said.Aruba argued that Symbol never warned it might sue over the patents, leading Aruba to infer that it didn&#39;t intend to enforce any patent rights. The company waited for four years after that inspection and then sued without warning on the eve of an Aruba quarterly earnings announcement, Aruba said. In addition, both Symbol and Wireless Valley knew about Aruba&#39;s business for years and should have known about the activities it sued over, yet only sued after Aruba had invested tens of millions of dollars in designing and testing its products, the company said.&#160;