SanDisk Sues LG, Others for Patent Infringement
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Storage firm claims 25 competitors violate its patents for removable flash in MP3 players and USB drives.
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Internet phone service provider Vonage  Holdings Corp.  on Monday said it has been served with a  patent infringement lawsuit filed by two units of Verizon  Communications Inc. .
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In the latest squabble over patents between Japanese and South Korean electronics giants, Toshiba has sued Hynix Semiconductor&#39;s Japan and US units, alleging patent infringement in flash-memory
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A Taiwan-based contract manufacturer of laptops sold under the Dell, Hewlett-Packard and other brands is facing a patent-infringement suit from LG Electronics, which accuses Quanta Computer of four violations.
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Sun Microsystems faces another intellectual property lawsuit as Netbula files suit for copyright infringement and fraud related to the use of certain core technology. The problem apparently stems from arrangements made before Sun's 2005 purchase of StorageTek.
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The counterclaim filed last week by Acer alleges HP has infringed its antenna and DVD-ROM head technology patents.
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Research In Motion Ltd. is suing Motorola Inc. over several patents used for wireless devices such as RIM's BlackBerry e-mail devices and Motorola's Razr smart phones.
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Toshiba is taking action to protect its patents. The Japan-based company has accused Hynix Semiconductor of violating seven patents in the United States, including ones for DRAM, and three flash-memory patents in Japan.
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- Broadband telephone services provider Vonage  Holdings Corp.  said it intends to continue its fight  against a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Verizon  Communications Inc. .
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PNY Technologies and SanDisk on Thursday settled a patent dispute that will allow PNY to continue distribution of flash storage products.As part of the settlement, PNY will license technology from SanDisk and pay royalties to distribute flash-memory products including USB (Universal Serial Bus) drives and CompactFlash cards. Other terms of the agreement were not released.SanDisk originally sought legal action against multiple flash storage vendors, including PNY Technologies, as part of three patent-infringement suits filed in the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Wisconsin and the U.S. International Trade Commission. Alleging the vendors of violating multiple patents, SanDisk sought damages and an order from the ITC banning import of flash-memory products into the U.S.The settlement with PNY will not disrupt patent claims pending against other vendors, SanDisk said in a statement.SanDisk and PNY Technologies representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
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"This is another example where Qualcomm has effectively copied Nokia's innovations."  Nokia Corp., the world's largest mobile phone maker, said Monday it filed a patent infringement countersuit against Qualcomm in an ongoing multinational legal battle over wireless technology.Nokia, which filed the lawsuit in a Texas district court, is seeking damages and injunctive relief. The lawsuit deals with claims of unauthorized use of Nokia's Brew and MediaFlo patents, which allow fast, high-quality transfers of audio and video multimedia to wireless subscribers.In April, Qualcomm Inc., the world's No. 2 chipmaker for mobile phones which licenses its technology patents, filed a patent infringement lawsuit in Texas against Nokia, allegedly involving certain types of mobile software download and execution environments. Read more
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Sony is facing another patent infringement suit, this time involving its Blu-ray high definition disc technology.
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Wireless technology company  Freedom Wireless Inc. said on Friday it sued five wireless  carriers and services providers -- including Cingular Wireless  and Ericsson -- over patent infringement charges.
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A claim originally filed against Palm and Handspring claimed the now-joined companies violated a patent for portable computing devices. Not so, says the judge.
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Toshiba Corp. on Tuesday said it has sued Hynix Semiconductor Japan Inc., accusing the company of infringing on Toshiba&#39;s memory patents.
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Nokia, the world&#39;s largest mobile phone maker, this week took legal action against two European manufacturers for allegedly infringing on technology patents and registered designs.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft inked another cross-licensing patent agreement Wednesday, this time with South Korea's LG Electronics, covering the company's Linux-based embedded devices. As part of the deal, LG, one of the world's largest electronics companies, can use undefined "patented Microsoft technology" in its products, including Linux-based devices. The agreement also covers intellectual property contained in other hardware and software products, such as game consoles. LG is a manufacturer of CDMA, GSM, and 3G handsets; IP phones; plasma TVs; optical storage products; PDAs; notebook computers; DVD players; and home theater systems, among other electronic products. As in similar deals with Xandros (announced earlier this week), Novell, Samsung and Fuji Xerox, Microsoft did not detail just what patents LG was licensing, and LG did not say if its Linux-based devices violated any Microsoft patents. As part of the deal, Microsoft will have access to LG patents that cover computer architecture utilized in game consoles and other products and will license other LG patents that are owned by system integrator MicroConnect Group, which is based in Manchester, England. "This agreement is focused only on exchange of patent rights," said David Kaefer, general manager of IP licensing at Microsoft. "The open-source elements of the deal do utilize a covenant model similar to the Xandros and Novell deals, but this deal is most similar to recent agreements with Samsung and Fuji Xerox." Those deals were signed this year in April and March, respectively. Both covered general access to intellectual property contained in patent portfolios and included protection for customers using Linux-based software. In terms of the "customer covenant" clause in those deals, Kaefer said, "The covenants are structured very similarly." Microsoft and LG did not release financial terms of the deal but said in a press release that Microsoft would make a "net balancing" payment to LG and MicroConnect for patents related to operating systems and computer systems. Microsoft made a similar "net balancing" payment as part of its deal with Novell that, according to that contract, reflected "the larger applicable volume of Microsoft's product shipments" versus that of Novell's products. In addition, LG will be making ongoing payments to Microsoft to cover Microsoft patents as they relate to Linux-based embedded devices that LG produces. LG Enterprises comprises four business units -- Mobile Communications, Digital Appliance, Digital Display, and Digital Media. The company produced $48.5 billion in global sales in 2006. The company is a member of the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum, which also includes Sony, Panasonic, Motorola, and others. None of those companies have cross-licensing deals with Microsoft. A search on the LG Web site turned up only one reference to Linux, which was the 2005 release of a set-top box sold under the DirecTV brand name that included "a general-purpose Linux-operating-system." In 2001, LG produced a Linux -based wireless webpad for home users that included Internet support and a built-in multimedia player. LG also is a partner of Microsoft in that it licenses Windows CE for use in its IP phones and produces Windows-based notebook computers. The deal with LG comes after Microsoft said last month it would seek royalties for patents that it says are being infringed upon by open-source technologies like Linux. The company, however, said it would prefer to sign patent and cross-licensing deals with open-source distributors rather than seek payments via litigation. The open-source community, specifically the Free Software Foundation, reacted by tweaking the final draft release of the GNU General Public License (GPL) 3.0, which was released May 31, to prohibit such patent deals. The GPLv3 is expected to be officially published on June 29. Open source advocates contend that Microsoft is doing no more than bullying the Linux community with the threat of patent violations because it has not divulged what patents are infringed upon by Linux and other open-source software. Microsoft reiterated this week at its annual TechEd conference that its position is to protect intellectual property rights. "The approach that Microsoft is taking is to work with industry partners to ensure that when customers want to use open-source software, they can do so with the knowledge and security that the software brings with it all the licensing rights that are required," Bob Muglia, senior vice president for server and tools at Microsoft, said during his keynote address Monday. In a press release announcing the partnership, LG and MicroConnect executives struck the same tone. "We believe in the importance of respecting the [intellectual property] rights of others and that patent collaboration and protection is a best business practice the whole industry should be engaged in," said Jeong Hwan Lee, executive vice president of the Intellectual Property Center at LG. Alan Loudermilk, founding partner of MicroConnect, said, "MicroConnect is pleased to be able to make a contribution to the strengthened [intellectual property] relationship between LGE and Microsoft."