Law and Innovation

Fresh and interesting memo posted on the European Commission's website about frequently asked questions concerning these antitrust decisions on standard essential patents (SEPs) - Motorola Mobility and Samsung Electronics. I also recommend you this   Beginner's Guide To Standards-Essential Patent, Standard-Developing Organizations And [F]RAND Terms In The Smartphone Patent Wars. Happy reading and learning!  " What is an injunction? An injunction is a court order aimed at preventing the continuation of a patent infringement. Generally, it includes the prohibition to sell the product infringing the patent. Such injunctions can be preliminary – as a precautionary measure typically for the time of the assessment of the case on the merits by the court. Injunctions can also be permanent as a result of the decision on the merits by a court. What is a standard essential patent (SEP)? SEPs are patents essential to implement a specific industry standard.  Thi...

Fresh and interesting press release from the European Commission which  found that Motorola Mobility infringed EU competition rules by misusing standard essential patents. Happy reading! "The European Commission today adopted a decision which finds that Motorola Mobility's (Motorola) seeking and enforcement of an injunction against Apple before a German court on the basis of a smartphone standard essential patent (SEP) constitutes  an abuse of  a dominant position prohibited by EU antitrust rules in view of the particular circumstances in which the injunction was used (see also  MEMO/14/322 ). The Commission has ordered Motorola to eliminate the negative effects resulting from it. The Commission has also taken a commitment decision in a separate investigation concerning Samsung (see  IP/14/490 ). Commission Vice President in charge of competition policy Joaquín Almunia said:  "The so-called smartphone patent wars should not occur at the expense of...

Fresh and ( very) interesting  article posted on Wired about the imminent future of wearable technologies.  Happy reading!  "Data will not help you if you can’t see it when you need it. For Dan Eisenhardt—a competitive swimmer for more than a decade, beginning as a 9-year-old in his native Denmark—the data he needed in the water, what he could never know in the water, was his splits. His event was the 1,500-meter freestyle, the longest slog in the sport, a near-mile of grinding exertion divided into 15 laps of 100 meters apiece. As with every distance sport, pacing is all; lag your target time on the first two laps and you may never catch up, but accidentally beat it and you’ll load your tissue with lactic acid, doom your endgame. How fast was his last lap? How did it compare to his usual pace? His coach up on the pool deck could know, his parents in the stands could know. But Eisenhardt, at war in the water, could only guess. The rigors of engineering school e...

Fresh and interesting image showing how much major tech companies make in one second. In just ONE second, Apple makes $1,997, while Google makes $658. Facebook brings in $81.

Fresh and interesting article posted on Patently Apple about this "new" technology that allows mobile apps to recognize when a smartphone is near a small wireless sensor called a Beacon or iBeacon as well. As you know, indoor spaces often block cell signals and make it nearly impossible to locate devices via GPS. Beacons are the solution for indoor mobile communications and proximity detection technology (and as you can imagine, iBeacon is the Apple Trademark of it).  More precisely, Apple defines this technology as a "a new class of low-powered, low-cost transmitters that can notify nearby iOS 7 devices of their presence, provides apps a whole new level of location awareness, such as trail markers in a park, exhibits in a museum, or product displays in stores. Other new features include the ability to setup and configure Wi-Fi accessories, such as AirPlay speakers, directly from iOS. And iOS 7 works with more Bluetooth LE profiles, including time, notifica...

Fresh and interesting article (posted on LinkedIn on March 27, 2014): Let’s get excited! The second big California patent lawsuit between Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. (case No. C 12-00630 LHK [1] ) will kick off on Monday (March 31, 2014 - 9:00 a.m). Hon. Lucy H. Koh will be presiding over the case. The first day will be devoted to jury selection and the trial is expected to last approximately 14 days. The first time around, on August 24, 2012, one of the most watched trials ever in the tech world and, probably, one of the most interesting intellectual property case took place in California ( Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. et al , case No. C 11-1846 LHK). As you all remember, Samsung has been found guilty of infringing on several patents (design and utility) and trade dress owned by Apple . All in all, the jury found 28 products to infringe some of Apple's intellectual property rights and awarded more than $1 billion damages, and rejected al...

Fresh and interesting article from TorrentFreak about how Turkey’s Prime Minister, Erdogan, failed at banning Twitter, as local citizens found easy workarounds with tech tools, such as VPNs and DNS. Enjoy the reading!  "Friday's news that the Turkish government had banned its citizens from accessing Twitter was depressing but an opportunity to be embraced. Forewarned is forearmed, and the fact that Turks are learning how to beat censorship with VPNs and DNS tricks better prepares them for the future. Two days ago on the campaign trail ahead of end-of-March elections, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan showed his Internet naivety by doing something extremely silly. In the midst of a corruption scandal he first threatened and then carried through with an outright ban of Twitter. “I don’t care what the international community says at all. Everyone will see the power of the Turkish Republic,” Erdogan said on Thursday. Angry that Twitter did not respond to request...