Dan Simon on the patent dispute between Apple and Samsung, which is now in the hands of a California jury.
Did Apple rip off Samsung's intellectual property to create the iPhone, or did Samsung pilfer Apple's patents when it took on the iPad and iPhone with a slew of mobile devices and tablets?
Last week, a U.S. District judge dealt a serious blow to Google and Samsung by slapping an injunction on the Galaxy Nexus phone and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in a patent infringement lawsuit.
Kristie Lu Stout explains the long-running legal fight between Apple and Samsung
"It's very important that Apple not become the developer for the world," Tim Cook, Apple chief executive, told analysts last month. "We need people to invent their own stuff."
The patent war between Facebook and Yahoo may be only just starting.
While most of the tech world was partying at South by Southwest in Austin yesterday, Yahoo announced it was filing a lawsuit against Facebook for allegedly infringing on 10 patents from their 1,000+ patent warehouse.
Apple is a powerhouse of ingenuity, patenting ideas as soon as an engineer can scratch them down on paper (or iPad). Around three dozen Apple patents made their way through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office this week alone.
Apple has been granted patents on some of the distinctive elements of its store designs in China as the US company moves to better protect itself against rampant copying of not only its products but also its sales channels on the Chinese mainland.
Patent trolls -- companies that license patents but do not actually sell anything -- have long been looked on with fiery scorn in Silicon Valley. This week, a Boston University study offered fresh fuel for those flames.
President Barack Obama signed legislation Friday that will overhaul the U.S. patent system for the first time since 1952.
America's first significant patent reform in six decades is close to becoming law: It passed Congress on Thursday and President Obama has declared that he will sign the bill.
Congress on Thursday passed legislation that will reform the U.S. patent system for the first time since the Truman administration.
In a surprise deal that would be its largest acquisition ever, Google has agreed to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, the two companies said Monday.
Patents have dominated the tech news headlines lately, with industry leaders such as Google, Apple and Microsoft spending billions to beef up their intellectual property portfolios.
Patent reform cleared another major hurdle on Thursday, when the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to approve a bill that would fundamentally change the way the government treats intellectual property.
Overhauling the United States' outdated and flawed patent system has been talked about for decades, but reform could finally be around the corner -- for real, this time.
Big Pharma faces a host of well-known problems, most notably that its blockbuster drugs are coming off patent at the same time that its pipeline of new drugs has turned into a drip. But the leading pharmaceutical companies like Novartis, Merck and Bayer are also battling another costly headache -- legal challenges to their existing patents are increasing with the rapidity of a centrifuge.
China doesn't have the best reputation for respecting intellectual property rights.
Motorola Inc. announced Wednesday that it has filed three complaints against Apple over alleged patent infringements in its popular wireless and mobile devices.
Microsoft's co-founder Paul Allen is suing Apple and Google, plus nine other companies, for patent infringement.
NTP Inc., a patent holding company that shook up the tech world several years ago by extracting a pricey legal settlement from BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, announced Friday it had launched a fresh barrage of patent infringement lawsuits against the tech world's leading lights.
After decades of inaction, lawmakers are finally closing in on a sweeping overhaul of America's antiquated, underfunded and extremely broken patent process. The popular move could help spur much-needed innovation and job creation -- but first, it has to get through a Senate logjam.
When radio was invented in the late nineteenth century by the likes of Marconi, Edison, and Tesla, government and industry faced a conundrum. Who would own the limited band of electromagnetic frequencies that made this new invention possible?
First, there was the Macintosh. Then it was the iPod, the iPhone, and now the iPad. Next up in Apple's arsenal: The lawyers.
The world's top mobile phone maker Nokia launched a new patent broadside against Apple, escalating a battle for control of the smartphone market that has already led to a flurry of lawsuits.
U.S. innovation slowed this year for the first time in 13 years as the recession cut into budgets, and costs to protect inventions rose.
Here's a little-known fact: Under current law, it's possible to hold a patent on a piece of human DNA, otherwise known as a gene.
The government is being sued over the patent it holds for the BRCA1 and BRACA2 genes. Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains.
Myriad Genetics, a Utah-based company, vowed Wednesday to "vigorously defend" itself against a legal challenge to its patents on two human genes linked to breast and ovarian cancers, its attorney told CNN.
In an effort to stamp out so-called patent trolls, several big tech shops have joined a club that will acquire intellectual property to keep it out of the hands of litigious profiteers.
When Mark Publicover sees his kids bounce against the safety net that wraps around their trampoline, he beams with paternal pride - the device, invented 11 years ago, was his brainchild.
Dear FSB: How does one with limited funds go about moving an idea into the mainstream without risking it being stolen by a large entity with staff counsel and other lawyers capable of litigating the matter ad infinitum?
What to do about the high cost of drugs? A cadre of academics and economists has a radical new answer: Take away the exclusive product patents the government grants a new drug and replace them with cash awards to the innovating company.
Technology and financial services firms won a key patent reform victory Friday when the House approved legislation the industries have pushed for years by a vote of 220-175.
A U.S. judge Monday threw out a record $1.5 billion verdict against Microsoft Corp, ruling the world's largest software had not infringed on audio technology patents held by France's Alcatel-Lucent.
3M Co. said Monday it has reached agreement in patent settlement with Sony Corp. over the technology in a type of battery used in laptop computers and cell phones.
Seeking legal advice can be costly. Get more out of your next conversation with your lawyer by doing some homework ahead of time. Here are some useful sites and articles to help you take a proactive approach to issues that often result in legal suits - so you can stay out of the court room.
In 45 years, George Margolin has patented 26 inventions, including a front-screen projection system (1964) that Hollywood used for special effects in 2001: A Space Odyssey, the James Bond films and Superman. He patented the folding computer keyboard in 1973, and a new type of anti-stick medical syringe in 1993. Three years ago, with a co-inventor, he patented a new method to keep computer chips from overheating. At 77, he continues to run Newport Beach, Calif. -based Margolin Development (www.margolin-development.com), which makes its money from licensing patents and consulting to companies such as such as AT&T Labs, Estee Lauder, MGM Studios and Safeguard Business Systems. Fortune Small Business special correspondent Ann Therese Palmer caught up with Margolin to find out why he so strongly opposes the proposed patent-reform bill, which includes a change that would favor inventors who were the "first to file" for patent protection above those who came up with ideas first. (For
STEVE WREN IS THE kind of yeoman inventor that the drafters of the Constitution had in mind when they commanded Congress to write a patent law "to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts." In exchange for publishing patents and sharing their knowledge, little guys like Wren got exclusive rights to the use of their ideas for 20 years. The system helped make the U.S. the innovation capital of the world.
Video rental chain Blockbuster Inc. said Wednesday it settled a patent dispute with rival Netflix Inc. that challenged Blockbuster's entry into online DVD rental, but it signaled that the new business was taking a toll on its finances.
Steve Wren is the kind of yeoman inventor that the drafters of the Constitution had in mind when they commanded Congress to write a patent law "to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts." In exchange for publishing patents and sharing their knowledge, little guys like Wren got exclusive rights to the use of their ideas for 20 years. The system helped make the U.S. the innovation capital of the world.
Free software is great, and corporate America loves it. It's often high-quality stuff that can be downloaded free off the Internet and then copied at will. It's versatile - it can be customized to ...
India's fast-growing biotech business has the potential to be one of the driving forces behind its enviable 8 percent GDP growth, and a government estimate sees the industry increasing 15-fold over the next eight years.
Readers of the The Wall Street Journal on April 27 may have noticed something unusual about the full-page ad on the back of the Marketplace section: a blacked-out sentence right in the middle of a block of text. Journal readers were left wondering: Was the hastily Magic Marker-ed out line part of the ad's creative message? Or was it covering up something truly offensive?
The waves from a Supreme Court decision that undermines patents on gas pedals could hit Big Pharma like a truck, say some experts.
Lawmakers are pushing forward with legislation that could help create generic competition for Big Biotech, drastically lowering the costs of expensive biotech drugs and changing the landscape in the pharmaceutical industry forever.
As Big Pharma faces patent expirations on some of its most lucrative drugs, the industry is trying to reinvigorate sales by finding creative ways to land new patents - but on the same old drugs.
Tercica Inc., the maker of a growth-deficiency drug for children, suffered a stock price plunge and an analyst's downgrade after reporting fourth-quarter earnings, despite winning a crucial patent battle.
A federal jury said Thursday that software maker Microsoft Corp. infringed audio patents held by Alcatel-Lucent and should pay $1.52 billion in damages.
Call it a battle of the titans.
From space exploration to long-lasting light bulbs, black men and women of science have significantly altered American society. The following is just a sampling of African Americans who have saved and changed lives by breaking new ground in science and technology.
In Canada and in the pharmaceutical industry, a 64-year-old man named Bernard Sherman has been famous - some might say infamous - for years.
Durect is developing an abuse-resistant form of the addictive painkiller OxyContin that has a good shot at being a blockbuster, but it faces a minefield of potential patent battles.
Pfizer appears to be getting ready to slash thousands more workers and shut down some of its plants, but part two of CEO Jeffrey Kindler's plan to revitalize the struggling drugmaker did not inspire rave reviews on Wall Street Tuesday.
Pfizer's decision to suspend tests of its latest drug for the treatment of high cholesterol underscores the key problem facing most large pharmaceutical companies. Once a drugmaker has reached a certain size, it's an enormous challenge to generate new blockbusters fast enough to maintain a high growth rate.
Pfizer stock tumbled Monday after the world's biggest drugmaker abruptly pulled the plug on its most important experimental medicine - a drug meant to treat heart disease that instead caused an increase in deaths and heart problems in people taking it in a clinical trial.
The threat to Big Pharma is real - the nation's drugmakers stand to lose nearly seven percent of their sales to drugs going off patent this year - and more CEOs who don't get ahead of the problem could end up losing their jobs.
Apple Computer Inc. won a patent for a speech-recognition technology earlier this week, fueling speculation that the iPod-maker is laying the groundwork for a future "iPhone."
The worldwide drug market will continue to grow in 2007, but at a slightly slower pace as patent losses on blockbuster drugs take their toll, according to a forecast from IMS Health.
IBM has filed two patent infringement lawsuits against Amazon.com for unspecified damages, the company announced Monday.
HinesLab is open for business, but you'd never know it. It is tucked away in a corner of a dreary industrial park in Glendale, Calif. The front door is bolted and covered with a black shroud. Insid...
In the first business case to hit the U.S. Supreme Court's docket this term, the chief justices will have to decide whether biotech firm Medimmune can have its cake and eat it too.
With its already-battered stock price sagging on the news of a sweeping patent-trial defeat Monday, ImClone Systems is hoping its chances will look up with an appeal. But the judge's decision doesn't appear to offer ImClone a lot of hope.
On the top floor of a drab apartment building on the edge of New Delhi, Ram Meher, 35, is taking his AIDS medicine, as he has every day for the past three years. Meher is a struggling wheat and sug...
The IRS has a surprising new enemy in the battle against abusive tax shelters: the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In recent years the Patent Office has begun granting patents to people who claim...
Imclone, the biotech best known for a stock collapse that helped land founder Sam Waksal and his pal Martha Stewart in the slammer, could use a dose of good news.
The Internal Revenue Service has a surprising new enemy in the battle against abusive tax shelters: The United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A New York judge decides today whether to honor a legal attack from Bristol-Myers and Sanofi-Aventis, which are trying to halt the generic production of their blockbuster drug Plavix.
It's easy to spot Ron Lando in a crowded bar. He told me that he'd be holding a catalog from CliC, his eyewear company, but I recognize him before I can see what he's reading. He's the only guy her...
The problem: an epidemic of shoddy patents.
A huge new industry - biogenerics - is waiting to be born.
The bell's about to sound for the next round in a patent fight that the entire pharmaceutical industry is watching.
Pfizer's basic patent on its top-selling drug Lipitor was upheld in federal court Wednesday, but a second, longer-running patent was ruled invalid, possibly eliminating billions of dollars in potential sales.
The world's biggest drugmaker is launching a potential blockbuster today, but it's going to take more than that for the company to pull out of its rut.
Pretty nearly everyone who deals with patents in the United States agrees on one thing: The system is a mess. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is swamped with a backlog of 600,000 applications ...
The U.S. Supreme Court may be in recess until the fall, but Corporate America is already keeping a close eye on a number of influential business cases on the high court's docket for next term.
Nathan Myhrvold says he doesn't know what everybody is so upset about.
Two of the biggest blockbuster drugs from the two biggest drugmakers in America are losing patent protection this month, setting the stage for a multi-billion dollar sales vacuum.
Two of the biggest blockbuster drugs from the two biggest drug makers in America are losing patent protection this month, setting the stage for a multi-billion dollar sales vacuum.
It's the spring of 2006, and the sweet scent of entrepreneurship is in the air. Growing numbers of Americans are pursuing their startup dreams. According to the National Venture Capital Association...
A prototype is where the rubber starts to hit the road: It's the first physical embodiment of your business idea, and a tool you'll use to attract the resources you need to grow. Don't confuse a prototype with the final product -- a distracting and potentially fatal mistake. Pretty looks aren't important. A good prototype is just a working demonstration that showcases what your product will do.
SAN FRANCISCO (Business 2.0 Magazine) - Boing Boing reports this morning that Chief William Bratton and the LAPD have gone Web 2.0, setting up a blog and a Flickr stream with the help of Sean Bonner at metroblogging. Bonner hopes "other law enforcement departments across the state, and country, will soon be following their lead." According to TechNewsWorld, the blog is part of the redesigned www.lapdonline.org site which has seen its traffic more than double recently to 30 million "hits" a month, and which also includes "crime maps and an e-policing feature." While still nascent, this sort of thing puts a whole new, real-world spin on social computing. "What the blog does is allow people to take a look inside the LAPD," said Lt. Ruben De La Torre to TechNewsWorld. Beyond the financial implications for tools providers like Yahoo! (parent of Flickr), it should be interesting to see how the LAPD manages such transparency, not to mention the brave new world of user-contributed content.
Celgene Corp., a biotech specializing in stem cell research, patented its methods for recovering stem cells from a human placenta after birth, the company said.
Eli Lilly & Co. sued Barr Pharmaceuticals, a maker of generic drugs, for patent infringement over the antidepressant Prozac Weekly, said the companies on Thursday.
As long-distance revenues plummet and customers disconnect phone lines in favor of cell phones and VOIP, DSL has provided burgeoning broadband revenues for local phone companies. But could DSL be slowing down? Business 2.0 senior writer Om Malik notes that, according to research by investment bank UBS, fewer households are signing up for DSL as a percentage of homes where the service is available. That has AT&T, for one, scrambling to provide other options, including satellite broadband, high-speed fixed wireless connections, and fiber-optic lines. The new initiatives could help AT&T serve another 11.5 million households, the company estimates.
A federal jury ruled that Eli Lilly & Co. infringed the patent of Ariad Pharmaceuticals with its drugs Evista and Xigris, and ordered the drugmaker to pay the Massachusetts biotech firm $65.2 million, the companies said.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, the world's biggest maker of generic drugs, could enjoy hundreds of millions of dollars in extra revenue this year and a substantial increase to its earnings, thanks to a court ruling this week regarding the cholesterol drug Zocor.
Blackberry maker Research in Motion will face a patent lawsuit from mobile email company Visto seeking an injunction and monetary damages, according to Visto.
Big Pharma stocks have had a decent year and analysts say they're poised to climb higher. But investors will have to be able to stomach some uncertainty.
Big Pharma could land billions of dollars in annual sales that it would have lost to generic competitors thanks to a Food and Drug Administration backlog of applications for generic drugs.
Zoloft, the antidepressant with the household name, is going off patent this summer, forcing Pfizer to bid adieu to billions of dollars in annual sales.
The lawsuit that nearly shut down the country's BlackBerry e-mail devices vaulted the normally obscure issue of patents into the national spotlight this winter.
The stock price for drug makers Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis surged Wednesday, after reaching a tentative settlement the previous day with generic manufacturer Apotex that could protect the patent on anti-blood clot drug Plavix until 2011.
Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said on Tuesday they have reached a settlement in a patent dispute with generic drug maker Apotex Inc. that could keep patent protection on their multibillion-dollar blood thinner Plavix well into 2011.
Patent law, still focused more on razorblades than cellphones, may get a dramatic update if the Supreme Court weighs in after hearing oral arguments March 29 in eBay v. MercExchange. "It's an extre...
Pfizer stock's got battered and bloodied last year, but it's making a comeback.
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