HTC Patents, Patent Law Suits (Droid Wars ) Against Apple.

HTC Patents in Droid Wars http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
FOSS Patents has found out all the details about the 9 patents acquired by HTC and is being used against Apple. FOSS Patents also have, as usual, valuable comments that only a person well versed in IP law could give. You will find the related post here.

These four patents were used in the new law suit against Apple in Dealaware;

• U.S. Patent No. 5,418,524 on a "method and apparatus for over-the-air upgrading of radio modem application software"; originally filed by Motorola, sold by Motorola to Google last year, then by Google to HTC on August 29, 2011 (recorded on September 1)

• U.S. Patent No. 5,630,152 on a "communication protocol between master and slave device with register information sharing"; same path as the previous patent

• U.S. Patent No. 5,630,159 on a "method and apparatus for personal attribute selection having delay management method and apparatus for preference establishment when preferences in a donor device are unavailable"; same path as the previous patent except that a company named Tudor Empire in California bought it from Motorola and sold it to Google; that may be an acquisition company owned and controlled by Google, or otherwise acting on Google's behalf

• U.S. Patent No. 5,302,947 on a "method and apparatus for loading a software program from a radio modem into an external computer"; same assignment path as the first two patents in this group

These were used in ITC complain and the existing Delaware lawsuit.

• U.S. Patent No. 6,473,006 on a "method and apparatus for zoomed display of characters entered from a telephone keypad"; originally filed by Phone-com, which assigned it to Openwave, then sold to a French company named Purple Labs, which sold it on to Myriad's French subsidiary (Myriad has Java-related litigation going with Oracle), sold by Myriad to Google last year and by Google to HTC on August 29, 2011 (recorded on September 1)

• U.S. Patent No. 6,708,214 on a "hypermedia identifier input mode for a mobile communication device"; the assignment history of this one mirrors that of the previous patent

• U.S. Patent No. 6,868,283 on a "technique allowing a status bar user response on a portable device graphic user interface"; originally a Palm patent, transferred a couple of times within the Palm group, then sold to Access (first the U.S. subsidiary, then the Japanese parent company), acquired by Google last year, sold and assigned to HTC on same dates as the previous patents in this group

• U.S. Patent No. 7,289,772, same title as the previous patent, originally filed by Palmsource, then sold to Access, Google and finally HTC along the same path as the previous patent

• U.S. Patent No. 7,020,849 on a "dynamic display for communication devices"; originally filed by Openwave, then sold to Purple Labs, Myriad France, Google and HTC along the same path as the first two patents in this group

HTC Sues Apple With Google Patents

HTC Sues Apple http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
HTC is the first Android device make Apple sued in it's Droid Wars series and currently in the courts. HTC does not have a large enough patent portpolio to talk Apple in to a de. If HTC loses to Apple here, it could set a precedence for Apple to after other Android device  makers.
So it seems that HTC got nine patents from Google Patents which Google itself obtained earlier from Palm Inc., Motorola Inc. and Openwave Systems Inc. So using four of those patents (Motorola), HTC sued Apple today in federal court in Delaware, claiming infringement.
HTC also amended a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) in Washington, alleging infringement of three patents first issued to Openwave and two others originally owned by Palm.
Bloomberg

After Droid Wars, Here Comes Opium Wars. Is Google Too Blind To See Evil!?

Droid Wars, Opium Wars snapvoip.blogspot.com
Gizmodo carries an article that I read at a gulp. It was about Google and China war! Yes it is a literally a war because one is trying impose one's ideas on the other.
Pay heed, Google did not go to China for Chinese people nor it did not leave to save Chinese people. It might have helped Baidu reach it's goal but it is a by product!

Google entered China with trepidation in 2006: "We ultimately reached our decision by asking ourselves which course would most effectively further Google's mission to organize the world's information and make it universally useful and accessible. Or, put simply: how can we provide the greatest access to information to the greatest number of people?
"Filtering our search results clearly compromises our mission. Failing to offer Google search at all to a fifth of the world's population, however, does so far more severely."

I use Google extensively but on this issue, I am not with Google.
You can read the article by Brian Lam and the swath of comments, to understand (you do not have to agree or disagree).

Apple Patenting Location-based Social Networking App Called "iGroups",

iGroups snapvoip.blogspot.com
Patently Apple has published a very informative article about the new Apple patent application for an application called iGroups. Patenting software or ideas is not something I like. These will eventually lead to Apple lawsuits, like Apple-HTC lawsuit.
Apple's iGroup will be a new service that will work on your iPhone together with GPS (devices without GPS will get virtual GPS via MobileME) to group individuals at an even like concert, tradeshows, business meetings, and weddings etc. These contacts, even though brief, could be carried into the social networking arena to making them permanent, like a new way to add friends to your Facebook or follow / get followed on twitter etc.
The patent application which I have not looked at because I felt Patently Apple has done a great job of presenting the same, seem to focus on iPhone users in a groups. This is not the first patent that Apple applied in relation to Social Networking and if I am Google, I will add Social networking to the list fields that droid wars will wage.
But don't hold your breath hoping this to appear on your iPhone 4G.
Patently Apple has, as I mentioned, a very descriptive and entertaining article on this so please follow the link.
Patently Apple

Google And Apple, Are These Droid Wars?

 Paul Sakuma/Associated Press

Google and Apple snapvoip.blogspot.com
NYT is carrying a nice article about the (Droid) war between Apple and Google. While I own both, iPhone and a Google Phone, these comments make me stare at phones and wonder, What is in their hearts?.

APPLE

“We did not enter the search business. They entered the phone business,” Mr. Jobs told Apple employees during an all-hands meeting shortly after the public introduction of the iPad in January, according to two employees who were there and heard the presentation. “Make no mistake: Google wants to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them.”

 Google

In a statement, Mr. Schmidt concurred. “I continue to believe, as many do, that Steve Jobs is the best C.E.O. in the world today, and I admire Apple and Steve enormously,” he wrote.

 NYT