Yesterday, the Supreme Court unanimously reversed a decision of the Federal Circuit in the long-running iPhone litigation between Apple and Samsung and we, the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), welcomed it.  The Federal Circuit had held that when a design patent is infringed, the plaintiff is entitled to the total profits from the infringing product—even where the infringing product has many components.  The lower court had permitted Apple to recover all of the profits from the sale of infringing Samsung Galaxy phones, despite the fact that the allegedly infringed elements were minor ornamental components of the overall product. 

For the past several years, SIIA has been trying to persuade Congress to change patent law to make it more difficult for non-practicing entities (e.g., trolls) to shake down technology businesses.   What we don’t need is additional court decisions that make matters worse.   To that end, SIIA, along with several leading tech companies, filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court urging it to reverse the Federal Circuit’s decision in Apple v. Samsung.  (For those of you that are curious, the Federal Circuit decision is here). Apple and Samsung have been battling in court for the past several years over design patents, which cover only non-functional aesthetic elements of a particular product.   A person who uses that design without an authorization is an infringer, in the same way that someone who used Apple’s “slide to unlock” feature without a license would owe them a royalty.   Where the two kinds of patents ...

More Federal Open Source Appreciated, If it Behaves (FCW) Tech groups weigh in on the White House’s new proposed policy to make software code used by federal agencies open source.  While many are voicing support, there is still concern that certain types of software that will be required to be made open source should not be made so. German Court Ruling Threatens Apple’s Video Services (Reuters) Apple was found by a German district court to have violated patents from the Swiss security company, Kudelski that are related to its video-streaming services.  Now there is pressure on Apple to seek a licensing deal with Kudelski unless it simply disables these features.

Soon You Might Be Able to Vote on Google (Time) Google was awarded a patent that would allow it to build a voting interface that would accompany search results.  This voting feature could be used for entertainment shows, polls, elections, contests, and marketing, but only to “authenticated” users.

Jury: Apple must pay $626 million to patent troll VirnetX (Ars Technica) Apple lost a $626 million suit against the patent troll VirnetX where it was found that Apple infringed upon every single patent claim at hand. U.S. Investigates Toyota, BMW, Volkswagen for Patent Infringement (Computerworld) The U.S. International Trade Commission is investigating charges of patent infringement by Advanced Silicon Technologies that several car companies infringe on its patents related to car infotainment systems. Arista Just Lost a Patent Round Against Cisco and Could Face an Import Ban (PC World) The U.S. International Trade Commission found that Arista Networks violated three Cisco patents on networking technologies.  This win could block the importation of Arista products into the United States. Nokia Patent Sales Forecast from Samsung Deal Hits Shares (Reuters) Nokia’s shares fell by more than 10% after it settled a patent dispute with Samsung.  This comes after N ...

PTAB Not Such a Threat to Patents, Report Says (Big Law Business) According to a report released yesterday by the legal analytics firm Lex Machina, reactions to patent holder losses are overblown.  The report found that in the 2,700 decisions in the Board’s first three years in existence, patents survive the process 66 percent of the time. After Five Years of Conflict with Apple, some Samsung Phone Features are Banned (Ars Technica) Apple finally won its years-long patent battle with Samsung which will ban the sale of certain Samsung smartphones. Most of these phones are older models that are no longer sold anyways. Apple Tried to Kill More Patents Than Anyone Else, By Far (Fortune) A new report shows that Apple has filed more patent challenges than anyone else at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.  The report shows that as of September 2012, Apple filed 252 PTAB challenges. GM’s Newly Acquired Patent Could be a Problem for Uber (Wired) GM will be bri ...