Janne Aaltonen: Apple sues Motorola with acquired patents

Janne Aaltonen: Apple sues Motorola with acquired patents

Apple sues Motorola with acquired patents

MooseBlogger wrote:

From patent strategy point of view here is nice proof that you do not have to invent everything in house but can also make some strategic acquisitions in patent domain. Here is a list of patents Apple is using against Motorola in law suit filed in October 2010. 2/6 (33%) originate from acquisitions.

7,812,828, Ellipse Fitting for Multi-Touch Surfaces

Not invented by Apple patent. Assignment from Fingerworks Inc

7,663,607, Multipoint Touchscreen

Apple orginal

5,379,430, Object-Oriented System Locator System

Assignment from OBJECT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING CORP

7,497,949, Touch Screen Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Determining Commands by Applying Heuristics

This is definitely Apple one with one of the inventors as S. Jobs.

6,493,002, Method and Apparatus for Displaying and Accessing Control and Status Information in a Computer System

Apple original.

5,838,315, Support for Custom User-Interaction Elements in a Graphical, Event-Driven Computer System

Apple original patent.

Apple granted patents in Finland

Here are the abstracts of Apple patents validated in Finland. There are at least few which are clearly in mobile domain.

EP1032919 talks about motion sensor technology in handheld device. This patent has interesting history since it is not invented by Apple but acquired. According to file history patent was filed by British Telecommunications and assigned to Apple 15th January 2008.

• A portable computer arranged to rest comfortably in the hand has a small display screen (5). Accelerometers capable of detecting movement of the pen with respect to gravity provide input to a microcontroler which selects from a number of viewing modes a response. The pen may be held in either hand and output message to the screen will be oriented according to the location of the pen. Full personal digital assistant functionality may be incorporated in a relatively small plastics casing and functions, such as calendar, contacts and the like may be incorporate

EP1964022 is about wiping screen to unlock it. You might have seen this in iPhone...

• A device with a touch-sensitive display may be unlocked via gestures performed on the touch-sensitive display. The device is unlocked if contact with the display corresponds to a predefined gesture for unlocking the device. The device displays one or more unlock images with respect to which the predefined gesture is to be performed in order to unlock the device. The performance of the predefined gesture with respect to the unlock image may include moving the unlock image to a predefined location and/or moving the unlock image along a predefined path. The device may also display visual cues of the predefined gesture on the touch screen to remind a user of the gesture.

Then next one EP 2013694  is on multi touch technology.

• A multipoint touch surface controller is disclosed herein. The controller includes an integrated circuit including output circuitry for driving a capacitive multi-touch sensor and input circuitry for reading the sensor. Also disclosed herein are various noise rejection and dynamic range enhancement techniques that permit the controller to be used with various sensors in various conditions without reconfiguring hardware

EP 2059868 is about showing photos in a mobile device. "press icon and get bigger picture"

• A portable electronic device with a touch screen display for photo management is disclosed. One aspect of the invention involves a computer-implemented method in which the portable electronic device displays an array of thumbnail images corresponding to a set of photographic images. The device replaces the displayed array of thumbnail images with a user-selected photographic image upon detecting a user contact with a corresponding thumbnail image in the array. The user-selected photographic image is displayed at a larger scale than the corresponding thumbnail image. The portable device displays a different photographic image in replacement of the user-selected photographic image in accordance with a scrolling gesture. The scrolling gesture comprises a substantially horizontal movement of user contact with the touch screen display.

EP 2045698 is related to touch screen technology.

• A touch sensor panel having co-planar single-layer touch sensors fabricated on a single side of a substrate is disclosed. The drive and sense lines can be fabricated as column-like patterns in a first orientation and patches in a second orientation, where each column-like pattern in the first orientation is connected to a separate metal trace in the border area of the touch sensor panel, and all patches in each of multiple rows in the second orientation are connected together using a separate metal trace in the border area of the touch sensor panel. The metal traces in the border areas can be formed on the same side of the substrate as the patches and columns, but separated from the patches and column-like patterns by a dielectric layer

 

And rest of the abstracts here...

EP 1591990 B1

• A computer-human interface provides a mechanism to manage the available space of a computer display (28) in a manner that facilitates navigation among multiple windows (42-50) that are overlaid upon one another. The interface includes a user-selectable mode (Figure 5) in which the windows are rearranged, and resized if necessary, so that all open windows can be simultaneously viewed within the area of the display, thereby enabling any one of the windows to be easily selected for access. In effect, the presentation of the windows is "flattened" so that all windows appear at the same virtual depth, rather than overlapping one another. With this approach, there is no need to minimize windows in order to access one that is overlaid by another, thereby enabling the user to keep the content of all windows visible and accessible.; Subsets of windows can be repositioned in the same manner (Figure 23b), or all windows can be removed from the display area for access to desktop object

EP 1805964  (B1)

Improved techniques for interaction between a host computer (e.g., personal computer) and a media player are disclosed. According to one embodiment, interaction between a host device (e.g., host (computer (102)) and a media player (108) can be performed over a wireless channel. The interaction over the wireless channel can be used to automatically synchronize media contents stored on the media player with media contents stored on the host device. According to another embodiment, interaction between a host device and a media player, such as automatic synchronization of media contents stored on a media player with media contents stored on a host device, can be restricted. In still another embodiment, synchronization can be automatically performed when the media player is placed in a docking station (110) that supports wireless communications. EP 1943772 System that wakes up a sleeping target system (110) on a target LAN from a remote system (102) located on a remote LAN (104) . Since the sleeping target system (110) is in a sleep state, it receives packets of a lower-layer protocol which cannot be used by the remote system (102) to directly send packets to the sleeping target system. During operation, the remote system creates a wake-up packet (304) . The remote system (102) then uses a second protocol to send the wake-up packet to a relay agent (112) located on the target LAN. Upon receiving the first wake-up packet, the relay agent uses the lower-layer protocol to send a second wake-up packet to the sleeping target system (312) , which wakes up (316) . EP1811525 Articles and associated methods and systems relate to disabling defective flash memory dies in a device containing multiple flash memory dies. Packages containing multiple flash memory dies may be labeled to indicate a flash memory data storage capacity based on the flash memory dies that are not disabled. Various disabling methods may be applied at the die level, package level, and/or board level. EP 2022058 Systems and methods, including computer software, for reading data from a flash memory cell involve detecting voltages from a group of memory cells. The group of memory cells have associated metadata for error detection, and each memory cell stores a voltage representing a data value selected from a plurality of possible data values. Each possible data value corresponds to one range of multiple non-overlapping ranges of analog voltages. Memory cells having uncertain data values are identified based on the detected voltages. Alternative data values for the memory cells having the uncertain data values are determined. A combination of alternative data values is selected, and an error detection test is performed using the metadata associated with the memory cells and the selected combination of alternative data values. EP2001198 File protocols for transaction based communication are described. In one embodiment, a method to provide a file transfer protocol includes receiving packets containing headers, the packets being received at a first network stack software through an interface, and extracting data from the packets and reconstructing a file from data in the packets. The extracting may be performed by a first network stack software, and the interface is not designed to use lntemet Protocol (IP) addresses, and the headers contain data for flow control and sequencing and are associated with a port for a file transfer application, and the headers allow multiple applications to maintain multiple concurrent sessions through the interface, which may be a USB compliant or BLUETOOTH compliant interface. Systems, computer readable media, software architectures and other methods are also described EP2001199 Multiplexed data stream protocols are described. In one embodiment, a method to provide a multiplexed data stream protocol includes packetizing a data stream to provide packets with headers and transmitting the packets through an interface which is not designed to use Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. The headers contain data for flow control and sequencing and are associated with a port for an application, and the headers allow multiple applications to maintain an arbitrary and changeable number of multiple concurrent sessions through the interface. The headers may be Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) like headers and may not include IP like headers. Systems, computer readable media, software architectures and other methods are also described

European patent reform...

Interesting moments in European Commission from patenting point of view. Commission is trying to simply system so that EPO grant would mean automatic validation on every member country. One never knows what will be the outcome but...

If this goes thru winners of the system are inventors and all companies filing in Europe. New system will reduce cost of EP significantly. No need to translate and validate in every area. At the moment most companies validate EP patents only in handful of member countries. Rationale is cost and cost only. If you could get full EU coverage with a patent you would take it.

Not all good with out some downside. Bad news for many patent attorney offices with significant revenues coming currently from mandatory translations...

Here some copy paste from proposal:

"The Commission's proposal builds on the existing language regime of the EPO. The Commission proposes that EU Patents will be examined and granted in one of the official languages of the EPO - English, French or German. The granted patent will be published in this language which will be the authentic (i.e. legally binding) text. The publication will include translations of the claims into the other two EPO official languages. The claims are the section of the patent defining the scope of protection of the invention.

No further translations into other languages will be required from the patent proprietor except in the case of a legal dispute concerning the EU patent. In this case, the patent proprietor may be required to provide further translations at his or her own expense. For example, the proprietor may have to supply a copy of the patent into the language of an alleged infringer, or into the language of the court proceedings when this is different from the language of the patent."

Apple has 12 issued patents in Finland.

Patents give one right to exlcude others from market. Best way to do it to enforce patents in home country of a company.

When looking on Apple's toolset to force Nokia in total halt here are all the EP patents assigned to Apple and validated in Finland. Study TBD if those are related to Mobile or not.

EP1491990

EP1805964

EP1943772

EP1964022

EP1811525

EP2013694

EP2022058

EP2059868

EP2045698

EP2001198

EP2001199

EP1032919

i.e. total of 12 patents in pocket. Not a good position in negotiation against Nokia with total of 8796 issued patents in US.

Nokia Apple patent war no going to Finland with same recipiet

Patent war escalates to Europe..

Some time in end of September:
"Apple has sued Nokia in the UK over nine patents, in a continuation of the legal battle that has raged between the two companies in the US over the last year."

First to UK but we are still not in home land of Nokia, Finland. When looking on patents asserted against Nokia by Apple in December

US5,634,074 / Not filed in Finland
US6,343,363 / EP patent also but not validated in Finland
US5,555,369 / Only in US
US6,239,795 / EP patent also but not validated in Finland
US6,189,034 / Only in US
US5,455,854 / EP patent also but not validated in Finland
US7,383,453 / Only in US
US5,848,105 / Only in US
US5,379,431 / EP patent also but not validated in Finland...

Well at least these do not help. Tells lot about need for good patent strategy.

Jury dates for Apple vs Nokia

It seems that year 2012 will be interesting from Nokia point of view.

COMPLAINT filed with Jury Demand against Apple Inc by Nokia October 22 2009 time table:

The court will hold three (3) separate jury trials in this matter.

• 1st Jury Trial (Re: Patent Infringement): Pretrial Order due by 4/2/2012., Pretrial Conference set for 5/1/2012 at 9:30 AM, (15-day) Jury Trial set for 5/21/2012 at 9:30 AM.
• 2nd Jury Trial (Re: Contract): Pretrial Order due by 4/16/2012., Pretrial Conference set for 5/7/2012 at 9:30 AM., (5-day) Jury Trial set for 6/18/2012 at 9:30 AM.
• 3rd Jury Trial (Re: Anti-trust): Pretrial Order due by 7/30/2012., Pretrial Conference set for 9/10/2012 at 9:30 AM., (7-day) Jury Trial set for 10/1/2012 at 9:30 AM.

PATENT COMPLAINT against Apple Inc. by Nokia on May 7 2010 time table is:

• Pretrial Conference Order - Amendments to Pleadings due 9/17/2010.
• Motions Requesting Claims Construction due 12/17/2010.
• Claims Construction Response Brief due 1/24/2011.
• Claims Construction Hearing set for 2/4/2011 at 09:00 AM.
• Dispositive Motions due 6/10/2011.
• Settlement Letters due 11/22/2011.
• Motions in Limine due 12/2/2011.
• Response to Motion due 12/12/2011.
• Final Pretrial Submissions due 12/14/2011.
• Final Pretrial Conference set for 12/21/2011 at 02:00 PM Jury Selection and
• Trial set for 1/9/2012 at 09:00 AM.