The judge found that Apple and RIM were actually infringing one of the claims made in the patent, but that the claim is invalid due to obviousness.
Nor is it that Apple would claim patent rights over the rectangle if they could claim such rights.
The claim over patent No. 6, 246, 862, was the last patent-in-suit standing from its 2010 complaint against Apple.
The judge found in favor of Samsung regarding one patent in his claim construction order, however, and now Apple has dropped that patent from the proceedings, along with claims from two of its other patents as well.
But while Cannata and patent investors like Rembrandt claim to be protecting the rights of inventors, their detractors believe they are simply well-financed patent trolls--a derisive term used to describe companies with no operations other than suing big business over patents.
Shares in ailing 131-year-old camera maker Eastman Kodak spiked on Monday after the U.S. International Trade Commission announced it would review a patent-infringement claim against Apple and Research In Motion over the use of image preview technologies, patented by Kodak in 2001.
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They have just one ally in the current patent litigation landscape: NPEs that have the expertise to determine the validity of their claim, and the resources necessary to pursue it to a final judgment of infringement.
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Novartis had filed a plea with the Supreme Court after the Intellectual Property Appellate Board had rejected a patent claim for Glivec.
FORBES: India Court Ruling Against Novartis Is Dark Omen For Big Pharma
The opponents of the patent law might seem on safer ground when they claim that gene patents could hinder medical research.
Even more striking is the claim made by the Duke researchers that patent exclusivity is not necessary to spur innovation in genetic testing.
In the latest move, the US patent office has rejected 13 out of 20 grounds originally cited by Ricetech as the basis for its claim to intellectual property rights.
Sirna has laid claim to a huge patent estate in the RNAi field.
Needless to say, a win by ParkerVision in its patent claim would be a huge bonanza for the tiny company.
FORBES: Qualcomm Is In A David-And-Goliath Patent Infringement Fight With A Tiny Tech Company
According to the FOSSPatents blog, which has closely monitored the patent dispute between Apple and Samsung, well-sourced media in South Korea claim that executives from Samsung have been planning for at least two weeks to launch some sort of legal complaint against the latest iPhone, immediately after its launch.
FORBES: Samsung Doesn't Waste Time Trying To Ban Sales Of iPhone 4S In France And Italy
Then they claim that the law would increase the cost of medical research by non-patent-holders.
More broadly, the fact that any company can demand protection for the basic shape of a device, years before it had invented the actual device or technology, should not entitle that company to claim that it had patented the design for a smartphone any more than Richard Branson can patent business class travel in outer space.
Convince the court that Apple's claim to the inventions are invalid, and that the technology was developed prior to the disputed patent's filing.
Apple's patent claim against Samsung's Galaxy S III mini is no more, with Cupertino citing the phone's lacking availability in the US for the amendment to its original November filing.
ENGADGET: Apple withdraws patent claim against Samsung's Galaxy S III mini
Macedo, claim to have developed a new process for making the fiber, which does not infringe on any Corning patent, at one-tenth Corning's costs.
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