Tech Law: Apple, Microsoft Sued Again; NVIDIA Countersues, More
Apple sued over iPhone e-book connection — What would a tech court week be without Apple suing or being sued? In this case, it’s the latter, but not another class action. No, this time the Swiss-based MONEC is screaming because Apple is distributing applications that allow an iPhone to display e-books, and the company claims that it patented the concept. Of course, given that the patent mentions having a screen large enough to display a full book page at normal size, executives at MONEC might want to pick up an iPhone and try using a tape measure. [Source: AppleInsider, MONEC Patent Filing]
But wait … there’s another suit for Apple — It’s difficult to imagine any job with more security than being an Apple corporate lawyer. Affinity Labs is suing the company over the iPhone’s ability to let users browse online content and then download it over a wireless connection. [Source: AppleInsider]
Tom Tom ready for caring and sharing — In the middle of its patent battle with Microsoft, Tom Tom had joined a coalition that hope to use patent sharing to protect Linux, and likely did so to lay the groundwork for some court tactic or other. Hopefully their navigation device covers sailing through rough legal waters. [Source: Ars Technica]
Microsoft sued for auto update — BackWeb Technologies, based in Israel, is suing Microsoft because it alleges that a number of the company’s product features, including Windows Update, infringe on its patents for “transmitting information between a remote network and a local computer and distributed client-based data caching systems.” A key seems to be transmitting the information “with minimal interference with other processes.” Hah — did they ever try Windows Update? [Source: InternetNews]
NVIDIA countersues Intel — How tough was this to predict? First Intel sued NVIDIA for allegedly breaching a four-year technology license agreement. Now the later is countersuing, claiming that “Intel has manufactured this licensing dispute as part of a calculated strategy to eliminate NVIDIA as a competitive threat.” [Source: ZDNet's Between the Lines]
Charter files for bankruptcy — It had warned previously that it would do so. Now Charter Communications has filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11. [Source: The Wall Street Journal]
Gavel image via Flickr user Thomas Roche, CC 2.0.
Erik Sherman is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in Newsweek, the New York Times Magazine, Technology Review, the Financial Times, Chief Executive, and other publications. Follow him on Twitter.
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