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The Morning Download comes from the editors of CIO Journal and cues up the most important news in business technology every weekday morning. Send us your tips, compliments and complaints. You can get The Morning Download emailed to you each weekday morning by clicking here. Good morning. The latest twist in the patent war between Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. is a reminder of just how quickly things can change in the world of technology, where today’s seemingly unassailable market leader can suddenly find itself on the defensive. And it also underscores how government policy, court decisions and regulatory rulings can play a...

When Google announced last week it had finally made peace over its VP8 codec with the patent pool MPEG-LA, some declared the company had sold out and was joining the software patent circus. But it's not. The truth is far more colorful and could presage a big shift in the struggle to control our online viewing and listening habits. As a consequence, powerful interests have quickly stepped in to try to spike VP8's guns before they can be fired.Codec contextThe realm of video codecs is complex and infested with acronyms and political intrigue stretching back decades. Even those closest to...

You don’t own nuttin For a while now online retailers have been living in fear of a patent troll called Soverain Software. The company which has a nice website with separate pages for "products," "services," and "solutions" actually has never made a product in its life and its voice mailboxes were all set up by Katherine Wolanyck, the former Latham & Watkins attorney who is a co-founder and partial owner of Soverain to make it look like it was a real company. Soverain bought a bunch of OpenMarket patents in 2003 and has been trying to extract a patent tax...

A patent holding firm has made it its business to sue just about every tech firm anyone has heard of in its quest to make money from an encryption patent, it has emerged. In the last four years, TQP Development has kept its lawyers busy with complaints against hundreds of companies, including big boys of tech like Google, Intel, Samsung and Apple. The prodigious litigator, spotted by the CipherLaw Blog, has made Intel, Wind River and Hertz its latest opponents citing its patent for using a shared seed value to generate pseudo-random key values at transmitter and receiver. TQP has...

Rivals have laid down between $150m and $250m THE HIGH-PROFILE AUCTION for Eastman Kodak's patent portfolio has begun, with Apple and Google kicking off the bidding war. The rival firms have laid down bids of between $150m and $250m for Kodak's digital imaging patents, the Wall Street Journal reports, way below the $2.6bn hat Kodak's 1,100 strong patent portfolio is expected to fetch. Still, speculation suggests that the two firms are looking to ramp up the imaging technology in the Iphone and Android phones, respectively, following stiff competition from Nokia.Kodak refused to comment on the mooted bids, telling the WSJ,...

Apple and Samsung dig in for weeks of courtroom jostling, as the personalities and tactics of their legal teams are adding to the drama. Reed Albergotti has details on The News Hub. Photo: Reuters.

Apple Inc. AAPL -0.27% asked a federal judge to sanction Samsung Electronics Co. 005930.SE -2.85% by declaring its own patents valid, as a squabble over disputed evidence in their patent case continued for a third day.In a filing made public Thursday, Apple said "Samsung and its counsel engaged in bad faith litigation misconduct by attempting to prejudice the jury." Samsung, denied the chance to use evidence it believes is important in the case, on Tuesday emailed the material to reporters. The company says the documents show that the iPhone was inspired by Sony Corp. 6758.TO +2.44% and that one of the devices Apple...

As Samsung and Apple have been fighting over patents from one end of the earth to the other, most of the coverage, with few exceptions, seems to present Apple's point of view. [Example A, Example B, Example C, Example D, and Example E.] We know how much money Apple is asking for, we know it's claiming treble damages for willfulness, we know it thinks FRAND patents are not deserving of injunction enforcement, and that Samsung is asking too much money for them. But now that we have the redacted trial briefs from the parties, I thought you'd like to see...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- As the high-stakes patent trial between Apple and Samsung Electronics moves into its second day Tuesday, one thing is clear: Apple is committed to waging total war. Like the Roman Empire in its victory over Carthage, Apple seems determined to salt the earth so that its competitor can never rise again.Apple is seeking to have the court case declared "exceptional," a legal standard under which the jury could award treble damages. That's three times the amount of actual, provable damages -- which Apple is claiming run to billions of dollars.

It's a win for Samsung Electronics, which hasn't fared so well in the legal arena lately. The decision affects three Galaxy Tab models.Score one for Samsung Electronics. After several legal defeats resulting in a product ban, Samsung finally got a court to side with it. The company said that the High Court of England and Wales ruled that its Galaxy Tab did not infringe upon Apple's tablet designs, and found 50 different recognizable traits. The victory is a measure of relief after a few rough weeks in which a U.S. judge ordered a ban on the Galaxy Nexus, resulting in...

Veteran Judge Posner says "animals" like Apple are just exploiting the weapons an ineffectual gov't has created "It's a constant struggle for survival.  As in any jungle, the animals will use all the means at their disposal, all their teeth and claws that are permitted by the ecosystem," states Judge Richard A. Posner in a recent interview with Reuters.   As a sitting judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals who occasionally moonlights as a judge in Chicago's U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Judge Posner has watched the devolution of America's intellectual property system over the past several decades. I. Google v. Apple -- A...

ENTERPRISE VENDOR Oracle has lost its alleged Java patent infringement case against Google after the jury returned a unanimous verdict that Oracle had failed to prove patent infringement in Android by Google. Oracle's lawsuit against Google started falling apart just weeks after it was filed, with lengthy and often comical pre-trial proceedings leaving little of Oracle's case standing. Nevertheless Oracle continued to throw money at the case, however now the jury has returned a verdict that clears Google of infringing Java patents in its Android operating system.Judge William Alsup has yet to rule on whether the Java language APIs are...

Patent wars are getting dirtier day by day. Not only they result in loss of thousands of dollars for companies, but also result in frustration for consumers. Earlier Microsoft was successful in banning Motorola smartphones. Now Motorola is punching back with Xbox 360 ban in U.S. and the gaming console might get pulled away from shelves in upcoming few months. A judge at International Trade Commission (ITC) has issued a recommendation for import ban on Xbox 360 gaming console. The ban is limited to 4GB and 250GB edition of Xbox 360. The ban is a part of Motorola's complaint filed...

Microsoft may have to post bond equal to 7% of unsold inventory The patent battle between Microsoft and Motorola has hit another interesting bump in the road, with administrative Judge David Shaw saying that sales of the Xbox 360 should be banned in the U.S. “Sale of machines should be prevented with a cease-and-desist order and Microsoft should post a bond equal to 7% of the declared value of unsold Xbox 360 inventory that is already in the country,” said Shaw. Microsoft countered that 7% was far too high and suggested 2.5%. Motorola told the Judge that Microsoft should have...

Sorry Apple, you did not invent swipe to unlock [This is an editorial/analysis piece.] When I initially searched the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office database and Google Patents, I missed something very interesting in the war [1][2] between Apple, Inc. (AAPL) and Android's "Big Three" -- Google Inc.'s (GOOG) new acquisition Motorola, HTC Corp. (TPE:2498), and Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd. (KS:005930) -- regarding swipe-to-unlock intellectual property. Neonode Inc. (NEON) appears to be the first to patent this technology, holding a claim I missed. I. Neonode Beat Apple to the Patent Punch by 3 Years As I pointed out in an...

The patents present four (somewhat) novel forms of unlock that range from simple to complex The "Big Three" of the Android world -- HTC Corp. (TPE:2498), Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd. (KS:005930), and Google Inc.'s (GOOG) nearly-acquired subsidiary-to-be Motorola Mobility -- all share a common legal adversary -- Apple, Inc. (AAPL). Apple has asserted a slew of claims against the Android phonemakers, and they haven't been shy about firing back, sometimes quite successfully (other times not so much). I. The Backup Plan One of Apple's biggest successes, however, came when it scored a German injunction on Motorola's smartphones, thanks to its...

Company says its rivals are being "anticompetitive" by trying to defend themselves with IPIn a scene straight out of Bizarro World, Apple, Inc.'s (AAPL) lawyers are crying foul about Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd. (SEO:005930) and recent Google Inc. (GOOG) acquisitions Motorola's allegedly "anticompetitive" use of patents. I. Apple Claims Android Phone makers are "Abusing" Patent System Yes, this is the same Apple that has initiated a patent war [1][2][3][4][5] with these smartphone rivals.  And it's the same rival that has tried to remove competing products from the market, rather than agree to negotiate a licensing fee.  And it's the same company that patented multi-touch gestures 26 years after they...