Technology, Patents | featured news

Samsung design VP Chang Dong-hoon has refuted accusations that the Galaxy S III was designed "by lawyers." Responding to the reports that stated the new handset was tweaked to circumvent deliberate trade dress claims made by Cupertino in its lawsuit, he said that the redesign is part of the company's five-year plan rather than a sudden change. He went on to say that the flagship went through hundreds of iterations before the team alighted upon the model that will shortly make its way into sweaty palms all over the world.

HTC said Wednesday it will delay the launch of a new smartphone in the U.S. due to a customs review required after the International Trade Commission ruled late last year that the company violated a patent held by Apple.

Yahoo returned legal fire against Facebook in the companies' ongoing patent dispute, calling Facebook's recent countersuit slapdash and asserting two new patents against its younger peer.

Facebook is paying $550 million to Microsoft for some of the patents the software giant recently bought from AOL, as the social network beefs up its patent defenses ahead of its IPO.

Faltering Internet icon AOL was able to squeeze out more than $1 billion from Microsoft for a trove of some 800 patents in an auction, the latest sign of just how valuable such portfolios can be for the world's biggest technology companies.

Facebook has purchased hundreds of IBM patents in a bid to bolster its intellectual-property standing as it squares off against Yahoo in a high-profile infringement lawsuit.

Yahoo Inc sued Facebook Inc on Monday over 10 patents that include methods and systems for advertising on the Web, according to a copy of the lawsuit.

Yahoo has demanded licensing fees from Facebook for use of its technology, the companies said on Monday, potentially engulfing social media in the patent battles and lawsuits raging across much of the tech sector.

Taiwanese handset maker HTC Corp narrowly lost a patent battle with Apple Inc on Wednesday, as the International Trade Commission found that HTC had infringed on one of Apple's patents.

Samsung filed a countersuit against Apple in Australia, alleging iPhone smartphones and the iPad 2 violate multiple wireless-technology patents it holds.