Patents, Patent Infringement | featured news

A federal judge in Chicago, Ill. has thrown the Apple-Motorola Mobility smartphone patent case out the courtroom window and locked the window behind it, making sure it never finds its way back inside his court.

U.S. Circuit Court Judge Richard Posner has tentatively decided to dismiss the ongoing patent litigation between Apple and Google’s newly acquired Motorola Mobility unit, the Wall Street Journal reports. A trial in the case had been scheduled to start Monday.

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.

Wounded cellphone maker Nokia has turned on one of its former allies in the patent protection battlefield by filing lawsuits against rival smartphone maker HTC as it steps up its efforts to raise funds.

A court in Mannheim ruled on Wednesday that Microsoft infringed Motorola Mobility's patents and ordered Microsoft to remove its popular Xbox 360 gaming consoles and Windows 7 operating system software from the German market.

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 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.

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.

Motorola Mobility can try to force Apple to remove its products from Germany's stores after winning a patent case against the iPhone-maker.