The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) looked into “legal and technical options” for breaking into another terrorists's iPhone. Wired reports that potential prospect of a second legal showdown between Apple and the Bureau was raised in a statement issued today by the FBI.
A three-judge panel was actually wrong to toss out of the window the $119.6 million verdict in a longstanding lawsuit that involves Apple's patented slide-to-unlock gesture that the iPhone maker had sued Samsung over a few years back.
As Bloomberg reports, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has now ordered the trial judge to consider whether the judgment should be increased “based on any intentional infringement by Samsung.”
A jury has ordered Apple to pay $302.4 million to VirnetX Holding Corp over using its patented virtual private networking protocols in FaceTime and iMessage on the iPhone, iPad and Mac. The case will now go to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington DC before VirnetX sees any payout, Reuters and Bloomberg reported today.
Trademark lawyer Brian Conroy today discovered some additional trademark filings by Apple, including one for something called “A10 Fusion” and the other for “iSight Duo”. Both of these trademarks were filed for on June 8, 2016 in Brunei. Additionally, Apple also filed for “Depth” and “Writeboard” trademarks.
The iPhone 7 Plus is said to have a dual-lens camera that should allow for true optical zoom and possibly the ability to refocus images after they have been taken.
With 24 hours left until the iPhone 7 keynote, a bunch of Apple trademark filings have now surfaced, as recently discovered by lawyer Brian Conroy. The documents provide some solid hints as to some of the gadgets the Cupertino firm may have been working on and could release at tomorrow's event.
One of the more peculiar trademark filings is that for “Iris Engine”, potentially hinting at iris scanning capabilities believed to be coming to a future iPhone.
Another one is for “AirPod Case”, which probably denotes a carrying and charging case for AirPods, Apple's alleged Bragi Dash-style high-end Bluetooth in-ear buds.
The iPhone's look and feel isn't the only design feature Samsung “borrowed” from Apple (100+ top designers agree), for which it was ordered to pay nearly $1 billion to the Cupertino firm in damages (later slashed to $548 million). No, the South Korean company is notorious for frequently borrowing a page from Jony Ive's design book when it comes to other things like the look and feel of software, packaging, marketing material and more.
As was discovered by Patently Apple, the Galaxy maker appears to have borrowed a few familiar looking images from Apple in its latest patent filing for a ”Wearable Device” which includes drawings of Apple's smartwatch that depict the Digital Crown, crystal back, heart rate sensor and even several of its proprietary band designs.
Apple's mega-lawsuit against Samsung is now in the hands of the United States Supreme Court, which should start hearing Samsung’s appeal over Apple’s design patent case in October. Ahead of court proceedings, Apple today filed an amicus brief containing support from 111 famed designers.
Some of them include well-known names like Jony Ive's friend Dieter Rams, fashion designer Calvin Klein and iSpaceship building designers over at Lord Norman Foster.
In February 2016, a federal jury ordered that Apple pay $625 million to VirnetX Holding Corp after being found guilty of willfully infringing on technologies found in VirnetX's patents related to virtual private networking protocols. Friday, the judge voided that ruling after determining that the case should be revisited, CNBC reports. VirnetX alleges that its patented technology is used in FaceTime and iMessage on the iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Speaking of lawsuits, a Dutch court has reportedly ruled in favor of a woman who took it upon herself to drag Apple to court over offering to replace her damaged iPhone 6 Plus with a refurbished rather than a brand new handset. This is Apple's standard policy in many markets, including where I live.
Recently, I took my iPhone 6s to a store over a faulty Home button and instead of servicing it they decided to give me a refurbished handset.
A judge in Amsterdam, however, was unimpressed and has ordered that Apple refund the plaintiff the full price she paid for her device.
Another day, another anti-Apple lawsuit. In addition to being sued over iOS 9's performance on older iPhones and bricking iPhones that use non-sanctioned Home button and Touch ID replacement parts, the Cupertino firm now faces a new patent lawsuit targeting the iPhone's battery technologies and an associated trickle-charge system.
Last month, Bloomberg ran a high-profile story about Samsung's alleged initiative, code-named Project Valley, that would bring a pair of fully bendable Galaxy phones to market in early-2017.
Subsequent supply chain reports have since backed the story partially as it became public knowledge that Samsung has allocated north of $7 billion into boosting production of flexible OLED panels.
As Patently Apple noted today, a new patent application sheds more light on the South Korean conglomerate's interest in creating a technology that would allow a smartphone or tablet to fold in half when not in use.
Night Shift mode, a new iOS 9.3 feature which helps users get a good night’s sleep by reducing the amount of blue light emitted from a backlight of their iOS device as the sun sets, could be coming to the Mac, the Apple Watch and even to Apple's CarPlay infotainment system, Patently Apple writes.
A trademark application for “Computer software for controlling computer and mobile device display screens,” filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), specifically covers smartphones (the iPhone), computers (the Mac), smartwatches (Apple Watch) and cars (CarPlay) while also mentioning things like styluses, batteries, radios, integrated circuits and even fire extinguishers, which is normal for these types of trademarks.