Apple finally launched their "Cut, Copy and Paste" feature for the iPhone with the arrival of iPhone 3.0. Apple's Senior VP of iPhone Software Scott Forstall reviewed a few of the key Cut, Copy and Paste features during a special event presentation. He began with the Cut, Copy and Paste Bubble feature and then went on to discuss such things as "grab points," the "magnifier" and the ability to copy and paste across applications like Safari and Mail or even third party apps. Forstall also covered how to undo your copy and paste selections by using a "shake" technique in addition to covering how to use copy and paste with your photos into Mail. It took Apple a long time to bring Cut, Copy and Paste to the iPhone and they took a lot of heat for it. Apple's philosophy is that they want to get major features right. Some simply consider that to being nothing more than an excuse. Perhaps in some cases that may be true, but once you see Apple's ten in-depth patents covering this feature, you'll come to realize that Apple was really being honest about the delay of this feature. Forstall began his presentation by stating "we've been working really hard to design an easy to use straight forward user interface for Cut, Copy and Paste for our large touch screen display – and we think that we've nailed it." And for those of us who aren't naysayers, I think we could agree that they did just that.
Last week Motorola Mobility, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Motorola, launched three separate patent infringement lawsuits against Apple Inc. which are available for review in our archives. If that wasn't enough, Motorola Mobility Inc. has now launched an offensive Declaratory Judgment against Apple and NeXT. Motorola was fully aware of Apple's patent infringement lawsuit against HTC and it appears that they were even in confidential negotiations with Apple to license their technology so as to avoid litigation. Evidently the negations went sour and they are now preemptively trying to stop Apple from launching a similar patent infringement against them. The same patents presented in the Apple vs. HTC patent infringement lawsuit are the very same patents that Motorola wishes the court to declare invalid against them in this case. Motorola Mobility is actually asking for judgment to be entered finding that this is an "exceptional case entitling Motorola to an award." Well, we'll just have to see if the court agrees with Motorola Mobility on that count, won't we. For now, I simply smell fear. Don't you?
On October 5, 2010, Patently Apple briefly covered the Mirror Worlds vs. Apple patent infringement verdict by simply presenting the patents that were involved in this case. We had stated at the time that "closely held Mirror Worlds, founded by Yale University computer-science Professor David Gelernter, sued Apple in 2008, claiming that Apple's iPod music device, iPhone and Mac computers infringed its patents for a way that documents are displayed on a computer screen. Mirror Worlds has won their case against Apple who is now appealing." But a Patent Attorney is now telling us that the damages in the case could actually climb to a whopping 1.8 billion. This brief report presents you with a copy of the Jury's Verdict Form along with a legal perspective on the verdict. Update April 5, 2011: A News report from Bloomberg confirms that Apple has won on appeal.
The US Patent and Trademark Office has published a handful of Apple's patent applications today that mainly consists of continuation patents. Interestingly, within this group, we see that Apple has resubmitted and/or expanded upon their "Visual Expander" patent. The reason that this is interesting is that while the patent was resubmitted back in late June, Apple had actually been granted a patent for it in July. This advanced multi-touch feature which has yet to surface on any portable device, may in fact be one of the advances coming to a future iPad and/or iMac Touch. This report revisits Apple's "Visual Expander" patent in respect to multi-touch features for anyone who missed out on it on the first go-around while touching on Apple's "Back to the Mac" event scheduled for next week.
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 18 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In our first report we primarily covered three colossal patent wins for Apple in the field of Multi-Touch Technology. In this report, we cover several other granted patents published today relating to Apple's OS X Server XGrid, Apple's calendar app iCal, important iPhone parental controls along with a few design patents covering the 3G iPhone dock and Apple's current wireless keyboard.
The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 18 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this first report, we focus on one of the most important technologies that are empowering Apple's smart device revolution: Multi-Touch. Apple has been awarded three colossal multi-touch related patents. The patents cover multi-touch displays that detect the motion of two or more fingers as well as the tracking of multiple fingers and palm contacts using proximity sensors that enable unprecedented integration of typing, resting, pointing, scrolling and 3D manipulation. One of Apple's patents also makes it crystal clear that multi-touch will extend beyond the iPod, iPhone and iPad and eventually advance to devices such as the MacBook and the iMac.
On October 10, 2010, China's Patent & Trademark Office published Apple's latest trademark application for "Game Center" under application301731753. Apple has filed their trademark under a single International Class covering video and computer game software. To run Game Center on your iPhone (3GS or 4) or iPod touch, you'll simply need to upgrade to OS 4.1.
On October 7, 2010, the Patent & Trademark Office in China published Apple's latest trademark application for "AirPlay" under application 301729972. Apple has filed their trademark under six extensively, if not ridiculously, detailed International Classes. The classes mainly cover services such as "computer software services, telecommunication services, educational and entertainment services," including but not limited to "music, entertainment, television programs, motion pictures, news, sports, games and cultural events."
On October 7, 2010, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a continuation patent application from Apple that may reveal their intention of integrating the MagSafe power connector into future portables such as the iPhone or iPad. Apple put the pedal to the metal on this continuation patent filing which was only filed in June of this year. Is someone in a rush or something?
It looks like revenge time for Motorola. Motorola Mobility, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Motorola, has filed three separate patent infringement lawsuits against Apple which in total consists of eighteen patents. In the first case filed in the Illinois Northern District Court, Motorola alleges that Apple infringed on six of their patents. The patents cover a wide range of technology including paging systems to cryptographic protection to radio frequency (RF) cellular telecommunication systems and more. Motorola points to various Apple products that are allegedly infringing on their patents including all iPhones, the iPad 3G and in some cases all Mac hardware from the MacBook on through to Apple's Mac Pro workstation. The presiding Judge in the first of two cases in Illinois is John F. Grady.
Motorola Mobility, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Motorola, has filed three separate patent infringement lawsuits against Apple. In the second case filed in the Illinois Northern District Court, Motorola alleges that Apple infringed on a second set of six patents which covers a wide range of technologies relating to wireless communications including mechanisms to selectively enable or disable GPS circuitry in a cellular telephone to a sensor controlled user interface and more. Motorola points to various Apple products and services that are allegedly infringing on their patents including all iPhones, the iPad 3G, Apple TV, the iPod touch and even the App Store. The presiding Judge in this second of two cases in Illinois is duly noted as being James F. Holderman.
Motorola Mobility, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Motorola, has filed three separate patent infringement lawsuits against Apple. In the third case filed in the Southern District Court of Florida, Motorola alleges that Apple infringed on six of their patents. The patents cover a wide range of technology including wireless messaging systems, pager status, transferring data and a receiver having a concealed external antenna. Motorola points to various Apple products and services that are allegedly infringing on their patents including all iPhones, the iPad 3G and in some cases all Mac hardware from the MacBook on through to Apple's Mac Pro workstation, MobileMe and more. The presiding Judge in this third case filed in Florida is duly noted as Ursula Ungaro.
