Every once in a while we check out various IP databases around the world to see if we could find any Apple activity. Well, Bingo, we found three all new smart pen patents from Apple that are chock full of great ideas. In between Apple's US patent filings published in May and December, Apple's engineers were filing new patents in Europe that were published just two months ago. These have not been published in the US yet and so they're new to us. And boy does Apple go deeply into the rabbit hole or what. Apple has a ton of new ideas on how to advance the smart pen. Yet the one twist that I thought was intriguing is that Apple appears to be seriously thinking of turning smart pen tips into an accessory business. Do you want your pen to be a brush? No problem, here is a new pen tip for that: Ka-Ching. Do you want your pen to double as a bar code reader? No Problem, here is a tip for that: Ka-Ching. And there are a lot of "Ka-Chingy" ideas in these three new patents to go around. Check it out.

Our friend Florian Mueller over at FOSS Patents has an interesting report out this morning. Mueller states that "By far and away the weirdest ruling in the worldwide smartphone and tablet wars came down last year in the UK, where a publicity order forcing Apple to promote Samsung's products and to make itself ridiculous in public was upheld by an appeals court, and where Apple's efforts to comply with the order were deemed "false and misleading". I thought Apple was being treated way too harshly because in the end it was just trying to defend its intellectual property rights in court and merely had refused to withdraw a German lawsuit after a UK ruling by a lower court." Mueller added "I wonder how certain people in Cupertino feel about it." Yes, this could be interesting. Will it mean challenging that ruling in favor of Samsung? Time will tell - but for now the general cry I'm hearing is: Off with his Head!

A Japanese court Thursday rejected a claim by Samsung that Apple stole its technology, in the latest round of a global legal battle between the smartphone giants over patents. The Tokyo District Court ruled that Samsung has no rights over data transmission technology used in some of Apple's iPhone smartphones, said a spokesman for Samsung's Tokyo office.

On February 28, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals technology that could support a future iPhone with satellite capabilities. Satellite phones or satphones are popular on expeditions into remote areas where terrestrial cellular service is unavailable. Apple's patent filing states that the use of satellites for personal and business communications is an important technique in global communication networks. Satellite communication systems provide obvious benefits that allow users to transmit and receive communication signals over a large footprint.

On February 28, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals a system for magnetically attaching a tablet device to a supporting structure. Apple presents us with a series of possible new iPad stand configurations for such applications as a super advanced music stand, a way to connect two iPads together to create a notebook with a large virtual keyboard or a way to create a portable gaming system with an advanced video game controller. Apple has some wild ideas worth noting in this invention.

On February 27, 2013, The Hong Kong IP Office's Database shows that Apple has filed for a retail "cables" symbol trademark as noted above. It's plain, simple but legal. Considering that Apple ended up paying $60 million to use their iPad brand in China, you could understand why Apple, going forward, will be sure to trademark anything and everything in China A.S.A.P.

Back in November ABI research stated that Samsung dropping Qualcomm for its own chipset for the next Galaxy smartphone could mark the beginning of a new platform war. Samsung has historically been known for its high-end application processors that appear in a number of its smartphones but the modem in its product has typically been supplied by companies such as Qualcomm, Intel, Broadcom, STE, or Via Telecom. The research noted that Samsung's move to manufacturing its own solutions plus Samsung's recent purchase of CSR's handset business could prove a key turning point that signifies a shift in the handset component market towards a platform battle between two major powerhouses of the mobile industry. News now out of Barcelona shows that Samsung is in fact trying to kick-start a new platform war as first suggested by ABI.

The Financial Post is reporting this afternoon that Apple's CEO has stated that he understands shareholder disappointment over their stock slide to more than 30% but promised that the company was working on new product categories. However, as usual, Cook would not elaborate as to what that could mean. Instead of announcing a stock split, Cook relied on soothing stockholder's pain with a promise. The pressure is now on Apple's CEO to deliver – and if it's to be meaningful, it should be later this year. The good news is that the key word that Cook carefully chose to convey his message with was "categories," which means a lot more than just a simple upgrade to current products. And in plural form, that's really something to look forward to.

The news that Foxconn was freezing hiring for the iPhone sent shivers through Wall Street recently, but a new report from DigiTimes this morning provides a truer context to the original rumor; one that has nothing to do with trouble with the iPhone.

It looks like we're in store for a wild holiday season this year as developments out of Barcelona's Mobile World Congress show us that the mobile industry is going all out to best each other in smartphone, phablet and tablet designs and services. Our cover graphic illustrates one of the most exciting smartphone designs to show up at the exhibition. It's a dual display smartphone that may entice some to choose this design over a mini tablet. With this design you get dual displays and each could carry its own content for true multitaskers or present users with one image like a large map using both displays cooperatively. Yet, there was a bull in the China Shop at this year's exhibition and that was of course Samsung. We'll update you on their latest important developments that could have an impact later this year and for years to come.    

MAZ Encryption Technologies, a document security firm, has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple. The patent infringement lawsuit concerns Apple's iOS security system and architecture. After the discovery process, MAZ Encryption Technologies is claiming that the infringement was willful. In legal terms, "willful"  opens the door for triple damages awarded to the Plaintiff if the court finds that the defendant, in this case Apple, is found guilty of the charges.

SmartPhone has filed their second patent infringement lawsuit against Apple in the last fifteen months. Their first patent infringement case claimed six counts of infringement and this current suit claims four new counts of infringement. Smartphone is associated with Acacia Research Corporation with licenses technology to the likes of LG Electronics, Microsoft, Samsung and others.