Legal Archive

The saga surrounding SOPA will be dominating the headlines for a while yet, and today is no different. First of all, and most importantly, the European Parliament has adopted a resolution against SOPA, while also calling for net neutrality to become part of EU law. Second, and this is also interesting, we now have a list of software companies which are against freedom of speech on the web. Unsurprisingly, Apple and Microsoft are on this list. Update: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has spoken out against SOPA. Update II: Tumbler's anti-SOPA message on their website generated almost 90000 (!) phone calls to representatives. Amazing.

A New York Times guest editorial titled Stop the Great Firewall of America says "China operates the world's most elaborate and opaque system of Internet censorship. But Congress... is considering misguided legislation that would strengthen China's Great Firewall and even bring major features of it to America." The culprit is the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act. Sounds good until you read that "The bills empower the attorney general to create a blacklist of sites to be blocked by Internet service providers, search engines, payment providers and advertising networks, all without a court hearing or a trial." Rather like the Department of Homeland Security's seizure of websites for copyright violations without the constitutionally-required court orders. If you're not an American citizen, why should you care? Read this Techdirt article telling how the U.S. seized a Spanish domain name that had already been declared legal by the Spanish courts.

Almost two weeks ago, the European Union announced that it had started a preliminary investigation into the use of standards-essential patents in all the legal cases between Apple and Samsung. Everybody assumed this was a response to an official complaint by Apple, but the EU has now clarified that it started the investigation on its own accord. In related news, Samsung has circumvented Apple's injunction in Germany by slightly altering the design of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 - the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N is now, once again, for sale in Deutschland.

To anyone who has been reading anything on the web over the past few months, this shouldn't come as a surprise. Barnes & Noble is currently embroiled in a patent lawsuit started by Microsoft, after the bookseller/tablet maker refused to pay protection money to Redmond. Barnes & Noble has now openly said what we already knew, and has filed an official complaint at the US Department of Justice: Microsoft is engaging in anticompetitive practices. Update: Here's the slide deck B&N presented to the DoJ.

This is probably not entirely surprising. The European Commission has announced that it is investigating both Apple and Samsung because they may have breached antitrust rules with regard to patents used as standard in the mobile phone industry - otherwise known as FRAND patents. While the EC states it's investigating both Samsung and Apple, it's likely the investigation focusses on Samsung.

A Spanish judge has overturned an injunction Apple won against a Spanish Android tablet maker, N-TK. "A small Spanish company has won a legal case against Apple Inc. and will now be able to sell a tablet computer that the U.S. technology giant had claimed infringes on the iPad patent." N-TK only sold about 200 of these tablets due to Apple's legal nonsense, a lot less than their 15000 unit target. As such, NT-TK is going to sue Apple for damages.

Yes, I'm hearing you guys - time to tone down a bit on the patent news. Hence, a summary here of recent developments concerning the various legal cases between Samsung and Apple. Today in The Netherlands, the judge ruled that Samsung will not be able to block the iPhone/iPad from the Dutch market. In the meantime, the Australian courts upheld the preliminary injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1, while the American courts ruled that while the Tab indeed infringes upon Apple's design patents, Apple has not yet convinced the judge that that actually matters. Tying this all together with earlier rulings we already covered - it seems like judges across the world are really, really willy-nilly. Update: DailyTech has some detailed visual comparisons between Samsung's and Apple's devices, as well with the various design patents. Huh. You don't say.

"Top-ranking Obama administration officials, including the US copyright czar, played an active role in secret negotiations between Hollywood, the recording industry and ISPs to disrupt internet access for users suspected of violating copyright law, according to internal White House e-mails. The e-mails, obtained via the Freedom of Information Act, show the administration's cozy relationship with Hollywood and the music industry's lobbying arms, and its early support for the copyright-violation crackdown system publicly announced in July. One top official even used her personal e-mail account at least once during the negotiations with executives and lobbyists from companies ranging from AT&T to Universal Music." You don't say. Totally did not see this coming. Major surprise. Who'da thunk?

"Samsung Electronics said it would file for a sales ban on Apple's new iPhone with courts in France and Italy as the phone infringed its patents, widening its legal battle with Apple. The maker of Galaxy smartphones and tablets, which has emerged as a credible challenger to Apple's mobile devices, said on Wednesday it would file for a sales ban in other countries after further review. The latest salvo by the company comes less than a day after Apple's iPhone 4S left investors and Apple's fans wishing for more than a souped-up version of its previous device introduced more than a year ago." So yeah.

A few days ago, several countries signed ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. As you are probably aware, ACTA was drafted up in secret, and is basically Obama/Biden's attempt to impose the US' draconian pro-big business/big content protection laws on the rest of the world ('sign it, or else'). The European Parliament still has to vote on it, and as such, Douwe Korff, professor of international law at the London Metropolitan University, and Ian Brown senior research fellow at the University of Oxford, performed a 90-page study, with a harsh conclusion: ACTA violates fundamental human rights.

So, the hearing about the supposed FRAND status of the three 3G patents Samsung is asserting against Apple in The Netherlands is under way. Samsung is currently pleading, and they claim that Apple has wilfully and systematically infringed these patents. They further state that Apple has refused to license the patents since the introduction of the iPhone 3G, even though Samsung offered licenses. As usual, WebWereld's Andreas Udo de Haes is covering the proceeding live on Twitter (in English). Update: Samsung offered two FRAND license options (per-patent and as a package deal). Apple declined. Apple also refused to sign an NDA, delaying negotiations (all according to Samsung, of course). Update II: Apple retort: we only buy chips from Intel, and they have a license. Second, Apple claims Samsung didn't demand a license until 2010. Update III: Massive Apple fail: lawyer reveals the percentage Samsung is demanding for its patents - this is highly confidential information. Update IV: If Apple can convince the judge of this one... Ouch!

"Samsung made comments early Friday about going on the offensive with its ongoing patent dispute with Apple, and it appears to be putting its money (and its lawyers) where its mouth is. The Korean company just filed a complaint with The Hague, seeking a ban on all sales of Apple's smartphones and tablets due to alleged infringement of four of its wireless mobile technology patents. Dutch site Webwereld.nl has the details of the new complaint filed with The Hague, which relates specifically to 3G mobile networking technologies, as well as technologies governing the transfer rate of data to mobile devices over a cellular network. Samsung's complaint covers Apple itself, as well as five other private companies that manage Apple's sales and distribution channels in the Netherlands." I'll be following the Twitter feeds from The Hague closely coming Monday when the meeting about possible FRAND licensing takes place. Let's hope Samsung manages to pull an injunction out of all this.

Well, that's interesting. What some already speculated has now been confirmed by Reuters: Apple's 'victory' in Germany turns out to be remarkably hollow. While Samsung Germany may no longer sell or advertise the Galaxy Tab 10.1, this ban does not cover anybody else. So, retailers will still be able to sell the device - including purchasing new stock from other Samsung branches.

The German court in Duesseldorf has just ruled that the injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 will remain in effect, hereby contradicting the Dutch courts which threw out all of Apple's claims. This limited injunction only covers Germany, and is based on a Community Design; the rest of Europe is not affected.Update IV: We finally have some more information from the courts, as well as a short response from Samsung. Big small reveal? The judge didn't handle the iPad at all - he only handled the community design. Read on for more. Also, older updates are in the 'read more' as well.