March 26, 2012 - Facing a patent lawsuit filed against it by Yahoo, Facebook bought 750 patents from IBM to boost its portfolio. The patents are said to cover software and networking.
Prior to this purchase and the Yahoo lawsuit, Facebook also acquired patents from Hewlett-Packard and Friendster. It also has 56 issued patents and 503 filed patent applications.
Smartrac Takes a License under Leighton Technologies’ “Contactless Cards” Patents
Talk about a wild ride: Patent owner Marine Polymer Technologies won its patent infringement lawsuit against HemCon, Inc., only to have that decision reversed by the CAFC, and then reinstated (along with a $29.4 million damages award) by the CAFC last week.
March 19, 2012 - A Federal judge in California ordered Fresenius USA Inc. to pay Baxter International Inc. over $23.5 million in damages and royalties in their patent infringement litigation that has lasted almost nine years.
The patent that Fresenius was found to infringe covers touch-screen interfaces on kidney dialysis machines.
Almost two years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (in the infamous Bilski case) that the "machine or transformation" test was not the only measure of patentability, the debate over whether software or business methods should be patentable still rages. And the waters have gotten even murkier, with the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) ruling differently on software patents in different cases.
Yahoo's filing of a patent lawsuit against Facebook just as the social networking giant prepares for its IPO has created plenty of buzz in the IP community. GPC's Alexander Poltorak speculated about Yahoo's goals and Facebook's probable strategy for fighting the lawsuit. (Facebook in a tough position, experts say, The Washington Post, March 13, 2012)
Yahoo, one of the pioneers of the Internet, sued Facebook this week for allegedly infringing patents related to various aspects of social networking and online advertising.
March 13, 2012 - Yahoo has followed through with the patent lawsuit it threatened Facebook with last month, filing suit against the social networking site as it prepares for its upcoming IPO.
March 11, 2012 - The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas unveiled a model e-discovery order, adding it as an appendix to the local rules amendments (PDF document) it posted on its website.
The e-discovery model is roughly based on one presented by Judge Randall Rader, Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, last year and is approved for use by judges of the CAFC.
March 9, 2012 - On March 8, the judge presiding over Kodak's bankruptcy proceedings denied Apple's request to file a complaint against Kodak with the International Trade Commission.
March 5, 2012 - PanoMap Technologies LLC, a Florida company, filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple and Google in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. PanoMap alleges that its patent, U.S. Patent No. 6,563,529, is infringed by the use of Google Maps' Street View on the iPad and iPhone.
PanoMap's patent relates to "a method and system for indicating the camera position, direction and field of view in a map or panoramic image."