December 19, 2011 - Kyocera Corp. had filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Eastman Kodak Co. in San Diego federal court. Kyocera alleges that Kodak infringes its patent that covers the "recording head structure" used in inkjet printers.
Kyocera seeks unspecified damages and an injunction on manufacturing and selling printers that use the patented technology.
December 19, 2011 - British Telecommunications, better known as British Telecom or simply BT, recently became the fifth large publicly-traded company to sue Google Inc. for patent infringement related to Android. (The other four are Apple, Oracle, Microsoft and eBay.)
December 12, 2011 - Apple has signed a cross-licensing deal with a company called Digitude Innovations, a non-practicing entity (NPE) that recently filed suit against several of Apple's competitors at the International Trade Commission. The deal gives Apple immunity from a Digitude lawsuit while providing Digitude with more ammunition to pursue Apple's rivals.
December 6, 2011 - The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has initiated a patent litigation pilot program designed to keep patent cases from dragging on for years and incurring outrageous expenses. Fourteen federal district courts in ten states were chosen for the program, which aims to help judges develop expertise in patent litigation and help courts adopt local rules to speed cases along.
December 4, 2011 - In part of their ongoing, worldwide legal battle over smartphones and tablets (referred to by this CNET blogger as "an around-the-world-in-80-lawsuits scenario"), Apple requested a preliminary injunction which would have banned the U.S. sale of four Samsung products.
December 1, 2011 - Asset management company Research Affiliates LLC filed a patent infringement lawsuit against WisdomTree Investments, Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Research Affiliates claims that WisdomTree infringes three patents related to methods and systems for index-based investing.
December 1, 2011 - For years, Pfizer Inc. has depended on the cholesterol drug Lipitor to produce almost one-fifth of its income. But the patent for Lipitor expired in late November, and as the world's best-selling prescription drug goes generic, Pfizer is looking for ways to retain at least some of their market share.
November 28, 2011 - A panel of judges at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office found in favor of InSite Vision Inc. in a patent interference dispute with the University of California, San Francisco.
The patent interference litigation concerned two patents, assigned to InSite Vision, which cover InSite's AzaSite products for treating bacterial eye infections.
November 23, 2011 - Taiwan-based DRAM-maker Nanya Technology Corp. filed a patent infringement complaint with the International Trade Commission against Elpida Memory Inc., Elpida Memory (USA) Inc., and Kingston Technology Co. Inc.
Nanya claims that Elpida DRAM infringes four of Nanya's U.S. patents, and has asked the ITC to block Elpida from importing or selling its DRAMs in the U.S.
November 23, 2011 - A company called Personal Audio LLC filed a patent infringement suit against Amazon. Personal Audio recently won a jury verdict of $12 million from Apple in a similar lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims that the act of downloading a "navigable playlist" to Amazon's new tablet PC, the Kindle Fire, infringes two Personal Audio patents.