Apple Inc. is no alien to lawsuits and counter lawsuits. The most talked about lawsuit the company has been involved in is against Samsung. Time and again we hear that companies sue Apple for alleged infringement in the U.S.. However, this time Ericsson has beefed up its attempt to make Apple pay royalties by suing the company in Germany, the U.K, the Netherlands in addition to U.S. filings.

Kasim Alfalahi, Ericsson’s chief IP officer said, “Everybody needs to take a license for the technologies we are providing to them”. He further added, “It’s a very serious thing, regardless of who the company is.”

Apple Inc. had singed a licensing agreement with Ericsson and paid royalties for use of its intellectual property until the license expired in mid-January. Failed talks over renewal fees is likely the cause behind Ericsson now seeking court ruling in this matter.

When the news about this lawsuit broke Ericsson shared took a huge leap of 6.3 percent. The company ‘s market value has risen to $38 billion.

Apple in its complaint in January mentioned that Ericsson, “seeks to exploit its patents to take the value of these cutting-edge Apple innovations” and referred to their tactic as “abusive licensing practices.”

Legal battles aren’t new in tech industry and we will just have to wait and see how this one turns out. Many intellectual property activists have highlighted the need to reform patent litigation given the massive scale and implication of these lawsuits.

After a number of lawsuits in San Francisco regarding the iPhone’s liquid sensor in the charging and headphone port. Apple has reportedly agreed to pay out $53 million in the settlement, after the company has been accused of not honoring the device’s one year standard warranty on the grounds that the liquid sensor had been activated.

However, in these cases, the customers claimed that the liquid sensor was and can be activated by humidity in the air. A number of iPhone users use their devices in places high in humidity such as in the bathroom during showers or in the kitchen as timers. This can cause the iPhone’s liquid sensor in the charging port to turn pink or red, which indicates to Apple’s Genius staff that the device had contact with some type of liquid.

The liquid sensor consists of a white indicator tape, which according to the manufacturer, 3M, can be triggered by humidity in the air. A report from Wired noted 3M’s statement and wrote details on this issue. The iPhone has up to 4 sensors on the device, 2 that are visible externally and 2 internal. However, Apple has the right to turn away customers if any one of the sensors are pink or red. Many customers claim that this is an unfair rule and requires lots of out of pocket costs, even if it isn’t the consumer’s fault.

{Via iMore}

According to Reuters, Nokia is now in support of Apple in its court battle against Samsung over a number of infringed products. Apple filed suit against Samsung to block the sale of products that were previously ruled as infringed. Nokia’s attorney Keith Broyles filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals, claiming that Judge Lucy Koh was wrong in when she ruled that Apple would have to justify the relationship between the patented feature and the demand for a product before an injunction could be filed.

Apple and Samsung have been locked in an all out legal war, after the two companies disputed over a patent in 2009, which was later settled through a licensing agreement. Nokia’s brief was not filed in direct support of Apple but was instead done under the terms that Koh’s ruling could potentially harm the United States patent protection operations. Without patents being rightfully granted and injunctions being rejected, Broyles believes that innovation could take a negative hit.

Nokia has recently been involved in numerous U.S. patent lawsuits, as both a plaintiff and defendant. Nokia is thus both a significant patent owner that might seek an injunction to protect its patent rights, and a manufacturer in an industry in which patent owners routinely issue threats of injunctions for patent infringement.

In recent months, Samsung has become a serious competitor for Apple in the mobile devices market, particularly with positive sales of its Galaxy S and Note devices. With the patent battle ongoing in court, and competition in the market heating up between the two companies, it is not surprising that a company such as Nokia would come out in support of Apple.

Without injunctions and some products being banned from sale, the innovative drive in the mobile devices market is lost, instead producing a number of clone copies of one device such as the iPhone.

{Via MacRumors}

It seems now that Nokia has joined hands with Microsoft and its Windows Phone 7 operating system they’re not scared of anyone. Now they’re going after Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) again over patents relating to various mobile devices.

In a new complaint filed with the US International Trace Commission, Nokia claims Apple violated patents “in virtually all of its mobile phones, portable music players, tablets, and computers.” Not much then!

The two companies have been at loggerheads for a while now, ever since the Finnish phone giant first filed its patent infringement lawsuit in 2009. Since then the pair have exchanged patent claims on a regular basis, with Apple also throwing their weight around in court.

Just days ago Nokia lost the first battle however, with a judge ruling Apple did not violate any of the patents Nokia originally claimed in its first filing back on 09. Unsurprisingly, Nokia “does not agree with the ITC’s initial determination.” according to an announcement today.

Now it seems Nokia is gearing up for another two years of back and forth legal fun with one of the richest companies on the planet.

Good luck with that.

{Via CNET}

Further lawsuits also challenged Apple’s right to control what software you could put on your iPhone, and alleged that Apple and AT&T were dishonest when they sold 2 year contracts to customers for iPhones, when they knew that they had an exclusive 5 year deal to sell the device together.

Over the past few years a few of these lawsuits have built up, and Apple has sold some 50 Million iPhones.

Today a Judge in California has disallowed some of the claims (pertaining to more spurious arguments), and said that others can be consolidated into one class action suit. Furthermore, anyone who bought an iPhone with a 2 year contract on AT&T since 2007 can also join the action.

The ultimate aim of the lawsuit is to stop Apple selling locked mobile phones in the US, and also controlling what software is installed on them.

All this seems a little bit like bolting the stable door after the horse has bolted as the iPhone will more than likely be on other carriers in the US early next year.

I am guessing that somewhere along the line lawyers and customers will be looking to line their pockets with some kind of compensation for “pain and suffering”, or other similar ludicrous claim. And at the end of the day this is another “financial fishing trip” at Apple’ and AT&T’s expense.

Do you think this will open iPhone contracts up for other carriers? Or do you think this could bring Apple’s App Store tumbling down? Let us know your thoughts in the comments…

Taxi Jam Tips and Tricks

So you’ve started your own taxi cab business but no sooner have you dropped off your first passengers some others are getting extremely angry to the extent that they glow red, throb and ultimately explode, in addition your cars start crashing into each other and not to mention head on collisions with the emergency services! Luckily all this is via the new iPhone/iPod Touch app Taxi Jam and therefore there’s no risk that you are going to be getting a visit from multiple lawyers with multiple lawsuits.

So how do you avoid all these potential hazards in Taxi Jam opening up the new cities and ultimately climb that high score table.

1. During the early stages where there’s not much going on, you can make directing your cab easy by simply dragging your finger from point A to point B and let the cab direct itself. As the game heats up though being more specific with your directions are definitely required.

2. Try to keep the number of cars for passengers around them same for as long as you can. Moving multiple cars when you don’t need to is just hard work.

3. Keep your cars off of the drop off points if they are waiting for another pickup. This way you don’t need to move them if another cab needs to drop off.

4. When directing cabs to drop off passengers drag the car through the drop off point and onto another parking location or if available straight to another passenger. The cab will then drop the passenger off and go straight on to it’s next location.

5. As the numbers of cabs and passengers progress try to keep the cabs to a specific area of the map, that way there is unnecessary criss-crossing of paths. Obviously if the passenger you pick up needs to be dropped off on the other side of town you’ll have no choice.

6. You don’t lose anything for picking up and dropping of an angry customer, so if it’s easier to send a close cab after they’ve dropped another passenger off then do so, as long as you do catch them before they explode!

7. Watch out of exclamation marks over your cabs as this means there paths collide. However as long as you time it right there’s no need to re-direct all potential collisions.

8. Although the emergency vehicle will display their route on the map the side of the map they originate from varies so do hesitate in moving cars that are in it’s path out of the way starting with the cars on the edge of the map.

9. Keeping the right amount of cabs out on the streets is key but if you find yourself with too many cabs out on the road all at the same time simply drag them back into the taxi rank on the left hand side to park them safely away.

10. If you are wondering what you have to do to get to open up the later levels it’s this, simply pick up and drop off 100 passengers in each city. And with these tips and some practice you shouldn’t have any problems

Tips By: Craig Willis

Share Your Tips!