On August 2, Tucson-based company Research Corporation Technologies (RCT) won a reversal of a federal court decision that had found RCT's six patents-in-suit unenforceable due to "inequitable conduct" and denied RCT's charges of patent infringement by Microsoft. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had also granted Microsoft a summary judgment finding the patents invalid and non-infringed.

RCT has also licensed its "Blue Noise Mask" digital imaging patents to HP, Lexmark, and Epson.

Microsoft continues to maintain that the RCT patents are invalid and not infringed by Windows or Office.

March 30, 2008 - Zap Media, an Atlanta-based media services company, is suing Apple for patent infringement. Zap's patent, U.S. patent no. 7020704, covers a "system and method for distributing media assets to user devices via a portal synchronized by said user devices."

The company claims that its patent is infringed by iPod and iTunes.

Welcome to Patent Claim's blog. We will update this blog with Patent Claim and industry news.

June 30, 2008 - Typhoon Touch Technologies and its licensee Nova Mobility Systems have filed an amended complaint in their lawsuit against Dell and Xplore Technologies. The new complaint adds 12 more defendants to the lawsuit - including Apple - and claims that nearly every company making a touchscreen phone or tablet PC infringes on its two patents, 5,379,057 and 5,675,362, both titled "Portable computer with touch screen and computing system employing same."

May 18, 2008 - Apple has filed a lawsuit against Atico International USA, alleging patent and trademark infringement resulting from Atico's sales of various unauthorized iPod accessories.

Atico's iPod accessories are marketed under the name "Living Solutions" and are sold online and in stores such as Walgreen's drug stores.

Apple charges manufacturers a royalty on all official iPod accessories.

May 16, 2008 - Eastman Kodak announced that it has settled its patent dispute with St. Clair Intellectual Property Consultants, Inc., which had filed a complaint against Eastman Kodak with the US International Trade Commission in January 2007. The complaint alleged that Kodak infringed St. Clair's patents pertaining to certain digital cameras and component parts.

May 15, 2008 - A federal judge has ordered Nintendo of America to pay $21 million to Anascape, a Texas company that owns a portfolio of patents related to game controllers.

Anascape sued Nintendo in 2006, claiming that Nintendo's Gamecube controller, the Wavebird wireless pad and the Wii Classic add-on infringed several of Anascape's patents.

Microsoft was also sued by Anascape in 2006, but settled with them earlier this month for an undisclosed amount.

May 13, 2008 - Jibbitz LLC, the maker of ornamental charms for Crocs shoes, won a $56 million default judgment against a Chinese company that was found to infringe on 179 of Jibbetz's copyrighted designs, had 33 additional designs that were "identical or deceptively similar" to Jibbetz designs and even used the Jibbetz name and logo on their website.

The defendants - Jeffrey Ye, Yuanhui Chen, Jinjiang Huakai Shoes & Garments Co. Ltd. and Xiamen Unibest Import & Export Co. Ltd. - did not respond to the complaint and failed to appear at a March hearing for a preliminary injunction.

April 1, 2008 - A U.S. court has thrown out the new U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rules designed to limit the size of patent applications, a ruling that pleased GlaxoSmithKline Plc.

The company, Europe's largest drugmaker, had been concerned that many of their patent applications would exceed the maximum application size and need to be refiled.

As the patent office takes an average of 32 months to approve or reject a patent, having to refile would deal a major blow to Glaxo and other large pharmaceutical companies with large patent portfolios.

March 28, 2008 - In a lawsuit filed by Hynix Semiconductor and two other firms (Micron, a U.S. company, and Nanya, a Taiwanese company), a court in San Jose, California decided that Rambus did not violate an anti-trust law with its patent on DRAM manufacturing technology.

However, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission accepted the opinion of the global chip industry and had recently made a tentative decision that Rambus violated anti-trust laws. It's quite possible that all chipmakers use Rambus' patented technology, so the industry has been watching the Rambus v. Hynix case carefully.