While Apple has been engaged in a number of high-profile patent lawsuits with its competitors offering Android-based hardware, one of the quieter disputes has gained new attention today following a discovery by FOSS Patents that Apple has in fact sued Motorola in Europe, claiming that the Motorola Xoom tablet infringes upon the design of Apple's products. The revelation comes in a court document filed in Germany and associated with the preliminary injunction granted against Samsung yesterday barring sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1.
Prior to or simultaneously with the motion for a preliminary injunction against Samsung, Apple also filed a complaint with the same court over the design of the Motorola Xoom tablet. Here's a passage from the Samsung complaint that mentions two other lawsuits Apple instigated against iPad competitors -- Motorola and a local German company named JAY-tech...
The document does not state whether Apple has pushed for a preliminary injunction against the sale of the Xoom in the European Union as it did for the Galaxy Tab 10.1, but Apple is presumably seeking a more permanent injunction against Motorola's tablet offering.
Apple also notes in its filing that a preliminary injunction against JAY-tech was granted and further upheld "in its entirety" following a hearing. Apple does not specify exactly what model of tablet from JAY-tech was the subject of the injunction, but JAY-tech last year began offering a budget 7-inch Android-based tablet, and the company no longer appears to be selling that product.
Motorola fired the first shot against Apple last October, claiming infringement of a series of 18 Motorola patents by a broad array of Apple's Mac and iOS products. Apple responded a few weeks later with a lawsuit focused on multi-touch functionality and targeting Motorola's Droid and other smartphones.
Things have generally been quiet between Apple and Motorola since the initial filings last year, but today's revelation makes clear that Apple has continued to press its case and gone on the offensive against not only Motorola's smartphones but also its tablets.
Monday December 16, 2024 8:55 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
Wednesday December 18, 2024 11:39 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain...
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital."
In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by Juli Clover
Elevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag.
Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...
Tuesday December 17, 2024 9:02 am PST by Joe Rossignol
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year.
Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
Monday December 16, 2024 4:17 pm PST by Juli Clover
Blackmagic today announced that its URSA Cine Immersive camera is now available for pre-order, with deliveries set to start late in the first quarter of 2025. Blackmagic says that this is the world's first commercial camera system designed to capture 3D content for the Vision Pro.
The URSA Cine Immersive camera was first introduced in June, but it has not been available for purchase until...
Sunday December 15, 2024 9:47 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple is planning a series of "major design" and "format changes" for iPhones over the next few years, according to The Wall Street Journal's Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie.
The paywalled report published today corroborated the widely-rumored "iPhone 17 Air" with an "ultrathin" design that is thinner than current iPhone models. The report did not mention a specific measurement, but previous...
Apple launched the controversial "trashcan" Mac Pro eleven years ago today, introducing one of its most criticized designs that persisted through a period of widespread discontentment with the Mac lineup.
The redesign took the Mac Pro in an entirely new direction, spearheaded by a polished aluminum cylindrical design that became unofficially dubbed the "trashcan" in the Mac community. All of ...
Anyone else notice that since MacRumors started posting these patent disputes as front page news that:
1) posts are a lot more aggressive with the conflicting nature of Apple v whoever
2) fanboys are out on both sides and there is little constructive debate (see posts above of, "can't innovate, litigate" versus "can't innovate, copy")
3) people simply don't understand either the complex nature of patent litigation, or believe they know it all. This leads to people thinking one side has 'won', when in reality, both sides will settle and continue their commercial relationships.
I believe we need a 'page 2' for this type of news, where interested parties can head. Right now, our community can look a tad ridiculous arguing over complex patent disputes as if we have the inside scoop.
Everyone is suing everyone else for patent infringement. Why don't they mutually agree to either open all the patents--thus paving the way for true innovation and exciting new products, or just pay each other royalties? It will probably all come out even in the end.
Because it won't encourage innovation. Why would Apple continue to innovate if other companies are allowed to sit back and copy what Apple did attempting to reap the benefit of the time and money Apple put into R&D?
