Samsung has been known to go on the offensive with its marketing and advertising, but a new accusation alleges that Samsung might have gone too far with a recent campaign. According to a complaint filed in Taiwan, Samsung has been accused of hiring students to publish articles on the web that attacked HTC and recommended Samsung cell phones. The allegations are now being investigated by the Fair Trade Commission and could face an $835,000 fine, AFP reported. While the company hasn’t discussed any specific allegations, Samsung did admit fault to an extent due to employees’ “insufficient understanding” of its marketing principles, and it has issued the following statement to the media: More →
European antitrust regulators are said to have accepted Google’s settlement terms following a two-year antitrust investigation into the company’s search and advertising practices. The European Union launched an investigation after several companies alleged that Google was promoting its own services ahead of the competition. The company recently proposed a deal that would have it specifically label its own properties within its search results and also display links from rival search engines in certain situations. The New York Times reports that regulators have accepted Google’s settlement offer, and the deal won’t require the company to change its search algorithm. More →
When a Microsoft (MSFT)-led group called Fairsearch Europe filed an antitrust complaint against Google (GOOG) and its Android platform this week, it didn’t merely say that the company was rigging its search results to benefit its own products. Instead, it went a step further and said that Google was unfairly promoting Android to device manufacturers by making it free to use, while also accusing the company of employing “predatory distribution of Android at below-cost.” Ars Technica’s Timothy Lee finds this sort of attack on Android to be very dangerous on Microsoft’s part since it seemingly isn’t just attacking Google but the entire nature of open-source software. More →
BlackBerry (BBRY) is very unhappy with Detwiler Fenton analyst Jeff Johnston. The company is accusing Johnston of making false claims about BlackBerry Z10 return rates in the U.S. and it plans to ask regulators in both the United States and Canada to launch a formal investigation into the matter. Johnston on Thursday claimed that “key retail partners have seen a significant increase in Z10 returns to the point where, in several cases, returns are now exceeding sales, a phenomenon we have never seen before.” BlackBerry Chief Legal Officer Steve Zipperstein says that these claims are “materially false and misleading” and says that they were “deliberately purveyed for the purpose of influencing the markets.” BlackBerry’s full press release is posted below.
The plethora of patent suits filed by or against Apple (AAPL) and Android vendors over the past couple of years has driven many judges to angry tirades. Now, U.S. District Judge Robert Scola has joined this elite club by slamming both Apple and Google (GOOG) for allegedly abusing the patent litigation system. Bloomberg reports that Scola issued an order on Wednesday that lambasted the two companies for allegedly having “no interest in efficiently and expeditiously resolving this dispute” and of “using this and similar litigation worldwide as a business strategy that appears to have no end.” More →
A small Internet company in the United Kingdom has filed a lawsuit against Google (GOOG) for allegedly promoting its own services ahead of the competition in its search results. Streetmap, an Internet maps provider similar to Google Maps, claims that Google’s “cynical manipulation of search results” has resulted in its products becoming “harder to find,” Bloomberg reported. In addition to a similar suit that took place in Brazil last fall, Google is currently being investigated by the European Union over it controversial search practices. A Google spokesperson declined to comment, telling Bloomberg that he hasn’t seen Streetmap’s complaint.
Germany’s Federal Patent Court on Wednesday handed Apple (AAPL) a significant victory in its ongoing legal battle with Samsung. The court ruled that one of Samsung’s (005930) patents that the company had declared was essential to 3G wireless standards was entirely invalid, FOSS Patents reported. Samsung had used its 3G patent and other wireless standard-essential patents in an attempt to receive an injunction against Apple’s products. The iPhone maker was willing to license the company’s technology, however, and Samsung withdrew its injunction requests, although it continued to pursue damages. The invalidation ruling in Germany is expected to impact Samsung’s lawsuits in other countries such as Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The company will have an opportunity to appeal the decision.
Law enforcement officers raided the headquarters of Samsung’s (005930) display unit in South Korea this week over allegations that it stole OLED technology from LG Display (LPL), Bloomberg reported. Officers sought to gather evidence and determine whether partners of the rival display-maker leaked its technology secrets and if Samsung was involved in any way. The two companies have been butting heads recently with a string of patent infringement lawsuits stemming from charges filed against six LG employees who were found to have stolen Samsung’s OLED technology last July. More →
The lulz are over for three hackers who have pleaded guilty to conducting cyberattacks against high-profile websites in the United States and the United Kingdom. The Guardian reports that three British hackers from the LulzSec collective — Ryan Ackroyd, 26; Jake Davis, 20; and Mustafa Al-Bassam, 18 — admitted to hacking websites belonging to Sony (SNE), News International and the U.K.’s National Health Service. The three hackers are set to receive their sentences on May 14th along with fellow LulzSec hacker Ryan Cleary, who last year pleaded guilty to hacking into websites for the Pentagon, the CIA, the NHS, News International, PBS, Sony, Nintendo and the 20th Century Fox film studio.
When last we heard of the “Scroogled” campaign, Microsoft (MSFT) had moved its efforts from the public relations front to the legal front and was pushing for legislation that would help keep Google Apps out of public schools in Massachusetts. Now The New York Times reports that the Microsoft-led Fairsearch Europe advocacy group has filed a formal complaint against Google with European antitrust officials alleging that Google is using Android “as a deceptive way to build advantages for key Google apps in 70% of the smartphones shipped today” by giving its own apps such as YouTube and Gmail preference over alternatives. More →
Apple’s (AAPL) quest to trademark the term “iPad mini” is now back on track now that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has withdrawn its main objections to trademarking the name of the company’s smaller tablet. MacRumors reports that the USPTO withdrew its “primary objection to Apple’s application related to all of the elements of the ‘iPad mini’ name having been judged as descriptive rather than contributing to a unique product name.” MacRumors notes that the USPTO’s original objections were fairly easy to overturn since the company merely needed “to show that the ‘iPad mini’ term was an extension of its already distinctive ‘iPad’ trademark and submit a new specimen satisfying the examiner’s objection.”
A San Francisco-based startup is looking to kill off companies that buy and enforce patents in the technology sector but do nothing else with their IP. Unified Patents is looking to recruit companies of all sizes for a collective effort to end patent infringement lawsuits brought forth by patent trolls, The Wall Street Journal reported. The startup plans to protect its members with a variety of strategies, one of which will be to use its smaller members as an early warning system for when patent trolls look to purchase their technology or threaten them with litigation. More →
