This whole battle of tech intellectual property is getting, or has gotten, out of hand. It seems that every company that you know the name of is suing or is being sued for something that they have done. Most notably for readers of this site though, is the attack on Android from all sides. Visual.ly has massed together some of the numbers and has put their infographic spin on it, and the whole thing looks just as confusing as you would expect.

Even though the court-recommended talks between Samsung and Apple were supposed to start later this month, it seems the two companies have started pulling back a bit from their thermonuclear patent war. Monday, Apple filed to narrow their patent claims against Samsung to nearly half of what they originally were. Samsung responded hours later by shaving five claims off of their suit against Apple as well.

While this is a far cry from things being resolved, this might make it easier for the two to come to a complete settlement. If something is not agreed upon, the trial is set to go to court in July.

Via: BGR

According to “people familiar with the matter,” Google’s acquisition of Motorola could clear through the U.S. Justice Department as early as next week. Proposed back in August to the tune of $12.5 billion, we can’t wait this deal to be completed. As fans of Motorola’s hardware and haters of their bootloader policies, one can hope that Google will step int to help preserve the integrity of Android. They have said time and time again that Moto will act as its own entity, but that doesn’t mean policies can’t change to better match those of Google’s.

And aside from the software side of Android, this obviously allows Google to use Motorola’s patent portfolio at will going forward. Tech patent battles are not going to end any time soon.

Will your impressions of Motorola change once this deal finalized? Or will you need to see immediate action from Google in order to accept Moto back into your life?

Via:  WSJ

Motorola took its battle with Apple to a Florida court today, claiming that a couple of the Cupertino giant’s products including the iPhone 4S infringe upon six of of their patents. The patents involve technologies that utilize wireless antennae, software, data filtering and messaging. This suit follows up Moto’s win in German courts last month, a case that could force a ban on iPhones and iPads in the country.

Ugh.

Via:  Reuters

According to an unnamed Samsung official that spoke with the Korea Herald, the Galaxy Nexus lock screen is not actually the target in Apple’s latest patent lawsuit against the company in Germany. To recap, FOSS Patents had originally reported that the Nexus may violate Apple’s slide-to-unlock patent, and that it was their newest target to try and rid the world of Android. The Samsung official had this to say:

“We’re aware that there was a hearing involving Apple’s slide-to-unlock feature after our patent infringement case last Friday and a series of products in the Galaxy lineup were accused there, but what we’ve discovered is that the Galaxy Nexus wasn’t one of them,” the company official said.

Well, cross that off the list? Should we assume that they are attacking some other Samsung product for using some sort of slide-to-unlock screen? Seems odd, especially knowing the careful measures that Sammie has taken to make their lock screens not slide-to-unlock. In fact, in the newest versions of TouchWiz, you have to touch the screen to activate it, and can then move your finger to either side to trigger the lock to unlock. On older phones, you slide the entire screen off to unlock rather than use a sliding bar mechanism.

And the patent war rolls on…

Via:  Korea Herald, Android Central

Newsweek’s technology editor Dan Lyons took to his personal blog yesterday to report on a spicy rumor that had cruised into his inbox concerning Apple and their patent war with HTC. According to his source, Apple spent upwards of $100 million in their first patent suit with HTC, a case that provided them with what most would consider a minimal win. In fact, that $100 million (which is unconfirmed by the way) awarded them justice over a single feature (the original suit was 10 patents) that HTC already claims to have a work-around for. Yikes. No licensing deal was struck – HTC simply plans to manipulate their products to avoid any further issues.

I think we all know that Steve Jobs hated Android with a passion. He claimed that it was a “stolen” product and that he was willing to go “thermonuclear war” and spend every last billion that Apple had in the bank to try and right what he considered a wrong. At this point though, hasn’t this whole Apple vs. Android battle started to look like a company acting not as a business, but as someone with a personal vendetta? OK, that may be stating the obvious. That’s exactly what it appears like. I would just worry that they are basing major business decisions off of emotion, which can be one heck of a scary thing- and I don’t mean for their competitors.

Via:  Dan Lyons

In another non-surprising patent trolling move, Apple has made the Galaxy Nexus from Samsung their next target in German courts. In this latest trolling journey, the folks from Cupertino have decided that the unlock mechanism in the G-Nex infringes on their slide-to-unlock patent. [insert eye roll]

Without having any clue as to how a court would react to this, I’ll just offer my opinion on the differences between the two lock screens. First, Android’s is not a “slide-to-unlock” lock screen. I would argue that Google expected a move like this from Apple, which is why starting with Honeycomb, we saw the introduction of the globe that can be moved to unlock the device. It is no longer a slide.

Apple’s lock screen is true a “slide-to-unlock” gesture, as it is a bar that moves from left to right to unlock. Android’s – at least in 3.0+ – no longer acts this way. Upon touching the lock globe, you can move it in a complete 360 (up, down, left, right or at angles) before deciding whether or not you want to unlock or jump into the camera. While some may gawk at that as being a difference maker, just remember that these are patents and the broken system they make up we are talking about. The tiny details like this are what can make the difference in winning or losing one of these cases.

Just some thoughts.

Via:  AllThingsD, Foss Patents

In an attempt to not bore you with the ongoing patent war that Apple has waged against anyone who manufactures an Android phone, we will cut straight to the point here. Thankfully this time – unlike in HTC’s most recent case – we have good news. The ITC (International Trade Commission) has ruled that Motorola does not violate any of 3 patents that Apple included in the suit. The case was originally started back in 2010, suffered through a ruling delay, and is now finding an initial determination. I’m hesitant to say that we should all run around flippin’ the bird to anyone with an Apple product, because Moto has made it clear that this is an “initial” ruling. Definitely good news though.

The brief statement from Motorola is below.