Apple-Google patent trial pushed

A federal judge canceled a scheduled June 11 trial between Apple and Google's Motorola Mobility unit over patents related to mobile phones and tablet computers, and expects to dismiss the case because neither can prove damages. 

In a "tentative" order, US Circuit Judge Richard Posner in Chicago on Thursday said each company's case should be dismissed with prejudice, meaning it cannot be brought up again. 

He said neither Apple nor Motorola Mobility had enough admissible evidence of damages to withstand dismissal. 

Posner also said to grant injunctions against infringements "would impose costs disproportionate to the harm to the patentee and the benefit of the alleged infringement to the alleged infringer and would be contrary to the public interest." 

The judge said he expects to more fully explain his reasoning in a written opinion within one week. Posner normally handles appeals, rather than cases in trial court. 

"We are pleased by the Illinois trial court's tentative ruling today dismissing Apple's patent claims and look forward to receiving the full decision," Google said in a statement. Apple declined to comment. 

The trial, which would have been before a jury, would have been the first between the companies since Google last month bought Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.

It is one of many lawsuits worldwide pitting Apple, whose iPhone is the world's most popular smartphone, against Motorola Mobility, whose parent produces the Android operating system.

In 2012, the iPhone is expected to capture more than 20 per cent of the global smartphone market, while 61 per cent of smartphones will use the Android system, International Data Corp said on Wednesday.

Apple had sued Motorola Mobility for alleged infringements of four patents, but a May 22 ruling by Posner scuttled its damages claims on two of those patents. Motorola Mobility had sued over one patent.

Apple is based in Cupertino, California, and Google is based in Mountain View, California.

The case is Apple et al vs Motorola et al, US District Court, Northern District of Illinois, No. 11-08540.

Source:TOI

Apple may block Samsung Galaxy SIII sales in US

An Apple lawyer said the iPhone and iPad maker may seek a legal order stopping the launch of Samsung Electronics's Galaxy S III phone in the United States later this month. 

At a hearing on Thursday in a San Jose,California federal court, Apple attorney Josh Krevitt said the company could file for a temporary restraining order against Samsung as early as Friday. 

"Once sales are made, the harm is irreparable," Krevitt said. 

However, US District Judge Lucy Koh said she has many other cases. If Apple decides to seek a restraining order, it would likely delay a July trial date over different Samsung phones, as well as the Galaxy Tab 10.1. 

"I cannot be an Apple v. Samsung judge," Koh said. 

Apple sued Samsung for patent infringement last year, accusing the South Korean electronics maker of "slavishly" copying the iPhone and iPad. Samsung denies the claims and countersued. 

Apple's comments on Thursday came a day after Samsung Electronics, the world's largestsmartphone vendor, expanded its CEO's role to include oversight of corporate strategy across the entire Samsung Group - a conglomerate of more than 80 companies. 

Choi Gee-sung, 61, spearheaded Samsung's ascension to smartphone and TV leadership and his elevation signals that the storied South Korean conglomerate is grooming its next leader. Apple filed papers this week seeking to ban Samsung's new Galaxy S III, along with the Galaxy Nexus. Samsung has already booked over 9 million preorders of the Galaxy S III, which is set to be sold by carriers in the United States on June 21, Apple said in its court filing. 

Samsung, however, argued that Apple should not be allowed to seek such a fast injunction against the Galaxy S III. 

Samsung attorney William Price also said the technology covered by Apple's patents - such as auto-correcting typed text - are not responsible for sales of Galaxy phones. 

"There is no advertising or marketing on these features at all" by Apple, Price said. 

Samsung's Galaxy products run on the Android operating system, developed by Google. In addition to Samsung's legal team, several Google attorneys attended the hearing before Koh on Thursday. 

Apple has also accused Google's Motorola Mobility unit of infringing its iPhone patents. However, a Chicago-based federal judge on Thursday tentatively scrapped a trial between those two that had been scheduled to begin next week. 

"Neither party can establish a right to relief," Judge Richard Posner wrote. 

In California, Koh did not rule from the bench on Thursday on Apple's request for an injunction on the Nexus. 

The Samsung case in US District Court, Northern District of California is Apple vs Samsung Electronics et al, 12-cv-630.

Source:TOI

Google buys startup Meebo

Google is buying Silicon Valley startup Meebo to help expand its social networking service. 

The acquisition announced will bring more tools to Google+, an alternative to Facebook's popular online hangout. Meebo started as a system for connecting people by instant message but has since built other communication features used by an audience of about 100 million web people in the US. 

Both companies are based in Mountain View, Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed. 

"We are always looking for better ways to help users share content and connect with others across the Web, just as they do in real life," Google said in a statement. "With the Meebo team's expertise in social publisher tools, we believe they will be a great fit with the Google+ team." 

Since its debut nearly a year ago, Google+ has attracted more than 170 million users. Despite that impressive growth, Google so far has had trouble persuading people to visit its social networking website as regularly as Facebook's more than 900 million users frequent its website. 

Meebo works with publishers and advertisers to help them connect with web surfers for longer periods. 

"Together with Google, we're super jazzed to roll up our sleeves and get cracking on even bigger and better ways to help users and website owners alike," Meebo wrote in a Monday blog post. 

Meebo has raised $70 million in venture capital since it was founded in 2005 by Seth Sternberg, Elaine Wherry and Sandy Jen. Sternberg, who formerly helped IBM identify acquisition targets, served as Meebo's CEO. Google has spent more than $16 billion buying 140 companies since the end of 2009. That includes the biggest deal in Google's 14-year history, a just-completed $12.5 billion acquisition of cellphone maker Motorola Mobility Holdings. 

Google shares fell 59 cents after hours to $578. They ended regular trading up $7.61 at $578.59 before the deal was announced.

Source:TOI

Google to 'warn' users on search in China

Google has fired a new salvo in a censorship battle with Beijing by adding a feature that warns users in China who enter search keywords that might produce blocked results and suggests they try other terms.

Google's announcement describes the change as a technical improvement and made no mention of Beijing's extensive Internet controls. But it comes after filters were tightened so severely in recent weeks that searches fail for some restaurants, universities or tourist information. Authorities were trying to stamp out talk about an embarrassing scandal over the fall of a rising Communist Party star.

Google Inc closed its China-based search engine in 2010 to avoid cooperating with government censorship. Mainland users can see its Chinese-language site in Hong Kong but the connection breaks if they search for sensitive terms.The new feature will alert users if they enter a search term that "may temporarily break your connection to Google," said a blog post by a Google senior vice president, Alan Eustace. He said it will suggest they "try other search terms."

"By prompting people to revise their queries, we hope to reduce these disruptions and improve our user experience from mainland China," Eustace wrote.

Google cited as an example the Chinese character "jiang," or river, without mentioning it is the name of former President Jiang Zemin, the possible reason results are blocked. It says the site will recommend removing the character.Google could anger Beijing by pointing out individual terms that might produce blocked results. Chinese regulators do not disclose which terms are banned. They try to hide censorship by returning the same error message as for a technical failure, possibly to avoid drawing attention to unwanted topics.

A Google spokesman declined to comment on whether the company was concerned about Chinese government retaliation.

Google was allowed to keep a network of advertising sales offices in China that might be vulnerable if the communist government tries to punish the company.

Google, based in Mountain View, California, had 16.6 percent of China's search market in the first quarter based on use of its global and Hong Kong sites, according to Analysys 

International, a Beijing research firm. It was in second place behind local rival Baidu Inc, which 78.5 percent, but ahead of other Chinese competitors.

Google is also promoting its Android mobile phone operating system for use by Chinese manufacturers. Beijing approved Google's $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility, a wireless device maker, last month on condition Android remains available to Chinese companies and others at no cost for five years.

Tensions over censorship highlight Beijing's complicated relations with global technology companies. The communist government wants to boost incomes by promoting high-tech industry but insists on controlling access to information.

Beijing promotes Internet use for education and business and has the world's biggest population of Internet users, with 513 million people online as of December, but tries to block politically sensitive material.

The latest tightening of controls was prompted by a flurry of rumors online about the downfall of Bo Xilai, a prominent politician who was party secretary of the major city of Chongqing in the southwest.

In addition to Bo's name, blocked terms include Chongqing and Yangtze River, which flows past the city. That means searches for universities, hotels, restaurants or other businesses that use those names also fail.

China's two most popular microblog services stopped allowing new postings for three days in early April to erase what they said were illegal or harmful postings.

Google's engineers reviewed the 350,000 most popular search queries in China in an effort to find "disruptive queries," the company said.

Google gave no indication when development of the latest feature started but said it received reports of unreliable searches "over the past couple of years."

Source:TOI.IT

Google Chromebook gets an upgrade

Google will try to win more converts to a computer operating system revolving around its popular Chrome Web browser with a new wave of lightweight laptops built by Samsung Electronics. 

Tuesday's release of the next-generation Chromebooks will give Google and Samsung another opportunity to persuade consumers and businesses to buy an unconventional computer instead of machines running on familiar software by industry pioneers Microsoft and Apple. 

Unlike most computers, Google's Chromebooks don't have a hard drive. They function like terminals dependent on an internet connection. The laptops come with 16 gigabytes of flash memory - the kind found in smartphones, tablet computers and some iPods. Two USB ports allow external hard drives and other devices to be plugged into the machines. 

Chromebooks haven't made much of a dent in the market since their debut a year ago. In that time, more people have been embracing Apple's iPad and other tablet computers - a factor that has contributed to a slowdown in sales of personal computers. 

The cool reception to Chromebooks has raised questions about whether Google misjudged the demand for computers designed to quickly connect to its dominant internet search engine and ever-expanding stable of other online services, ranging from email to a recently introduced file-storage system called Drive. "The Chromebooks have had less to offer than tablets, so they haven't been that interesting to consumers," said Gartner analyst Mika Kitagawa. 

Google says it always intended to take things slowly with the Chromebooks to give its engineers time to understand the shortcomings of the machines and make the necessary improvements. 

"This release is a big step in the journey to bringing (Chromebooks) to the mainstream," said Sundar Pichai, Google's senior vice president of Chrome and apps. 

The upgraded laptop, called "Series 5 550," is supposed to run two-and-half times faster than the original machines, and boasts higher-definition video. Google also added features that will enable users to edit documents offline, read more content created in widely used Microsoft applications such as Word and Excel, and retrieve material from another computer at home or an office. More emphasis is being placed on Chrome's Web store, which features more than 50,000 applications. 

The price: $449 for models that only connect to the internet through Wi-Fi and $549 for a machine that connects on a 3G network. Samsung's original Chromebooks started out with prices ranging from $429 to $499. Like the original Chromebooks, the next-generation machines feature a 12.1-inch screen display and run on an Intel processor. 

Google and Samsung also are introducing a "Chromebox" that can be plugged into a display monitor to create the equivalent of desktop computer. The box will sell for $329. 

The latest Chromebook and new Chromebox will be available online only, beginning in the US on Tuesday, followed by a Wednesday release in the United Kingdom. The products will go on sale in brick-and-mortar stores for the first time in still-to-be-determined Best Buy locations next month. 

The expansion beyond Internet-only sales signals Google's determination to attract a mass audience to its Chromebooks, just as it's done with smartphones running on its Android software. More than 300 million mobile devices have been activated on Android since the software's 2008 release. 

Without providing specifics, Pichai said several other computer manufacturers will release Chromebooks later this year. Google plans to back the expanded line of Chromebooks with a marketing blitz during the holiday shopping season in November and December. 

One reason Google is confident Chromebooks will eventually catch on is because the Chrome Web browser has attracted so many fans in less than four years on the market. The company says more than 200 million people worldwide currently are using the Chrome browser. 

Like other laptop and desktop computers, the Chromebooks will have to contend with the accelerating shift to the iPad and other tablets. The iPad 2, an older version of Apple's tablet line, sells for as little as $399, undercutting the new Chromebook. Other low-cost tablets are expected to hit the market later this year. One of them might even be made by Motorola Mobility, a device maker that Google bought for $12.5 billion earlier this month. Google so far hasn't commented on Motorola's future plans for the tablet market. 

The new Chromebooks also are hitting the market at a time when some prospective computer buyers may be delaying purchases until they can check out machines running on Windows 8, a makeover of Microsoft's operating system that is expected to be released in September or October. Microsoft designed Windows 8 so it can be controlled through touch as well as keyboards. That versatility is expected to inspire the creation of hybrid machines that are part laptop, part tablet. 

Google shares added $2.81 Tuesday to close at $594.34.

Source: TOI.IT