Google’s antitrust accusations in Europe haven’t faded away as they might have hoped, and now new anti-competitive allegations have been levied against the search giant’s mobile operating system, Android.

The new allegations come from a French group called Fairseach whose members include Microsoft, Nokia and Oracle! The group claims that Google is deceiving users of Android and tricking them to use Google apps rather than competitors.

It’s all rather petty and honestly quite insulting. Android has been customized to benefit third parties ever since the OS launched. The latest example being Facebook Home which uses Facebook’s apps in place of the native Google offerings. Will Facebook also be targeted? What’s more, Android users are educated and curious enough to choose apps which they prefer and suit them best, it just happens Google’s apps often turn out to be the best.

We ask you Microsoft, if Android’s promotion of Google Apps is so terrible– why is it that you do the same with Windows Phone 8?

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In the past Google has taken a lot of flak over the amount of data they collect on their users.  This would be a goldmine in the wrong hands, which makes us curious how much info Google willing releases to law enforcement.  The answer? Apparently Google is pretty tight lipped about what they know about you, unless all the T’s are crossed and the I’s dotted.

According to Google’s legal team if an inquiry is received from the Feds or law enforcement in regards to getting access to your email account, they first make sure the request is a legal and lawful request.  Once that has been determined, they will analyze the scope of the request, making sure they are not asking for too much.  If they are, Google will reply asking them to narrow their scope of investigation or outright refuse the request.  They will do none of this without a valid, signed, search warrant.  And finally if an inquiry is received, Google will notify you of the inquiry so you may seek appropriate legal counsel.

All this is quite refreshing and I hope Google isn’t just fluffing our skirts, but it appears they are looking out for the little guy.  This should put those at ease that were worried about just how much Google really knows about you!

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One of the most handy features on my LG Android smartphone is the ability to look up numbers through the browser, tap them, and have them launch into the phone dialer. While this certainly isn’t the most impressive feature on my phone, I still am glad to have it.

Of course I may not have this option on my next Android phone purchase, thanks to Apple.

Apple has won a patent case against HTC in the US that deals with this “text scan for phone numbers” technology.

HTC has suggested they plan on removing the technology altogether from their phones in order to prevent the infringement. Although this case was only won against HTC, many other Android phone makers might follow suite to avoid an Apple lawsuit in the future.

Does winning this lawsuit against HTC really help Apple sell more phones? Not really. I highly doubt that users will abandon HTC based solely on the lack of this one feature. In the end it really just effects us end-users who are losing features simply because of very minor patent laws.

I understand the importance of protecting patents, but in such a small scenario it is hardly a big deal in my opinion. With Apple setting up lawsuits everywhere regarding its competing smartphones, I would expect us to lose even more features on Android (and even WP7) in the future.

Do I hate Apple for it? No, I like Apple and its products, I just wish they would take less aggressive measures when going after patents that largely won’t help them sell any more iPhones than they did before.

The post Apple Wins Patent Suite Against HTC appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Samsung’s goal is to have a ban on sales of the iPhone 4S in Australia. After temporary bans on sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Samsung has been accusing Apple of infringing on multiple patents in courts in Europe and now in Australia. Samsung’s legal counsel in Australia is claiming that Samsung needs access to the Apple source code and other information in order to properly make a case for a ban on the iPhone 4S in the country.

Interestingly, Apple claims that it had properly licensed the intellectual property. Apple suggests Samsung did agree to license the patents to them, but experts believe that Samsung is planning to argue that the patent agreement under the FRAND standard doesn’t extend to Australia.

The case, scheduled to resume on November 4th, is being presided over by the same judge that had handed down the ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Many, including Apple’s legal counsel, believe the court date may be too late for Samsung to be granted any injunctive action, as the iPhone 4S has already been on sale in Australia for over two weeks.

The post We Want The Source Code appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Lodsys is a company which purchases potentially great and super broad patents, and it employs these patents to threaten to litigate those who “might be infringing” on them. They do this by searching for a patent, finding out how many people are working on it and then they buy that patent.

Just a month ago, Google mustered the courage to protect and defend the Android coders against Lodsys. A few months earlier, Apple had also waged a fight against the patent troll.

After US President Obama had just signed a legislation on the nation’s shift to a “first to file” system from the “first to invent”, the issue about patent reform has become really sizzling hot.

You might think that this is no help to the patent troll situation at hand, and in fact, the legislation could exacerbate the matter. According to researchers Mike Meurer and James Bessen from the Boston University, patent trolling costs around $500B since 1990.

The two researchers also expounded that the cost of patent litigation has been exceeding benefits and rewards bestowed to the inventors from the year 2000. Since then, the problem got out of hand. Bessen and Meurer stated that within the past four years, the expenditure has an average of $83 billion annually and this is a lot greater than a quarter of industrial research and development funds in the United States during those times.
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Think about that for a moment. Rather than going after the Googs directly, Apple is systematically approaching the various manufacturers that produce Android tablets. In addition to Samsung, Apple also has active legal battles with the likes of Motorola and HTC, among others, citing “slavish copying” of the Apple design.

Apple has already managed to block sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia and the EU, for instance. Perhaps Apple’s legal team thinks that it’s easier going after specific products in specific markets, rather than launching a broad-sweeping battle against the entire Google Android operating system and ecosystem. One way to beat the competition is to prevent them from selling their products in the first place.

Android has already usurped iOS on the smartphone front and it’s steadily picking up pace with tablets too. In fact, projections have Android tablet sales skyrocketing to 230 million by 2015. Compare that to last year’s 20 million. By going after the manufacturers, Apple could charge them licensing fees to use Apple-esque features that are found in Android, making the latter OS less “free” to implement.

The post Apple lawsuits against Samsung, etc. are really against Google? appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

It seems that we hear about a new lawsuit every day and it’s getting more and more confusing by the minute. Apple is suing HTC for over 20 different software patents. Kodak is suing Samsung for something about image storage and movie previews.

With so many lawsuits being handed in every which direction, how can you keep track of it all? Well, the very kind folks at InformationIsBeautiful.net were kind enough to put together this “simple” infographic that culls together as much data as they could from the Guardian and New York Times.

You can see that Nokia has suits against both Hitachi and Sharp over LCD price fixing. Sony Ericsson is suing Kodak over the handling of digital images. And Microsoft is suing Motorola about email contact patents. Confused as ever? Yeah, me too.

And do you know who wins at the end of the day? It’s not the consumer. It’s not the tech titan. It’s the lawyers. Just like the whole legal kerfuffle over Google Books and the scanning of copyright material.

VIA: Gadget Review
SOURCE: Information is Beautiful

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