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Recall that Rockstar started asserting patents it acquired from Nortel by filing a lawsuit in E.D. Tex. on Halloween against Google and certain Android handset manufacturers (see our Nov. post that also summarizes Rockstar’s acquisition of Nortel’s patents).  On Christmas Eve, Google responded by filing a Complaint in N.D. Cal. seeking a declaratory judgment…

A few weeks ago, we posted about ViewSonic’s FRAND-related counterclaims against Zenith, Panasonic and Philips (collectively, “Manufacturing Plaintiffs”), as well as its FRAND-related Third-Party claim against MPEG LA.  On Monday, December 16, the Manufacturing Plaintiffs and third-party MPEG LA filed a motion to dismiss with prejudice ViewSonic’s FRAND-related counterclaims for failure to state a claim…

We recently posted about defendant ViewSonic’s Answer in Zenith Elec. v. Viewsonic, which Answer included FRAND-related affirmative defenses and counterclaims against plaintiffs Zenith, Panasonic and Philips, as well as a FRAND-related Third-Party claim against MPEG LA.  On Monday, December 2, Curtis filed a motion to bifurcate the trial in the related case brought by Zenith…

Last Thursday, December 5, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3309 (“the Innovation Act”), a patent reform bill generally directed to perceived patent litigation abuse by certain patent assertion entities (what some call “patent trolls”).  Prior draft versions of the House bill had gone through several revisions in the past few months (see our September…

A few months ago, we posted about patent infringement suits filed by Zenith Electronics (“Zenith”), Panasonic Corporation (“Panasonic”), U.S. Philips Corporation (“Philips”) and The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York (“Columbia”), licensors to the MPEG LA Advanced Television Systems Committee (“ATSC”) digital television patent pool, against electronics makers Curtis International (“Curtis”), …

Yesterday Judge Whyte issued an Order with tentative rulings on motion’s in limine and Daubert motions for the upcoming Realtek v. LSI trial where the jury will determine (1) a RAND rate, (2) damages based on the court’s prior ruling that LSI breached its RAND obligations by seeking an exclusion order at the ITC before…

Today Judge Robart issued an Order certifying a Rule 54(b) judgment in the Microsoft v. Motorola case where he had issued a first of its kind RAND rate ruling on Motorola H.264 and 802.11 standard essential patents (SEPs) and sustained the jury verdict that Motorola breached its RAND obligations in offering a license to Microsoft. …

Lest we forget the prevalence of standards in many industries beyond smartphones and Wi-Fi, last Friday (Nov. 1), several radio stations were sued by patent monetization entity Wyncomm in D. Del. for infringing three patents alleged to cover “transmission of radio broadcasts using HD radio techniques further described by the IBOC [In-Band/On-Channel] Digital Radio Standard”…

Yesterday, the Rockstar Consortium (and its subsidiaries MobileStar Technologies LLC and NetStar Technologies LLC) sued Google and several Andriod device manufactures (Asustek, HTC, Huawei, LG, Pantech, Samsung and ZTE) in E.D. Tex. on several patents that Rockstar had acquired in July 2011 out of the Nortel bankruptcy.

You…

U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) introduced today the Patent Litigation Integrity Act (S. 1612) “to address the growing threat of so-called ‘patent trolls'” who “purchase existing broad patents and then threaten businesses of infringing” them.  Sen. Hatch issued a press release and one-page summary of the proposed legisltation, which provides two reform measures.

First, the…