lawsuits

Oracle is suing Google for 9.3 Billion over the use of Java in the Android operating system. Java was written by Sun Microsystems which had been acquired by Oracle. The claim is that Google borrowed a little too liberally from Java in the Android operating system. Google claims they did clean room development, and merely figured out what Java expected from the software running it, and duplicated the API, or the programming interface. Oracle says their API was copyrighted. The whole computer industry relies on APIs, though, and the ability to use similar interfaces.

An appellate court overturned a $120 million dollar patent judgement against Samsung this week, saying that while Apple did rightfully have a patent that Samsung violated, two others never should have been granted to Apple.

Read more at Reuters.com

A class action lawsuit against Apple is ongoing over the iPod and an old sync feature. The suit is all about the fact that Apple iTunes would erase an iPod if it wasn't recognized by the computer. The lawsuit represents 8 million users for about $350 million, of which half will go to lawyers, of course. That leaves everyone else with a settlement of about $0.50 a piece.

A Federal judge has ruled that customers of LinkedIn can go forward with a class action lawsuit. LinkedIn users who include publishing and movie executives filed a complaint in September that accused LinkedIn of effectively breaking into their gmail accounts to send out repetitive invitations to join LinkedIn to anyone they've ever contacted.

Apple and Samsung have decided to make peace and drop their protracted lawsuits against one another, and even work together to pursue patent reform. Leo says that's great news that both companies have realized that the war isn't good for their business or their customers. The war was actually started by Steve Jobs, but now that he's been gone for a few years, it's time to move on.

On Friday, a federal court overturned the Google vs. Oracle decision about Google's use of the Java API in Android. The Android operating system is based on Linux and something called Java, a programming language written almost 20 years ago by Sun. Oracle acquired Sun in 2010, and now is the owner of the Java programming language as well. Java has nice advantages -- it's a clean language and can run on a variety of platforms. This means Android could run on a variety of different hardware.

There have now been two lawsuits between Apple and Samsung. The first was in trade dress, or the "look and feel" of the phone. The jury awarded Apple over $1 billion, siding with Apple that Samsung stole the design. In this most recent lawsuit, the jury wasn't as much in favor of Apple. They awarded Apple $119 million, which fell short of the $2.2 billion Apple was seeking. The jury also found that Apple infringed on one of Samsung's patents, and gave Samsung $158,400.