California Intellectual Property Blog

Los Angeles – Apple has agreed to pay out $24.9 million to settle a lawsuit that has dragged on for years. The lawsuit is alleging that its Siri voice assistant technology violated a patent licensed to a Dallas company and owned by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. The Dallas company, Dynamic Advances, was the exclusive licensee of Rensselaer’s patent.

Dynamic Advances does not mention what exactly it does with Read the rest

Orange County – It seems as though the battle between Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. has been going on forever. The two companies have been involved in quite a few legal battles, yet the patent case that dates back to 2011 is the highest profile case yet. The case goes something like this: Apple sued Samsung accusing it of copying the designs of its phones. The design patents include the rectangular and curved phone body, and the phone� Read the rest

Los Angeles – Yet another lawsuit has been filed against DraftKings, FanDuel, and Fox Sports. This time the legal battle is over technology that Virtual Gaming Technologies, LLC claims these organizations use in violation of the patents it holds.

Virtual Gaming Technologies, DraftKings, FanDuel, and Fox Sports all operate fantasy sports games. These virtual games allow individuals to create teams made up of current athletes and receive points based on these athletes’ performances in weekly games. The Read the rest

Orange County – C&A Marketing brought a lawsuit against GoPro for infringing its patent for cube-shaped cameras. C&A Marketing claims that GoPro’s camera, known as the Hero4 Session, violates the patent it received for camera called the Polaroid Cube.

C&A Marketing, not Polaroid, brought forth the case because it created and manufactures the product. Polaroid is involved because C&A Marketing and Polaroid have exclusive manufacturing and marketing deals together.

The patent that C&A holds is broad, stating it applies to “the ornamental design for a cubic acti Read the rest

Orange County – The creator of the first self-balancing, zero-emission personal transporter, Segway, has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Inventist. Segway alleges that Inventist infringed five patents to build its personal transporter products. The transporters for both companies resemble the one used in the Back to the Future 2 movie, resulting in many calling this lawsuit a battle for the hoverboard. This lawsuit is the latest in a number of lawsuits attempting to stop copycats that are making hoverboard-like products.

The products involved are Inventist’s Solowheel (describe Read the rest

San Diego – In its quarterly earnings report, TiVo announced it filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung. TiVo, known for the creation of its digital video recorder, claims Samsung violated four of its patents. The patents relate to functions such as the ability to view a show while recording another and the ability to play a video smoothly at a faster speed.

The patents TiVo references for the lawsuit are, U.S. Patent No. 6233389 entitled “Multimedia Time Warping System” issued on May 15, 2001; U.S. Patent No. 6729195 entitled “M Read the rest

Los Angeles – American fashion icon and designer Ralph Lauren has come under fire of allegations that it has infringed the patent of an individual inventor. Jimmy Bryan has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against the brand in Texas, claiming that one of its high end handbags infringes his own patent for a bag that comes equipped with a light and phone charging capability.

The Ralph Lauren bag at issue is the “Ricky”, which comes in several color variations and which has been a popular seller for the brand for years. The wearable technology version rolled out this past wint Read the rest

Los Angeles – In what could serve as a turning point in the ongoing Apple vs. Samsung patent saga, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) handed down a decision that questions the validity of one of Apple’s design patents for its mobile phones. The ruling came down after a request for reexamination was made anonymously, however all signs point to the request coming from rival tech giant Samsung, which has been engaged in a years’ long bout with Apple over its patented phone features.

The non-final action in the reexamination was handed down on August 5, Read the rest

Orange County – Since its launch in 2009, Kickstarter has funded $1.8 Billion dollars for businesses and other creative projects. Kickstarter utilizes a peer to peer crowdfunding model in which persons buy in early on a project. In addition to helping a budding business or artist, persons funding the project are the first to receive the products or services at issue.

Beginning in 2011, a battle began between Kickstarter and a rival called ArtistShare. ArtistShare claimed a crowdfunding patent for a “Method and Apparatuses for Financing and Marketing a Cre Read the rest

Orange County – Sonos, a developer of wireless home music systems, is suing Denon for patent infringement alleging that its newly-released Heos speakers are remarkably similar to Sonos’s speakers. According to details outlined in Sonos’s complaint, Denon’s Heos speakers have many of the same elements found in Sonos products.

The lawsuit alleges that Denon made no effort to distinguishfeatures or functionality and that the Heos speakers infringe at least four Sonos patents. Sonos’s 258-page court filing goes into significant detail expl Read the rest