suit

A Motorola lawsuit primer (infographic)

Google's surprise buy of handset maker Motorola Mobility yesterday gives the search giant a fully packed war chest of patents, but it also means Google is inheriting a sizable amount of intellectual property litigation.

As noted by my colleague Marguerite Reardon, Google's Motorola buy boosts its patent portfolio with more than 17,000 patents, along with another 7,500 patent applications that have been filed and are pending approval. That's a giant step up for Google, which investment banking firm MDB Capital Group estimated to have just 317 mobile device patents granted within the United States at … Read more

Personal Audio's second suit against Apple denied

Personal Audio, the company that was awarded $8 million in damages from Apple in patent infringement ruling last month, has had its attempt at additional damages denied by a U.S. District judge.

In a judgment filed over the weekend, and picked up by the Courthouse News Service today, U.S. District Judge Ron Clark said there will not be a second trial to cover patent infringement issues with the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad since the previous case judgment covered both past and future use of Personal Audio's technology.

"In light of the history of this case, … Read more

Befuddling business suite

Computers have revolutionized the way that we do business, making record-keeping, banking, invoicing, customer relations, and many other business functions easier than ever. Compass Business Management Suite aims to combine several of these important tasks into one program that lets users access their data from anywhere. Although we think it's a great idea, in practice we weren't too impressed.

Upon first launching the program, you are required to register and set up a username and password. Compass Business Management Suite saves your information on a remote server, meaning that you can log in and access it from any … Read more

Adobe sued by RPost over EchoSign technology

The day after acquiring EchoSign for its electronic signature technology, Adobe Systems and EchoSign are being sued by a company that claims EchoSign's technology infringes on five of its patents.

Los Angeles-based RPost this morning filed a lawsuit against Adobe and EchoSign in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division, claiming EchoSign is infringing on RPost's patented technology with its services.

RPost is asking the court for a permanent injunction against services from both companies, as well as damages on infringing products. Adobe yesterday said that it plans to integrate EchoSign's … Read more

Facebook set to launch something 'awesome'

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

Facebook set to launch "something awesome"later today

Google to drop Blogger and Picasa brands

Adobe and Avid offer deals to switchers

Steve Jobs biography gets title

iPad 2 jailbreak is live

CNET infringement case dropped

Adobe tries discounts to woo Final Cut Pro ranters

Adobe Systems has fired another shot over Apple's bow.

The company today announced its Switcher Program, which will allow people who have purchased any version of Apple's Final Cut Pro (or Avid Media Composer) to receive a 50 percent discount on Creative Suite CS 5.5 Production Premium or Premiere Pro CS 5.5.

"We're hearing from video professionals that they want pro level tools that address cutting edge work but also allow them to use legacy footage and workflows," Jim Guerard, general manager and vice president of professional video and audio at Adobe, said … Read more

Adobe issues CS5.5 and iPad-aware Photoshop

Opening a few new chapters today, Adobe has begun selling its CS5.5 software suites, releasing a revamped Photoshop CS5 that dovetails with a new collection of iOS apps, and beginning a subscription pricing model.

Adobe's Creative Suite 5.5 products actually consist of a variety of suites emphasizing work such as video production, Flash and Web programming, and design. The Master Collection, which incorporates all of the products, costs $2,599, and at the other end of the scale, CS5.5 Design Standard costs $1,299.

Collectively, the features show that Adobe is turning, though with the nimbleness … Read more

Priceline founder targets tech giants in patent suits

A group of lawsuits filed yesterday by Priceline founder Walker Digital take aim at Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and more than 100 other companies for infringing on key parts of its patent portfolio.

The 15 lawsuits, filed in U.S. District Court of Delaware, say these companies are infringing Walker Digital-owned patents covering things like e-commerce, private social-networking communications, online auctions, and a driving directions tool with visual cues.

"A number of great companies can trace their genesis to technology that was first developed at Walker Digital in the mid-to-late 1990s," Walker Digital's Chairman Jay Walker said … Read more

Adobe CS 5.5 inches closer to build once, output many

Let's get this out of the way first: if you're looking for updates to Photoshop, move along, there's nothing to see here. Ditto for Illustrator and Fireworks. While there's a lot going on in Adobe's bump to Creative Suite 5.5, those products will retain the CS5 moniker. As for the rest of the crew, the updates to the applications fall into four categories: single source, multiple target workflow enhancements; improved interapplication integration; performance boosts and interface tweaks; and broader support for a variety of formats. I'm not going to list all the various … Read more

Adobe Creative Suite 5: Why buy when you can rent?

While tablet fans slaver over iPad apps and creatives ideate over the new features in Creative Suite, I think investor relations folk will be the ones scrutinizing Adobe's adoption of a subscription plan for its Creative Suite products and what it might mean for Adobe's still-strong bottom line. (Never fear, though. You can still buy everything outright.)

I'll preface this discussion by saying I'm not a big fan of software rental, or really rental … Read more