01/29, 6:44pm
Samsung claims inappropriate filing, Huawei says FRAND not offered
InterDigital is being given some stronger-than-usual resistance to its International Trade Commission (ITC) complaints against Huawei and Samsung. Huawei yesterday requested the ITC not investigate InterDigital's latest complaint until the standards-essential patents involved in the complaint have been resolved in federal court in Delaware. On the same day, Samsung complained to the ITC that InterDigital did not provide imported devices for the complaint that were purchased after a licensing agreement expired.
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01/03, 12:34pm
Agreement follows more ITC complaints from InterDigital
Sony has formed a new company with InterDigital, which will work on wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) technology and bandwidth management systems. It has also been revealed that Sony has signed up for a patent license from InterDigitial for its 3G and 4G devices, and comes shortly after InterDigital filed ITC complaints with a number of other manufacturers.
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01/02, 5:49pm
'Patent troll' renews legal hostilities against four manufacturers
Following the announcement of an extension of its patent license agreement with Research In Motion which added "coverage for 4G, LTE, and LTE-Advanced products," non-practicing entity InterDigital announced a new United Stated International Trade Commission (USITC) complaint against Huawei, Nokia, Samsung, and ZTE. InterDigitial is seeking "permanent injunction and compensatory damages in an amount to be determined, as well as enhanced damages based on willful infringement" of the company's patents.
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06/19, 12:54pm
Patents expected to be used for mobile technology
Intel has agreed to buy 1,700 mobile patents from InterDigital. The $375 million cash deal sees patents for Wi-Fi, 3G, and LTE technologies head to the processor giant, which is expected to expand its push into the mobile market. The patent sale comes six months after InterDigital decided against selling itself entirely, preferring to continue its patent licensing business.
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04/09, 6:50pm
InterDigital aims to expand licensing program
InterDigital has announced that it has established new licensing agreements with Acer and Pantech. The latter companies have agreed to pay InterDigital royalties for several new products, such as tablets, that were said to be excluded from original agreements related to 2G, 3G and 4G technologies.
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01/23, 9:05pm
InterDigital decides against sale to others
InterDigital provided mixed news to the mobile industry as it decided against exploring a possible sale. The company had decided against possible offers following a review and would instead focus on "patent sales and licensing partnerships." It declined to say who it was talking to.
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09/09, 5:55pm
InterDigital may be bought by top Android backers
(Update: clarification on Google role) InterDigital's attempt at a sell-off is getting close and attracting key Android phone makers, insiders claimed Friday. HTC and returning candidate Samsung are considering initial bids when they start in an auction now said to be starting in two weeks. Ericsson and Intel were also involved in the Bloomberg version of events.
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09/08, 8:20pm
Senate clears America Invents Act
The US Senate passed in an 89 to 9 vote a bill originally put through Congress that could theoretically curb patent troll lawsuits. It will let the USPTO get more control over its fees and reduce the instances of its budget being diverted somewhere else. The bi-partisan vote was made with the hope of recruiting more examiners and modernizing equipment, both to speed up the process and to prevent overly broad patents from slipping through and being used to sue for dubious reasons.
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08/30, 5:10pm
Apple fights Samsung on patent terms in lawsuit
Apple in a response to Samsung's countersuit late Monday accused the Korean company of abusing its stance on patent licensing terms. The firm accused Samsung of "serial standard-setting abuses" by illegally getting monopoly status in fields where its patents are billed as essential to the technology and promptly 'tricking' standards bodies by hiding its requirements around Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) licensing terms, letting it abuse its claims against others. Apple contended that Samsung's lawsuit was an "anticompetitive ambush" and was exploiting this to try and make Apple drop its self-proclaimed legitimate anti-copying complaints.
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08/02, 11:40pm
Patent portfolio involved in ongoing litigation
Samsung is reportedly considering placing a bid to acquire InterDigital patents, unnamed sources have told Bloomberg. If the report is accurate, Samsung may have to compete against Apple and Google. All three companies are reportedly eyeing InterDigital's patent portfolio.
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07/26, 12:25pm
InterDigital uses ITC against Huawei, Nokia, ZTE
InterDigital momentarily overlooked its plans to sell itself on Tuesday and filed a complaint at the International Trade Commission against Huawei, Nokia, and ZTE. It claims that any devices the trio makes that use either WCDMA (HSPA) or CDMA2000 for 3G violates at least one of seven patents. Phones, tablets, portable routers, and other devices all qualify, the company said.
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07/20, 5:15pm
Apple and Google mull buying InterDigital
Apple and Google are considering exploiting InterDigital's attempt to sell itself off to get the upper hand in their mobile patent disputes, a source divulged Wednesday. The two are candidates along with others to buy the company and get access to its 1,300 phone-related patents. It wasn't evident from Bloomberg sources how serious either side was or which if any was in the lead to win.
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10/17, 12:30am
ITC finds Nokia not violating 3G patents
The US International Trade Commission (ITC) tonight exonerated Nokia by ending an investigation into claims by InterDigital that Nokia had violated its patents. The government agency has confirmed an initial decision by an Administrative Law Judge that said Nokia's use of UMTS-based 3G doesn't violate four InterDigital technology patents. Additionally, the ITC has rejected the portion of the judge's ruling that had originally found the patents valid and has denied InterDigital a chance to claim further patent violations.
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11/25, 4:15pm
Samsung settles lawsuit
Right before the US International Trade Commission was to make a decision on recommending to ban import of Samsung's high-speed data cellphones such as the Blackjack II and Instinct, InterDigital and Samsung have settled an ongoing patent infringement lawsuit. A Tuesday WSJ report says the two companies came to an agreement on Monday. InterDigital received $1.5 billion dollars from the likes of Apple and RIM largely from royalties from the use of patented high-speed broadband technology called 3G in their iPhone and Blackberry handsets, respectively. The two biggest cellphone makers, however, Nokia and Samsung, did not pay InterDigital and were consequently sued.
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