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| Push notifications pop-up on screen while you're working to let you know that something new has happened. |
The history of this patent in courts has been long-winded. A real milestone was back at the end of 2012, during which a court in England ruled the invalidation of this particular patent. From there, this patent has been in contention, and this patent asserted by Google's Motorola Mobility arm was used to force Apple to turn off its iCloud mail push notifications. The reason for the invalidation of the patent in the UK primarily surrounded the lack of novelty and obviousness. Now that it's being investigated in German courts, and the German courts and headed toward the same direction as the precedent rulings. It's very likely that the ruling is invalid, but for now, both parties have agreed to a stay (I can't imagine why Google would agree to this, but it looks like they have.)
At one point, Microsoft was also involved with using the push patent notification patent. Even in this case, Google was found to not be entitled to an injunction against Microsoft over the push notification patent given that Google owed Microsoft a license under the previous ActiveSync license agreement they both undertook together. The best Google could have done in this case would be to claim past infringement for the periods prior to their acquisition of Motorola Mobility.
This particular case, for me, brought up some thoughts regarding the enforcement of patents. Other than licensing, joint ownership, and outright purchasing the patents, it's difficult to really effectively enforce and assert IP. Right now, the alternative to the aforementioned means is litigation, which is why we see six-digit and seven-digit dollar sized litigation cases that appear to be financially draining.
I've recently read an article in which summarizes Google's lawsuit scoreboards over the month of April. IT turns out to be very bad for Google. Glossing over this specific one, fosspatents has claimed it a "Medium-win" in the 2 out of 9 litigation results over the month.
ReplyDeleteGood mention over class material by the way!
I agree. It seems like the only party that is truly winning the patent wars are the IP lawyers.
ReplyDeleteIt's a real pity when you see a great feature in mobile technology, not everyone can enjoy it because a company owns the patent. Instead of lawsuits and injunctions, companies should gear themselves more towards peaceful royalty contracts.
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