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PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers; it serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods such as checks and money orders. The company operates as a payment processor for online vendors, auction sites and many other commercial users, for which it charges a fee.
Magma Design Automation was a software company in the electronic design automation (EDA) industry. The company was founded in 1997 and maintained headquarters in San Jose, California, with facilities throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Magma software products were used in major elements of integrated circuit design, including: synthesis, placement, routing, power management, circuit simulation, verification and analog/mixed-signal design.
Patent infringement is an unauthorized act of - for example - making, using, offering for sale, selling, or importing for these purposes a patented product. Where the subject-matter of the patent is a process, infringement involves the act of using, offering for sale, selling or importing for these purposes at least the product obtained by the patented process. In other words, patent infringement is the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention without permission from the patent holder. Permission may typically be granted in the form of a license. The definition of patent infringement may vary by jurisdiction.
Commerce One, Inc. operated online auctions focused on B2B e-commerce. At the peak of the dot-com bubble, the company had a market capitalization of $21.5 billion.
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Skype Technologies S.A.R.L is a telecommunications company headquartered in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, whose chief business is the manufacturing and marketing of the video chat and instant messaging computer software program Skype, and various Internet telephony services associated with it. Microsoft purchased the company in 2011, and it has since then operated as their wholly owned subsidiary; as of 2016, it is operating as part of Microsoft's Office Product Group. The company is a société à responsabilité limitée, or SARL, equivalent to an American limited liability company.
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NTP, Inc. is a Virginia-based patent holding company founded in 1992 by the late inventor Thomas J. Campana Jr. and Donald E. Stout. The company's primary asset is a portfolio of 50 US patents and additional pending US and international patent applications. These patents and patent applications disclose inventions in the fields of wireless email and RF Antenna design. The named inventors include Andrew Andros and Thomas Campana. About half of the US patents were originally assigned to Telefind Corporation, a Florida-based company partly owned by Campana.
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eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C., 547 U.S. 388 (2006), is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously determined that an injunction should not be automatically issued based on a finding of patent infringement, but also that an injunction should not be denied simply on the basis that the plaintiff does not practice the patented invention. Instead, a federal court must still weigh what the Court described as the four-factor test traditionally used to determine if an injunction should be issued.
Thomas G. Woolston is a patent attorney, and the patented inventor of several online auction business methods. He is also the founder of MercExchange. Mr. Woolston served in the US Air Force, has an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from George Washington University and a law degree. He has also worked for the CIA.
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Vringo was a technology company that became involved in the worldwide patent wars. The company won a 2012 intellectual property lawsuit against Google, in which a U.S. District Court ordered Google to pay 1.36 percent of U.S. AdWords sales. Analysts estimated Vringo's judgment against Google to be worth over $1 billion. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned the District Court's ruling on appeal in August 2014 in a split 2-1 decision, which Intellectual Asset Magazine called "the most troubling case of 2014." Vringo appealed to the United States Supreme Court. Vringo also pursued worldwide litigation against ZTE Corporation in twelve countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Malaysia, India, Spain, Netherlands, Romania, China, Malaysia, Brazil and the United States. The high profile nature of the intellectual property suits filed by the firm against large corporations known for anti-patent tendencies has led some commentators to refer to the firm as a patent vulture or patent troll.
The smartphone wars or smartphone patents licensing and litigation refers to commercial struggles among smartphone manufacturers including Sony Mobile, Google, Apple Inc., Samsung, Microsoft, Nokia, Motorola, Huawei, LG Electronics, ZTE and HTC, by patent litigation and other means. The conflict is part of the wider "patent wars" between technology and software corporations.
Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is the general title of a series of patent infringement lawsuits between Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics in the United States Court system, regarding the design of smartphones and tablet computers. Between them, the two companies have dominated the manufacturing of smartphones since the early 2010s, and made about 40% of all smartphones sold worldwide as of 2024. In early 2011, Apple began litigating against Samsung in patent infringement suits, with Samsung typically filing countersuits with similar allegations. Apple's multinational litigation over technology patents became known as part of the smartphone wars: extensive litigation and fierce competition in the global market for consumer mobile communications.
Amazon. com, Inc. v. Barnesandnoble. com, Inc., 337 F.3d 1024, was a court ruling at the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The ruling was an important early cyberlaw precedent on the matter of the technologies that enable e-commerce and whether such technologies are eligible for patent protection.
References
- ↑ "Licensed". MerxExchange. Archived from the original on March 13, 2007. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
- ↑ Barisic, Sonja (June 12, 2007). "eBay in Patent Fight Over 'Buy It Now'". The Washington Post. Associated Press. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
- ↑ Anthony J. Fitzpatrick (2006). "Patent Infringement Injunctions Will Likely Hold Some Surprises Now". Duane Morris LLP. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
- ↑ Mangalindan, Mylene (December 13, 2007). "EBay Is Ordered To Pay $30 Million In Patent Rift". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
- ↑ "EBay Ends Patent Suit With MercExchange". Huffington Post. Associated Press. February 28, 2008. Retrieved 21 January 2013.