NEWS
US court fines Apple for Facetime patent infringement laptop, tablet and smartphone
Apple is facing a bill of $368.2 million for infringing four patents owned by US-based security soſtware company VirnetX.
Te US District Court Eastern District of Texas ruled on November 6 that Apple’s Facetime video chat tool infringed the patents, which cover technologies for secure communication over the Internet.
VirnetX, which had asked for about $900 million in damages, has threatened to try to block Apple from selling products that incorporate the technology. Apple can appeal against the judgment to federal court.
Mexico joins the Madrid system
Mexico has joined the Madrid system for international trademark registration, becoming the 89th member.
Te country’s secretary of economy, Bruno Ferrari, signed the instrument of accession on November 19. Te new treaty governing the system will come into effect on February 19, 2013.
“Brand owners in Mexico stand to greatly benefit from the Madrid Protocol,” said Ferrari.
Francis Gurry, director general at the World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which administers the system, said: “Mexico is the third country in the Latin American region to join the Madrid trademark filing system. Its accession to the Madrid Protocol will assist enterprises in Mexico that are seeking to expand their markets
overseas. It will also assist WIPO in achieving its objective of transforming the Madrid system into a system with truly global reach.”
Under the system, trademark owners can protect their rights in almost 90 countries by filing one application and paying one set of
US ISPs reveal anti-piracy policies
Two US Internet service providers (ISPs) that have joined three other firms in a piracy crackdown have
revealed their plans for punishing illegal downloaders.
In late November 2012 Verizon and Time Warner, along with ISPs Cablevision, AT&T and Comcast, were set to begin warning consumers suspected of committing online piracy. Aſter sending several warnings the Internet companies can introduce penalties.
Speaking at a conference in New York ahead of the initiative’s launch, Verizon’s Link Hoewing said the company will send suspects two warnings via emails notifying them about rights holders’ concerns. Aſter the fiſth and sixth alerts, he said, Verizon will “throttle” their Internet
10 Trademarks Brands and the Internet Volume 1, Issue 4
Fernando Laguarda, for Time Warner, said his company will warn suspects in a similar manner to Verizon but will restrict Internet users’ browsers if they continue to download illegally. He did not elaborate on the plans.
In September 2011 the five ISPs joined the
Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America to launch the Center for Copyright Information, an anti-piracy body that also advises consumers on legal file-sharing methods. Te ISPs are now set to implement the anti-piracy measures agreed under the initiative.
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connections, slowing them down. Te throttling is temporary and lasts two or three days.
fees. Applicants wishing to register under the system must apply for trademark protection in national or regional jurisdictions first.
Mexico is the fourth country to join the Madrid system in 2012, following Colombia and New Zealand.
the Philippines,
Te soſtware company said several of Apple’s desktop,
computers, all of which used Facetime, infringed the four patents. Apple denied claims
of
infringement, saying the protected techniques had played a minimal part in its systems.
Days aſter the ruling, VirnetX filed another lawsuit against Apple, alleging more of
the company’s
products, such as the iPhone 5—not included in the first suit—infringed the same four patents.
VirnetX has a separate case against Apple pending at
the US-based International Trade
Commission, claiming infringement of a patent covering a secure
connection between two
computers over a network. In this suit, VirnetX aims to halt the importation of Apple products into the US.
Te soſtware company won $200 million in damages from Microsoſt in 2010 over claims on the same technology. It also has similar claims pending against Cisco and Siemens.
Aſter the ruling, VirnetX’s shares rose to $33.61, their highest level in three years.
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