Politics and Law

Apple threatened with $2B lawsuit in iPad dispute

Apple could find itself mired in a $2 billion lawsuit from Proview Technology in an ongoing legal battle over who owns the iPad name.

The new lawsuit would be filed in the United States and follow similar suits already launched by Proview against Apple in China.

"Right now we are selecting from three American law firms to sue Apple in the United States for $2 billion in compensation," Hejun Vanguard Group chairman Li Su said at a press conference today, according to TechCrunch and other sources. Hejun Vanguard is a consulting firm working with creditors to restructure Proview, which has more

Originally posted at Apple

JotForm says domain suspended by feds

JotForm, a service that lets people create forms on the Web, has been suspended by the U.S. Secret Service as a result of content a user posted online, according to the co-founder of the company that created JotForm.

But by this afternoon there were signs that the matter was being corrected, Aytekin Tank, who co-founded JotForm creator Interlogy Internet Technology, told CNET.

"Although it is still not propagated, our DNS (Domain Name System) for Jotform.com started pointing back to the correct names. They have not notified us but it looks like they might have lifted the suspension," Tank more

Originally posted at InSecurity Complex

Spectrum auction compromise part of payroll tax cut bill

It looks like Congress will finally authorize incentive spectrum auctions.

Today, Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate agreed on legislation that will authorize the extension of the payroll tax cuts and the unemployment benefits. And they also authorized the Federal Communications Commission to auction off wireless spectrum as part of the package. Revenue from the incentive auctions will be used to help pay for the tax cuts and unemployment benefits.

The spectrum auction was proposed as part of the 2010 National Broadband Plan. It calls for TV broadcasters who have wireless spectrum they aren'more

Originally posted at Signal Strength

How politics inflame the 'spectrum crisis'

Two years into a decade-long plan to free up wireless spectrum to handle an explosion in mobile data traffic growth, Washington politics are crippling the Federal Communications Commission's ability to reach any of its goals.

In March 2010, the FCC identified in its National Broadband Plan a dire need for more spectrum in the U.S. It outlined a timeline for getting 300 megahertz of spectrum in the pipeline by 2015 with an additional 200MHz opened up for auction by 2020. In total the plan would create 500MHz of new wireless spectrum that could be auctioned off, or nearly more

Originally posted at Signal Strength

DOJ clears Apple-Microsoft-RIM deal to buy Nortel patents

The purchase of a number of Nortel Networks patents by a partnership that includes Apple, Microsoft, and Research In Motion has passed antitrust scrutiny, the U.S. Department of Justice said today.

The DOJ's antitrust division came to the same conclusion on Apple's planned acquisition of certain Novell patents, and of Google's purchase of Motorola Mobility Holdings, according to this statement:

LightSquared strums up political support

A growing number of Congressional leaders and state officials are urging the Federal Communications Commission to move forward with its review of LightSquared, the controversial startup that plans to build a national wireless broadband network using satellite spectrum.

Last week, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) sent a letter to FCC chairman Julius Genachowski in support of the company and its plans.

"I write to express concern about delays in the approval process involving LightSquared's proposed 4G-LTE wireless broadband network," Conyers wrote in a letter sent last week. "I strongly urge the Commission to move with urgency to fully test potential more

Originally posted at Signal Strength

Samsung Galaxy Mini may get low-end sibling

It looks like the Samsung Galaxy Mini S5570 might soon be getting a low-end sibling.

The Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 S6500--codenamed Jenna--could make its debut at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this month, according to a leaked promotional image sent to GSMArena. The specs attached to the image shows some improvements over the original; the new device sports a bigger, 3.3-inch screen with higher resolution, a faster 800MHz processor, and 3GB of storage.

Along with rounded corners, the device will feature the same 3MP camera and 7.2 Mbps HSDPA connectivity as its predecessor. Another throwback is more

Originally posted at Mobile

Tor anonymity project looks to help Iranians sidestep Net ban

The privacy-focused Tor Project is working on helping Iranians sidestep increased Internet restrictions that were put in place by the country's government today in anticipation of protests this weekend.

Antigovernment protests are reportedly planned for Saturday--the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic revolution that toppled the Shah. In response, the government has blocked access to Web-based e-mail services such as Gmail and social networks like Facebook. Officials have also, reports Forbes' Andy Greenberg, cut Web traffic that takes advantage of the kind of encryption used by secure e-mail services and social networks.

That's where U.S.-based Tor comes more

Apple snatches a victory in Motorola patent wars

Apple has finally scored a win in its never-ending patent battles with Motorola Mobility.

A German judge today found that the iPhone maker did not infringe on a Motorola patent related to wireless technology, according to Florian Mueller's Foss Patents legal blog.

The patent in question covers 3G/UMTS wireless communications and in tech jargon refers to a "method and system for generating a complex pseudonoise sequence for processing a code division multiple access [CDMA] signal."

Motorola had argued that any use of 3G/UMTS by Apple would violate the patent. But Judge Andreas Voss was unconvinced, finding that more

Originally posted at Apple