Apple

'If this were my patent, could I defend it?' was the question jury foreman, Velvin Hogan asked himself when considering the Apple Samsung patent infringement suit. On August 24th, 2012 a nine person jury reached the verdict which awarded Apple slightly over $1 billion in damages. This is a grievous miscarriage of justice in which Velvin played an active role. Velvin does not understand that novelty and obviousness are what determine patent validity. His public opining reinforces the widespread ignorance of the broken patent system and the myth of Apple’s innovation.

On March 27, 2012, Graphics Properties Holdings, the remnant of Silicon Graphics Inc., launched a patent infringement suit against Apple, HTC, LG, RIM, Samsung, and Sony. Despite its non-operating status and troll-like activities, Graphics Properties does hold a decent patent portfolio (read: it’s not perfect, but they do hold early priority to widely used display technologies). What does this mean to these defendants, half of which are already suing each other over patent infringement?

Not much has changed for Kodak since news first circulated last quarter about their pending bankruptcy. Well, nothing changed except that Kodak has continued to burn cash at a ferocious rate, its digital imaging portfolio still has not sold, and its latest reorganization plan reminds us of Research in Motion’s redundant management structure.