Motorola

On March 21, 2011, Microsoft filed a lawsuit asserting the Barnes & Noble Nook e-readers infringe five of its patents. In addition to Barnes & Noble, the case names the manufacturers of the device, Inventec and Hon Hai Precision Industry, as well as Hon Hai’s subsidiary Foxconn. Many view this latest suit as a further attack by Microsoft on Google’s Android software, on which the Nook is based. In October 2010, Microsoft brought infringement claims against Motorola, a maker of Android-based smart phones.

On February 25, 2011, Motorola Mobility and its subsidiary General Instrument filed a patent infringement lawsuit against TiVo Inc. Motorola is alleging TiVo’s digital video recorders (DVRs) infringe three of its patents. The asserted patents were originally assigned to Imedia Corporation, whose assets were acquired by General Instrument, which was later acquired by Motorola.

This week’s Patently Obvious report focuses on U.S. Patents 5,604,920 and 5,410,728, two key patents in the technology behind the Iridium NEXT constellation of satellites. On June 22, 2010, Thales Alenia Space announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire a significant patent portfolio from Intellectual Ventures related to the Iridium satellite communication systems, the terms of which were undisclosed.

This report focuses on patents of interest which predate and are concurrent to the Iridium patents, including public-domain alternatives.