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In a statement, RIM President and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said: "RIM is excited about the planned acquisition of QNX Software Systems and we look forward to ongoing collaboration between Harman, QNX and RIM to further integrate and enhance the user experience between smartphones and in-vehicle audio and infotainment systems. In addition to our interests in expanding the opportunities for QNX in the automotive sector and other markets, we believe the planned acquisition of QNX will also bring other value to RIM in terms of supporting certain unannounced product plans for intelligent peripherals, adding valuable intellectual property to RIM's portfolio and providing long-term synergies for the companies based on the significant and complementary OS expertise that exists within the RIM and QNX teams today."

HTC Corporation today filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) to halt the importation and sale of the iPhone, iPad and iPod in the United States. HTC claims five HTC patents are being infringed on by Apple. "We are taking this action against Apple to protect our intellectual property, our industry partners, and most importantly our customers that use HTC phones."

Another twist to the eBay-Skype saga. Skype's new owners (a group of investors who recently bought a majority stake from eBay, plus eBay itself) are being sued for copyright infringement by Jotlid. Jotlid is Skype founders' IP warchest and is the real owner of the core code on which Skype runs ... under a seemingly quite restrictive licence. When IPR is central to M&A, doing due diligence definitely is not an easy affair!

Same as previous post

Another post on "the car of the future". Radically new architecture (fuel cells, electric wheels, ultracapacitors, etc.) and business model based on microfactories and open source IP. Will it be the dominant design of the future?

HTC is probably becoming an important player, since Apple has decided to sue the company for patent infringement. The real question is whether Apple is really concerned about unfair competition by HTC as a smartphone maker, or whether it is trying to cripple the supplier of hardware to the "real" competitors at the level of operating systems (i.e. Microsoft and Google).

Innovation leads to imitation. This is especially true for inventions that are somewhat easy to copy, like Nestlé's Nespresso capsules. It is interesting that, to ward off price-based competition, Nestlé has chosen to keep firm in its positioning of Nespresso as a high-end and "affordable luxury" offering. This requires accurate branding, advertising, complementary services, and so on. Of course, some enforcement of its  1700 patents might also come in handy

The smartphone arena is getting hot, and competition is being fought not only in the market but also in courtrooms, over IPR. It is interesting that Microsoft has decided to challenge Google's Android OS indirectly, through the device-maker (and Microsoft partner) HTC, probably a weaker party than Google itself

The burgeoning legal challenges to Apple over its rapid advances in mobile computing mounted on Friday when Finland's Nokia launched a patent infringement suit over the iPad. Nokia accused Apple in a US federal court in Wisconsin of infringing five patents in the iPad, which has sold 1m units since its US debut in March. Nokia's suit cites technology used to enhance speech and data transmission and antenna innovations that allow for more compact devices. "These patented innovations are important to Nokia's success as they allow improved product performance and design," the Finnish company said in a statement. Apple had no immediate response. The Finnish company, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, is already in dispute with Apple over alleged patent infringement in the iPhone. IDC said on Friday that Nokia's smartphone market share in the first quarter was flat at 39 per cent, while Apple saw its share of the shipments jump to 16 per cent from 11 per cent a year ago, closing in on Canada's Research in Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry, which occupies second spot. Overall, smartphone sales rose 57 per cent in the quarter. The iPad is Apple's bid to leverage its smartphone success into a new category of mobile computing, with fingertip control instead of a mouse and an interface designed for consuming digital content. Apple announced on Friday that the device would go on sale outside the US at the end of the month in nine other countries. The US technology group is planning to charge more for the iPad in other countries than it does in the US, with UK prices starting at £429 ($632) for tablet devices, which currently only offers a WiFi connection to the internet. Prices in continental Europe will begin at €499 ($630). This compares with $499 in the US. The latest patent dispute, as well as the earlier cases, will aim to establish whether the intellectual property that powers Apple's mobile devices owes more to the world of mobile

Between Nokia, Apple and HTC now the fight for supremacy in the smartphone to play on another field, the courts' one. HTC has sued Apple for patent infringement. Earlier this year, Apple sued HTC, focussing on the Taiwanese phone maker's Android devices. HTC has now responded with a patent suit of its own. It has submitted an official request to the International Trade Commission (the American agency that supervises the competition) to block U.S. sales of the iPhone, iPod and iPad, which infringed five patents. In a statement released by HTC says that the action against the house in California was undertaken "to protect intellectual property, partners and users who use our devices."

Toyota's recent response to claims of unintended acceleration in its vehicles illustrates the potential pitfalls of today's technologically complex automobiles. Software development, however, is still largely stuck in a 1970s pre-kaizen mode, where the human-readable instructions are accessible only to those who write the code. This protects the intellectual property of the software developer, but it also limits the abilities of others in the value chain to "see something, say something, and do something" to correct flaws. The lack of visibility into the software in its cars stands in stark contrast to the openness of its management and manufacturing processes. The software hidden in Toyota's black boxes is the equivalent to having a car with its hood welded shut. Open source represents the most significant change and most disruptive force in software development in 20 years. In the open-source software model, the human-readable source code is distributed along with the computer-readable machine code. Users are encouraged to understand the code, find flaws, suggest fixes, and add functionality. Open source is about leveraging the power of participation to solve complex problems such as manufacturing, health care, and government. It may also be how Toyota can improve its vehicles and ultimately regain consumer trust.

The Skype saga is getting closer to its end. The recent lawsuit with the founders' IP company is going to be settled, with Skype getting hold of the code... and the founders receiving shares of the company. Founders definitely made a very clever set of moves when setting up their company.