The I'm Watch is a Direct Copy of the iPod Nano

The italian designed watch promises to be "The First Real Smartwatch", but what it really promises is an iPod nano-look-a-like with phone capabilities and a wristband.

Looking at the two devices side by side their are distinct similarities, the most obvious being the icons. In August last year it was reported that Apple had sued Samsung over the icons they had used in their "TouchWiz" overlay of Android, stating that they were too similar to those found in i0S. Looking at the icons found on the I'm Watch, I am stunned how the designers were able to disregard Apple's famously elaborate patients and completely rip off the design and feel of the iPod Nano. The I'm watch also adopts the volume buttons and sleep button from the Nano, as well as adopting a similar 2X2 icon layout.

Does Apple have a Right to Sue the Manufacturers of the I'm Watch?

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Apple is Threatening to Sue the Maker of the Steve Jobs Figurine

It has been reportered by the Telegraph that Apple is growing tired of suing other phone companies and have moved on to Toy Makers.

Inicons has created a realistic 12-inch figurine of the late steve jobs, equipped with blue jeans, a black jumper, pair of black socks, glasses, a belt, a bar stool and a "One More Thing" backdrop. Due to its sudden interest, Apple has threatened to take legal action against the chinese company if one more unit is created. Another batch of the figurines are expected to go on sale in February for $99, while figurines are available on eBay to buy for up to $200.

UPDATE: The company has stopped selling the figurine after receiving "immense pressure from Apple's lawyers and Steve Jobs' family". A few figurines are still available to buy on eBay, but you'll have to fork out a whopping $1,500 to get your hands on one.

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Apple has Boosted Samsung Galaxy Tab Sales Enormously

A few days after the head of Samsung's mobile division told The Sydney Morning Herald that Apple's attempts to ban the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia has made the tablet a "household name", Samsung unveiled numerous Galaxy smartphone commercials that poked fun at Apple fanatics.

From that, it is quite clear that the Korean manufacturer will be celebrating over their recent victory over Apple; and what better way to do so than posting advertisements displaying Apple as 'unethical' on one of the most popular newspapers in the country!
"At the end of the day the media awareness certainly made the Galaxy Tab 10.1 a household name compared to probably what it would've been based on the investment that we would've put into it from a marketing perspective," said Typer McGee, Samsung Australia vice president of telecommunications.
Right you are! Thousands of articles have been written this year about the Samsung/Apple lawsuit(s), and the press coverage has definitely boosted sales. This year, it was reported by Lenovo that Samsung had only sold 20,000 of its Galaxy Tabs between its release in September last year to the end of 2010, thats about 5,000 sold every month. According to IDC Samsung had sold just over 1 million units between July to the end of September, thats about 336,000 sold every month. In that same time period Google shows that the rate of news about the Apple/Samsung lawsuit(s) was at its peak.

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Apple sued over Caller ID

After suing nearly every popular android smartphone manufacturer, Apple is currently getting a taste of its own medicine.

U.S. company, Cequint claims that Apple is infringing two patents for caller- identification technology. Cequint has presented the following patents, 7,200,212 and 6,353,664 that "identifies a calling party's telephone number, household name, and city and/or state location".

Like me, you have probably have never heard of Cequint, but their Enhanced Caller ID can be found in U.S. Cellular's City ID and T-Mobile’s Name ID. Also Cequint's partners (listed on its website) are AT&T, Alltel, U.S. Cellular, Qualcomm, Casio, LG, Huawei, RIM, Sony, Casio, HTC, Motorola, Nokia, Google, and Samsung.

According to Bloomberg, The case will be held in the U.S. District Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).

This is the forth case concerning Apple's Caller ID, just a few months ago Classco had sued Apple, HTC, RIM, HP and Samsung over caller ID patent infringements and back in 2008, and Romek Figa sued Nokia with the Finnish manufacturer winning the case and receiving royalties.

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Read the Terms and Conditions!

Buried several levels deep within the Terms and conditions of your Angry Birds or Cut the Rope app may be a column that states that the app is able to send text messages resulting in premium SMS toll rates.

While in the app, users are unaware that the app is actually sending dozens of premium SMS messages, costing them $5 each! The person behind all of this mayhem is an Italian developer going under the name of, "Lagostrod", who within a space of a day had made $6,500, from the "SMS Trojan".

The Trojan targeted users in Europe, specifically from Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Czech Republic, Poland, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Latvia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Estonia as well as Great Britain, Italy, Israel, France, Great Britain, and Germany.

After dozens of complaints from users, Google has finally pulled all 18 of Lagostod's malicious applications from the Android Market. Hours after Lagostod's account was suspended, a developer named “Miriada Production” released many of the same Trojanized apps, it has since been removed. Next time when your downloading a popular application make sure to take a glance over the terms or conditions or at least look to see if the developer is in fact Rovio!

Sources:

Android Market Apps Pulled Due to SMS Fraud - PCWorld

Google boots 'RuFraud' apps from Android market - CNET

Premium rate SMS Trojans hit Google's Android Market - ZDNET

Premium Rate SMS Trojans in Google's Android Market - F-Secure

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No "iPad" in China

Apple has lost a court battle over the trademark of the word 'iPad' in China.

The company has been part of an ongoing legal battle with Hong Kong-based manufacturer, Proview since 2006, over claims by Proview that Apple had unwittingly purchased their trademark. Proview has owned the trademark since the start of 2000, but Apple had indeed purchased the $54,000 trademark but didn't buy the rights to the Chinese trademark in the agreement, just in the Taiwanese region. It is reportered that Proview will claim $1.6 billion in compensation from Apple for copyright infringement.

In 2001 LG introduced a linux-based tablet called the iPad in Korea! Several articles from numerous websites covered it from the 2001 CeBIT. Once again we find ourselves saying, "Why isn't LG suing". Although this isn't the first time that Apple has used other people's trademarks without their permission. In 1998, Cicsco Sytems introduced the iPhone, a phone using voiP technology, nine years later Apple came out with their first phone, iPhone (stylized the same).

Sources:
The Digital iPAD, a Linux-based Web pad - Linux Devices
LG Unveils Linux-Based Tablet PC - PC World
Apple loses 'iPad' name battle in China - ITN Uk
Proview to claim compensation after Apple trademark suit dismissed - Want China Times

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Apple gives Samsung Alternative Design Options for its Phones

The lawsuit between smartphone rivals, Samsung and Apple started earlier this year and finally its starting to draw to a close. Apple claims that the design on various Samsung phones infringed about half a dozen of their patents, but Samsung insists that Apple is trying to remove all of its competitors of the market.

In order to disprove Samsung’s claim, Apple needed to provide alternate design options to prove that Samsung had "blatantly copied the iPhone's design". Some samples from these suggestions include:

• Front surface that isn't black.
• Overall shape that isn't rectangular, or doesn't have rounded corners.
• Display screens that aren't centered on the front face and have substantial lateral borders.
• Non-horizontal speaker slots.
• Front surfaces with substantial adornment.
• No front bezel at all.

This along with the doctored comparisons between the iPhone 3Gs and the Samsung Galaxy SII and Apple's hypercritical claim that Motorola [Mobility] had been using its patents to "Eliminate competing alternative technologies"; has made the most valuable company look very foolish.
If Samsung were to comply with Apple's alternative design options we would get something like this:

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