TechLuver.com

San Jose, Calif — Dec 19, `07 - eBay today released the following statement regarding its District Court victory in the Netcraft vs eBay and PayPal patent infringement case.

On December 18, 2007, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin entered judgment, granting eBay’s and PayPal’s motion for summary judgment of non-infringement on both of the patents that Netcraft asserted against eBay and PayPal.

“We are pleased by the Court’s well-reasoned ruling in this case. We will continue to protect the interests of our global community of users and the businesses who rely on eBay’s platforms to make a living.”

In May 2007, Netcraft brought suit against eBay and PayPal and contended that PayPal’s payment services infringe two of Netcraft’s patents titled “Internet Billing Method.” The Court ruled that all of the patents in question require “providing customers with internet access” and because eBay and PayPal do not provide customers with internet access, the two companies do not infringe Netcraft’s patents.

San Jose, Calif — Dec 12, ‘07 — eBay released the following statement in response to the December 11, 2007 District Court ruling in the MercExchange v. eBay case.

“We are disappointed with the court’s order and we plan to appeal it. In its ruling, the court concluded that it did not have the legal right to consider the merits of our arguments concerning the ‘265 patent, but rather was required to reject our motions based on the procedural posture of the case. We intend to appeal the Court’s ruling on the procedural issues and remain confident that after the appeal, the Court will consider our arguments on their merits.

“Additionally, our motion for summary judgment that our 2003 design-around was effective and there is no ongoing infringement of the ‘265 patent, and that no further damages are due, also remains pending before the court.

“We remain pleased with other developments in this ongoing case, including the decision by the United States Court of Appeals to invalidate another patent in this case; the May 2006 unanimous Supreme Court decision in eBay’s favor on MercExchange’s request for an injunction; and the District Court’s subsequent affirmation in September 2007 that no injunction is called for. We look forward to the opportunity to appeal yesterday’s District Court ruling.”

Tuesday’s ruling by Judge Jerome Friedman stems from a jury’s 2003 verdict finding eBay and eBay subsidiary Half.com liable for $35 million for intentionally infringing two MercExchange patents. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit later reduced the award to $25.5 million.

Friedman in July denied eBay’s request to stay proceedings on one of the patents, governing eBay’s so-called “Buy It Now” feature that allows users to buy an item outright at a given price without bidding for it.

Friedman said in July the US Supreme Court’s 2006 ruling sending the case back to the trial court for further action had no bearing on the jury’s 2003 verdict. More at eBay.

Tokyo, Japan — Dec 03, ‘07 — Yahoo Japan and eBay said Tuesday they have agreed to team up in online auctions, planning services for next year that will make it easier for consumers to buy things via the Internet from the US and Japan.

Yahoo said by March, Japanese will be able to bid for items up for sale on eBay through the Yahoo auction site in Japan. By the middle of next year, similarly, a site will be set up that will allow Americans to buy Yahoo Japan auction items through the eBay site.

The deal will facilitate “cross-border trading” and invigorate the online auction market, Yahoo said in a statement. In online auctions, consumers put up items they want to sell and get offers through the Internet from prospective buyers.

Americans using eBay will be able to more easily buy Japanese goods popular abroad, such as “manga” comic books, CDs, and products that feature Japanese animation characters and other mascots, it said.

Also, some products are cheaper online abroad than in Japan, and consumers will be able to compare prices for the best deals.

Yahoo Japan, a unit of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo has more than 15 million auction items listed on any given day, while eBay, based in San Jose, Calif., the world’s biggest online auction site, boasts 248 million registered users. More at Google/AP.

NEW YORK –BUSINESS WIRE– Dec 03, ‘07 — Klausner Technologies announced today that it has filed patent lawsuits under its visual voicemail patents against Comcast, Cablevision and eBay’s Skype with damages and future royalties estimated at $300 million.

The lawsuit asserts that the above companies’ VOIP voicemail products and services infringe Klausner Technologies’ U.S. Patent 5,572,576. The patent has already been licensed to various other companies which provide the same visual voice messaging services, including Time Warner’s AOL for its AOL Voicemail services, Vonage Holdings for its Vonage Voicemail Plus services as well as others, under the Klausner Patents.

Cablevision’s Optimum Voicemail, Comcast’s Digital Voice Voicemail and eBay’s Skype Voicemail each violate Klausner’s intellectual property rights by allowing users to selectively retrieve and listen to voice messages via message inbox displays.

Against Apple:
Klausner Technologies also announced today that it has filed a patent lawsuit under its visual voicemail patents against Apple on the iPhone, with damages and future royalties estimated at $360 million.

The lawsuit asserts that Apple’s iPhone Visual Voicemail infringes Klausner Technologies’ U.S. Patents 5,572,576 and 5,283,818.
Klausner Technologies was founded by Judah Klausner, the inventor of the PDA and electronic organizer. Apple’s original groundbreaking PDA, the Newton, was, in fact, covered under an OEM patent license granted by Judah Klausner over twenty years ago under his landmark US Patent 4,117,542.

The iPhone violates Klausner’s intellectual property rights by allowing users to selectively retrieve voice messages via the iPhone’s inbox display. Apple has called iPhone’s Visual Voicemail “one of the greatest advances in the history of mankind … without question.”

Against AT&T:
Klausner Technologies further announced today that it has filed a patent lawsuit under its visual voicemail patents against AT&T for selling the Apple iPhone, its Visual Voicemail service and other visual voice messaging services, with damages and future royalties estimated at $360 million.

The lawsuit asserts that sales of Apple’s iPhone, Visual Voicemail and other visual voice messaging services implemented by AT&T infringe Klausner Technologies’ U.S. Patents 5,572,576 and 5,283,818.

All three suits have been filed by the California law firm of Dovel & Luner in a federal court in the Eastern District of Texas.

Nov 24, ‘07 — The lure of bargains trumped economic concerns at the start of the holiday shopping season as retailers logged sales that were significantly stronger than a year ago, a customer traffic counter said on Saturday.

According to ShopperTrak RCT Corp., which tracks sales at more than 50,000 retail outlets, total sales rose 8.3 percent to about $10.3 billion on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, compared with $9.5 billion on the same day a year ago. ShopperTrak had expected an increase of no more than 4 percent to 5 percent.

“This is a really strong number. … You can’t have a good season unless it starts well,” said Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak, citing strength across all regions. “It’s very encouraging. When you look at September and October, shoppers weren’t in the stores.”

The upbeat reports were encouraging since merchants have been struggling with anemic sales in recent months, as shoppers, particularly in the middle and lower-income brackets, were becoming more frugal amid higher gas and food prices and an escalating credit crunch.

In an apparent sign of desperation, the nation’s stores ushered in the official start of the holiday shopping season on Friday with expanded hours, including midnight openings, and a blitz of early morning specials that were more generous than a year ago. J.C. Penney and Kohl’s Corp. opened at 4 a.m., an hour earlier than a year ago.

The strategy appears to have worked, as shoppers jammed stores in record numbers for early morning deals on Friday. Martin noted that judging by the strong figures on Friday, stores were able to sustain strong sales throughout the day. He said he’s counting on strong traffic throughout the weekend as many stores, including Macy’s Inc., are continuing with special deals.

While Black Friday — so named because it was traditionally when the surge of shopping made stores profitable — starts holiday shopping, it is not considered a bellwether for the season. However, merchants see Black Friday as setting an important tone to the overall season: What consumers see that day influences where they will shop for the rest of the year.

An increase in online shopping has somewhat defused the seasonal predictions based on Black Friday turnout to stores. The convenience of online shopping has caused an increase in shopping on Thanksgiving Day itself.

Shoppers are browsing and researching more on Friday, but buying more on the Monday following Thanksgiving, or “Cyber Monday,” eBay said in a statement.

San Jose, CA — Nov -6, ‘07 — A company whose name sounds like eBay’s has lost its appeal of a court ruling that protected the online auctioneer from ‘trademark dilution’ by e-commerce rivals with similar-sounding names.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a lower court’s ruling in September 2005 against Perfumebay.com and Perfume-bay.com. EBay had argued that the names confused customers, who might think they were on an official eBay site.

Circuit Judge Johnnie B. Rawlinson wrote that Perfume Bay’s conjoined name in a Web address was ‘nearly identical’ to eBay’s and could prompt customers to ‘disassociate the eBay mark with eBay’s services.’ The sites must get a new name, according to the appellate panel’s decision Monday.

EBay has for years has waged legal fights against Web sites with all sorts of names that end with ‘bay.’ It has closed down AutoBay, RentBay and other sites. San Jose-based eBay, one of world’s largest e-commerce companies, argued that Perfumebay.com was particularly confusing because it contains the exact spelling ‘ebay.’ More at Y!.

In line with earlier rumors and  speculations, Google has finally unveiled its plans, open platform for mobile devices - Android - to dominate the Mobile industry along with (almost every one in mobile industry worldwide except Microsoft, Nokia & Apple obviously) HTC, Intel, T-Mobile, Sprint, Qualcomm, Broadcom, SiRF, Samsung, nVIDIA, eBay, LG, Motorola, NTT DoCoMo, TI and others.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.; BONN, Germany; TAOYUAN, Taiwan; SAN DIEGO, Calif.; SCHAUMBURG, Ill. –November 5, 2007 – A broad alliance of leading technology and wireless companies today joined forces to announce the development of Android, the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. Google Inc., T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm, Motorola and others have collaborated on the development of Android through the Open Handset Alliance, a multinational alliance of technology and mobile industry leaders.

This alliance shares a common goal of fostering innovation on mobile devices and giving consumers a far better user experience than much of what is available on today’s mobile platforms. By providing developers a new level of openness that enables them to work more collaboratively, Android will accelerate the pace at which new and compelling mobile services are made available to consumers.

Thirty-four companies have formed the Open Handset Alliance, which aims to develop technologies that will significantly lower the cost of developing and distributing mobile devices and services. The Android platform is the first step in this direction — a fully integrated mobile “software stack” that consists of an operating system, middleware, user-friendly interface and applications. Consumers should expect the first phones based on Android to be available in the second half of 2008.

The Android platform will be made available under one of the most progressive, developer-friendly open-source licenses, which gives mobile operators and device manufacturers significant freedom and flexibility to design products. Next week the Alliance will release an early access software development kit to provide developers with the tools necessary to create innovative and compelling applications for the platform.

Android holds the promise of unprecedented benefits for consumers, developers and manufacturers of mobile services and devices. Handset manufacturers and wireless operators will be free to customize Android in order to bring to market innovative new products faster and at a much lower cost.

Developers will have complete access to handset capabilities and tools that will enable them to build more compelling and user-friendly services, bringing the Internet developer model to the mobile space. And consumers worldwide will have access to less expensive mobile devices that feature more compelling services, rich Internet applications and easier-to-use interfaces — ultimately creating a superior mobile experience.

Open Software, Open Device, Open Ecosystem

“This partnership will help unleash the potential of mobile technology for billions of users around the world. A fresh approach to fostering innovation in the mobile industry will help shape a new computing environment that will change the way people access and share information in the future,” said Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt. “Today’s announcement is more ambitious than any single ‘Google Phone’ that the press has been speculating about over the past few weeks. Our vision is that the powerful platform we’re unveiling will power thousands of different phone models.”

“As a founding member of the Open Handset Alliance, T-Mobile is committed to innovation and fostering an open platform for wireless services to meet the rapidly evolving and emerging needs of wireless customers,” said René Obermann, Chief Executive Officer, Deutsche Telekom, parent company of T-Mobile. “Google has been an established partner for T-Mobile’s groundbreaking approach to bring the mobile open Internet to the mass market. We see the Android platform as an exciting opportunity to launch robust wireless Internet and Web 2.0 services for T-Mobile customers in the US and Europe in 2008.”

“HTC’s trademark on the mobile industry has been its ability to drive cutting-edge innovation into a wide variety of mobile devices to create the perfect match for individuals,” said Peter Chou, Chief Executive Officer, HTC Corp. “Our participation in the Open Handset Alliance and integration of the Android platform in the second half of 2008 enables us to expand our device portfolio into a new category of connected mobile phones that will change the complexion of the mobile industry and re-create user expectations of the mobile phone experience.”

More at Google.

Oct. 10, 2007, SAN JOSE, Calif. – eBay Inc. today extended the ability of its community members to connect through commerce with the launch of eBay Neighborhoods, a new feature on eBay.com. A collection of micro-communities built around common interests and passions, eBay Neighborhoods encourages eBay community members to interact, share, and trade with each other in a fun and engaging way.

eBay Neighborhoods draws content from existing community features such as eBay listings, eBay Blogs, eBay Guides, and eBay Reviews, while adding new Neighborhood-specific message boards, member-uploaded photos, and social mapping tools to visualize the interconnections between people and their common interests.

At launch there are more than 600 neighborhoods covering a diversity of interests from Beyonce and Battlestar Galactica, to Webkinz and Weddings. The company expects the number of neighborhoods to grow and evolve based on continuous community feedback.

More at eBay Press Release, eBay Neighborhoods