Motorola has filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission against Apple, alleging Apple’s iPhone, iPad, iTouch and certain Mac computers infringe Motorola patents. Motorola Mobility, a Motorola subsidiary, also filed patent infringement complaints against Apple in the Northern District of Illinois and Southern District of Florida. Motorola Mobility’s three complaints include 18 patents, “which relate to early-stage innovations developed by Motorola in key technology areas found on many of Apple’s core products and associated services, including MobileMe and the App Store,” the company said. The Motorola patents allegedly infringed upon include wireless communication technologies and antenna design, as well as smartphone technologies, including e-mail and software application management.
Microsoft has sued Motorola, saying the smartphone maker infringed on nine of its patents in mobile phones running Google’s Android operating system. The alleged patent violations include e-mail, contacts and calendar synchronization, scheduling, and notification applications for changes in signal and battery strength. Microsoft’s court filing specifically mentioned the Motorola Droid 2 and the Motorola Charm smartphones, but said the infringements are not limited to those devices. A Motorola spokeswoman said, “We will vigorously defend ourselves in this matter.”
Black Duck Software, a provider of tools for managing open-source development, has acquired Ohloh from Geeknet. The free public directory of open-source software hosts a Web community of software developers and open-source software users. Ohloh’s directory contains information aggregated from over 250,000 public code repositories, projects and forums. According to Black Duck, the company will maintain and enhance the Ohloh website, brand and project information for the Ohloh community. Black Duck will also integrate Ohloh’s assets with its free code search site, Koders.com. This will offer a free resource for developers to find, create, use and manage open-source software, the company said. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Microsoft has purchased privately held AVIcode for an undisclosed amount. Microsoft plans to run the Baltimore-based Web performance management company, which monitors the performance of online applications and services, as a wholly owned subsidiary. Brad Anderson, Microsoft corporate vice president, said in a blog post that AVIcode’s technology helps provide understanding of an application’s performance and quality. He added, “For Microsoft customers, this acquisition will provide access to a new set of capabilities to help you keep those business-critical data-center applications and services up and running.” In addition, AVIcode will continue to support its current customers, said Mike Curreri, CEO of AVIcode.
PureCM, a provider of change and configuration management solutions, now has a U.S. presence with contacts in Denver and Pembroke Pines, Fla. Traditionally serving its U.S. customers from its headquarters in the U.K., PureCM can now “provide better support to new and existing customers, as well as bring professional services such as training or installation support closer to end users,” the company said.
