AOL Shoots Up 35% After $1 Billion Dollar Patent Announcement

by Kyle in AOL, Featured, Microsoft, Tech
Comments Off on AOL Shoots Up 35% After $1 Billion Dollar Patent Announcement 0 Like 1,712

AOL has inked an amazing deal with rival Microsoft to sell 800 of their patents to the Redmond based computer giant. The deal is said to be worth $1 billion dollars and includes licensing back to AOL.

AOL stock closed at $18.42 on Friday and skyrocketed to $25.16 on the news of the patent sale. While Tim Armstrong is taking much of the credit for the patent sale it was actually sparked by activist shareholder Starboard Value LP who had said earlier on that, if structured properly, AOL could stand to earn $1 billion dollars or more off it’s treasure trove of patents.

Obviously it was structured properly.

AOL is holding onto 300 of their patents which revolve around some of their current core business’ like maps, and search.

“This is a valuable portfolio that we have been following for years and analyzing in detail for several months,” Microsoft’s General Counsel Brad Smith said in a statement.

The patent transaction is expected to close by the end of 2012 and has a sweetheart breakup clause as well. Should the sale not go through, Microsoft will be on the line to AOL for $211.2 million dollars.

Analysts are hopeful that this influx of cash from the sale of it’s patents will help AOL continue to rebuild it’s core business units.

source: Reuters

Developing: Motorola Mobility wins injunction against Apple in Germany, apparently

by Cameron Wright in Apple, Google, Mobile
2 Comments 0 Like 1,173

“As the patent litigation world turns”

[scribd id=71622154 key=key-2l51dt9nj83mi07adrm2 mode=list]

Apparently, Apple was just handed a major loss in the biggest European market. Unlike the injunctions against Samsung that Apple has won in Germany, the Netherlands, and, most recently Australia, this is not a preliminary ruling.  Florian Mueller explains here,

We’re not talking about a preliminary injunction, but this one is in effect now and it could be appealed and lifted.

He also notes:

The court ruling doesn’t say which particular products Motorola Mobility accused of infringement, but since the U.S. equivalents of both patents-in-suit were also asserted by Motorola Mobility in federal lawsuits in the United States, it appears that the entire range of Apple mobile devices is affected by this decision.

So, at this moment, Motorola has the ability to stop Apple from selling any devices within the confines of German borders. This is a very significant win. The damage could be huge. According to Mueller if this were to pan out, Apple will be required to pay damages on any possible infringement from April 19, 2003 to the present day.

The patents that are allegedly being enforced are:

  1. EP (European Patent) 1010336 (B1) on a “method for performing a countdown function during a mobile-originated transfer for a packet radio system”; this is the European equivalent of U.S. Patent No. 6,359,898
  2. EP (European Patent) 0847654 (B1) on a “multiple pager status synchronization system and method”; this is the European equivalent of U.S. Patent No. 5,754,119

Head over to FOSS Patents for a more in-depth (professional) analysis.