patent lawsuits

To lead off I have to say that Senator Ron Wyden is making me prouder to be an Oregonian every week. When he called out the Obama administration on trying to do an end run around Congress by allowing the USTR to agree to ACTA without Congressional ratification, it made me want to cheer.

Honestly, I'm at a loss to explain Apple's patent lawsuits against Samsung, which seem mainly targeted at the company's Galaxy Tab 10.1 product, which competes directly with the iPad.

Having spent time with both devices, I can say that they're certainly competitive.

East Texas is famous for its patent lawsuits, and even though the Federal Circuit had suggested in the past that district courts be more willing to transfer patent cases out of East Texas, companies keep coming up with tricks to stay in East Texas.

Take, for example, the company Personal Audio.

A whole bunch of you have been submitting this story about how mobile app developers around the globe have begun pulling their apps from the US Apple iOS and Android Market stores because they're afraid of getting hit by patent lawsuits in the US.

This shouldn't surprise anyone.

Growth in US software patent lawsuits means independent developers are turning away from it as a place to do business - as Indian software company sends warning to tech giants

<

The stream of smartphone-related patent lawsuits -- more than 40 since the start of 2010 -- could be a sign of a healthy market, or a deterrent to innovation.