INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW

China became the world's top patent filer in 2011, surpassing the United States and Japan as it steps up innovation to improve its intellectual property rights track record, a Thomson Reuters research report showed on Wednesday.

The California-based Apple is involved with numerous patent disputes world over with smartphone makers that run Android. Recently Samsung filed new claims against Apple over patent infringements in Germany.

Apple Inc scored a narrow victory against Taiwan's HTC Corp in their smartphone patent battle after the International Trade Commission ruled HTC infringed on only one of four patents at the center of the case brought by Apple.

Apple Inc scored a narrow victory against Taiwan's HTC Corp in their smartphone patents battle, after the International Trade Commission found HTC infringed on one of Apple's patents.

Taiwanese handset maker HTC Corp narrowly lost a patent battle with Apple Inc on Monday, as the International Trade Commission found that HTC had infringed on one of Apple's patents.

Samsung Electronics has filed new claims in its patent war with Apple Inc over alleged patent infringements in Germany, a spokesman for the company said on Monday.

Samsung Electronics has filed new claims in its patent war with Apple Inc over alleged patent infringements in Germany, a spokesman for the company said on Monday.

The International Trade Commission said on Friday it will revisit in part a decision by an ITC administrative law judge, who had found no violation by Apple of four HTC patents that include technologies for power management and phone dialing.

Mayo Clinic and Nestle-owned Prometheus Laboratories took their patent battle to the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday.

Multinational companies operating in China are placing less importance on the world's second-biggest economy amid rising local competition and concern over intellectual property rights, a survey showed on Wednesday.

The Municipal Intermediate People's Court in Shenzhen, a southern Chinese city neighboring Hong Kong, earlier this week rejected a lawsuit by Apple accusing Proview Technology (Shenzhen) of infringing on its iPad trademark.

Apple's legal success continues, as the company won a whopping 31 new patents with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The patents range from inventions to strategic acquisitions.

Apple Inc does not violate patents owned by S3 Graphics Co, the International Trade Commission said on Monday in the latest ruling in the smartphone patent wars.

Prosensa announced the outcome of the Opposition Division of the European Patent Office (EPO) ruling on dystrophin exon 51 skipping molecule. Wedbush Securities said the EPO decision, pending any appeal, may effectively prevent AVI BioPharma from marketing its lead exon 51 skipping molecule, eteplirsen, for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy in the European Union without a license

Canadian patent licensing firm WiLAN Inc said the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) validated most of the claims in one of its key patents, bringing a re-examination process that began in January closer to completion.

A German court granted a preliminary injunction against Apple Inc in a patent infringement case that banned the California company from selling some devices in Germany.

A small Spanish tablet maker has won a patent infringement battle with Apple Inc in a rare victory against the U.S. company in its global defense of markets for its iPads, a court document showed on Wednesday.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has awarded Apple the popular slide-to-unlock feature, boasted by many smartphones nowadays, on a touchscreen device. Apple had already been granted a similar patent before. Another major patent win would obviously strengthen Apple's position. The patent (U.S. Patent No. 8,406,721) is entitled Unlocking a Device by Performing Gestures on an Unlock Image, and has an open language as follows:

A proposed federal law has sparked fears that people like Justin Bieber, who got his start performing cover songs on YouTube could end up in jail. The Commercial Felony Streaming Act would make unauthorized Web streaming of copyrighted content a felony punishable by up to five years.

A damages expert asserted Trust Company of the West is owed $81.7 million in royalties due to trade secret theft as the high-profile civil case pitting the asset mangement firm against its former chief investment officer Jeffrey Gundlach resumed on Tuesday.

World No. 5 smartphone maker HTC Corp said on Tuesday it was still confident it had a strong case in a patent lawsuit against Apple Inc after the U.S. International Trade Commission's preliminary ruling against the Taiwanese firm.