Three months after Kodak sued Apple for patent infringement, Apple has filed a counter-suit that accuses the film and imaging company of violating two of its own digital photography patents. Apple is claiming that several products owned by Kodak like the C, M, and Z series Easyshares cameras and camcorders are using its patent technologies. Apple filed its law suit in the Federal Court for the Northern District of California. Apple is certainly no stranger to courtroom battles, especially for copyright infringements. Apple is currently battling Nokia and HTC for various patent infringements. Similarly, Kodak has lunched suits against other phone makers, including Samsung and LG, in 2008 over the use of camera technology in mobile handsets.

Verizon Communications Inc.’s patent infringement complaint seeking to block digital set-top boxes brought into the U.S. by or on behalf of Cablevision Systems Corp., plus any related software, will be investigated by ITC.   The U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington stated that it will review the complaint filed last month and decide whether to ban the imports after Verizon claimed Cablevision infringed five patents.  The patents are related to boxes with advanced features such as the ability to download videos or provide functions such as game, local weather and social networking.  Verizon said it uses the inventions in its FiOS television service.

Cablevision, the New York -area cable-television provider, and Verizon are fighting for cable customers in the Northeast.  Verizon has committed to spending $23 billion over seven years to build out its fiber optic network for high-speed internet and high-definition television service.  Verizon is the second-largest U.S. phone company behind AT&T Inc.

On the basis of its dominant position in the digital music space, through the iTunes store, Apple has reportedly filed a new patent which entails the use of the iPhone and iPod Touch as digital tickets – or e-tickets – for concerts and events.  The patent, which mentions a system known as “Concert Ticket +”, will mark a notable shift, for the entertainment industry, towards the widespread use of the electronics medium for selling concert tickets.  The September 2008 patent will essentially use near field communications technology, allowing the iPhone or iPod owners to simply get their devices swiped as an entry procedure for a concert or an event. The iPhone and iPod uses will also be able to buy tickets to a venue via iTunes or their devices. This patent will not be restricted to the use of the iPhone or iPod for buying tickets for concerts as the patent will also allow purchasing for sporting events, amusement parks, as well as sending wedding invitations to one’s digitally-connected guests.

The wall of the auditorium in Mount Vernon High School in Virginia collapsed due to a construction defect on Monday since the wall was not property attached to the building. This is the initial conclusion after the district’s and the state’s engineer studied the collapse, which did not injure anyone as it happened after school at 4:30 p.m.  According to a Board of Education member, there was a construction defect in the initial construction of the building since it does not appear that the wall was tied into the steel structure.  The State’s Education Department confirmed that its representative who gave the school permission to reopen also concluded that the wall was never property attached to the building.  According to the Education Department, the wall was missing metal tabs that would bind the masonry to adjacent walls and 60-foot-high by 100-foot-wide wall completely pulled away from the rest of the building.

Earlier this week, Nintendo emerged victorious in the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals as part of a patent infringement dispute involving Wii and GameCube controllers. On April 2, IA Labs filed a suit against Nintendo in the United States District Court of Maryland claiming that Nintendo has willfully infringed upon IA Labs patents with Wii Fit, Wii Fit Plus, and the Wii Balance Board, as well as the Wii Remote, Wii Nunchuk, Wii Motion Plus, Wii Wheel and Wii Zapper. Although Nintendo won that law suit against Wii, Wii is filing another patent infringement law suit, this time associated with its tent-pole release in the highly lucrative fitness genre. The fitness technology company claims that the patents have been used in a number of products in the past.  The new products that are part of this suit are Kilowatt Sport and Exer-Station, both of which picked up innovation of the year award at the Consumer Electronics Show, in 2005 and 2006, respectively.

Bid for Position owns rights to a U.S. patent tiled “Online Auction Bid Management System and Method.” Bid for Position has lost an appeal to a ruling that its bidding system patent was not infringed by Google’s and AOL’s search advertising purchasing system. The company claimed that search advertising systems from AOL, Google, and Microsoft infringed on its patent because they used auction bids to determine pricing for ads on search results. However, the court determined that there were important functional differences between the bidding system described in the patent and Google’s AdWords.  U.S. District Judge Jerome Friedman ruled in October 2008 in favor of Google and AOL in a summary judgment that neither company’s system caused patent infringement.

In what may be the first case of a sexually explicit construction defect case, the owner of a historic Kansas City hotel is alleging that graphic markings left by a contractor on unfinished sheetrock walls have “bled through” vinyl wall covering, causing significant damage to the hotel’s reputation. A law suit filed earlier this week by The Hotel Philis says the contractor is liable for the graffiti, which allegedly includes caricatures of male genitalia and drawing of a nude female and has resulted in a number of consumer complaints. According to the law suit, following completion of the project, the markings have bled through the VWC in various locations and rooms throughout the hotel causing the alleged construction defect. During the construction, the law suit says, works marked up the unfinished sheetrock with measurements, room numbers, and location of utilities and some allegedly used the surfaces for their personal comments. According to the suit, the contractor applied the VWC to the walls without any attempt to remove or pre-treat the permanent markers stains, in contrary to manufacturer’s recommendations.

The AAA four-diamond award winner for its rooms reopened in 2001 after $28 million renovation.  The Hotel Phillips was originally opened in 1931.

Canadian firm WiLAN claims widespread patent infringement for its patented Bluetooth technology.  WiLAN has filed a law suit in the U.S. District Court in Texas yesterday accusing several major companies, including Apple, Dell, HP, Intel, Motorola, Sony Corporation and Toshiba of infringing of its patented Bluetooth technology.  WiLAN is claiming that the vendors have violated the patented technology that stops Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals interfering with each other on mobile phones and laptops.  Legal disputes over patent and trademark infringements have become widespread in the technology industry in recent times, as players big and small tussle over key technologies.  Apple and Nokia are currently in a law suit over alleged patent infringements, while Kodak has filed a complaint against Apple and RIM over alleged patent infringement in digital cameras embedded in phones.

A federal appeals court denied Microsoft’s request that a full panel of judges rehear arguments in its long running patent dispute with a small Canadian technology company.  The decision is a blow to the word’s largest software maker, which has been involved in a dispute with Toronto-based i4i over a feature in Microsoft’s “Word” application for than three years. A federal jury awarded i4i $290 million last August after finding patent infringements belonging to i4i relating to text manipulation software in the 2003 and 2007 versions of Microsoft’s Word processing application.  At the same time the court granted i4i’s motion for an injunction preventing Microsoft from selling versions of Word containing the disputed technology.  Microsoft appealed the jury award, but in December a panel of three appeals court judges rejected its argument. In January Microsoft asked for rehearing by all 11 judges of the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Federal Circuit, which handles many patent and trademark cases.   This request was rejected last week.

On April 1, Microsoft shares were down 1.3 percent to $28.91 on the Nasdaq.

With less than 64 days left to arguably the biggest sporting event in the world, 2010 World Cup in South Africa, FIFA is doing all it can to protect its registered trademark “South Africa 2010.” Official wold Cup sponsors pay millions to be associated with the event and only do this in order to be guaranteed exclusive rights to use FIFA’s official marks on their marketing and promotional material. Consequently FIFA defends its trademarks very vigorously because there is so much revenue  at stake. Two recent cases in South Africa illustrated the aggressive stance FIFA takes with anyone who infringes its rights.

Johannesburg-based FMCG firm Metcash was sued by FIFA when it released a confectionery line under the tile “Astor 2010 Pops” alongside the South African flag and images of footballs.  The court in South Africa ruled in favor of FIFA and ordered the company to cease production and pay all costs. In a second case, a sports bar near Pretoria used the mark “World Cup 2010″ on its exterior signage, alongside the flags of the various qualifying countries.  Again the court ruled in favor of FIFA and forced the bar to remove the images.

This is the case despite the fact that no one owns the rights to the number 2010 or the words South Africa when used in isolation. In Europe, including UK, FIFA has a trademark registration for the phrase “WORLD CUP” 2010. It also owns a UK registration for “WORD CUP” in relation to clothing and footwear.

The World Cup 2010 will start on June 11, 2010, when the host country will take on Mexico in Johannesburg.