Samsung vs. Apple patent fight spreads to France

Apple and Samsung's international patent dispute has spilled over into a new battleground -- France.

Samsung has disclosed that it had filed a lawsuit in France against Apple in July, alleging that the iPhone and iPad infringe on three of its mobile technology patents pertaining to how gadgets connect to 3G networks, according to a report from Agence France-Presse.

The first hearing in the suit is to take place in a Paris district court in December, the AFP said.

The French suit is just one more example of the escalating rivalry of Apple and Samsung over the increasingly important and competitive markets of smartphones and tablet computers.

Last week a German court upheld an August ruling that sales of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 be banned in Germany until an Apple-initiated patent suit there can be resolved. The same court also temporarily banned the unreleased Galaxy Tab 7.7 from being sold in Germany.

The patent fight got its start in April after Apple sued Samsung in San Francisco, arguing that its lines of Galaxy Tab tablets and Galaxy phones infringed on some Apple patents as well as the look and feel of the Apple iPad tablet and iPhone.

Samsung fired back with a patent suit of its own in Seoul, where it's based, alleging that the iPhone and iPad infringe on a handful of its patents.

Since then, the suits and countersuits between the two companies have spread to a number of other European countries, as well as Japan and Australia.

One result of the suits so far has been a temporary sales injunction against Samsung's Galaxy S, Galaxy S II and Ace smartphones handed down by a court in the Netherlands last month that bans the phones in 30 European countries. In Australia, Samsung agreed to a temporary sales stoppage of its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet.

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Twitter.com/nateog

Photo: Apple iPhone 4 units. Credit: Chris Goodney/Bloomberg

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'Back to the Future' Nike MAG to hit EBay, fight Parkinson's disease [Video]

The Nike MAG shoes worn by Marty McFly -- er, actor Michael J. Fox -- in the classic film "Back to the Future Part II" have long been an unattainable holy grail for sneaker-heads.

Now, finally, the MAGs have taken the leap from the silver screen into the real world. The self-lacing feature depicted in the 1989 movie is gone, but the MAG will get the movie version's LED-electroluminescent glowing Nike logos.

Most sneaker-heads, however, will never be able to get their hands on a pair.

Nike has produced a limited run of 1,500 pairs of the MAG. Each will be auctioned on EBay at nikemag.eBay.com, and all of the "net proceeds" will go to the Michael J. Fox Foundation to help fight Parkinson's disease, according to Nike. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1991.

The auction kicks off at tonight at 8:30 p.m. and will end Sept. 18, with 150 pairs sold through EBay each day.

But the tech-related fundraising around the shoe doesn't end there.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin and his wife Anne Wojciki, who co-founded the DNA-testing company 23andMe, have agreed to match all donations to the Michael J. Fox Foundation -- up to $50 million -- through the end of 2012, according to the blog Nice Kicks.

Michael J. Fox is also set to appear on "Late Show with David Letterman" tonight to talk about the release of the Nike MAG and the fundraising for his foundation, Nice Kicks said.

In the film "Back to the Future Part II," Fox wears the shoes when his character, Marty McFly, travels to the year 2015. Hopefully we'll see a general release of the Nike MAG in four years, at lower prices than the EBay auction will conjure up.

What do you think about the Nike MAG and the fundraising? For sneaker geeks and lovers of the Back to the Future trilogy, does the shoe live up to the hype? Should Mattel follow Nike and produce Marty McFly's "Back to the Future Part II" hover board? Sound off in the comments.

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Twitter.com/nateog

Images: The Nike MAG sneaker, inspired by the shoe of the same name from the 1989 movie "Back to the Future Part II." Credit: Nike

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Michael Arrington's fight with AOL over TechCrunch gets animated [Video]

It was likely bound to happen.

Taiwan's Next Media Animation, the quirky company that makes odd videos of just about any big news story out there, has made a short depicting its take on the fight between Michael Arrington and AOL over the direction of the popular blog TechCrunch.

The dispute, which has been covered at The Times by my colleague Jessica Guynn since last week, centers around Arrington, TechCrunch's founder and co-editor, starting a venture capital fund called the CrunchFund. CrunchFund's biggest investor is AOL.

But AOL's policy is that its journalists can't also be venture capitalists. So Arrington was fired from AOL, which angered TechCrunch writers. And now, as pointed out in the video below, Arrington is threatening to quit a job he's already been fired from.

In the computer-animated video, Arrington wears a green coat and witch's hat and, at times, a choker with an AOL logo on it.

Later in the clip, he gets sprayed with paintballs held by gun-toting journalists calling him out on the ethical problems associated with being both a tech reporter and an tech investor.

Arianna Huffington, who oversees all of AOL's online content and is reportedly the person who decided to fire Arrington last week, appears in the video in flames over her anger at the situation.

Tim Armstrong, AOL's chief executive, is depicted as trying to protect Arrington from Huffington's anger and she kicks and punches the two men.

Yup, nobody tells a story quite like Next Media.

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

twitter.com/nateog

Top image: A screen shot of a flaming Arianna Huffington, president and editor in chief of AOL's Huffington Post Media Group; AOL Chief Executive Tim Armstrong; and a green-cloaked Michael Arrington. Credit: Next Media Animation

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