In a patent filed on September 21, 2011, Google outlines how Glass could be used to control appliances within the home, like a washing machine or refrigerator.

A wearable computing device includes a head-mounted display (HMD) that provides a field of view in which at least a portion of the environment of the wearable computing device is viewable. The HMD is operable to display images superimposed over the field of view. When the wearable computing device determines that a target device is within its environment, the wearable computing device obtains target device information related to the target device. The target device information may include information that defines a virtual control interface for controlling the target device and an identification of a defined area of the target device on which the virtual control image is to be provided. The wearable computing device controls the HMD to display the virtual control image as an image superimposed over the defined area of the target device in the field of view.

In layman terms, Google’s patent would basically allow Glass to bring up a menu whenever you look at an object that can be controlled via Glass. The menu would be laid over the item in question to bring an augmented reality flair to the experience. From there, the user would be able to control the object in question with either a touchpad, voice command or gesture.

Like most patent applications, this is just one possible idea out of many for Google Glass. I wouldn’t be surprised to see something like this come to Glass in the future, but we’re probably going to see simpler apps starting out. We’ll have to wait for the smart house of the future, and hopefully not Disney’s Smart House, to come along before stuff like this becomes more common.

[h/t: Engadget]

The Contra Costa Times reports that the $1.2 billion verdict came after the jury found that Marvell had willfully infringed upon patents belonging to Carnegie Mellon. That could be especially troubling as the finding will allow the judge to impose a fines up to three times what the jury originally awarded the university.

So, what patents did Marvell infringe upon to warrant this kind of verdict? The company used a technology developed at Carnegie Mellon that allows chips to better read data stored on high-speed disk drives. The jury found that Marvell had used the technology in billions of its chips without licensing it from the university.

Marvell’s record patent judgment follows another billion dollar patent judgment from earlier this year when Apple won out against Samsung in a $1.04 billion patent case. Samsung has been fighting back against it since, and Marvell vows to do the same. The company says that it will seek to overturn the verdict, and will even take the case to the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals if necessary according to the Chicago Tribune.

Despite promising to fight the verdict, the judgment has hit Marvell’s stock pretty hard. The company’s share price dropped 10 percent to $7.40 on Wednesday, and is down another 3.18 percent today for a share price of $7.17.

Today, the Financial Times reports that a Texas jury has ordered Apple to pay $368 million to VirnetX. VirnetX is a patent holding firm – otherwise known as a patent troll. The company sued Apple in a district known to be amenable to patent trolls, over 45 patents related to real-time communications and security technologies they say Apple violated with its iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices. According to the Times, Apple is expected to appeal the decision.

VirnetX announced back in September that it has also filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission over “unfair trade practices” relating to the same communications patents in the Texas lawsuit.

Microsoft had its own run-in with VirnetX back in 2010. After VirnetX sued microsoft over violations of its online communication patents, Microsoft decided to settle the matter for $200.

It’s pretty clear that the U.S. patent system is broken, and that the only real winners so far are the lawyers. Though $396 million may be pocket change to Apple, this is yet another sign that tech innovation is being stifled through antiquated patent law.

Ars Technica reports that US District Court Judge Lucy Koh, the judge who has presided over the previous Apple vs Samsung battles, has lifted the sales ban on Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1. The sales ban was lifted because the jury in last month’s patent trial ruled that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 actually didn’t infringe on Apple’s design patents. After the ruling, Samsung motioned to have the sales ban lifted, but Judge Koh’s hands were tied as Samsung had already appealed the original sales ban decision to a higher court.

The US Federal Court of Appeals decided to return jurisdiction to Koh on Friday. Samsung took this as a chance to have the sales ban lifted once and for all. Koh obliged, and lifted the sales ban on Monday. Of course, Apple objected to Koh’s decision to lift the sales ban. The company argued that all post-trial motions should be resolved before the court decides on anything.

Apple may be angry over the sales ban being lifted, but the company must be livid after Koh decided to also keep the $2.6 million bond Apple posted to ban the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the first place. Samsung may now be entitled to the money if it’s found that the sales ban wrongfully harmed them in some way.

It’s a small win for Samsung, but an important one. They need this kind of momentum as they go into the next phase of the legal battle. Samsung is now arguing jury misconduct in last month’s decision. The case could go in some very interesting directions, and we’re just getting started. We’ll keep you updated on all the latest events in the latest and biggest legal battle to hit the tech world.

According to a report this morning from Bloomberg, U.K. High Court judge Colin Birss ruled that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 doesn’t infringe on the design patents Apple claims it does because consumers aren’t likely to mistake the Galaxy Tab for the much cooler iPad. Samsung’s Galaxy Tabs, he said “do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design. … They are not as cool.”

So, while Judge Birss definitely handed Samsung a victory, he did so in a very backhanded way. And, frankly, in a way that reflects the realities of the tablet market. The Galaxy Tab has done decently well for itself, as Android tablets go, but it has posed no more real threat to the iPad than any other tablet, despite looking suspiciously similar. For the moment, the tablet market is Apple’s to rule. Every other tablet maker is stuck vying for a distant second place (a position the Galaxy Tab does not occupy). Judge Birss appears to know that, and to understand that consumers aren’t likely to mistake anything for Apple’s iPad.

Meanwhile, Samsung also scored another minor victory – or, at least, a temporary reprieve – in the U.S. when Judge Lucy Koh agreed to stay the injunction against Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus. All in all, things look to be going well for Samsung at the moment.

Late Friday afternoon, though, Samsung was back in court asking that the injunction be stayed pending their appeal to the Federal Circuit Court. Judge Koh ultimately relented. Bloomberg reports that on Friday afternoon she issued an order staying the injunction until Thursday, July 12. On Thursday Apple will present their response to Samsung, and will, presumably, argue that the injunction should go forward as planned. By that time, though, it may be too late, as Google may already have finished the aforementioned update. If that’s the case, then Judge Koh may well overturn the injunction, since the infringement that prompted it will no longer be occurring.

This incident has been one of the most significant in the long-running patent war between Apple and the various makers of Android-based smartphones – Samsung, HTC, Motorola, etc. For a long time now it’s been plain that the legal battles between Apple and other smartphone makers have been a proxy for Apple’s rivalry with Google, born in part of Steve Jobs’s hatred of Google due to his conviction that Android is an iOS ripoff. While Google hasn’t paid a whole lot of attention to these battles, the Galaxy Nexus is different. The Galaxy Nexus is Google’s flagship Android phone. It’s the only “pure Google” (i.e., lacking carrier tampering with the OS) Android phone. It’s also first in line for the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean rollout coming later this month. If Google can’t sell the one device that’s theirs alone (or as close as it can be), then that’s a big hairy deal for them.

Whether the kerfluffle over the Galaxy Nexus will prompt Google to take up a more direct role in Android manufacturers’ patent battles with Google remains to be seen, though it’s beginning to look likely. If this continues, we may wind up getting the Apple-Google throwdown we’ve all been wanting.

My blind optimism towards the tech industry has failed me again as Nokias has announced that Google and Asus have violated their bought and paid for hard-earned patents in regards to Wi-Fi.

According to The Inquirer, the patent in question deals with the IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi standard that most wireless devices utilize in their day-to-day activities. Nokia, the Godfather of mobile handsets, licenses out the patent in question to more than 40 licensees. They are shocked that Google and Asus weren’t already licensees and are even more shocked that they didn’t just simply ask to sign up as a licensee.

Thankfully, it appears that Nokia is only asking for that – they only want Google and Nokia to sign up for a license under their standard essential patents. Sure, it would cost Google and Asus a chunk of change to become licensees, but it’s probably less than what a legal battle would cost. Besides, I wasn’t lying when I said that Nokia was the Godfather of mobile handsets. A court would be likely to agree with them more than Google or Asus.

Nokia is no stranger to their power over the mobile handset patent portfolio to their advantage. The company filed lawsuits against Google’s other OEM partners like HTC last month. It should also be noted that they’re already suing Google for an entirely different reason as well. Google accused the European company of being in cahoots with Microsoft to undermine Android and Nokia fired back at Google claiming that Android violated their patents.

Look, this is just getting out of hand. Can’t we all just agree that patent lawsuits are a waste of time and money? They accomplish nothing besides delaying a product reaching retail because one company is scared that the other company’s product is going to cut into their sales. You can only make a smartphone in so many different ways. Apple, Nokia, Google and everybody should have realized this by now.

Samsung, as you might expect, wasted no time in filing their notice of appeal. According to Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents, Samsung filed their notice of appeal yesterday (the injunction was granted on Friday afternoon). The notice outlines Samsung’s strategy for the appeal, and asks that the injunction be stayed until the Federal Circuit Court can rule on the appeal.

The Galaxy Nexus injunction was the second won by Apple last week. On Wednesday Judge Koh also granted an injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1, which Apple says violates its design patents. Samsung was similarly quick off the mark in filing a notice of appeal in that case.

Meanwhile, Apple appears ready to make trouble for Samsung’s newest flagship device as well. Earlier this month we told you that Apple tried to block the sale of the Galaxy S III before it even hit U.S. shores. Though that attempt failed, Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White recently told investors that he expects Apple to continue attacking the Galaxy S III in court, and that a victory by Apple against Samsung’s latest phone would cause “big problems” for Apple’s chief rival in the smartphone industry.

A recent blog post from Foss Patents helps us put the current Android patent wars into perspective. His research found that the Android has infringed upon 11 patents belonging to Apple and Microsoft. These aren’t patent trials that are still underway, but rather a long list of the times Android has been found to be infringing.

Google’s troubles first started back in 2011 when Apple brought a patent lawsuit against hardware manufacturers – Samsung and Motorola – for its patent on a “portable electronic device for photo management.” This led to injunctions being placed against both companies in Germany.

As we go through the months leading up to the present, there seems to be a pattern. Apple really doesn’t like Android, but they absolutely hate Motorola and Samsung. Out of the 11 patents that were ruled as being infringed upon, 10 involved either Motorola, Samsung or both. The only one that didn’t involve the two prior parties was brought agains HTC for a “system and method for performing an action on a structure in computer-generated data” patent.

As mentioned above, Apple isn’t the only company using its vast array of patents to keep the competition at bay. Microsoft has jumped in on the fun as well. In May, Microsoft was able to prove that Motorola devices infringed its patent and was able to get an injunction placed in Germany.

With all these patent lawsuits flying around, will there ever be an end in sight? Apple certainly doesn’t seem to be slowing down as they were just granted a preliminary injunction against the Galaxy Nexus.

Thankfully, it seems that some parts of the U.S. legal system are beginning to see what Apple, Motorola and others are really hoping to achieve here – killing competition in the courts instead of proving their worth on the market. Richard Posner, judge for the United States Court of Appeals, threw out a case involving Google and Apple last week on the grounds that both parties failed to actually show any damages caused by competing devices.

All of this is to say that patent reform is a major concern that’s not getting nearly enough coverage. As long as people are able to buy their product of choice, they don’t seem to mind that companies are killing innovation from themselves and others with these frivolous lawsuits.

While there was sure to be rejoicing in Cupertino following the ruling, this is certainly not how Google wanted to end its week. On Wednesday Google announced the latest (and very impressive) version of their Android mobile operating system – Android 4.1 Jelly Bean – at their annual Google I/O conference. When it first ships in mid-July, Jelly Bean will be available on exactly two devices: the Galaxy Nexus, and the Nexus 7 tablet. Unfortunately for Google, by the time that shipping date comes, there may only be one Jelly Bean device on the market.

As with the Galaxy Tab injunction, the fact that Judge Koh granted this injunction means that she feels Apple has a very strong case and is likely to prove its infringement claims in court. According to the ruling, the injunction cannot go into effect until Apple pays a $96 million bond. The bond is designed to offset any harm to Samsung’s sales should Apple fail to win in court. Apple was forced to pay a similar – though much smaller – bond for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 injunction. That bond was $2.6 million, and Apple handed over the with surprising speed. Though this bond is almost 37 times as much money, it’s a fair bet that Apple will be writing a check as soon as possible – perhaps within a couple of days.

So, if you’ve been in the market for a Galaxy Nexus, it looks like now might be your best time to get one. The 4G LTE model is only available on Verizon’s network. The HSPA+ GSM model is available contract-free on Google Play. The upgrade to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, coming later this month, should hit Nexuses (Nexi?) ordered from Google Play immediately, and will probably roll out to the Verizon version shortly thereafter.

Judge Koh’s order is embedded below:

Galaxy Nexus Injunction