On Sept. 16 President Obama signed the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (the "America Invents Act") into law, ushering in the most significant changes to the U.S. patent system in decades.

The success of Samsung's Galaxy S Android phones just became a cash cow for Microsoft, thanks to a patent cross-licensing agreement in which Microsoft gets paid for every Android phone or tablet Samsung sells.

While I was in Japan touring Toughbook facilities, one of the more interesting discussions I had with one of the Japanese execs was in regards to patents.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics says it has filed a complaint in France against its US rival Apple for infringement of three technology patents.

Microsoft has reached a patent licence agreement with Acer, Taiwan's leading computer maker, that will cover tablet computers and smartphones powered by Google's Android platform.

Google's top lawyer has accused Apple, Oracle, Microsoft and other companies of using "bogus patents" to wage a campaign against the internet giant's Android mobile platform.

Google has bought about 1000 pending and issued patents from IBM in its quest to boost its defences against suits by other technology companies, according to documents filed with the US Patent Office.

IBM earned more U.S. patents in 2010 than any other company, topping the list of patent winners for the 18th year in a row.

Microsoft may be on its way to earning a percentage of every Android handset sold, something even Google hasn't accomplished.

Apple has announced it is suing Taiwanese maker of smartphones HTC for infringing on 20 patents.