U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland granted Epic Games a temporary restraining order (in Pacer) blocking Apple from denying Epic access to Apple development tools, including for the Unreal Engine game creation platform that Epic offers third-party developers (see 2008240010). “The record shows potential significant damage to both the Unreal Engine platform itself, and to the gaming industry generally, including on both third-party developers and gamers” if Epic is denied access, said Rogers Monday. “Epic Games and Apple are at liberty to litigate against each other, but their dispute should not create havoc to bystanders.” She denied Epic’s motion to order Fortnite’s reinstatement on the App Store. Epic “has not yet demonstrated irreparable harm” from Apple’s removal of Fortnite in apparent retaliation for Epic’s installation of an in-app direct-payment system to compete with Apple’s, she said. “The current predicament appears of its own making.” Apple and Epic didn’t comment Tuesday. Rogers set a Sept. 4 deadline for Epic to file for a preliminary injunction and a Sept. 28 Zoom hearing on the motion.
Kaleidescape is weighing its options over Google’s potential introduction of a Kaleidoscope-branded streaming aggregator tool for the next version of Chrome (see 2008210048), emailed CEO Cheena Srinivasan Monday. Google’s initiative “will create lots of confusion in the market due to the similarity of our trademark,” he said. “Google will own the name Kaleidoscope (very close to Kaleidescape) for a content aggregation app on its Chrome browser. If they fail, that could also harm our brand as customers and prospects may be confused about our own successful offering.” Kaleidescape is “discussing this internally” and will soon disclose “what we plan to do next to stop this confusion,” said Srinivasan. Google didn’t comment Tuesday.
Lenovo supports Google’s motion to intervene in the Tariff Act Section 337 investigation at the International Trade Commission into Nokia allegations that Lenovo computers and parts infringe five Nokia patents, said the PC vendor in comments (login required) posted Tuesday in docket 337-TA-1208. Nokia doesn’t oppose Google’s intervention, said its filing (login required), also posted Tuesday, but does have concerns. “It is undisputed that Google’s interests in this investigation are aligned with Respondents Lenovo and contrary to Complainants Nokia, and thus Google and Lenovo should coordinate accordingly,” said Nokia. Google’s motion said it doesn’t seek to participate in any relief phase of the investigation, “but it has already filed a public interest statement” warning against an import ban of Lenovo Chromebooks when COVID-19 demand for remote-learning connectivity tools is at an historic high, said Nokia: “Google’s intentions regarding the relief phase are thus unclear.” Google didn’t comment Tuesday. Administrative Law Judge Dee Lord ordered Google, Lenovo and Nokia to file briefs by Wednesday showing cause why the investigation shouldn't be “severed” into two separate probes (see 2008160004). Nokia's comments indicated it plans to oppose Lord's plan to sever the investigation. "As Nokia will explain more fully in its forthcoming response," Google's "limited participation as an intervenor "should not impede the ability to proceed efficiently in this Investigation without severance," it said. Nokia said "Google can be added as an intervenor without impacting the efficient adjudication of the issues in a single investigation."
COVID-19's work-from-home “transition” is creating challenges for the cybersecurity industry “around hardware,” and “we expect this trend to continue,” said Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora on a fiscal Q4 investor call Monday. “When customers are not in their office, it's very hard for hardware to be delivered,” he said. “Hardware is going to continue to be a tough business in the next 12 months.” Palo Alto has been shifting customers to “software-delivered security,” he said, “and we plan to continue to do so.” It expects most future growth to come from software and services, he said. Prisma Access, Palo Alto’s cloud-based security infrastructure platform has been through “an amazing journey” this year, he said. That platform is “a powerful security tool as our customers go through a network transformation and create robust solutions for work from home for the long term,” he said. In Q4 ended July 31, “we saw very strong conversion of Prisma Access trials that were launched in response to COVID and work from home,” he said.
Microsoft backs the Epic Games motion for a temporary restraining order (see 2008180022) blocking Apple from permanently barring the Fortnite franchise from the App Store and cutting off Epic’s access to Apple development tools, including for the Unreal Engine game creation platform that Epic offers third-party developers. So said Kevin Gammill, Microsoft general manager-gaming developer experiences, in a declaration (in Pacer) Sunday in U.S. District Court in Oakland. Epic alleges Apple is retaliating for Epic’s launch of an independent in-app direct-payment system at the App Store. Apple counters that Epic is violating its App Store license. Unreal Engine is “critical technology for numerous game creators including Microsoft,” said Gammill. It’s one of the most popular third-party game engines available to game creators, he said. “In Microsoft’s view there are very few other options available for creators to license with as many features and as much functionality as Unreal Engine across multiple platforms, including iOS.” Microsoft has an “enterprise-wide,” multiyear Unreal Engine license agreement, said Gammill. It invested “significant resources and engineer time working with and customizing Unreal Engine for its own games on PC, Xbox consoles, and mobile devices (including iOS devices),” he said. Apple didn’t comment. Sony agreed last month to make a $250 million “strategic investment” for a minority interest in Epic (see 2007090044). U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who was reassigned the case Wednesday, set a Zoom hearing on Epic’s TRO motion that was to be held at 3 p.m. PDT Monday.
Sonos wants to terminate the Tariff Act Section 337 investigation against Alphabet on allegations at the International Trade Commission that Google devices infringe five Sonos multiroom patents. Sonos is satisfied from pretrial discovery that Alphabet doesn’t develop, manufacture or import the allegedly infringing devices, so it’s withdrawing the allegations against the Google parent, said its motion (login required) posted Monday in docket 337-TA-1191. Terminating the probe into Alphabet “will simplify the investigation without causing prejudice to Google, and there are no extraordinary circumstances that warrant denying this motion,” said Sonos. The investigation "will continue" into the allegations against Google, it said.
It’s “hard to quantify” the “market chatter” about Chromebook shortages and their impact on sales, as unprecedented consumer demand for connectivity tools shows no signs of abating during the pandemic, emailed NPD Vice President-Technology Stephen Baker Friday. “The fact is that sales results at these levels have been going on for weeks and weeks,” said Baker. “There may be insufficient product available, and current volumes could be higher than what we are doing now with more inventory,” he said. Yet Chromebook unit sales continue through the roof, rising the first three weeks of August “more than 2x higher than they were last year,” and up more than 90% since April from the same 2019 period, he said. A Google spokesperson declined comment Sunday about Chromebook shortages. The COVID-19 pandemic is putting “significant pressure on the supply chain as schools nationwide place orders to try and support remote learning resulting in Chromebook backlogs,” Google told (login required) the International Trade Commission last month, opposing Nokia's petitioned ban on Lenovo Chromebooks. NPD is finding consumer laptop sales “a little more volatile” during the back-to-school buying frenzy compared with the start of lockdown mandates in March, Ben Arnold, executive director-industry analyst-consumer electronics, told an NPD webinar last week. “We’ve seen one or two weeks where sales are up 40 or 50% for notebook PCs, and a couple of weeks where sales have been slightly negative,” said Arnold. “What we’re seeing on that end is some struggle to get product.” Amid the “historic” consumer demand for connectivity tools, “it’s difficult to get PCs right now, for sure,” he said. About three-quarters of the 46 Chromebook models BestBuy.com advertised for sale when we checked Monday were sold out.
Netflix and Hulu are defying Ohio law by running their streaming services through “wireline facilities located at least in part in the public right-of-way,” without proper state authorization and payment of 5% quarterly “video service provider” fees to local municipalities, alleged Maple Heights, Ohio, in a complaint (in Pacer) Friday in U.S. District Court in Cleveland. Their failure to seek authorization from the Ohio commerce director and give localities 10 days’ advance written notice before activating their streaming services doesn't relieve them of the obligation to pay the franchise fees, said the complaint, seeking class-action status on behalf of other Ohio municipalities. The suburb is about 10 miles southeast of downtown Cleveland. Its lawsuit seeks back payment of the unpaid fees with interest, plus declaratory judgment that Netflix and Hulu are violating state law. The same team of lawyers filed a nearly identical complaint Aug. 11 in Texarkana for New Boston, Texas, seeking class-action status for all Texas municipalities (see 2008120001). Netflix and Hulu didn’t comment Monday.
Startup Edge Networks will soft-launch its Evoca-branded ATSC 3.0-based content service Monday in Boise through an “early access” program for the first 200 subscribers who sign up at $20 a month through year-end. The offer includes a Scout-branded receiver and indoor TV antenna, since much of Evoca’s content is broadcast locally from one of two low-power 3.0 stations in Boise being leased from Cocola Broadcasting (see 2003100036 or 2003100042). The service officially starts Sept. 1 at the standard subscription price of $49 a month, offering “60+ channels with more to come.”
Kaleidescape CEO Cheena Srinivasan didn’t respond to our email queries Friday seeking comment on Google’s apparent plans to launch a streaming service aggregator tool called Kaleidoscope on its next version of Chrome, and its similarity to the brand name of the home theater company Srinivasan runs in Silicon Valley. The Google fanboy website Chrome Story broke the news of the Kaleidoscope development, complete with screen shots showing the Netflix and Amazon Prime Video logos. Google didn’t comment. Our search of Patent and Trademark Office records found 95 granted or pending applications for Kaleidoscope, none connected to Google. Srinivasan’s company landed a trademark to the Kaleidescape name in September 2004 and renewed it a decade later, PTO records show.