Apple wins $1 billion in Samsung patent case

 A California jury awarded Apple Inc more than $1.05 billion on Friday in its patent infringement claim that Samsung Electronics Co copied technology used in its iPad and iPhone.

The nine-member jury in a federal court in San Jose, California, found overwhelmingly in Apple’s favour, saying Samsung had infringed on six of seven smartphone patents in question.


The US lawsuit was one of several cases around the world between California-based Apple and South Korean Samsung over technology rights and innovation in the fast-growing mobile computing sector.

Apple sued Samsung in April 2011, and Samsung countersued. The companies have also sued each other in Britain, Australia and South Korea. The California case was the first to go to a US jury.

Apple sought $2.75 billion for its claims that Samsung infringed four design patents and three software patents. Samsung demanded as much as $421.8 million in royalties for claims that Apple infringed five patents.

The complexity of the case was compounded by Apple’s contention that nearly two dozen of Samsung’s devices violated its patents.

The disputes date to 2010 when Samsung released its Galaxy smartphones. Apple immediately suspected that Galaxy phones copied the iPhone, which had been on the market for three years.

Apple and Samsung are the world’s largest makers of handheld devices that blend phone and a computer functionality.

Sales of the iPhone totalled 47 billion dollars in 2011, while iPad sales totaled 20.4 billion dollars, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Together they comprised 62 per cent of Apple’s sales in fiscal 2011.

In smartphone sales, Samsung has a lead over Apple with about 32 per cent of the market to Apple’s 17 per cent, according to technology market researcher IDC.

In a related decision, the US International Trade Commission ruled Friday that Apple did not infringe two patents owned by Google Inc’s Motorola Mobility unit for wireless technologies.

The commission stopped short of resolving their dispute, ordering a trade judge to reconsider Motorola Mobility’s claim that Apple had violated another patent.

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GVK’s $10 bn coal project gets Australian govt approval

The Australian government has given a green signal to GVK Group’s $10 billion Alpha Coal project in Queensland.

Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke has given an approval to construct and operate the Alpha Coal Mine and a railway line between the mine and the port at Abbot Point, near Bowen, GVK said in a statement.

Last year, GVK had acquired 79 per cent stake in the Alpha Coal and Alpha West projects and a 100 per cent stake in the Kevin’s Corner project in Queensland from Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd.


Earlier, the Federal Government of Australia had raised objections to the environmental clearance given by the Queensland government to the project.

GVK Vice-Chairman G V Sanjay Reddy said this is an important milestone for the projects which will provide significant benefits to the Alpha and Bowen regions.

The projects are expected to provide 2,000 on-going jobs in operations directly, employ around 4,000 during construction and return to the government $1.5 billion annually in royalties and taxes at peak production, he said.

These projects hold total resources of 8 billion tonnes and a peak capacity of 80 million tonnes per annum.

When combined, these projects will create one of the largest coal mining operations in the world, the company said in the statement.

The Alpha Coal project has a mine life of over 30 years and a capacity of 32 mtpa which makes it suitable for high production open cut mining.

GVK has also acquired a 100 per cent stake in the 500 km rail line and a 60 million tonne per annum (mtpa) port as part of the “pit-to-port” logistics solution.

“This positive decision also paves the way to ensure more than 1.4 billion people (largely in Asia) that face major shortage of electricity, are provided with an additional source of coal to enhance supply of electricity to the region, thus improving quality of life of the people and overall economic development,” Mr Reddy said.

The Queensland government has also selected GVK’s Rail Corridor as the north-south corridor for connecting the Galilee Basin to the Port of Abbot Point in Australia.

GVK’s coal mining project with its superior quality low ash, low sulphur and low gas thermal coal, will be reliably exported mainly to Asian destinations.

Construction is expected to start next year with first coal being produced in 2015-16, the release added.

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Hindustan Zinc to invest Rs 2000 cr in Rajasthan mines

Mumbai: Hindustan Zinc plans to invest about Rs 2,016 crore ($360 million) to improve mining operations at its Rampura Agucha and Sindesar Khurd (SK) zinc mines in Rajasthan.

The contracts have been awarded to South Africa-based Shaft Sinkers and two Chinese companies NFC (China Nonferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering & Construction Co Ltd) and CCN5C (China Coal 5 Construction Co Ltd).

Mr Akhilesh Joshi, Chief Executive Officer, Hindustan Zinc, said the money required for the project will be funded through internal accruals. UNDERGROUND MINING


The Vedanta Group company had cash and cash equivalents of about Rs 18,000 crore as of March 31, 2012. The projects are scheduled to be completed in 2017. Mining at Rampura Agucha is being done from the open pit. This can be in operation till 372 metres below the surface.

But the mineral reserves and resources below the open pit operating level are to be extracted by suitable underground mining methods, explained a company spokesperson. The company zeroed in on a vertical hoisting shaft with crushing system after a detailed haulage assessment.

It was found that this method would be most economical to handle underground ore. The hoisting shaft will also act as a ventilation intake to bring fresh air to the mine production area, he said.

The shaft will reach a depth of 950 metres and will be 7.5 metres in width.

There will be two silos — one for storing ore and one for waste rock. The world’s largest zinc producing mine, in Rampura Agucha, has proven reserves 110.4 million tonnes (mt).

About 6.15 mtpa of ore is currently extracted from the mine.
Contract to NFC

Mining at the silver content-rich SK mine has gone up from 0.3 mtpa to two mtpa in last six years. It has reserve of 81.3 mt. The shaft at this mine will be 7.5 metre wide and about 1050 metres deep.

NFC has been awarded the $111-million contract which includes engineering contract of $5 million for five years.

The company produced 240 tonnes of silver in FY12. The country’s largest silver producer, Hindustan Zinc hopes to rank among top 10 silver producers when its output increases to 500 tonnes by FY14.

It has set up a silver refinery of 518 tonnes per annum to process the silver extracted from this mine.

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IndiGo plane becomes first to land using fuel-saving technology

Seeking to put in place a more secure and safe landing system and save fuel, IndiGo Airlines on Saturday conducted the first-ever required navigation performance (RNP) approach in regular airline operations while landing at Kochi their scheduled flight from Bengaluru.

IndiGo has collaborated with Quovadis, a subsidiary of Airbus, the Airports Authority of India (AAI), and the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to put in place a safe landing procedure at the Kochi International Airport.


IndiGo has become the first carrier in India authorised to implement this effective, fuel-saving practice. The Kochi International Airport is India’s seventh busiest airport, and equipped with one Instrument Landing System (ILS) on runway 27 and a VOR (both ground based installations) that are used for guidance for landing procedures on both ends of the runway.

The RNP procedure brings great benefits to both the authorities and the airline and enable accurate flight path on contained and secure trajectories; a shorter flight path, saving 75 Km on each approach, which is approximately 400 Kg of fuel saving per landing and a corresponding amount of reduction of greenhouse gas emissions; freedom from dependence on conventional ground-based navigation installations by using on board systems and GPS and easier traffic management in non-radar environments.

The entire process that has been successfully validated on Airbus simulators and in the aircraft has now been flown successfully in regular commercial operations by IndiGo on its Airbus A320 on Friday.

Aditya Ghosh, president, IndiGo said the company was looking forward to commercially flying RNP approaches at Kochi airport in the future. “This new technology will enable tangible cost savings, which in turn will have a positive impact on our overall operational efficiency. But more importantly, we are excited about partnering in this significant step towards improving air traffic management in India and making it an even safer and greener environment to fly in,’’ he added.

RNP approaches, which can be flown by all IndiGo aircraft, are a great way to achieve savings while promoting safety. This form of navigation has the necessary flexibility to optimise and protect trajectories from terrain and obstacles. The RNP project in Kochi has been co-financed by Airbus and the French Civil Aviation Authority. The task was led by Quovadis, a wholly owned Airbus subsidiary dedicated to performance-based navigation (PBN).

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