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Recent years have seen a seemingly endless amount of patent infringement lawsuits between the big smartphone companies, not just in the U.S., but around the globe. Just two weeks ago a verdict was delivered in Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) second patent suit against Samsung, in which Apple sought a monstrous $2.2 billion. That will likely be appealed and the legal battle will continue. The gray area of patent infringement needs to be cleared up if this state of affairs is ever to end, and Apple and Google's Motorola Mobility unit have taken a step in that direction by dropping their lawsuits against each other.

On Friday, a filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a "joint motion to dismiss the appeal." Both parties agreed to dismiss all current and pending "litigation without prejudice." According to Reuters, the companies issued a

It was a slow week for App Store releases but there were a few big announcements. DeNA and Hasbro announced that the official Transformers: Age of Extinction tie-in will be available for mobile devices this "summer". The movie is set to hit theaters on June 27, 2014, so expect the game to land on the App Store around the same time. Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen made headlines again after he told CNBC he plans to release a "less additive" version of the game with a multipayer option in August. Nguyen also teased his newest release, a platform game, on Twitter. You can see the first image of Nguyen's unnamed new game posted below. And finally, Adult Swim's new iOS game Delivery Outlaw soft launched in Canada, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland.

Here are the most noteworthy apps and games released to the Apple App Store between 05/11/14 to 05/17/14. Apple's Free App of the Week is the hotel / flight booking app Kayak Pro. The app will be free on the App store until 05/22/14.

Billionaire hedge fund trader Carl Icahn has increased his holdings in Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) by 2.8 million shares - about $1.65 billion, according to a Security and Exchanges Commission filing. The move brings his stake in the company up to a total of 7.5 million shares which, as of this writing, is worth just under $4.5 billion.

Icahn has been quite vocal recently about what Apple should be doing, namely buying back shares. In January he purchased $500 million worth of shares and tweeted, "Just bought $500 mln more AAPL shares. My buying seems to be going neck-and-neck with Apple's buyback program, but I hope they win that race." Whether on account of Icahn's pressure or not, Apple did indeed expand its stock repurchase program last month, announcing that its board had authorized up to

Uber Entertainment and Tilting Point's Toy Rush is now available on the App Store. Toy Rush is not only a tower defense game, but it has a building management element and it features a collectible card twist. The goal of the game is to build an army of toys to attack other players and defend your home. Players gain more toys by attacking enemies and earning tickets or caps (premium cash) to spend on card packs. Each card pack includes random toy soldiers for your army, defense towers and decorative items to spruce up your home base.

Like any free-to-play building game Toy Rush does feature timers, but they do not bog down the game since there is so much to do. Actually, there are so many elements to the game that it can be kind of overwhelming at times. But don't worry, the game is really easy to get the hang of and is a lot of fun to play. The in-game currency is also easy to earn making the game playable without spending real money on in-app purchases.

Here's some bad news for anyone who spent thousands of dollars on Flappy BIrd. The games creator Dong Nguyen announced that it will return in August. Nguyen told CNBC's Kelly Evans that the game will be "less addictive" and feature a multiplayer option.

Flappy Bird was one of the biggest mobile app phenomenons of the year. The simplistic game inexplicably became one of the most talked about and downloaded apps on the Apple App Store before being mysteriously removed by its creator because it was "too addictive". The game was reportedly earning over $50,000 in daily ad revenue before Nguyen pulled the plug. Both the Apple App Store and Google Play were soon flooded by Flappy Bird clones from developers trying to recreate its success.