July 1 - 9:00pm EDT   A lawsuit was brought against several key Apple executives on Friday, accusing CEO Steve Jobs and several others of fraud, in relation to the stock option backdating scandal in recent years. According to a filing with the US District Court in San Jose, Jobs stands with former financial officer Fred Anderson, as well as Nancy Heinen, William Campbel, Millard Drexler, Arthur Levinson, and Jerome York, in addition to the company itself. [full story]

June 27 - 12:00am EDT   After filing documents trademark documents concerning the use of "Pod" and "iPod" in products and advertising, Apple is pursuing a lawsuit against a Michigan iPod repair business, the iPod Mechanic. AppleInsider reveals that in 2006, Apple had warned business owner Nicholas Woodhams over the use of the terms, asking him to stop. Woodhams allegedly agreed, but did not follow through, and has now supposedly tipped the scales by committing fraud against Apple. [full story]

May 9 - 11:45am EDT   A federal judge has reinstated one of two dismissed patent disputes against Microsoft and Dell from French-American telecommunications partnership Alcatel-Lucent. CNN Money writes that the San Diego district court made an error when deciding the definition of a "terminal device", so the case is being presented again to the federal court system. The dispute is situated over a communication protocol that allows a computer and a device to exchange information. [full story]

April 29 - 12:10am EDT  Apple has been sued by yet another company claiming that it infringed on a patent through components found in the immensely popular iPod media player. Filed last week in the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Michigan on behalf of inventor Henry Milan by Detroit-based law firm Butzel Long, it claims that Apple violated a hardware-based patent in its connecting mechanism in the two different media players. The firm argues a violation of U.S. patent No. 6,991,483, which was filed on Nov, 12, 2004, and issued on Jan. 31, 2006, almost five months after launched the iPod nano and six weeks after Apple was contacted about alleged infringement. The patent describes a connector that combines ... [full story]

April 14 - 11:25pm EDT   Apple Japan and Sony have agreed to jointly pay about 1.3 million Yen (about $13,000) in damages to settle a lawsuit filed by a Japanese couple who argued that the husband had suffered burns after their Mac caught, according to Dow Jones. The couple sued and successfully recovered damages because the fire was caused by the Sony-made battery, according to judicial sources quoted by Japan-based Kyodo News Agency. According to the report, the three parties reached the settlement on April 2, but both Sony and the Japan unit of Apple declined to comment on the settlement. [full story]

March 31 - 3:05pm EDT   Kabateck Brown Kellner, LLP, a law firm out of Los Angeles, California, has filed suit against Apple on behalf of a class of users claiming that the computer maker "deceptively marketed" the 20-inch iMac by purporting improved display performance, though the device's monitor is allegedly of "inferior" quality. The suit claims that the monitors are incapable of displaying “millions of colors,” despite Apple's marketing claims. "Apple is duping its customers into thinking they’re buying 'new and improved' when in fact they're getting stuck with 'new and inferior,'”"said Brian Kabateck, Managing Partner of Kabateck Brown Kellner.  "Beneath Apple’s 'good guy' image is a ... [full story]

March 15 - 3:20pm EDT   Comcast recently issued a lawsuit to the FCC over a pending decision, which would institute a 30-percent cap for cable's share of multichannel-video providers. Comcast, the largest cable provider in the US, currently sits at 27-percent, according to Broadcasting and Cable. David Cohen, executive vice president for Comcast, said in an interview, "the record at the FCC provided absolutely no support for a horizontal ownership cap of 30% -- a position that has been supported by the courts." [full story]

March 12 - 11:10pm EDT   ZapMedia Services is suing Apple over its iPod-iTunes concept, claiming it had invented the process two years before the first iPod was sold. According to AppleInsider, the original ZapMedia has since closed its doors. ZapMedia Services is enacting the lawsuit on behalf of the former company, which comes 18 months after it began to shop for investors. Until recently, ZapMedia Services held on to but a single patent, and now carries two. [full story]

March 10 - 7:10pm EDT   Refuting allegations that it knowingly lowered the requirements for Windows Vista to help Intel sell more low-cost chipsets, Microsoft has appealed a decision by District Court Judge Marsha Pechman to allow procession of a class-action filed on those grounds. The Redmond company is simultaneously calling for a pause in the Judge's investigation and appealing her decision's merit in the US Court of Appeals. In its appeal, Microsoft questions how plaintiffs in the suit will be able to prove that the prices of systems in question were inflated as a result of increased demand due to the label "Windows Vista Compatible." [full story]

February 27 - 5:35pm EST   Garmin's Nuvifone is emulating the iPhone in more than just functionality, as business phone service provider Nuvio confronts the GPS Company with a lawsuit over trademark infringement. In a move that resembles the earlier Cisco-Apple iPhone dispute, Nuvio claims that the Nuvifone is a registered trademark, one that Garmin is knowingly and willfully appropriating. Nuvio says that it attempted to reach a mutual arrangement with Garmin before filing, but the efforts failed. [full story]

February 15 - 1:45pm EST   Microsoft's attempted acquisition of Yahoo! has gotten a bit more contentious. Bloomberg reports that a group of Yahoo shareholders have jointly filed a lawsuit against the search company for rejecting the $45 billion offer from Microsoft. Michigan's Wayne County Employees' Retirement System, which owns a relatively small 13,000 block of shares of Yahoo claims in the suit that the company failed to enter into substantial negotiations with Microsoft. "The board of directors is continually evaluating all of its strategic options. Our board believes the Microsoft proposal substantially undervalues Yahoo," Yahoo spokesperson Diana Wong told Bloomberg. [full story]

January 30 - 6:05pm EST   T-Mobile USA is currently the target of a class action suit regarding customers that have no interest in text messaging but are still being charged for the service. According to RCRWireless News, the company requires that users have a text message plan, lest they be charged for even unsolicited text messages. Users that do not have any use for text messaging have formed a class action suit, citing that T-Mobile USA is engaging in a wrongful business scheme, supposedly designed to cheat a large number of users out of small sums of money. [full story]

January 23 - 6:50pm EST   Apple has been slapped with yet another patent infringement lawsuit regarding the iPhone. This time the plaintiff is Minerva m owner by assignment of United States Patent No. 7,321,783 (the "783 Patent") entitled "Mobile Entertainment and Communication Device," which was issued on January 22, 2008. In other words, as soon as the patent was issued, the suit was filed. The suit alleges that defendants Apple and component supplier AtlanticRT have been and now are directly infringing, and indirectly infringing by making, using, offering to sell, or selling the iPhone which is covered by one or more claims [full story]

January 4 - 9:40am EST   Apple has become a monopoly, a recent lawsuit against the company alleges. The case was filed by one Stacie Somers, who says that the company's dominance in media players, and online music and video, violates the Sherman Antitrust Act; specifically, the Somers complaint revolves around Windows Media Audio, which is notably unsupported by both the iPod and iTunes, despite the fact that it is one of the most common music formats for sale, and it is said that Apple could easily afford a license from Microsoft. Somers estiamtes the maximum cost of a license at $800,000. Some vendors of WMA tracks include Best Buy, Yahoo, Napster and Virgin Digital. [full story]

December 27 - 12:10pm EST   Samsung, said to be the world's biggest producer of large-sized LCD panels, is launching a countersuit against major rival Sharp, Reuters reports. Sharp filed its initial case against Samsung in August, with a second suit coming earlier this month, through a court in Seoul, South Korea; the company is accusing Samsung of multiple patent infringements, though these have not been specified. Samsung's motion is a direct retaliation, also alleging patent infringement in two different suits filed through courts in Delaware and Tokyo. It is moreover requesting an investigation by the US International Trade Commission, a procedure which could mire Sharp in yet deeper legal ... [full story]