03/08, 12:20pm
Suit over price fixing from 1998 to 2002 result in $10 for those affected
A class action lawsuit brought forward by the Attorneys General for 33 states over price fixing for dynamic random access memory (DRAM) has reached a settlement, with manufacturers agreeing to pay out $310 million nationwide. Of the settlement amount, around $200 million will go to consumers and businesses that purchased devices with DRAM or DRAM itself from January 1, 1998 to December 31, 2002.
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02/17, 7:46am
Claims of copied design said to have damaged Samsung corporate image
Samsung is suing British bagless vacuum cleaner manufacturer Dyson for claimed damage to the company's image. Stemming from a patent lawsuit from last year, one that was later dropped, Samsung is seeking 10 billion won ($9.43 million) in compensation over accusations that Samsung's "marketing activities were negatively affected" by Dyson's legal action.
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02/04, 4:20pm
No decision made, monitor's efforts remain halted until ruling
Earlier today, Apple had its case heard before the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, in which the company is hoping to kill or reduce e-book antitrust monitor Michael Bromwich's efforts permanently. The computer manufacturer argued that his investigations were excessive, that he lacked the knowledge to properly oversee Apple, and that his fees and duties for the monitoring in addition to any court-ordered payments would cost millions of dollars, all of which will cause "irreparable harm" to Apple's business and relationships.
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01/31, 12:18pm
IBM patent buy by Twitter follows similar acquisitions by Google, Facebook
Twitter has acquired over 900 patents from IBM, with the two companies also agreeing to a patent cross-licensing deal, IBM has announced. Occurring in December and only just being announced today, the agreement also puts to an end a patent lawsuit by IBM, accusing Twitter of infringing on three patents before the micro-blogging service filed its IPO.
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01/22, 9:29pm
Google faces 'more than $125 million' damages for infringement
Google and SimpleAir's court case wrapped up its first phase today in the Eastern District of Texas. The jury found Google guilty of infringing SimpleAir's patent on its push notification implementation after a week-long trial. Google faces a seperate trail after a hung jury failed to resolve damages, but SimpleAir claims that it is seeking $125 million or more from the search engine giant.
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01/20, 4:22pm
Attorneys argue over injunctions
Ahead of formal settlement negotiations next month, Apple has reiterated its demands for an anti-cloning provision in any potential agreement with Samsung. Litigation analyst Florian Mueller suggests Apple's insistence may be a "dealbreaker" that puts the patent-infringement lawsuit back on track for a formal trial, though the company successfully pushed HTC to sign off on such provisions as part of a settlement in a separate dispute.
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01/17, 10:09pm
Claim to have received marketing materials by providing info
A trio of Boston area plaintiffs have filed suit against Apple in Massachusetts, claiming that they were forced to provide their home ZIP codes when making purchases at an Apple Store in Boston using credit cards. The men claim that under commonwealth law, it is illegal to compel customers to provider more personal information than is required by credit card issuers to verify the transaction -- apparently unaware that credit card companies use ZIP codes to verify transactions.
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01/12, 8:54pm
Facebook user claims not to have endorsed company, seeks $750
Facebook is being sued over apparent false "likes" being used in advertising on the social network. Anthony Ditirro has filed a class-action suit against Facebook in San Jose, for allegedly showing that users are endorsing products on the service to friends and acquaintances linked to the user, even if the claimed endorser did not actually "like" the associated Facebook page.
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12/16, 2:48pm
Search giant argues for California venue
Google is reportedly calling for a UK privacy lawsuit to be dismissed, arguing that the case should be heard in its home state of California, according to a Guardian report. The company has been sued by a group of users who accuse the company of illegally monitoring their online habits by circumventing security settings on the desktop and mobile versions of Apple's Safari browser.
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12/11, 11:05pm
Messaging technology at core of trial found to be not infringed by Apple
Samsung's tales of woe against Apple in court continue -- this time in its South Korean home. Samsung has lost an attempt to ban assorted iPhone and iPad models in South Korea, as the presiding judge dismissed a lawsuit that had Samsung claiming patent infringement against the Cupertino manufacturer.
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12/04, 2:33pm
Court appears skeptical of Judge William Alsup ruling
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, DC, appears to be siding with Oracle in the company's lawsuit against Google over Android APIs. A formal ruling has yet to be handed down, however Reuters' Dan Levine and The Recorder's Scott K. Graham, both in attendance at today's hearing, published Twitter posts suggesting that the appeals court is likely to reverse Google's earlier win.
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11/28, 12:20am
Plaintiffs could not prove any data breach, actual harm
US District Court Judge Lucy Koh -- who just concluded a damages retrial between Apple and Samsung and will preside over the next round in the two companies' ongoing patent battles -- dismissed a consumer protection lawsuit on Wednesday that charged that iOS' "geotracking" data -- discovered in iOS 4 in 2011 to be an unprotected file that could theoretically have been accessed by third parties was deliberately designed to collect personal data without consent.
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11/20, 3:49pm
Previously attempted Samsung tactic tried again as USPTO hearings continue
In a last-ditch effort to stop the jury deliberation of the now concluded Apple versus Samsung damages retrial, Samsung has made an emergency filing based on a comment from the US Patent and Trademark Office, which said that an Apple patent may not be valid. According to the filing, the USPTO questions if Apple's "pinch to zoom" patent, a key patent used in the retrial, is valid. Samsung believes that "this PTO decision calls into question the entire jury verdict in this trial."
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11/14, 11:59am
Authors Guild arguments rejected by court
A US Circuit Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Google Books, rejecting the Authors Guild's allegations of copyright infringement. Judge Denny Chin sided with Google's argument that displaying small excerpts of scanned books in search results is protected by the fair-use doctrine.
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11/04, 11:10am
Legal dispute noted in IPO filings
In an amended S-1 filing with the SEC, Twitter has revealed that it has been threatened with a patent-infringement lawsuit by IBM. In a letter sent to the former ahead of its IPO, IBM accused the company of violating US Patent No. 6,957,224: "Efficient retrieval of uniform resource locators," No. 7,072,849: "Method for presenting advertising in an interactive service," and No. 7,099,862: "Programmatic discovery of common contacts."
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10/31, 3:00am
Settlement calls for $40 payment from Apple, discounted service from AT&T
Claim forms have gone out to participants and affected customers as part of a settlement in a customer lawsuit against AT&T and Apple, accusing the former of reneging on a promise that "unlimited" data customers could use their existing plans on a 3G-capable iPad, while the latter supported the later-revoked claim through advertising and endorsement. Claimants could receive a $40 one-time payment from Apple along with discounted AT&T service.
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10/29, 6:36pm
Backlit display from LG suspected, plaintiff seeks class-action status
In a new lawsuit against Apple, an Idaho Falls man is charging that Apple was aware of a problem with displays used in some previous generations of iMac that were made by LG for the company, but did nothing about the problem despite numerous customer complaints that the LED displays in the models made between 2009 and 2012 might fail, specifically that half the display would go dim for no user-caused reason. Apple has not yet responded to the suit.
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10/26, 5:03pm
Plaintiffs claim wages, opportunities hurt by agreement
Over 64,000 top technical, engineer and other skilled workers will get their chance in court to prove that an informal anti-poaching agreement between Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe harmed them through lost opportunities for advancement and higher pay. The plaintiffs claim that the arrangement was an illegal conspiracy that aimed to hold down rising wages as well as prevent employees from taking advantage of other opportunities.
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10/23, 6:58pm
Apple sole defendant to avoid settlement
Apple has won a legal victory in the ongoing patent-infringement lawsuit filed by WiLAN. The latter company had been fighting for damages worth $248 million, however the jury has cleared Apple of wrongdoing and found several of WiLAN's patent claims to be invalid.
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10/10, 12:10pm
Judge refuses to interrupt service
Aereo has won a partial victory in a Boston federal court, avoiding an injunction that would have interrupted its streaming broadcast-TV service. The company also announced that its Android app will be available on October 22, following development delays that pushed it past the original September launch window.
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10/08, 12:46pm
Amazon to build private cloud
Amazon has reportedly won a legal battle with IBM over a $600 million contract with the Central Intelligence Agency. The companies have been competing for a ten-year agreement to help the agency build and manage a large-scale private cloud network for data-mining operations.
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09/24, 11:31am
Display producers to work together rather than continue legal action
Samsung and LG Display are ending their display-related patent lawsuits against each other, with a view to working together on the technologies in the future. The agreement, which effectively ends a courtroom battle that commenced in September 2012, was rumored to have been close to dropping in March of this year, but has only just finished.
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09/18, 11:57pm
Deal worth well over $8 billion dollars put on hold by shareholder suit
The Delaware Chancery court has issued a ruling on a lawsuit, putting the pending sale of Vivendi's portion of Activision Blizzard back to its founders on hold. Activision is seeking to buy back 429 million shares of itself from Vivendi for $5.83 billion, with chief executive Bobby Kotick and chairman Brian Kelley will each purchase about 172 million shares of Activision stock.
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09/13, 1:17pm
Megaupload founder denies resisting arrest
Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom has filed a lawsuit against the New Zealand government, alleging he was subjected to illegal surveillance and misconduct during the subsequent raid on his home. Legal filings referenced by The New Zealand Herald outline the case, which seeks NZ$8.55 million (~$7 million USD) in damages.
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09/10, 10:13am
Steering mechanism in Samsung cleaner copies patent, claims Dyson
Samsung has found itself in yet more legal trouble, thanks to a recently-launched vacuum cleaner. Dyson, a manufacturer of bag-less vacuum cleaners, believes that the Samsung Motion Sync cleaner revealed at IFA last week uses a similar steering mechanism to its own cylinder cleaner, one that Dyson patented in 2009.
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09/09, 8:15pm
Likely to be dismissed due to content owners determining 'seasons'
Noam Lazebnik of Ohio has filed suit against Apple, saying that the company should not have advertised a "season pass" to the fifth season of the hit television series Breaking Bad that does not contain what he considers to be the full season. Apple is one of several resellers who offer streaming downloads of the show, most of which have offered the currently-airing second set of eight episodes as "Season 6," apparently as set by the show's producer, American Movie Classics (AMC). The case, should it get to trial, is likely to center on which company determined the "seasons."
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09/06, 11:24am
Case viewed as important in Aereo battle
Television broadcasters have won a legal battle against FilmOn X, a company that provides online streams of broadcast TV content. Judge Rosemary Collyer of the US District Court for DC has ordered the company to shutter its services, noting that broadcasters will likely prevail in arguing that the service violates copyright laws.
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09/06, 10:00am
Activist group fights for transparency
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has reportedly won a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Justice Department, forcing the agency to make public "hundreds of pages" of documents. The activist group requested material relevant to the government's previously secret interpretation of Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which covers collection of "tangible things" related to investigations.
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09/06, 8:32am
Plaintiffs call foul on e-mail scanning
Google has continued to defend its Gmail scanning and ad-targeting practices, pushing for dismissal of a privacy lawsuit filed in a San Jose federal court. In a Thursday hearing, the company's attorneys argued that "all users of e-mail must necessarily expect that their e-mails will be subject to automated processing," as quoted by the AP.
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09/04, 2:30am
Judge rules plaintiff unable to show any anti-competitive harm done
A woman who initially sued Apple in 2005 over the iPod, the iTunes Store and the FairPlay DRM that Apple once used (at the insistence of the record companies) to prevent purchased songs from being pirated has lost an appeal in an attempt to reinstate the case. For a second time, a judge has ruled that Stacey Somers and her attorneys have been unable to show that Apple created or abused its iTunes "monopoly," that prices had escalated overall due to Apple's lock-in, or that consumers were harmed in any way by Apple's behavior.
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08/29, 9:13pm
'Wiggly' power buttons on iPhone 4, 4S claimed to be safety hazard
A US District Court Judge has thrown out a lawsuit aimed at Apple that alleged that supposedly "wiggly" power buttons on some iPhone 4 and 4S handsets present a danger to users, including on an aircraft -- since the alleged defect meant users can't shut down the iPhone per the flight crew's instructions. Two users claim that Apple knew that the power button was faulty and would likely fail after the original warranty.
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08/26, 8:03pm
$10 million going to lawyers, $10 million to charity, privacy rules overhauled
Despite objections from privacy advocates to the contrary, Judge Richard Seeborg of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California approved Facebook's $20 million settlement offer over its controversial "sponsored stories" program. Additionally, the social network must give users more control over how personal content is shared, which Facebook's attorneys places at a value of $145 million. Between January 2011 and August 2012, Facebook charged advertisers $234 million for the program in question.
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08/21, 4:02pm
Court refuses suit, citing sufficient Netflix investor notifications
US District Court Judge Samuel Conti in San Francisco has ruled in Netflix's favor in a class action suit, and denied an effort by shareholders to force the media streaming company to pay damages. The shareholders and the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System alleged that Netflix didn't provide accurate information about the company in a series of quarterly earnings statements, leading up to and through the company's 2011 reorganization.
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08/15, 6:29pm
Plaintiffs found to have suffered no harm over App Store, may refile
A lawsuit claiming that Apple's iTunes App Store is an illegal monopoly -- as it only sells iOS apps, takes a 30 percent commission on sales and disallows third-party iOS app stores -- has been thrown out of court on procedural grounds, since the plaintiffs could not show any grounds for complaint, as they had not purchased the apps challenged in the lawsuit. "At a minimum," wrote the judge in her dismissal order, "plaintiffs must allege facts showing that each named plaintiff has personally suffered an injury-in-fact based on Apple's alleged misconduct."
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08/09, 5:52pm
60-day review process begins on infringing devices import ban
Updated with Samsung statement on ruling The US International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled today that assorted Samsung mobile products do in fact infringe on two of four Apple-held patents in a complaint going back to 2011. The panel has issued an import embargo on some of Samsung's older mobile products, preventing it from selling and distributing the infringing devices. Today's ruling begins the 60-day Presidential review process of the ITC ruling.
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08/08, 3:10pm
SEC suit against Bitcoin hedge fund forced district court ruling
Bitcoin is a recognized currency that is subject to the laws of the United States, according to a federal judge ruling over a lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against a Bitcoin hedge fund owner. Judge Amos Mazzant in Texas declared Bitcoin as "a currency or form of money," paving the way for government regulation in the virtual currency.
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08/07, 2:14pm
One patent removed from dispute
Apple has won an appeal in a patent lawsuit against Motorola Mobility, mostly overturning the International Trade Commission's dismissal ruling. The patent-infringement dispute is headed back to the ITC for another round of deliberation, though Apple declined to appeal its claims regarding on one of the three patents included in the initial suit, according to a report by patent analyst Florian Mueller.
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08/01, 10:33pm
Mitsubishi, Philips, Thompson allege Motorola willfully violating patent
Adding to Google's legal woes due to its acquisition of Motorola Mobility, a coalition of companies consisting of Mitsubishi, Philips, and Thompson have filed suit in the Southern District of Florida over the MPEG-2 video codec standard. The complaint alleges that Motorola Mobility is willfully violating patents licensed through the MPEG-LA licensing group and is continuing to receive profit through the group despite no longer paying for a license since December 31, 2010.
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07/29, 5:51pm
Claim that searches, bag checks are done off-the-clock
A group of former retail employees of Apple Stores in Los Angeles and New York have filed a class-action suit against Apple, saying that the company demands employees submit to extensive anti-theft searches and other security measures, but doesn't pay them for the time involved. The security checks, which happen whenever an employee leaves the store, take 10 or 15 minutes according to the claim filed, adding up to millions of dollars in uncompensated employee time -- possibly as much as $1,400 per employee per year.
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07/29, 1:54pm
Apple forced to appeal rejection
The US Patent and Trademark Office has reportedly moved to finalize its rejection of Apple's pinch-to-zoom patent, which has been asserted in several high-profile lawsuits. Working to gain an advantage in its first of several lawsuits with Apple, Samsung is said to have notified the court of the agency's decision to reject all claims of the patent (No. 7,844,915) that describes APIs for scrolling operations.
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07/22, 7:19pm
Both parties fight original dismissal
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has scheduled the first cross-appeal hearing in an Apple v. Motorola lawsuit focusing on patent infringement and FRAND licensing. As noted by patent analyst Florian Mueller, attorneys are set to meet on September 11. Judge Richard A. Posner, who presided over the original case, heard arguments from both sides before dismissing with prejudice all claims and counterclaims, forcing the companies to appeal the dismissal decision itself.
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07/12, 10:01pm
Typo led to addiction, divorce, hospitalization; wants default 'safe mode'
A Tennessee lawyer is suing Apple essentially because it is possible to use its products to view pornography. Mark "Chris" Sevier claims that the company is negligent by not setting a default "safe mode" that would bar all pornography automatically -- as though such a thing were possible -- and blames Apple for his addiction to pornography that destroyed his marriage, and that Apple "failed to provide him with warnings of the dangers of online pornography." Sevier is seeking relief in the form of an injunction against Apple and forced donation to anti-pornography groups among other demands.
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07/12, 6:05pm
Little actual market value at stake; all 18 devices more than two years old
Microsoft filed a lawsuit today accusing the US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) of not enforcing a US International Trade Commission (ITC) embargo order of Google's Motorola Mobility phones. Microsoft believes that US Customs held secret meetings with the search engine, and that after the meeting the agency continued to let the embargoed phone enter the country.
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07/09, 2:00am
Poorly-worded bill was intended to outlaw Internet cafes, slot machines
The state of Florida, already the butt of many jokes because of its penchant for news-making citizens, reviled governor and incompetent state government has taken another one on the chin with the news that a poorly-worded law intended to ban Internet cafes and slot machines has overreached and declares any electronic device capable of playing a "game of chance" on the Internet to be illegal. The law is being challenged in court by an Internet cafe owner who was forced to shut down her business following a scandal involving the lieutenant governor.
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07/08, 11:00pm
Man alleges added $1 charge reaped 'millions in undeserved profits'
A San Francisco man is suing Apple for formerly allowing people who rent high-definition movies even though their equipment is incapable of displaying the format -- meaning the customers who didn't understand the difference essentially got charged $1 more than they should to rent movies or other videos from the iTunes store. Apple has since corrected the issue, and now displays a warning when HD-renting customers are using standard-definition (SD) devices, but plaintiff Scott J. Weiselberg claims that while the rented movie would fall back to SD automatically, Apple kept the $1 HD premium charge.
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06/30, 8:59pm
Compensation, possible rebranding could be ordered by judge
Microsoft has lost a trademark case in the United Kingdom over the branding of its cloud storage service. The ruling, which covers both the UK itself and the European Union, states that Microsoft infringed on British Sky Broadcasting's trademark of the Sky brand with SkyDrive, which could impact the way that the software company offers it across the continent.
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06/26, 7:21pm
Apple calls precedent dangerous, Samsung wishes embargo enforced
In a letter to the agency that President Obama has delegated the authority to override US International Trade Commission embargo orders, Apple is requesting a rare Presidential veto. The letter to the United States Trade Representative requests that a veto of the order banning import of the AT&T iPhone 4 and iPad 2 be entered, as the ITC ruling in Apple's view sets a dangerous precedent for future ITC rulings and "makes the ITC an outlier internationally and domestically" in its ongoing patent legal battles with Samsung.
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06/11, 5:06pm
Group seeks deletion of records, admission of constitutional violation
The American Civil Liberties Union, in conjunction with the New York Civil Liberties Union, is suing the US government. The suit alleges that the National Security Agency's phone monitoring program violates the groups' first and fourth amendment Constitutional rights violating freedom of speech, freedom of press, as well as unreasonable search and seizure. Both groups are Verizon customers, and the belief is that the groups' rights are being violated by the sweeping nature of the monitoring program.
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06/04, 4:34pm
Legislative proposals added; order could arrive as soon as June 5
President Obama has signed a host of executive actions intended to tighten down on the rash of lawsuits from non-practicing entities, colloquially known as "patent trolls." The President's orders aim at firms that collect patents without using them in products, and use them as weapons to force primarily technology companies into expensive and time-consuming litigation.
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05/22, 3:36pm
Apple unrepentant, remains in legal battle against USDOJ, states
Publisher Penguin and parent company Pearson have proposed a settlement with 33 US State Attorneys General and other plaintiffs for $75 million to resolve its lawsuit accusing it of price fixing in conjunction with Apple and the iBookstore. If accepted by the judge, the settlement resolves all antitrust complaints against Penguin related to the suit on the state level.
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