05/08, 9:43pm
Court examining merits of suit proceeding as class action or individual
A US federal appeals court has begun the discussion of whether plaintiffs in the Google e-book digitization project lawsuit should proceed as a class, or as individuals. The Authors Guild is claiming that the Google Books project is, in essence, copyright infringement on a massive scale -- and believes that a class of plaintiffs would squeeze more money out of the search engine giant more efficiently than separate suits, judged on individual merits.
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05/07, 4:21pm
Facebook, Square, Dwolla, AirBnb, Mt Gox, hundreds of others named
Frequent litigant Aaron Greenspan, one-time claimant to Facebook co-foundership has filed a lawsuit against the vast majority of Silicon Valley's largest investors, and many Internet companies offering "money services businesses" with cash transfers as a primary product. The list of corporate defendants include frequent Greenspan target Facebook, Airbnb, Dwolla, and Square, troubled BitCoin exchange Mt. Gox, and many others. Individuals named in the suit inlude Paypal founder Max Levchin, Airbnb creator Brian Chesky, billionaire Yuri Milner, and Reddit CEO Yishan Wong.
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04/19, 6:09pm
Little actual agreement on anything, Samsung on the defensive
Apple and Samsung have submitted a joint case management document to the Northern District of California court for the second omnibus smartphone patent trial, scheduled for 2014. Besides making clear that there has been no progress towards a settlement since December, the parties have narrowed the scope of the trial to 16 patents, with further winnowing expected at some point before the trial.
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04/12, 9:20pm
Holder claims Wi-Fi violates patent originally granted to AT&T in 1996
Apple has once again attracted the ire of a non-practicing entity. Patent troll Wyncomm claims that Apple is violating a patent that AT&T developed (that Wyncomm now holds) regarding simultaneous voice and data transmission. Patent number 5,506,866 covers "Side-channel communications in simultaneous voice and data transmission," and was filed by AT&T in 1993, with a granting of the patent in 1996.
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04/11, 11:30pm
False positive moisture sensor reading prevented warranty repair
According to a settlement set to be filed in San Francisco federal court soon, Apple has agreed to pay $53 million to settle a class action suit accusing Apple of not honoring warranty repair terms. While not yet filed, and as such, not finalized, Apple chief litigation counsel Noreen Krall signed the agreement agreeing to the terms on April 10.
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04/11, 6:43pm
Apple prevails in six constructions, loses one SEP term buildout
In pre-trial claim construction court filings for the 2014 Apple vs. Samsung trial, Apple has emerged victorious in all but one patent claim. Late Wednesday, Judge Lucy Koh of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California issued a claim construction order relating to seven of the patents involved in the next omnibus smartphone patent trial. While the order addresses how terms are used and little else, the background information provided by the claim construction can color how the rest of the trial proceeds.
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04/08, 7:39am
Claims seven patents infringed by Red in cameras
Sony is fighting against high-end camera manufacturer Red's patent infringement lawsuit with one of its own. The new filing, claiming that Red has infringed seven of Sony's patents, has been filed in a Central District court in California, and seeks a number of sales injunctions as well as financial compensation.
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03/26, 10:15pm
Claimant allegedly presented forgeries as proof of Facebook ownership
Paul Ceglia, a claimant to the Facebook throne who once claimed half ownership of the social network using forged documents, has been handed a significant defeat in his efforts by a federal judge today. US Magistrate Judge Leslie Foschio said in a final ruling that there is "clear and convincing evidence" that the 2003 contract that Foschio presented to the court as proof he owned 50 percent of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's share of Facebook is a "recently created fabrication." The judge added that the lawsuit should be dismissed with prejudice.
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03/26, 9:32am
Refrigerator capacity fight reaches Seoul District Court
Samsung is suing LG over allegations it is tainting the value of Samsung's brand. The lawsuit, filed in the Seoul District Court in South Korea, sees Samsung demanding 50 billion won ($45 million) in compensation for "tarnishing its corporate image", and is the latest move in the ongoing feud between the two electronics manufacturers over its refrigerators.
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03/22, 9:35pm
One patent remains to be heard by ITC in this battery of complaints
A change of heart by an administrative law judge with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) has resulted in a ruling that Microsoft has not violated a patent owned by Google's Motorola Mobility when it created the Xbox 360 video gaming console. The ruling by Judge David Shaw is a reversal of his own previous decision in April 2012, where he declared that Microsoft had infringed four patents and did not infringe a fifth. The ruling follows the unusual return of the matter by the ITC to the judge in June of 2012.
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03/20, 11:45pm
BlackBerry also files amicus brief, takes no side in the conflict
Two of the industry's heaviest hitters on Wednesday filed amicus curae ("friend of the court") briefs with the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) in support of Apple's position in its appeal over the dismissal last year of a two-way lawsuit with Motorola over patents and FRAND licensing. Microsoft and Intel, who were not involved in the original case, have filed briefs with the court supporting Apple's position that companies should not be allowed to sue over possible infringement of FRAND-eligible patent use.
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03/19, 11:40pm
Filing calls Ericsson a patent troll trying to extort licenses
In late 2012, Ericsson filed two complaints against Samsung, alleging patent violation by the Korean manufacturer. Late Monday afternoon, Samsung has responded to Ericsson's court filing with counterclaims of its own -- in addition to calling Ericsson a patent troll, Samsung is asserting eight patents in what is likely a defensive lawsuit.
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03/18, 3:46pm
Nine year old saga concludes with refusal to review previous judgements
Finally closing the door on the trial, the US Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal from file sharer Jammie Thomas-Rasset. As it now stands, the Minnesota woman owes the top record labels $220,000 stemming from the 2007 lawsuit finding her liable for sharing 24 songs online. Thomas-Rasset was one of two defendants who did not settle with the group, with both found to have shared the music and slapped with monumental fines for doing so.
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03/15, 5:58pm
Ruling does not prohibit iPhone sales, applies to telecommunications services
A ruling handed down by the Mexican Supreme Court has upheld November's lower court decision that Apple cannot register the "iPhone" trademark in the country for marketing telecommunications services. In its decision, the court sided with a native Mexican company that runs a small call center under the name iFone SA. The company expects the ruling to enhance a trademark infringement suit in which it is seeking damages against the Cupertino manufacturer and three carriers of the smartphone.
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03/15, 4:43pm
Remark made in appeal brief before court in Apple v. Motorola suit
After the precedent-setting dismissal of the Apple versus Motorola case last year by Judge Posner in the United States Court for the Northern District of Illinois, both parties were expected to head to appeals court with the matter. Apple filed its brief in late November, and Google and Motorola Mobility filed its initial brief yesterday. Google is now -- for the first time -- declaring that Apple is an "unwilling licensee" of the patents that Judge Posner declared were standards-essential. Therefore, the Cupertino manufacturer wasn't subject to the protections afforded by it under litigation requirements for patents mandated to be subject to fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing.
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03/14, 7:51pm
Problems with ghosting, burn-in on some Retina displays
A Retina MacBook Pro owner is launching a class-action lawsuit alleging that Apple has not acknowledged, fixed or warned users that displays in the Retina unit made by LG (one of two primary suppliers) have problems with "ghosting," retaining an after-image for a time. Beau Hodges has filed suit in California, complaining that users have no way of knowing until after purchase whether they have an LG display version and that "none of Apple's ... representations disclose that it [has RMBPs] with different levels of performance and quality."
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03/12, 2:17am
Auto-tuned 'performance' taken from TV interview, sold on iTunes
A woman from Oklahoma who calls herself "Sweet Brown" became famous over a short but colorful interview she gave to a local TV and radio station following an apartment fire, best known for the signature line from it, "ain't nobody got time for that." The line has subsequently become an Internet "meme," or widely-quoted idea or sentiment. A "song" created by Texas radio personalities following her TV interview using snippets of the KFOR appearance and a subsequent follow-up radio interview was briefly sold on iTunes, and is now the subject of a lawsuit.
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03/08, 9:14pm
Judge had questioned whether it would proceed during appeal process
Judge Lucy Koh, who has been overseeing the primary US court battles between Apple and Samsung, ruled Friday to allow a second lawsuit against the Korean electronics giant to proceed -- despite expressing reservations on the idea while the appeal of the first Apple-Samsung trial is still being heard. Koh was apparently persuaded by filings from Apple's lawyers that the second case should go forward because of "ongoing" infringement and harm to Apple. The new case involves patents related to Apple's Siri voice assistant.
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03/06, 6:44pm
Nokia takes fault in court ruling of need for 'causal nexus'
After asking for an extension, Nokia has filed an amicus curae ("friend of the court") brief in the Apple versus Samsung patent battles, supporting Apple's position of a permanent injunction against some Samsung products. Nokia's filing believes that the case is currently headed towards a "compulsory-licensing system, wherein patent holders are forced to license patented technology to competing firms, which could in turn harm incentives to innovate."
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02/25, 8:26pm
Password window allowed additional purchases beyond first one
Apple has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by parents whose children may or may not have had access to their iTunes passwords and racked up unauthorized charges -- sometimes in the hundreds of dollars -- by buying in-game currencies through in-app purchases. The company will issue $5 iTunes credits in most cases but may be obligated to provide full "refunds" (though it was not the company that collected the money) due to a loophole where an authorized purchase could be followed by an unauthorized one for several minutes afterward without re-asking for the password.
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02/21, 11:25pm
New trial over new set of disputed patents to start next year
The US federal judge who has been facilitating the ongoing US-based battle between Samsung and Apple over various patents, Judge Lucy Koh, has again taken a familiar path by ordering the two parties to narrow down the claims against each other. In a repeat of the run-up to the first patent trial, which Apple won handily but which is currently under appeal, Koh limited to the parties to no more than 25 patent claims and 25 products. Her rationale for the limitations was that both parties should know by now what claims are the strongest.
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02/20, 10:17am
Greenlight Capital suit may succeed on merits, but no injunction yet
In an initial hearing on the lawsuit between David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital and Apple, where the former party is attempting to prevent a shareholder vote on a "preferred stock" proposal, a judge has sided with Einhorn and found that Apple could be breaking US Securities & Exchange Commission rules by "bundling" three issues into one shareholder voting item. At the same time, the judge didn't indicate that he couldn't find any "irreparable harm" in the proposal, lessening chances of an injunction.
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02/14, 11:38am
Claims four network-related patents infringed by carrier
Google has countersued UK telecommunications giant British Telecom over the use of our network-related patents. The countersuit is in retaliation over BT's original lawsuit, which claimed Google infringed BT-owned patents in the development of Android, Google Maps, other related services, and also basic search functions.
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02/14, 2:30am
Claims 'roadblock' action designed to benefit only Greenlight
Apple filed its formal response to the lawsuit initiated by Greenlight Capital's David Einhorn and blasted the complaint as being without merit and nothing less than an attempt to hold shareholders "hostage" by forcing Apple to acquiesce to a specific plan for the issuing of preferred shares that would primarily benefit Greenlight Capital. Having promised to review Einhorn's plan, the company found that Greenlight's proposal was self-serving, and that Einhorn himself referred to it as a "roadblock."
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02/13, 7:00pm
Greed, misunderstandings appear to be at root of 'silly sideshow'
Piling on to hedge fund manager David Einhorn's misguided lawsuit over a change Apple is seeking in order to shareholders more say on the issuance of preferred stock, a second investor has brought a similar lawsuit against the company, seeking to stop another Apple proposal from coming to a vote. The new lawsuit covers the same proposal that Einhorn is suing over, and also objects to a proposal from Apple to give shareholders more say on the company's executive compensation.
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01/30, 9:34pm
Apple claims defense, counterclaim options hampered
In a court filing that Apple calls "not your typical motion," Apple is seeking Google be compelled to comply with a subpoena from August. Apple is expecting data from Google and Motorola to assist it in defending itself against patent claims by Google-owned Motorola Mobile as well as assisting it in its own claims against Motorola's set-top box group, now owned by Arris Group.
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01/24, 7:15pm
Filing claims Motorola should be held to Google's license standards
Google has suffered a setback in the next step of its federal case regarding Microsoft's potential abuse of the H.264 video codec. The head of the MPEG-LA licensing group, Lawrence Horn, declared in a court briefing that Google's agreement with the group and monetary restrictions on licensing fees applies to companies it acquired -- meaning Motorola's claim of Microsoft's patent abuse likely won't net the search engine hundreds of millions of dollars per year, as it has requested from Microsoft. Motorola, as a subsidiary of Google, is held to the same licensing standards as originally signed by Google in 2004.
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01/23, 9:10pm
Increase in international customers brings added expense
Just before Apple's blockbuster results, media streaming company Netflix announced a modest profit for the fourth quarter of 2012. The company reported $945 million in revenue, which generated $8 million in profit. Additionally, 27 million streaming subscribers were added in the US, more than two million than the previous quarter.
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01/22, 10:58pm
Court filing reveals emails from Apple CEO to Palm CEO
In documents revealed in the employee anti-poaching hearings in front of Judge Lucy Koh in California, it was disclosed that Apple CEO Steve Jobs threatened Palm with a patent lawsuit if it didn't agree to stop poaching Apple employees. The communication from Jobs to then-CEO Edward Colligan surfaced in a hearing regarding class-action status in a suit brought by five tech workers against Apple, Google, and Intel, alleging a conspiracy to eliminate competition for each other's employees to ultimately drive down wages.
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01/16, 7:10pm
Over 100,000 documents purloined, contain confidential trade info
Chip manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is suing one former vice president and three ex-managers originally from its Boxborough plant, who left the company and all took positions at Nvidia in 2012. The suit claims that the four employees copied more than 100,000 confidential documents and trade secrets and provided them to Nvidia. AMD is demanding the return of the files, which the company believes cover future AMD releases and contracts with customers.
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01/14, 2:39pm
Reviews ban put in place over existing Dish litigation
Executives at CBS have forced CNet to remove Dish Network's Hopper from its CES awards, due to ongoing lawsuits. CNet's parent company apparently wanted the awards changed shortly after a ban on products by companies CBS was in litigation with came into effect, and forced the change on the editorial team, leading one reporter to announce their departure.
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01/10, 2:33am
Company had licensed image, but not for advertising use
Apple has settled a lawsuit brought by the photographer of the now-famous "Retina" eye image used to demonstrate the quality of the company's high-resolution displays. Swiss photographer Sabine Liewald argued that Apple had licensed the image from her US agency, Factory Downtown, for limited uses only and not for the promotional and advertising uses it was eventually put to. Settlement terms were not disclosed.
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01/02, 6:54pm
Evenly-applied ruling redacts some post-trial filings on both sides
Judge Lucy Koh, overseeing the Apple versus Samsung smartphone patent trials in the US, has tossed some declarations from both companies attached to briefs and other court filings that were "not explicitly articulated within the briefing page limits." In the order striking the declarations, the judge said that "the Court has not relied on any of this documentation in ruling on the parties' post-trial motions," possibly indicating other post-trial orders are expected soon.
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12/28, 9:57pm
Skoopwire and Rendezvoo allegedly spawned key Pinterest features
A lawsuit filed on Thursday claims that Pinterest founder Brian Cohen misappropriated the concept and idea for social media sharing website Pinterest. The suit details development of failed sites Rendezvoo and Skoopwire, developed by filer Theodore Schroeder and two of his Columbia Law classmates. Pinterest believes that "the lawsuit against Pinterest is baseless" and intends on fighting it in court.
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12/24, 5:30pm
California-filed suit claims breach of contract, privacy violations
A proposed class action lawsuit has been filed in San Francisco Federal Court on Friday, the first civil lawsuit prompted by the flip-flop in Instagram's terms of service over the last week. A California Instagram user is accusing the photo repository of breach of contract along several other claims relating to privacy and user data. Instagram has not commented on the suit.
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12/23, 12:25am
Company claims the feature infringes on non-SEP patent
According to a South Korean news site, Samsung has launched a patent-infringement lawsuit in Korea against Apple over the iOS version of Notification Center, saying it violates their patent. The feature, which debuted almost two years ago, is also similar (but not identical) to an Android feature called Status Bar for which Google recently received a US patent. Apple most recently brought the Notification Center over to the Mac in OS X Mountain Lion.
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12/19, 11:05pm
Swiss company licensing efforts with Netflix fail
Patent holder OpenTV has launched a lawsuit against Netflix on Wednesday, claiming the company is misusing its patents on viewer recommendations, digital rights management and video playback. The owners of OpenTV, Kudelski SA, have been attempting to negotiate licenses for the patents in question for a year, but Netflix has signed no agreement with the Swiss company.
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12/14, 11:00pm
Intel had said Apple, HP indemnified in product use
An International Trade Commission lawsuit brought by technology company X2Y Attenuators against Intel -- claiming that the chipmaker had stolen X2Y's technology and used in chips purchased by other manufacturers -- has failed, with a preliminary ruling by Judge David Shaw that not only did Intel not infringe on the three energy-conditioning patents in question, but that two of the X2Y patents were invalid. Also named in the lawsuit were Apple and HP, since both use certain Intel chips in their products. Both companies were also cleared.
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12/13, 8:07pm
License fee covered by industry-wide pool, judge rules
A lawsuit against Apple and LG over alleged infringement of video codec patents found both companies not guilty of infringing on IP held by Alcatel-Lucent, with the judge saying that both companies had properly licensed the patents. Alcatel-Lucent had been seeking over $172 million in damages from Apple's alleged infringement of three patents, and $9.1 million from LG over two other patents, all related to video codec usage. The case had been in litigation for almost two years, and a federal jury cleared both Apple and LG completely.
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12/11, 10:29am
Litigation follows recent LTE suits against Apple, HTC, Sierra
Research In Motion is being sued for infringing a patent relating to Bluetooth. Wi-LAN, owner of US Patent 6,260,168, has filed the lawsuit in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida against RIM, and is seeking unspecified damages as well as preliminary and permanent injunctions on the sale of infringing RIM products.
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12/02, 11:34am
Velvin Hogan accused of misconduct, bias by Samsung
In a filing with Judge Lucy Koh on Friday, Apple claims to have had no knowledge of the landmark patent trial jury foreman's lawsuit with former employer Seagate Technology. Samsung demanded Apple report when it first learned about the litigation in the early '90s in an attempt to at least partially overturn the verdict by convincing the judge that Velvin Hogan acted improperly during both jury selection and deliberations.
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11/27, 2:49pm
Settlement covers Google-branded, Motorola handsets only
Google has settled in a patent lawsuit with touch technology company Immersion over infringement of the latter's IP in haptic touchscreen technology. The lawsuit has taken nine months to close, and predates Google's ownership of Motorola, and has ended with the search giant licensing the patents in question, compensating for previous Motorola device shipments, and intending to pay for patent usage in smartphones developed by the company in the future.
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11/15, 5:03pm
Suit filed against Uber on behalf of San Fran cab drivers
A San Francisco attorney announced yesterday that his firm had filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of San Francisco cab drivers charging Uber with creating unfair business competition in violation of state and local regulations. Uber is an app-based company operating in several large cities across the United States, providing a way for its users to have access to transportation services without going through local competitors. The lawsuit alleges that Uber circumvents existing California and San Francisco law, depriving "law-abiding taxicab drivers" of fares that should be theirs.
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11/09, 1:07pm
Dispute expands to iPhone 5 and iPad mini
VirnetX has filed a second lawsuit against Apple, kicking off a new legal battle just hours after the patent holding company won a $368 million patent-infringement judgement for technology used in iPads, iPhones and Mac computers. The fresh filing expands the litigation to include Apple's latest devices, such as the iPhone 5, fifth-generation iPod touch, fourth-generation iPad, iPad mini and latest Mac computers.
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10/30, 6:41pm
Says it violates same LTE patents as previous iPhones, iPads
Still reeling from its major court defeat against Apple in the US and a string of legal losses in other countries (punctuated by the occasional -- but minor -- victory), Samsung has now added the iPhone 5 to its new lawsuit against Apple, this time claiming that all LTE-equipped mobile devices Apple makes are in violation of eight patents the Korean "fast follower" device maker holds. The lawsuit is widely seen as weak, since at least some of Samsung's LTE patents would likely be declared "standards-essential" and subject to FRAND regulations.
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10/26, 12:50am
Connection to Apple unclear, likely stock ownership
District Court Judge Gary Sharpe has recused himself from a lawsuit involving Apple's Siri technology because of his potential conflict of interest involving Apple. In removing himself, he cited the law that said "any conduct that would lead a reasonable [person] knowing all the circumstances to the conclusion that the judge's 'impartiality might reasonably be questioned' is a basis for the judge's disqualification." The judge's Apple connection to the case outside the courtroom hasn't been made clear.
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10/23, 8:45pm
Plaintiffs have until November 9 to refile with amendments
District Judge Anthony J. Battaglia has dismissed most of a class-action lawsuit filed by users of Sony's PlayStation Network data breach from 2011. The suit filed last June accuses Sony of inadequate user information protection, failure to abide by industry standard practices, and exposure of users to risk of identity theft. Compensation for paid services not accessible during the shutdown, such as MLB.tv, NHL Gamecenter, and Netflix is sought by the plaintiffs as well.
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10/11, 9:45pm
Suit filed in 2010 claimed that Netflix violated the ADA
To settle a lawsuit filed in 2010 by the National Association for the Deaf (NAD), Netflix has agreed to caption all of its videos by 2014. According to the court filing from yesterday, Netflix already captions 82 percent of its videos, and is obligated to hit 90 percent by the end of 2013, with full captioning on everything by the close of 2014. Netflix promises to make "good faith, diligent efforts" to make the over 1,000 devices that its service is provided on compatible with captioning, but has no obligation to make 100 percent of them compliant with the new effort.
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10/09, 7:12pm
Google filing forced USPTO analysis of patent
The otherwise-stagnant Lodsys lawsuit has shown signs of life after six months of inactivity. According to a blog post on the Lodsys website, during the inter-parties reexamination requested by Google, the United States Patent Trade Office has confirmed the non-practicing entity's patent as valid after on in-app purchases and free-to-paid application upgrades.
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10/03, 7:20pm
Lawsuit over advertising placement, web search technology
US District Judge Raymond Jackson has denied Google a motion for a summary dismissal of Vringo's patent lawsuit. First filed in 2011, the lawsuit claims that Google, AOL, and InterActiveCorp (IAC) violated two acquired patents: one related to web searches, and the other involving advertising placement based on search keywords. Vringo is seeking at least $696 million from the search engine for violation of its patents.
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