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Legal news and analysis for IT professionals, including antitrust lawsuits, and patent and trademark disputes

Apple, Microsoft create patent troll Rockstar

Posted May 28, 2012 - 11:35 am

Nortel patents bought by Apple, Microsoft fuel new troll claiming control of technologies such as 3G.
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How to protect your artistic works with a Creative Commons license

Posted May 26, 2012 - 7:50 am

Your business revolves around producing creative works, and you use the Internet to market those works. Considering how quickly and easily such material can be disseminated around the world without your knowledge or permission, how do you go about protecting your rights to those works? A Creative Commons license might be the most realistic solution.
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Mayor of New Jersey town arrested on hacking and conspiracy charges

Posted May 25, 2012 - 11:45 am

The mayor of West New York, New Jersey, was arrested together with his son on Thursday, for allegedly hacking into a website that criticized him and his administration.
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Apple settles patent lawsuit with SimpleAir

Posted May 25, 2012 - 3:24 am

SimpleAir in Texas said Thursday it had settled its patent infringement litigation against Apple, and entered into a confidential license agreement by which Apple had taken a license to its patents.
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Huawei files antitrust complaint with EC against InterDigital

Posted May 25, 2012 - 12:32 am

Chinese communications equipment company Huawei Technologies has filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission against patent company InterDigital, claiming it is abusing its patents allegedly essential to the 3G (UMTS) standard, it said Thursday.
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Judge orders drug evidence suppressed in warrantless GPS tracking case

Posted May 24, 2012 - 5:04 pm

A federal judge in Kentucky this week upheld a lower court's decision to throw out crucial evidence in a drug case because the evidence was gathered with the help of a GPS tracking device installed without a warrant.
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Lawmakers call on DOJ to reopen investigation into Google Wi-Fi spying

Posted May 24, 2012 - 4:53 pm

Two U.S. lawmakers have called on the U.S. Department of Justice to reopen its investigation into Google's snooping on Wi-Fi networks in 2010 after recent questions about the company's level of cooperation with federal inquiries.
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Judge won't let you get your game on, recommends Xbox 360 ban

Posted May 24, 2012 - 1:34 pm

What major tech company isn't involved in some sort of legal dispute these days? While Microsoft has recently been successful in keeping HTC's Android phones from making their way into the country, a U.S. Judge is giving MS a taste of its own medicine by recommending a ban on Xbox 360s in the United States.
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Ellison, Phillips, McDermott to take stand in Oracle-SAP retrial

Posted May 24, 2012 - 12:49 pm

During the upcoming retrial of Oracle's corporate-theft lawsuit against SAP, the companies plan to call a star-studded array of tech executives as witnesses including CEO Larry Ellison, former Oracle co-president and current Infor CEO Charles Phillips and SAP co-CEO Bill McDermott, according to court documents filed Thursday.
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Motorola Mobility has infringed Microsoft patent, says Munich court

Posted May 24, 2012 - 11:24 am

Google-owned Motorola Mobility has infringed a Microsoft patent related to SMS messaging, according to a ruling in the Munich regional court, which also dismissed a second case related to a localization patent.
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Apple claims US government sides with monopoly in e-book case

Posted May 24, 2012 - 1:35 am

The U.S. government has sided with monopoly rather than competition in bringing a case of e-book price-fixing against Apple, the company said in a filing on Tuesday before a federal court.
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Most jurors sided with Google on APIs and 'fair use'

Posted May 23, 2012 - 7:34 pm

Most of the jurors in the Oracle v Google trial thought Google's use of 37 Java APIs in Android should be allowed under the doctrine of fair use, one of the jurors revealed Wednesday after the trial had ended.
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Google's Android did not infringe Oracle patents, jury finds

Posted May 23, 2012 - 2:29 pm

Google's Android operating system does not infringe Oracle's Java patents, a jury in San Francisco found Wednesday in a setback for Oracle.
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Bredolab botnet author sentenced to 4 years in prison in Armenia

Posted May 23, 2012 - 11:50 am

The creator of the Bredolab malware received a four-year prison sentence in Armenia on Monday for using his botnet to launch DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks that damaged multiple computer systems owned by private individuals and organizations.
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Facebook IPO, NASDAQ glitches, and $100 million complaints

Posted May 23, 2012 - 10:06 am

Unnamed hedge fund manager claims his $100 million Facebook position was mishandled and the price should have jumped to $60 or $70.
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Facebook to settle class-action suit over Sponsored Stories

Posted May 22, 2012 - 8:47 pm

Facebook is to settle a class-action lawsuit in California that accused it of appropriating its users' likenesses for its Sponsored Stories advertising feature, according to a court document filed Tuesday.
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YouTube appeals German content filtering verdict

Posted May 22, 2012 - 10:49 am

YouTube and German music royalty collecting society GEMA have appealed the outcome of a lawsuit filed by GEMA against YouTube, in which a German court ordered YouTube to inspect the titles of uploaded videos to filter out potentially copyright-infringing content.
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Judge deems Kodak digital camera patent invalid

Posted May 21, 2012 - 8:14 pm

A judge at the U.S. International Trade Commission has determined that a Kodak patent asserted in a complaint against Apple and Research In Motion is invalid, Kodak said on Monday.
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UPDATE: EU offers Google a chance to avoid fines over four antitrust concerns

Posted May 21, 2012 - 10:36 am

Google has "a matter of weeks" to address four antitrust issues identified by European Union antitrust regulators. If Google addresses these issues the case can be solved by a so-called "commitment decision" instead of formal antitrust proceedings resulting in a fine, said Joaquín Almunia, Vice President of the European Commission responsible for Competition Policy.
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EU offers Google a chance to avoid fines over four antitrust concerns

Posted May 21, 2012 - 8:26 am

Google has "a matter of weeks" to address four antitrust issues identified by European Union antitrust regulators. If Google addresses these issues the case can be solved by a so-called "commitment decision" instead of formal antitrust proceedings resulting in a fine, said Joaquín Almunia, Vice President of the European Commission responsible for Competition Policy.
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Certain HTC smartphones released to US carriers after passing customs inspections

Posted May 21, 2012 - 5:09 am

Taiwanese smartphone vendor High Tech Computer said on Sunday certain models of its newest smartphones have passed U.S. Customs and are being released to its carrier customers, after the company previously warned of a delay in product shipments because of an International Trade Commission (ITC) order.
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Apple files for preliminary injunction against Galaxy Tab 10.1

Posted May 19, 2012 - 2:07 pm

In the latest move in a complex series of patent-related cases, Apple filed a motion in a U.S. district court late Friday to ban Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the U.S.
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Italian court upholds Apple warranty fine

Posted May 18, 2012 - 8:53 pm

An Italian court has upheld a €900,000 (US$1.2 million) fine imposed on Apple by Italy's competition authority for allegedly violating consumer protection laws, Italian media reported late Friday.
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ITC bans import of infringing Motorola Android devices

Posted May 18, 2012 - 7:32 pm

The U.S. International Trade Commission issued an import ban Friday on any Android devices from Motorola that infringe one of Microsoft's patents.
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BitTorrent not always piracy, says Wil Wheaton

Posted May 16, 2012 - 11:23 am

Geek TV star uses Ubuntu 12.04 download as example of legal BitTorrent use.
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