The Loop » Legal

Kodak sues Apple, HTC

Jim Dalrymple — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:32:18 +0000

Kodak claims Apple’s iPhones, iPads, and iPods, and some of HTC’s smartphones and tablets use Kodak patents for transmitting images. Kodak is seeking to prevent further patent infringement from Apple and HTC as well as compensation.

Kodak is on its last leg.

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Italy fines Apple for misleading customers

Jim Dalrymple — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 16:27:57 +0000

Italy’s anti-trust body has fined units of U.S. technology group Apple Inc a total of 900,000 euros for failing to adequately inform customers about their rights to product guarantees and

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∞ US Int'l Trade Commission dismisses S3 complaint against Apple

Peter Cohen — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 22:58:45 +0000

The US International Trade Commission has dismissed a complaint against Apple filed by S3 Graphics, putting HTC’s complaint into jeopardy as well.

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∞ Brits uphold Apple firing employee after posting on Facebook

Jim Dalrymple — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 01:42:41 +0000

Josh Ong for AppleInsider:

A British Employment Tribunal has upheld Apple’s decision to dismiss a retail store employee who violated company policy by posting derogatory comments about his employer on the Facebook social networking site.

You can’t break the rules and then complain the rules are unfair. Well, you can, but…

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∞ HTC loses patent complaint against Apple

Peter Cohen — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:10:01 +0000

Reuters:

Taiwan’s HTC Corp lost a patent infringement complaint filed against Apple Inc in a preliminary decision at the U.S. International Trade Commission on Monday.

An ITC administrative law judge found “no violation” by Apple of four HTC patents that include technologies for power management and phone dialing.

It isn’t over for Apple with HTC though. In February a full commission is expected to rule on whether to uphold the judge’s preliminary decision.

This is

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∞ 'Thicket of patents'

Jim Dalrymple — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 22:27:11 +0000

Apple to Samsung during ∞ Permalink

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∞ Dutch court turns down Samsung's injunction request against Apple

Peter Cohen — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 14:00:54 +0000

Reuters: A Dutch court on Friday turned down Samsung Electronics’ request for an injunction against all of Apple’s mobile products that use 3G telecommunications technology, including iPhones and iPads. Hopefully Samsung will realize it’s barking up the wrong tree pretty … Continued

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∞ Oracle vows to fight for injunction against Android

Jim Dalrymple — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 04:05:34 +0000

Florian Mueller:

Damages can be substantial but they are not what Oracle is primarily trying to get out of this case. They are a potentially substantial consolation prize. The grand prize, however, is an injunction, and Oracle’s filing makes this clear with the following statement, which explains why Oracle’s new damages computation — unlike the old one that included damages until the year 2025 — relates only to past damages and apparently provides only some data points with a

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∞ AT&T ruling, not PSN debacle, forced Sony TOS change

Jim Dalrymple — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:56:07 +0000

CNN:

Last week Sony changed the terms-of-service document for its PlayStation Network, asking U.S. customers to forfeit their rights to file class-action lawsuits against the company and its partners. Customers can opt out by sending the company a letter in the mail.
…
Sony said this week that the new terms-of-service changes were made, as some analysts suspected, in response to a Supreme Court decision in April. In that case, AT&T Mobility was permitted to include and enforce a

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∞ Study shows $500 billion lost to patent trolls since 1990

Jim Dalrymple — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 19:24:26 +0000

Ars Technica:

…Three Boston University researchers have produced a rigorous empirical estimate of the cost of patent trolling. And the number is breath-taking: patent trolls (“non-practicing entity” is the clinical term) have cost publicly traded defendants $500 billion since 1990. And the problem has become most severe in recent years. In the last four years, the costs have averaged $83 billion per year. The study says this is more than a quarter of US industrial research and

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∞ Seizing a copyright troll's bank account

Jim Dalrymple — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 23:07:29 +0000

Nate Anderson for Ars Technica:

Wayne Hoehn beat Righthaven so badly that the Las Vegas-based copyright troll lost its copyright infringement case on fair use grounds—and had to pay Hoehn’s lawyers at the Randazza Legal Group $34,045.50 in attorney’s fees. But Righthaven, which has been squeezing settlements from bloggers and random forum users for more than a year, hasn’t paid up. Now, Marc Randazza and his team want the US Marshals to seize Righthaven’s bank accounts and

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∞ PlayStation Network terms updated to prevent lawsuits

Jim Dalrymple — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 15:22:38 +0000

Examiner.com:

Sony is updating the user agreement for the Playstation Network starting on September 15 and one of the changes included in the update seeks to stop class action lawsuits against the company.

Sony was the target of a hacker break-in earlier this year that exposed tens of millions of user accounts because of lackadaisical security. Sony’s move is a defensive measure to prevent more legal exposure. The company allows you to opt out of the arbitration clause,

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∞ Apple settles lawsuit over trademark products with Queens stores

Jim Dalrymple — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 23:19:11 +0000

Reuters:

Two stores in Queens, New York, accused of peddling unauthorized Apple Inc accessories have agreed to hand over all products in their inventories bearing the word “Apple” or any of the company’s ubiquitous

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∞ ∞ Apple sued for using copyrighted photo in TV ad

Jim Dalrymple — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 13:19:44 +0000

New York-based photographer Taea Thale is suing Apple for using one of her copyrighted photos in an iPhone television ad.

∞ ∞ The motivation behind lawsuits against Android

Jim Dalrymple — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:30:33 +0000

Ben Bajarin:

That being said what I feel the real issue behind the lawsuits is that Android is free. It’s obviously one thing to infringe on a companies inventions or innovations and then sell them but its another entirely to infringe on someones inventions and innovations and give them away for free. It sends the message that those innovations aren’t even worth enough to ask someone to pay for them.

∞ ∞ HTC wants Apple to compete instead of suing competitors

Jim Dalrymple — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 15:51:49 +0000

Mobile handset-maker HTC on Tuesday responded to Apple’s new patent complaint, saying it should compete in the market instead of suing rivals.

∞ ∞ Apple files another ITC complaint against HTC

Jim Dalrymple — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 14:30:55 +0000

I take it that Apple is skeptical of the outcome of that ongoing ITC investigation and, therefore, wants a second try with potentially stronger patents. In April, the ITC staff (the Office of Unfair Import Investigations, which participates in most ITC investigations as a third party) expressed its opinion that HTC did not infringe any valid Apple patents within the scope of that investigation. The target date for a final initial determination by the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ)

∞ ∞ Apple files lawsuit against Samsung in South Korea

Jim Dalrymple — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 14:26:22 +0000

Apple, which was Samsung’s second-biggest client after Japan’s Sony Corp last year, became the South Korean firm’s biggest customer in the first quarter, mainly by purchasing semiconductors, according to Samsung’s quarterly report.

Earlier this week Apple’s lawyers said executives from the two companies were in private talks to end the dispute. I guess that

∞ ∞ Lodsys refiles motion, asks for one month extension

Jim Dalrymple — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 18:53:00 +0000

Earlier today I published and blogged about Lodsys’s motion for an extension of time to answer Apple’s motion to intervene. Lodsys’s motion, as entered yesterday, requested time until including August 27, 2011 — two more months. But Lodsys has now withdrawn the previous motion and put in a new one, which I also published on Scribd and which asks for time until including July 27, 2011 — one more month, not two.

Mueller said he thinks the court will grant the one

∞ ∞ Lodsys asks court for two month delay to answer Apple's motion to intervene

Jim Dalrymple — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:12:09 +0000

The week before last, Apple filed a motion to intervene in Lodsys’s lawsuit against seven app developers. I was hoping for Apple’s intervention to be allowed very soon, but we may all have to wait. Lodsys would have had to respond to Apple’s motion by June 27, 2011 (Monday) but just asked the court for additional time — for two months, in fact. Lodsys would like to have time until including August 27, 2011.

If Lodsys is given this delay, the court should also force