Posts Tagged ‘lawsuit’

AT&T sued by Washington DC for unused balances on calling cards

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on January 3rd, 2010

Here's a superficially curious, but fundamentally quite important, bit of legal wrangling for you. Reuters is reporting that the District of Columbia has filed suit against AT&T Corp for the recovery of unused balances on calling cards purchased from the telecom giant. Estimated at somewhere between 5 and 20 percent of the overall value of the cards, the so-called breakage -- leftover credit that customers neglect to use -- has typically remained with the carrier as a sort of predictable bonus. The DC Attorney General, however, is seeking to have breakages treated as unclaimed property, which under district law means that after three years they must be returned to the state. Whichever side of the fence you sit on, the decision on this case will set a significant precedent for the future of such prepaid services.

AT&T sued by Washington DC for unused balances on calling cards originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 03 Jan 2010 15:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Appeals court sides with Apple in iPod hearing loss dispute

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on December 31st, 2009

Well, it looks like that iPod hearing loss lawsuit that's been nagging Apple for the past couple of years may finally be going away (in its current form, at least), as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has now affirmed a 2008 district court ruling and rejected a class-action lawsuit that sought to hold Apple responsible for hearing loss allegedly caused by iPods. While that may be a possibility, the court said that the "plaintiffs do not allege the iPods failed to do anything they were designed to do nor do they allege that they, or any others, have suffered or are substantially certain to suffer inevitable hearing loss or other injury from iPod use" -- further adding that, "at most, the plaintiffs plead a potential risk of hearing loss not to themselves, but to other unidentified iPod users," which doesn't quite make the grade for a class-action suit. Not surprisingly, neither Apple nor the plaintiffs are making any comments on the verdict, and we're pretty sure that Apple would like to keep it that way.

Appeals court sides with Apple in iPod hearing loss dispute originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceYahoo News  | Email this | Comments

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Ex-Seagate employee claims the company stole MIT research, tried to cover up its tracks

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on December 29th, 2009

Sure, this ain't the first time that Seagate's allegedly run afoul of the law, but this tale will definitely have you breathlessly demanding more (you know, if patent infringement is exciting to you -- which would actually be pretty weird). Way back in July 2000, Convolve (an M.I.T. spin-off formed to market the school's hard drive noise reduction research) sued Seagate for using patented tech in its Sound Barrier Technology -- with the end result being that Seagate drives no longer support automatic acoustic management. But that isn't the exciting part. In a dramatic turn reported by The New York Times, a former Seagate employee named Paul A. Galloway has apparently provided "an eyewitness account" of what went down, including the theft of info obtained in a meeting between the two companies held in 1998 and 1999 and the destruction of blueprints relating to Convolve's technology. As for the whistleblower, he claims that he was kept in the dark about the nature of the research he was working on, with Seagate even going so far as to take his computer with notes pertinent to the trial. All of this (and more) are detailed in an affidavit that is available (in PDF form) by hitting that source link -- and, man, is it a page-turner!

Ex-Seagate employee claims the company stole MIT research, tried to cover up its tracks originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink New York Times  |  sourceU.S. District Court Affidavit  | Email this | Comments

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Comcast’s Net Neutrality Case Settlement a Win For the Internet [Comcast]

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on December 26th, 2009

Comcast, the largest ISP in the US, settled their $16m data discrimination lawsuit Wednesday. They didn't admit wrongdoing and customers are only eligible for a $16 award. But, importantly, they set a precedent for other ISPs: Throttle at peril! [Yahoo]




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$16 million settlement over Comcast’s P2P throttling nets the affected $16

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on December 26th, 2009

More than two years after information about Comcast's data delaying techniques came to light, a class action lawsuit over the issue has come to a close with a settlement of $16 million and no statement of wrongdoing from the cable giant. That means Comcast continues to tout its newer bandwidth management protocols and those of you that used Ares, BitTorrent, eDonkey, FastTrack or Gnutella betwen April '06 and December '08 and/or Lotus Notes on the service anytime in the summer of 2007 can head over to the settlement website to either opt out of the class action or receive a $16 check. So is that enough cash to make up for the time wasted waiting for Naruto fansubs, Gutsy Gibbon images and the like to finish downloading?

$16 million settlement over Comcast's P2P throttling nets the affected $16 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Dec 2009 21:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Mutlichannel News, DailyTech  |  sourceP2PCongestionSettlement  | Email this | Comments

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Microsoft loses patent appeal; Word and Office to be barred from sale starting January 11

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on December 22nd, 2009

It's getting closer and closer to check-writing time for Steve Ballmer, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has just upheld a decision that would see Microsoft Word and Office banned from sale starting January 11. If you'll recall, Microsoft lost a patent infringement suit against XML specialists i4i back in May when it was found that Word's handling of .xml, .docx, and .docm files infringed upon i4i's patented XML handling algorithms, but the injunction against further Word sales was put on hold pending the results of this appeal. Now that Microsoft has lost once again, we'd expect either another appeal and request for the injunction to be stayed, this time to the Supreme Court, or for a settlement between these two that would end this whole mess right now. We'll see what happens -- stay tuned.

P.S.- Just to be clear on this, i4i isn't a patent troll -- it's a a 30 person database design company that shipped one of the first XML plugins for Office and was actually responsible for revamping the entire USPTO database around XML to make it compatible with Word back in 2000. What's more, the patents involved here don't cover XML itself, but rather the specific algorithms used to read and write custom XML -- so OpenOffice users can breathe easy, as i4i has said the suite doesn't infringe. Existing Office users should also be fine, as only future sales of Word are affected by the ruling, not any already-sold products.
Engadget: Helping you flame with accuracy.

Microsoft loses patent appeal; Word and Office to be barred from sale starting January 11 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceWall Street Journal  | Email this | Comments

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Psystar still in business, or not in business, or… something

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on December 19th, 2009

Psystar's attorneys have had some truly bumbling moments in the past year or so, and the hits keep coming: now they're disagreeing over whether or not the would-be Mac cloner is out of business. Lead law firm Camara & Sibley is now denying yesterday's Dow Jones report, which quoted Psystar's California counsel Eugene Action as saying the company would be shutting down "immediately," and insists that the company is still is business selling Rebel EFI. That would be the end of the story for now... except it's not true. Although Psystar's site still offers the software for download, it's listed as "out of stock," and you can't buy a license. What's more, Psystar was just ordered by the California court to stop helping anyone install OS X and warned that it continued to sell Rebel EFI "at its peril," so it'd be pretty ballsy to offer it for sale once again. Camara & Sibley also says it's going to appeal the California decision while it presses forward with the second lawsuit in Florida, but we've seriously got to wonder who's going to pay all these bills -- Psystar is already on the hook for $2.67 million in fines to Apple, and appeals and a second round of litigation don't come cheap. We'll see what happens next, but we can't say we're too surprised that the end of Psystar's story is as shady as its start

P.S.- Eugene Action might be the single best thing to come out of this whole mess -- his website, located at (seriously) myharvardlawyer.us, is a treasure trove of embarrassing hilarity. Choice unedited quote:

I Graduated from Harvard Law School in Cambridge Massachusetts. If you have not heard of Harvard Law school, welcome to planet earth and enjoy your visit.

Well, we're certainly impressed -- too bad that fancy degree didn't help Psystar win its case, though.

Psystar still in business, or not in business, or... something originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Dec 2009 17:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourcePC World, Eugene Action  | Email this | Comments

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Psystar Refuses to Die [Psystar]

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on December 19th, 2009

I feel like a broken record writing about these guys week after week, but they just won't go away. Even after this week's ruling that Psystar must cease operations, their attorney is saying the company will be back.

Last week one of Psystar's lawyers said that the company is shutting down for good, but now another lawyer is refuting that claim by saying "Psystar does not intend to shut down permanently."

Apple's injunction against Psystar is permanent, so whatever they do after recovering from this legal firestorm won't involve reselling Apple software. If they're smart, that is. One thing's for sure: It's looking more and more like all this legal action was nothing but an expensive attention grab. [PC World]




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Kodak wins preliminary ruling in patent squabble with Samsung

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on December 19th, 2009

Good old December, the busiest time of the year for elves, reindeer, jolly old fat guys... and lawyers, apparently. Joining the rush to make momentous decisions before Santa arrives, the International Trade Commission has made a preliminary ruling in favor of Kodak in its dispute over digital camera patents with Samsung. Though the original lawsuit included LG, an out of court settlement has left only Sammy in the firing line, and this early decision has affirmed that two of Kodak's patents were infringed in the production of its cameraphones. It's still necessary for the full commission to look at and approve the judgment, but considering Samsung's vast range of camera-equipped phones, we'd throw legal caution to the wind and start bombarding the ITC with "holiday cheer" pronto.

Kodak wins preliminary ruling in patent squabble with Samsung originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Dec 2009 12:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceYahoo! News  | Email this | Comments

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Psystar to shut down ‘immediately,’ world shrugs

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News, Technology on December 19th, 2009

Has the saga finally come to an end? Dow Jones is reporting that Psystar will be firing its eight employees and then "shutting things down immediately," in the words of the company's attorney with the bad-ass name, Eugene Action. Besides, after the latest round of losses at the hands of Apple, this should come as a shock to nobody. Now that we've put all that behind us, can we concentrate on something of importance -- like Tweeting swears from the Zune HD Twitter app?

Psystar to shut down 'immediately,' world shrugs originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceDow Jones  | Email this | Comments

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