Disgruntled Netflix investors file class-action lawsuit

A group of disgruntled Netflix investors has filed a class action lawsuit against the movie rental company for allegedly withholding information.

Netflix’s stock price suffered from two very large decreases in the summer and fall of 2011, in part due to massive price increases to subscription plans and a failed attempt to spinoff Netflix’s DVD-by-mail rental business into a separate company. And while the company was clear on those plans, it wasn’t entirely clear on … Continue Reading

Judge kills lawsuit against Hurt Locker pirates, matey

Voltage Pirates has officially failed in its quest to sue 24,583 people who illegally downloaded the movie The Hurt Locker.

Judge Beryl Howell killed the case, refusing to grant an extension to the trial when the studio asked for more time to track down specific defendants from Internet service providers.

Back in October, around 20,000 defendants were dismissed from the case when Voltage Pictures was having trouble tracking them down.

Eventually, the lawsuit was … Continue Reading

Motorola wins latest patent spat against Apple in Germany

A German court sided with Motorola in a patent lawsuit against Apple today, granting an injunction against the iPad and iPhone maker. Apple said it plans to appeal the decision.

Motorola’s lawsuit, which was filed in April 2011, accuses Apple of using patented cellular data transmission technology in its iPhones and 3G iPads without paying. Motorola can pursue the injunction by posting a $133 million bond, prohibiting Apple from selling the offending devices in Germany … Continue Reading

The case of the “stolen” Twitter account

The ownership of a moderately popular Twitter account and the value of the account’s 17,000 followers are at the center of an ongoing legal dispute.

In the case of the stolen Twitter followers, or PhoneDog v. Noah Kravitz, PhoneDog, a mobile review site, alleges that former staffer Noah Kravitz misappropriated trade secrets by changing the password and name of a Twitter account he used while employed by PhoneDog. PhoneDog argues that Kravitz caused the company … Continue Reading

Lawyer Up! Massive RIM outage prompts class action suit

A class action lawsuit was filed today against Research in Motion (RIM), the makers of BlackBerry, after a massive, three-day service outage affected millions of its subscribers worldwide in October.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Quebec Superior Court by a Montreal law firm, “on behalf of individuals who have BlackBerry smartphones and who pay for a monthly data plan but were unable to access their email, BlackBerry Messenger service (BBM), and/or Internet for the … Continue Reading

Oracle pays $200M settlement for overcharging the U.S. government

Oracle has paid out in excess of $199.5 million to settle a case with the U.S. government.

The case, which was brought to light by former Oracle senior director of contract services Paul Frascella in 2007 and was pursued by the Justice Department, claimed that Oracle had overcharged the U.S. government for nine years while giving steep discounts to corporate entities.

Claims included the allegation that Oracle had discounted goods and services by up to … Continue Reading

Yelp cooperating with FTC on antitrust lawsuit against Google

Following Google’s recent purchase of Zagat, social review and discovery site Yelp will cooperate with the Federal Trade Commission’s investigation’s antitrust lawsuit against the search giant, the company announced today.

Since Google now directly competes against Yelp in terms of reviewing local businesses via its Places product, Yelp agreed to the FTC’s request to discuss its experiences with Google’s conduct.

“We have responded to these requests and told officials that we believe Google has acted … Continue Reading

Updated PSN terms remove right to collectively sue Sony

PlayStation manufacturer Sony has added a clause to its terms of service for its online gaming network, the PlayStation Network (PSN), that waives users’ rights to collectively sue the company.

PSN users slapped Sony with a class-action lawsuit in July after hackers broke into the network and stole sensitive information about more than 100 million PSN and Station.com users — possibly including credit card numbers. The lawsuit cited some confidential witnesses who claim Sony’s network … Continue Reading

Google drops legal bomb in its own front yard as Oracle goes after Android

This week, three surprising scenarios emerged in initial depositions in the ongoing Google/Oracle lawsuit.

First, a Google engineer admitted he may have copied Sun’s code in his work on Android.

Also, Google documents show the company worked to give Motorola and Verizon early access to new versions of Android, known as “forks” — and a significant time-to-market advantage along with it.

And finally, we learned that Sun at one time wanted to walk away from … Continue Reading

Microsoft denies Windows Phone 7 is stealing your location data

Microsoft has said its Windows Phone 7 devices are not keeping location data without alerting users.

Microsoft’s newest mobile operating system was the target of a lawsuit last week when security experts determined that Windows Phone 7 cameras were capturing location data any time owners took a photo and were, without alerting the user, allegedly sending that location data to Microsoft.

Microsoft has said any location data cannot be correlated with a specific user, which … Continue Reading

Google’s patent plot thickens with new Microsoft lawsuit against Motorola Mobility

The string of Android-related patent lawsuits is heating up with a new complaint brought by Microsoft against Motorola Mobility.

Motorola Mobility is Google’s latest acquisition and maker of some of the most popular and successful Android phones.

Microsoft is alleging the infringement of seven patents and is asking for an injunction on the importation of Droid 2, Droid X, Cliq XT, Devour, Backflip and Charm mobile devices.

“Investing in a broad and truly open mobile … Continue Reading

Zynga gets slapped with patent lawsuit over credits-based gaming

Game maker Zynga is being taken to court over patents that cover some  fundamental aspects of social gaming: credits and prize redemption.

Agincourt Gaming, the combatively named studio says it holds the intellectual property for “credits-based online gaming and a prize redemption system based on the outcome of game play.”

The company, which currently sports a stable of just one title, has pulled up patents dating back to 1996.

Agincourt says some of Zynga’s most … Continue Reading

HTC turns tables on Apple, sues iPod maker for patent violation

Now this is how patent warfare is conducted: Taiwan-based HTC has filed a lawsuit against Apple, Inc. for patent violations throughout its lineup of consumer electronics devices.

HTC is claiming patent violations for the U.S. sale of iPods, iPads, iPhones, Mac computers and more. The wording of the suit would indicate that HTC ostensibly wants to stop Apple from importing these devices (they’re manufactured in China) and selling them in the U.S. HTC is also … Continue Reading

DVD rental startup Zediva fought the law; guess who won?

Zediva, an ill-conceived startup that sought to exploit a legal loophole in the DVD rental business, has been shut down by a federal court.

A judge issued a preliminary injunction in an ongoing case between Zediva and the MPAA, ruling that Zediva’s business is one big copyright violation.

A Zediva spokesperson told VentureBeat, “Today’s ruling represents a setback for the hundreds of thousands of consumers looking for an alternative to Hollywood-controlled online movie services. Zediva … Continue Reading

Google buys 1,030 IBM patents, girding its loins for Android lawsuit

Google has snapped up more than a thousand IBM patents, a move that likely doubled the number of patents held by the search giant.

Many patent law experts are suggesting the move was intended to give Google a bit more leverage in its ongoing litigation around the Android operating system. Since last summer, Google has been embroiled in a legal tangle with Oracle, a terrifying mammoth in the patent department, and the IBM purchase is … Continue Reading

Facebook files lawsuit against 25 domain “typosquatters”

Facebook filed a lawsuit Thursday against several companies that bought domain names similar to facebook.com, alleging trademark infringement.

The dispute, first reported on the web site of online-marketer Bill Hartzer, concerns domain names that are either typos or closely related to Facebook.com. The giant social network, which calls the owners of these domains “typosquatters”, claims that these domains are examples of trademark infringement.

“(The) defendants’ schemes also diminish the goodwill associated with Facebook and its … Continue Reading

Google may settle in Android lawsuit with Oracle

In Oracle’s patent lawsuit against Google, the latter company has made a surprising concession: It might be willing to settle.

If Oracle’s claims (that Android violates patents in Oracle’s Java programming language) are found to be valid in a trial, Google could end up paying between $1.4 and $6.1 billion, depending on whether the alleged infringement was willful or unintentional.

Google’s most recent statement hinting at the possibility of an out-of-court settlement, which was tellingly … Continue Reading

PlayStation Network welcome-back package boosts PS3 sales

Sony’s “welcome back” package to users following the take-down of its PlayStation Network (PSN) might have increased PlayStation 3 console and game sales, according to a report by EEDAR. The package included free games and services to entice users to return to the PSN online gaming network that was brought down for several weeks due to a hacker attack in April.

The number of home console owners with Sony’s PlayStation 3 rose to 44 percent, … Continue Reading

Judge agrees “App Store” isn’t entirely generic, still denies Apple’s injunction against Amazon

A U.S. judge has denied Apple’s preliminary injunction, which would have immediately stopped online retailer Amazon from using the term “App Store” even before the case goes to trial, reports Reuters.

Apple claims it owns a trademark on “App Store”, which is the name of the company’s application market place launched in 2008. Apple first took legal action in March after Amazon announced it was launching an app store of its own called the  “Amazon … Continue Reading

Sony slapped with lawsuit over PlayStation Network outage

Sony’s troubles just keep mounting. Now it’s the target of a class-action lawsuit claiming that the company’s negligence led to the theft of personal data on more than 100 million of its customers.

The lawsuit follows a massive attack on Sony’s online gaming networks, the PlayStation Network (PSN) and Station.com. Hackers broke into the network and stole sensitive information about more than 100 million PSN and Station.com users — including potentially credit card numbers. The … Continue Reading