BreachOfContract
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Qualcomm claims Apple stole trade secrets and sent them to Intel
The ongoing dispute between Apple and Qualcomm continues as Qualcomm seeks to add new charges to a current lawsuit it's pursuing against Apple. CNBC reports that Qualcomm is now alleging that Apple stole "vast swaths" of trade secrets through their partnership and used that information to help Intel improve its chips. The company is looking to amend allegations made against Apple in a lawsuit filed last November.
Bethesda lawsuit claims ‘Westworld’ game is ‘Fallout Shelter’ rip-off
Bethesda Softworks filed a lawsuit this week against Behavior Interactive and Warner Bros., alleging that the new Westworld mobile game is a "blatant rip-off" of its Fallout Shelter, Polygon reports. The company cites a number of reviews of Westworld that noted the similarities and points to specific parts of Westworld's gameplay and imagery that it says are largely indifferentiable from Fallout Shelter. "Working with the same copyrighted computer code used by Fallout Shelter, Westworld has the same or highly similar game design, art style, animations, features and other gameplay elements as Fallout Shelter, all of which are owned by Bethesda," the company says in its suit.
Quanta sues AMD, claims it sold defective products
Yikes. Quanta -- also known as the planet's largest contract maker of laptops -- has just slapped a nasty lawsuit on the world's second-largest chipmaker. According to Bloomberg, Quanta is alleging that AMD and ATI sold chips that "didn't meet heat tolerances and were unfit for particular purposes." Those chips were then used in NEC-labeled machines, and caused them to "malfunction" in some regard. No big deal? Hardly. In the complaint, Quanta states that it has "suffered significant injury to prospective revenue and profits," and it's seeking a jury trial and damages for good measure. As if that weren't harsh enough, the suit also claims "breach of warranty, negligent misrepresentation, civil fraud and interference with a contract." When pinged for comment, AMD's spokesman, Michael Silverman stated: "AMD disputes the allegations in Quanta's complaint and believes they are without merit. AMD is aware of no other customer reports of the alleged issues with the AMD chip that Quanta used, which AMD no longer sells. "In fact, Quanta has itself acknowledged to AMD that it used the identical chip in large volumes in a different computer platform that it manufactured for NEC without such issues." Somewhere, Intel has to be smirking.
Global Verge wins $43 million lawsuit against mystery MVNO Zer01
When we first heard about Zer01 it was set to launch at a time when other MVNOs were disappearing. (Remember Amp'd Mobile, or Helio?) Zer01 was pledging unlimited voice and data for just $69.99 a month, before most other carriers had their $99 plans, but ultimately never delivered a thing. Apparently Global Verge was similarly left in the dark, but unlike the rest of us it had invested $170,000 in Zer01 in exchange for selling wireless services as part of its multi-level marketing company. Global Verge had been allowing its "e-associates" (people who pay for the right to hawk Global Verge's wares) to shill for Zer01 wireless, which of course never delivered a single call. There are accusations flying fast and frantic about which of the two companies is the worst offender here, but the District Court in Clark County, Nevada at least believes that it's Zer01 reneging on its promises, awarding $43 million to Global Verge for breach of contract and various other legal wrongdoings. Congrats, GV, and good luck collecting.
Nokia asks court to dismiss part of Apple patent lawsuit
How do we know we're years away from a final resolution to the Nokia / Apple patent lawsuit? It's been six months since Nokia first filed its complaint, and the two parties are just now starting to argue about which specific substantive claims they're eventually going to argue about. Let's do a quick refresh: at the heart of the lawsuit is a conflict over Nokia's wireless patents, some of which are almost certainly essential to how cell data and WiFi operate. As a member of the ETSI and the IEEE licensing groups which oversee GSM and WiFi, Nokia's required to license its patents to anyone who asks on fair terms, but those terms aren't set in stone -- Nokia can negotiate separate licenses as it sees fit, and it apparently wanted Apple to cross-license its touchscreen patents as part of the deal. Apple said no, and now we're all in court, with both sides alleging patent infringement in three different lawsuits (one of which is on hold) and Apple claiming that Nokia is also liable for breach of contract, because it promised fair licensing terms and didn't deliver. Got all that? Right. So that brings us to yesterday, when Nokia asked the court to dismiss all of Apple's contract-related claims, saying that they're simply a distraction from the real issue, which is patents, and that its license offers aren't unfair simply because Apple doesn't like them. In short: Apple and Nokia's patent lawsuit is currently not really about patents at all, but about whether or not it should also be a fight about contract terms in addition to a fight about patents, and that question won't be resolved for months. And that's why vigilante justice is the future of America's tarnished civilization something like 90 percent of patent cases eventually settle out of court. P.S. Oh, and in case you're wondering, today Reuters reported that the first trial date isn't expected until 2012. So, yeah.
