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Judge refuses to bar Steve Jobs quotes from patent trial
Reuters reported on Friday that a judge has rejected Apple's request to have several incendiary quotes about Google's Android platform from former CEO Steve Jobs blocked from being used in the upcoming patent trial between Apple and Google's Motorola Mobility unit. In the Walter Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs, the late CEO expressed his fiery feelings about the patent litigation: "Our lawsuit is saying, 'Google, you f**king ripped off the iPhone, wholesale ripped us off.' Grand theft. I'm willing to go to thermonuclear war on this." Apple lawyers made a court filing last month asking to have any reference to the book blocked during the trial "to avoid any potential prejudice to Apple if Motorola attempts to use the book to appeal to the jury's passion." On Thursday, federal judge Richard Posner rejected Apple's request. In a separate order, he also forbid Apple from arguing that jurors should favor Apple over Motorola if they admire Jobs or like Apple products. Apple has separately asked a California federal judge to block quotes from the Walter Isaacson biography from being used in the upcoming patent trial against Samsung. That trial is scheduled for July.
Federal judge dismisses class-action suit against Sony, 'Other OS' feature remains dormant
Last year, a group of disgruntled gamers filed a class-action lawsuit against Sony over its decision to remove the "Install Other OS" feature from its PS3 firmware. Last week, though, their case was dismissed by US District Judge Richard Seeborg, on the grounds that the plaintiffs failed to actually state a claim. In a ruling issued Thursday, Seeborg said he sympathized with the gamers' gripes, but ultimately determined that they had failed to demonstrate any legal entitlement to the feature, thereby neutering their arguments. "The dismay and frustration at least some PS3 owners likely experienced when Sony made the decision to limit access to the PSN service to those who were [un]willing to disable the Other OS feature on their machines was no doubt genuine and understandable," Seeborg wrote. "As a matter of providing customer satisfaction and building loyalty, it may have been questionable." He went on, however, to point out that the users "have failed to allege facts or articulate a theory on which Sony may be held liable" post-PS3 purchase, effectively ending the litigation.
