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Shocker! WiLAN drums up another lawsuit, this time against big cable
As the saying goes, every time an iPhone is dropped, another wide sweeping patent lawsuit in the tech world sprouts up in the plaintiff-friendly US District courts of east Texas. Okay, so perhaps there's no factual basis for that, but who knows if the latest case filed by suit-happy Canadian wireless company WiLAN against Comcast, Time Warner, and Charter Communications is any more legitimate. The dispute is over US patent No. 5,661,602, which is one of the company's 970 issued or pending patents, and was awarded in 1998. It covers "hybrid multichannel data transmission systems utilizing a broadcast medium" -- a.k.a. the broadcasting of data to remote networks and computers. WiLAN has tapped their ole' favorite US law firm, McKool Smith for the case, and asserts that the big cable triumvirate is in violation of the patent, though a spokesperson for Comcast did note they had not been served with a complaint just yet. Sadly (or not-so-sadly, depending on perspective) we can't take part in the gavel swinging, but considering that WiLAN filed suit against Alcatel-Lucent, Sony Ericsson and LG last month, and sued Acer, Apple, Dell, HP, and Lenovo in April, there's plenty of evidence that this outfit's lawyers are the hardest working employees on the payroll.
Microsoft sues Motorola, alleges 'excessive' Xbox 360 tech royalty fees
In a lot of ways, Microsoft and Motorola are like the Great Bard's feuding Montagues and Capulets. Things changed early last year, when Motorola sent one of its own to Microsoft in good faith. Microsoft accepted and the future prosperity of both "families" seemed ensured. Things would be good for a time. But then a little over a year later, there would be tragedy. Microsoft would file not one, but two different lawsuits, the latter being the focal point here: a suit filed in the western district court in Seattle today. It would allege Motorola demanded "royalties that are excessive and discriminatory" regarding its video decoding and wireless LAN tech under the hood of the Xbox 360. That's basically how Romeo & Juliet ends, word for word -- trust us, we just got you an A on that book report. The story would not continue until Romeo & Juliet 2: QTE Courthouse, where Microsoft and Motorola meet face-to-face to wage battle to the legal death in a quick-time courtroom brawl. Actually, we'll save you the trouble: it's basically a bunch of talking until they ultimately settle their dispute in an ultra-anti-climactic exchange of cash in the back alley.
CTIA sues San Francisco over cellphone radiation law
San Francisco may have signed cellphone radiation labels into law, but the stickers won't stick without a fight -- the Cellular Telephone Industries Association (CTIA) just filed a complain in federal district court, claiming the new law supersedes the FCC's authority to regulate radio emissions and misleads consumers into believing some phones are safer than others. As we've discussed previously, the CTIA does have something of a point. Every phone that makes it to market is rigorously tested for cell phone radiation levels, and those that pass fall below a specific 1.6 watt per kilogram threshold already. But hey, we're all for bombarding our brains with that much less radiation, as long as our calls stay connected and our text messages arrive on time. If only there were a label for that... Read the CTIA's full complaint at our more coverage link.
Documents show that Dell knowingly sold defective computers, misled those needing support
What happens when capacitors go bad, spewing out their tangerine innards like the ones in the photo above? Components die. In the early to mid naughties there was a rash of failures, the so-called "capacitor plague" that affected many manufacturers thanks to millions of bogus units filled with an electrolyte mixture that was a bit off. However, nobody was quite affected like Dell. The company took a $300 million charge in 2005 to cover costs related to the faulty machines that went out with these components, and now we're getting a better picture of just how bad it was -- and continues to be. According to recently released documents stemming from a three year-old lawsuit, Dell not only knew about the bogus components but some of its employees were actively told to play dumb, one memo sent to customer service reps telling them to "avoid all language indicating the boards were bad or had issues." Meanwhile, sales teams were still selling funky OptiPlex machines, which during that period had a 97 percent failure rate according to Dell's own study. (And you thought the Xbox 360 had problems.) With that on the minds of shoppers, plus Throttlegate and some other recent laptop quality issues, we have to think consumer confidence for Dell must be at an all-time low at the moment. [Image courtesy of Bushtails]
Gibson's Rock Band lawsuit ends in settlement, one way or another
Back in 2008, Gibson Guitar hoped to cash in on the Rock Band craze with a slate of patent infringement lawsuits of dubious quality, and though the firm lost to Activision a year later, its suits against Harmonix, Electronic Arts, Viacom, and six major retailers stirred something in Nashville's rock gods. Though exact terms weren't disclosed, the parties reached a settlement in a Tennessee federal court this week, and plan to bring the lawsuit to an end by June 14th. Meanwhile, we hear Harmonix v. Konami is meeting a similar end; retailers should be able to sell cheap plastic guitars with a infinitesimally cleaner conscience in a little over three months.
Utah woman sues Google after walking directions lead her to a highway
GPS directing motorists to do insane things like drive onto train tracks are nothing new -- we've been hearing tell of such things for years now. And while it can be fodder for a lot of humor, well, the people involved are operating heavy machinery, so in a way it's understandable... right? But a Utah woman is now suing Google over walking directions she got on her BlackBerry which directed her to walk onto a highway, which -- she says -- resulted in her getting hit by a car. According to the court docs, Lauren Rosenberg of Park City, Utah downloaded Google walking directions from one part of town to another, and these directions included walking on Utah State Route 224 -- a major road sans sidewalks. Rather than try to re-route, Lauren followed the directions, and was promptly struck by a car. Rosenberg is now suing Google for around $100,000. Of course, most users of Google's walking (or biking, or public transit) directions will probably have noted that they come with a warning -- "Walking directions are in beta. Use caution – This route may be missing sidewalks or pedestrian paths," so we're not sure how far Rosenberg's case will go, but take this as a cautionary tale, will you? Please.
44 Chinese workers sue Wintek over screen cleaner poisoning
If you've got an early Apple iPad, chances are its screen was cleaned with a banned substance called n-hexane, which releases a toxic nerve gas upon use. 2,000 workers at Wintek's East China LCD plant went on strike in January, claiming the substance was poisoning them, and now 44 of those reportedly affected are planning to sue. According to reports, the screen cleaner was originally used because it performed better than alcohol, but Wintek has since fired the factory manager who suggested n-hexane and discontinued its use. That didn't keep 62 workers from winding up in the hospital, however. The Guardian interviewed two hospitalized workers last week, and you'll find their stories at our more coverage link below. We're sure you'll agree these Chinese labor violations are getting out of hand -- let's hope this lawsuit spurs government and industry to do something concrete about worker abuse.
Sony taken to court over PS3 'Other OS' removal
Sony forced PS3 owners into a tough decision with the mandatory 3.21 firmware update: either lose online play, or forgo Linux support. On Tuesday, Anthony Ventura chose door number three -- and filed a lawsuit in California, asking the judge for class-action status. The complaint quotes Sony executives on numerous occasions saying how vital and important the "Install Other OS" feature was to the game console (it's a computer, remember?) and claims breach of contract, false advertising, and several other causes of action against the entertainment giant. Sure, a lawsuit was bound to happen, given the number of angry PS3 owners out there, but here's the thing: there's no telling whether the court will grant a class-action certification here, and even if the case gets that far it's pretty unlikely to force Sony to turn the feature back on -- instead, customers will probably receive a token amount in damages while the lawyers get their full fees. For example, a rare, successful class-action suit against Palm -- filed in 2004 -- got Treo 600 owners only $27.50 in store credit, five years later. Meanwhile, we hear European PS3 owners just have to ask for their money back -- which, we promise you, is the fastest way to put an end to your Linux-based PS3 nightmares. Either that, or just wait for Geohot to make it all better.
Apple sues HTC for patent violations
It's a festival of lawsuits. This morning Apple has announced it is going after Taiwan based phone giant HTC for infringing on 20 patents concerning the iPhone user interface and the underlying hardware and architecture. The lawsuit was filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission and in the U.S. District Court in Delaware. "We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We've decided to do something about it," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours." Although the Google Android phone is not mentioned in the lawsuit, HTC makes several Android handsets, and the touchscreen models look quite a bit like the iPhone screen. HTC has not yet reacted to the lawsuit. Apple's lawyers are busy. There is ongoing litigation with Nokia over patents and technology licensing. For more detailed dissection of each of the patent claims, check out Engadget's post.
AT&T and Verizon mutually drop lawsuits, customers rejoice
Both companies were looking pretty stupid, with half-baked attack ads and claims, counter claims and lawsuits that get lawyers rich and customers wondering if the money might be better spent. Anyway, the Wall Street Journal and others are reporting that: AT&T Inc. (T) on Wednesday dismissed its lawsuit against Verizon Wireless and its recent "There's A Map For That" campaign. AT&T had already suffered a legal setback when a judge rejected its request to pull the ads last month, which the Dallas carrier argued inaccurately suggested inferior network coverage. The court ruled that Verizon Wireless's ads, which showed maps comparing coverage, clearly talked about third-generation, or 3G, coverage. Meanwhile, Digital Daily reports Verizon has dismissed a similar lawsuit against AT&T. OK AT&T. How about using that found money to improve your network and customer service? Come on. You can do it.
Whoa! AT&T has had enough of the Verizon slams
AT&T is clearly not going to take it anymore. Today, they blasted back at Verizon for the nasty ads about AT&T coverage. In a press release today, the communications giant pulled out all the stops: "AT&T's wireless data coverage reaches 303 million people – or 97% of the U.S. population, where they live and work. AT&T is the #1 network for smartphones, with twice the number of smartphone customers than Verizon, our closest competitor. Some of the reasons include: Most popular smartphones. Unlike Verizon, AT&T offers the most popular smartphones in the industry. More wireless apps. Unlike Verizon, AT&T customers have access to more than 100,000 applications, more than with any other wireless company. Talk and E-mail at the same time. Unlike Verizon, AT&T's 3G network lets wireless customers simultaneously talk and surf the web or do e-mail. Fastest 3G in the nation. Unlike Verizon, AT&T has the nation's fastest 3G network." It's a bold move to respond to someone doing a number on you. Microsoft tried to counter Apple pricing with mixed reviews, and AT&T, unlike Apple, has a lot of unhappy customers. This will be fun to watch, but one wishes AT&T was improving service and features (tethering anyone?) instead of getting into these lawsuits and public mud baths.
The9 sues Blizzard in WoW China operation fallout
Foreign game companies operating in China face a business, regulatory, and legal climate that can be confusing or even turbulent at times. These are the chances a game company takes when trying to succeed in the China market; there are risks, certainly, but there's also a great deal of profit potential. Blizzard Entertainment partnered with games operator The9 to bring World of Warcraft to millions of gamers in China in an arrangement that's worked for four years. Things must have soured in this last year of operation, however, as Blizzard has dropped The9 and partnered with NetEase to operate World of Warcraft in China as of this month.Clearly, this does not sit well with The9. The latest report we've seen on the fallout from the Blizzard/The9 split shows it's getting ugly. The9 is taking action against Blizzard in the Chinese legal system, with lawsuits over software copyright infringement, assets damage, and commercial defamation. All three suits are being heard in Shanghai courts. One of Azeroth's millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs!
Sony and Nintendo sued for wireless tech
There are two ways to get a slice of the delicious Nintendo money pie: (1) Release a collection of mini-games for the Wii (look for Non-Denominational Church Carnival Games coming from Joystiq Publishing in Q3 2009!); or (2) Sue Nintendo. This road less traveled (option 2) has just been taken by Wall Wireless LLC of Plano, Texas, which is also suing Sony and Nokia for allegedly infringing on its patent for "Method and Apparatus for Creating and Distributing Real-Time Interactive Media Content Through Wireless Communication Networks and the Internet."Perhaps following the advice of some inspirational kitty poster, Wall Wireless refuses to limit its potential by naming an actual figure it's suing for; instead asking for "no less than a reasonable royalty." Good luck with the settlement, fellas!
Nintendo faces class-action lawsuit, hotter-than-ever sales for Wii
Nintendo's fended off class-action lawsuits over "defective" Wiimote straps in the past, and if you remember, they also replaced about 3.2 million of the straps (a/k/a "all of them") around the same time too -- way back in December of 2006. Well, the same lawyer's back for round two with a new, nearly identical suit, but this one also alleges that Nintendo knew that the defect existed and was negligent in their failure to report the problem to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Nintendo's probably not stoked about the news -- but we've got a feeling that the company's record-breaking sales will balm the wounds a little. According to NPD data just released, the company sold 2 million Wiis and 1.56 million DS units in November, an all-time hardware sales record for a month other than December. Yeah, who cares about a few busted up TVs and black eyes in the face of those numbers?[Via Gamecyte]Read - Nintendo Slapped with Strap Lawsuit Once AgainRead - Wii and Nintendo DS Set Historic New US Sales Records
Diebold's e-voting machines violate GPL, good taste
Diebold just can't seem to keep its nose clean these days. The nation's largest manufacturer of ATMs admitted not too long ago what everybody already knew: that their e-voting machines were totally bunk. Apparently in the course of that investigation it emerged that the company also thought it would be a laugh to load the open source Ghostscript Postscript interpreter software into those faulty machines without releasing its changes or paying the proprietary usage license fee -- leading Aritex, its developer, to file a lawsuit. It doesn't really instill confidence any further to hear that our nation's terrible electronic voting machines are running on stolen software, guys -- and to be honest, we're kinda starting to wish you'd get out of the ATM business, too.
Alleged Call of Duty pirate sued by Activision
We'd like to suggest a new video game rating system. It's super easy to remember and, with only two different degrees of quality, we think it's something just about anyone can understand: "Games That Are Worth Getting Sued for $150,000 to Pirate" and "Games That Are Not." That's exactly the light that James R. Strickland of New York is having to see Call of Duty 3 in, as he was sued last month by Activision after he (allegedly) "copied the Copyrighted Video Game and distributed the Copyrighted Video Game to the public."Our friends at GamePolitics did a little digging and found that these sorts of lawsuits were pretty common for Activision, with at least six examples that GP could locate. It appears that the suits are for the actual copying of games rather than just sharing files, but we bet it's probably enough to give some wrongdoers pause. And if you are going to get sued, at least go with Call of Duty 4, OK?Read -- Activision Sues Alleged CoD PirateRead -- Activision Suing File-Sharers RIAA Style?
Psystar: What's the French Word for Lawsuit?
Yesterday, Mike posted about the new commercial hackintosh from Psystar. Many of our readers noted that, wow, that was a lawsuit waiting to happen -- or as Fake Steve put it, Psystar is French for "We're about to go out of business". Update 11 am Tuesday: InformationWeek is reporting that Psystar believes that Apple's EULA is anticompetitive and violates US monopoly laws. Interesting.Here are a few of the high points that TUAW is aware of: The Mac name Using "Mac" in the product name was probably a bad idea. Psystar just re-named the platform to "Open Computer" instead. Pre-installing Leopard It would seem that installing Leopard on non-Apple hardware is a violation of Apple's EULA. Virtualization vendors such as Parallels and VMware have already acknowledged this constraint in their product development; otherwise, both would offer VMs capable of running Leopard on any PC and not just on Mac OS X Server. Unlicensed PC_EFI It looks like Psystar is using an EFI bootloader without properly acknowledging the actual author or receiving permission to distribute the software. If you haven't yet checked out the discussion thread on Digg, I encourage you to do so. It's especially useful with its discussions about hardware limitations and hackintoshes.
Activision investor sues over Vivendi merger
Turns out not everybody's happy with the recently-announced formation of super-company Activision Blizzard. One particular investor group is suing Activision, claiming that the merger will leave its shareholders in an "unfavorable minority position."Since Vivendi comes out on top in the merger -- with 52% majority ownership of Activision -- the Wayne County Employees' Retirement System believes Activision didn't think of the stockholders when accepting the deal, which it claims otherwise could have proven more lucrative. No further details of the lawsuit are known at this time. The Activision Blizzard merger is scheduled to occur sometime in the first half of this year.[Via Next-Gen]
SCOTUS hearing milestone LG v. Quanta patent suit arguments
True to its word, the US Supreme Court has started to hear arguments in one of those LG vs Quanta patent suits we've been following, with its eventual decision expected to have major effects on the rights of patent holders. Specifically, LG is arguing that since chipsets sold by Intel to Quanta use licensed manufacturing techniques and employ non-Intel components, Quanta also owes LG compensation as per its original agreement with Intel. Pretty confusing, we agree, but the Court's final decision -- expected in June -- promises to clear up once and for all what has admittedly become a legal gray area concerning so-called "exhausted" patents.
Microsoft can't talk about Live's status
Sometimes, news is just dumb. You can try to spice it up or cover it in jam, but it won't change anything. It'll just make the news all sticky. Take, for example, Major Nelson's recent revelation that Microsoft can't talk about Xbox Live's status thanks to a lawsuit currently pending in Texas. You know what that is? Dumb. We're not even sure who the dumb party is, the legal system for gagging Microsoft, or Microsoft for not just buying Texas and settling this old school. Boy, first The Alamo and now this. Will Texas ever stop letting us down?[Via X3F]
