complaint

The U.S. International Trade Commission announced today that its members have voted to begin an investigation on HTC's behalf into whether Apple infringes on HTC's intellectual property with its mobile phones, tablets, and computers.

HTC first filed its complaint, the latest against the Cupertino, Calif.-based consumer electronics giant, last month, saying Apple was infringing on two of its patents. The Taiwanese handset manufacturer seeks to halt the importation of Apple products into the U.S., as well as compensatory damages, and three times the normal damages for willful infringement.

As the ITC noted in a press release … Read more

The U.S. International Trade Commission today announced that its members have voted to begin an investigation on Apple's behalf into whether Samsung infringes on Apple's intellectual property with its mobile phones, tablets, and other hardware.

Apple first filed that complaint on July 5, seeking to have the Korean tech giant's devices barred from being imported into the U.S. That was just a week after Samsung had targeted the iPhone, iPod, and Mac maker with its own ITC complaint seeking similar ends. Both of these complaints were on top of the legal battle the two companies … Read more

Since a good part of the content on the Web is whining and complaining, it stands to reason that there's a nice, perpetual business here. People love to kvetch, and companies will always giving us reasons to do so.

A new mobile app, ComplainApp, harnesses this fundamental human behavior and uses social media platforms (mostly Twitter) to help consumers get the help (they feel) they deserve.

With the app, you get, first, a hot list of other users' recent complaints. If one resonates with you, you can retweet it with a single click, which should help the complaint get noticed by the offending companies. ComplainApp founder Noam Gordon says this is a critical step in getting a complaint resolved today. "Most modern CRM systems use Twitter," he says, and companies have people monitoring Twitter and other social platforms. Make a big enough stink on a social network and you're likely to get a personal response from the company.

… Read more

While it's been a rough day for some Netflix users who partake of both online streaming and DVD-by-mail services with word of a 60 percent price hike, today has been downright bruising for Netflix itself. The company is getting battered by irate users taking to social media to vent their red-envelope-tinged fury.

On Netflix's Facebook page, just six hours after the company posted a link to the announcement that appeared on its company blog, more than 9,000 comments have been posted in response. I read a sample of about 100 comments, and only one defended the Netflix … Read more

An advocacy group has filed a complaint with the FCC that argues Verizon Wireless shouldn't be allowed to block tethering apps that let people connect their computers to the Internet through their phones' 4G wireless data network.

"This practice restricts consumer choice and hinders innovation regardless of which carrier adopts such policies, but when Verizon Wireless employs these restrictions in connection with its LTE network, it also violates the Federal Communications Commission's rules," said the advocacy group, Free Press, in its complaint to the FCC yesterday. Those rules say Verizon "shall not deny, limit, or … Read more

In its patent battle against Apple, there's just no stopping Nokia.

The Finnish company announced today that it has filed another complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission against Apple for allegedly violating Nokia patents "in virtually all of its mobile phones, portable music players, tablets, and computers."

Nokia's complaint cites seven patents that it believes Apple violates through its use of "multitasking operating systems, data synchronization, positioning, call quality, and the use of Bluetooth accessories."

Apple did not immediately respond to request for comment.

The legal skirmishing between the companies has been … Read more

Several months ago I downloaded the AT&T iPhone app Mark the Spot, which has now been updated to version 2.0. Cell phone service isn't too bad in my New York apartment, but every time I had a dropped call, I'd fire up the app and register my complaint.

Now, the area where I live is in one of the denser residential areas in the city, so I don't think I was alone in registering my complaints. But just a couple of days ago, I received a text message from AT&T telling me … Read more

It was hard to focus on the longest match in Wimbledon history. It was impossible to fully enjoy the sheer beauty of Italy's demise at the World Cup. And as for some scandal about a general and his crystal decanter, well, that one just carried on down the Khyber.

You see, the iPhone 4 was out. So were the knives.

Let's look at all these complaints and see which ones might have sincere merit.

The most significant seems to be that signal may be lost primarily by those who talk on the iPhone 4 while holding it in … Read more

Two changes in one week at Google Buzz weren't enough to satisfy the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

The privacy group filed a complaint on Tuesday with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, seeking constraints on Google's new social-networking service.

"This complaint concerns an attempt by Google, Inc., the provider of a widely used e-mail service, to convert the private, personal information of Gmail subscribers into public information for the company's social network service Google Buzz," the complaint (PDF) reads. "This change in business practices and service terms violated user privacy expectations, diminished user privacy, … Read more