dispute

ConnectU founders get $65 million from Facebook?

Talk about spilling the beans: A marketing brochure for law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges, which represented would-be social network ConnectU in its much-publicized suit against Facebook, claimed that the final settlement netted the site's founders a handsome $65 million in Facebook stock and cash.

Oops.

A Law.com article dug up the brochure and its claim, and has posted a .pdf file on the Web. According to the same article, principals at the law firm now regret posting the results. Meanwhile, ConnectU remains in a fee dispute with Quinn Emanuel, a fact which came to light … Read more

In patent case, court sides with Broadcom again

Chipmaker Broadcom has won the latest battle in a long patent war with Qualcomm.

On Wednesday a federal appeals court affirmed that Qualcomm is infringing on two cell phone patents. It also upheld an injunction against Qualcomm selling products with technology that infringes the two patents.

But it wasn't a total loss for Qualcomm. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that Qualcomm was not infringing on one of the three patents in question. This patent relates to video compression technology.

That said, the court affirmed the judgment of infringement on two other patents. One … Read more

Judge: Qualcomm violates Broadcom ruling

The legal drama between wireless chipmakers Qualcomm and Broadcom continues this week.

On Thursday, the companies said a federal judge has ruled that Qualcomm is in contempt of an injunction that bans the use of patented wireless technology owned by Broadcom.

U.S. District Judge James Selna ruled that Qualcomm violated an injunction issued last year that banned Qualcomm from using technology in its chips that violates Broadcom's patents on wireless technology. The judge also ruled that Qualcomm has not been paying royalties to Broadcom for the use of its technology in Qualcomm-based cell phones with QChat walkie-talkie feature. … Read more

Legal injunction bars Dish Network from selling four models of DVRs

Looks like Dish may have spoken a bit too soon.

A little over a week ago, an appeals court determined that Dish Network (formerly EchoStar Communications) had indeed violated a software patent held by TiVo on digital video recorders.

While TiVo gleefully celebrated, Dish expressed disappointment, but assured its customers that none of its products would be affected because the software that was in violation had already been remotely updated by the company some months before.

Now it appears there's just a bit more to the story. Engadget has a blog pointing to notices Dish sent on Monday. The … Read more

Professor asks trade body to investigate everyone and their mom

What do you do when some of the biggest names in consumer electronics might be in violation of your patents?

Why, try to take away their right to sell their products in the U.S., of course.

Columbia University Professor Emeritus Gertrude Neumark Rothschild says 30 companies are infringing on her patent for laser and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). In response, she wants the U.S. government to ban those companies' imports to the U.S. that are in violation. A lot of companies use LEDs and laser diodes for a variety of reasons--Sony uses blue laser diodes in its Blu-ray … Read more

SanDisk sues a score of flash storage vendors

SanDisk is suing 25 companies for infringing on its patents on removable flash storage devices.

The flash memory maker filed a suit with a U.S. District Court in Wisconsin and another with the U.S. International Trade Commission Wednesday evening, seeking damages, a permanent injunction and an order from the ITC banning the importation of the products.

The roll call of the companies is a long one, but here goes: ACP-EP Memory, A-Data, Apacer, Behavior Computer, Buffalo, Chipsbank, Corsair Memory, Dane-Elec, Edge, Imation/Memorex, Interactive Media, Kaser, Kingston, LG Electronics, Phison Electronics, PNY, PQI, Silicon Motion, Skymedi, Transcend, TSR, … Read more