legal

The U.S. is one step closer to bringing Kim Dotcom to its shores.

The New Zealand Court of Appeal today ruled that the U.S. government will not be required to turn over all of their evidence against Kim Dotcom in order to obtain his extradition to the States. A summary of its case, the judges ruled, will do just fine.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the ruling.

Dotcom had been hoping to force the U.S. government to present all of its evidence against him before it could move forward with hopes to extradite him from New Zealand. … Read more

Apple has struck back in its ongoing battle over the "iPhone" trademark in Brazil.

Not surprisingly, Apple has decided to challenge the ruling laid down yesterday by the Institute of Industry Property (INPI) that Gradiente Eletronica's registration for the "iphone" trademark in 2000 is valid, Reuters is reporting today, citing conversations with people within INPI.

Now that Apple has challenged the ruling, Gradiente has 60 days to prove that it made use of the branding between January 2008 and January 2013. Gradiente wasn't authorized to use the iPhone trademark until 2008. Apple launched its … Read more

Apple has lost its iPhone trademark in Brazil, a new report claims.

The BBC is reporting today, citing conversations with employees in the country's regulatory body, the Institute of Industry Property (INPI), that Gradiente Eletronica's registration for the name in 2000 has been validated. Apple, therefore, has no right to use the iPhone name in Brazil.

The INPI confirmed to the BBC, however, that Apple is planning to appeal the ruling.

The INPI ruling comes a little over a week after reports out of the country said that the regulatory body was planning to award the exclusive iPhone trademark to Gradiente.… Read more

Despite losing its infringement battle with Google, Oracle is still willing to wage a war over an earlier ruling in the matter.

The company earlier this week filed an appeals brief with the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, saying that Google's use of Java in Android was "decidedly unfair," according to Reuters, which obtained a copy of the filing. Oracle said that copyright is designed to protect all kinds of works, including "a short poem or even a Chinese menu," but what it created in Java was "vastly more original, creative, and labor-intensive.&… Read more

Samsung Display and LG Display have decided to settle their patent disputes through dialogue and not court proceedings, a new report out of Korea claims.

Yonhap News reported today that Samsung and LG executives met at a hotel in Seoul to discuss their lawsuits. After leaving that meeting, Samsung Display CEO Kim Ki-nam told Yonhap that the companies will "resolve the issue one by one." LG Display CEO Han Sang-beom said the executives will continue to hold discussions.

LG Display sued Samsung Display in September, alleging that one of its chief competitors is violating seven patents it holds … Read more

Uber, the on-demand driving service, has temporarily resolved an issue it's been facing with California, the company announced yesterday.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which regulates some driving services in the state, last year issued citations and fines against Internet-based Uber for allegedly operating a "charter-party carrier" service that failed to include insurance coverage and enrollment of its hired drivers in a substance abuse program. CPUC also argued that Uber failed to provide evidence of workers' compensation insurance.

Two other driving services, Lyft and SideCar, were also included in the citation, which fined all three companies $… Read more

Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee is breathing a sigh of relief today after a Korean court ruled that he won't need to hand over assets to family members.

Lee's siblings sued him over their contention that he hid from them billions of dollars in shareholdings he inherited from his father, Samsung's founder. However, Lee argues that the shares he was given are his and that he can do what he wants with them. The court agreed.

For Lee's family, it's a major loss. According to Reuters, which was first to report on the ruling, Lee's … Read more

Twitter must hand over the identities of users in France who post racist tweets, a French court ruled today.

According to AFP, the court's ruling stemmed from a test case "that pitted the right to free speech against laws banning hate speech," and answered a petition made in October by the French Union of Jewish Students (UEJF), which had claimed that many anti-Semitic tweets had violated the law in the European country.

The UEJF had demanded that Twitter do a better job of policing obviously anti-Semitic tweets.

Twitter said today in a statement that "we are … Read more

Bruce Sewell, Apple senior vice president and general counsel, today joined the board of directors at Vail Resorts, a resort operator in the U.S.

Sewell came over to Apple from Intel in 2009, and has been with the company during its substantial legal efforts against Samsung, HTC, Nokia, and others over patents and other intellectual property.

The move is noteworthy given a long period during which Apple's core executives kept off the boards of other companies. That policy appears to have softened since the passing of co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs. For instance, iTunes and iCloud chief … Read more