legal

Apple may have spent $100 million in its legal assault against HTC over what it believes is ripped-off technology used in Android mobile devices.

That's according to Dan Lyons, who posted on his blog today about the rumored $100 million price tag for legal expenses for Apple's first set of claims against the company.

A representative for Apple wasn't immediately available to comment to CNET on the figure.

If true, that represents a significant cost--even for a company as cash-rich as Apple--for little gain. After more than a year of legal wrangling, the U.S. International Trade … Read more

Nope, these patent lawsuits aren't slowing down anytime soon.

The latest comes from Apple, which filed a lawsuit this week against Samsung Electronics in Germany. Apple is seeking to ban the sale of Samsung smartphones in the country, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The lawsuit is part of a broader legal war between Apple and Android partners, with Samsung being a particularly fierce opponent. The companies have multiple lawsuits filed against each other in numerous countries and courtrooms around the world.

A spokesman for Samsung wasn't available to comment to CNET on the newest lawsuit.

The lawsuit … Read more

The other shoe has dropped in Samsung's efforts to block sales of Apple's iPhone 4S in France and Italy.

In a decision today, an Italian judge rejected Samsung's request from early October, which asked for a block on the sales of Apple's latest iPhone in the country.

The decision follows a similar one by a French court last month, which denied Samsung's request to ban the phone in France and required the company to pay 100,000 euros worth of Apple's legal fees.

Italian news outlet ANSA today first reported the news, which was … Read more

Massachusetts authorities apparently thought that asking nicely would suffice to keep secret their subpoena for information on a Twitter user involved with Occupy Wall Street. They thought wrong.

So when the Suffolk County District Attorney's office sent its request to Twitter, its subpoena ended up in the inbox of the DA's target, following a decision by Twitter to share it as part of its privacy policy.

The user in question goes by the handle @p0isAn0N, who last week posted the document in full on Scribd. Dated December 14, the subpoena requests IP address information about the accounts of @… Read more

Seven LCD manufacturer including Samsung and Sharp this month agreed to pay $553 million to settle lawsuits that claimed the companies were colluding with one another to fix the prices of their panels for use in consumer electronics.

Legal documents filed last week, and picked up by Reuters, show that the collected fines total $553 million between the companies involved, and that said companies will be setting up antitrust compliance programs as part of the deal. Of that sum, about $501 million is going towards a refund program for consumers, and about $37 million is being doled out to governments … Read more

Go Daddy is trying really, really hard to distance itself from the Stop Online Piracy Act.

The domain registrar today announced that its name is no longer on a U.S. Congressional list of SOPA supporters. That's right: Go Daddy is announcing that its name has been removed from a list. But it's not just any list to Go Daddy. The company's off-and-on love affair with SOPA is having a profound impact on its operation. And at this point, even saying that it's not on a list is important for the company.

SOPA, which was introduced … Read more

Research In Motion could once again face a legal fracas over the name of one of its software products.

Broadcast measurement firm BBM Canada has taken offense with RIM's use of the "BBM" shorthand moniker for its BlackBerry Messenger service, Reuters reports. That's RIM's software that lets BlackBerry users communicate with one another, and comes pre-installed on many of the company's devices.

BBM Canada, which formerly went by the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement until a name shortening in the 1960s, sent a cease and desist letter to RIM for using the BBM naming on … Read more

U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning was dealt a significant blow yesterday after a government investigator at a hearing revealed that a computer Manning used had diplomatic cables and other sensitive information on it.

According to the Associated Press, which first reported on testimony that digital-crimes investigator David Shaver gave in Manning's case, one of Manning's work computers had over 10,000 diplomatic cables, as well as video of a widely publicized 2007 helicopter attack in Iraq. Shaver's testimony follows U.S. government claims that Manning was accessing classified information and giving it to WikiLeaks founder Julian … Read more

Tumblr users have come out in full force against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), the microblogging service announced yesterday.

Earlier this week, Tumblr set up a page where its users could sign up and receive a phone call from the company with talking points about SOPA. From there, the company connected users with their U.S. representatives to voice concerns about the bill.

All told, Tumblr said yesterday, 87,834 calls were placed to representatives. The average call lasted 53 seconds, while the longest came in at 31 minutes, the company said. A total of 1,293 total hours … Read more