lawsuit

Patent lawsuits seem to be getting more common -- continually there are daily headlines of this company suing that company over intellectual property rights.

A new study released today confirms that lawsuits are increasing and says the overall cost of these cases in the U.S. was $29 billion in 2011.

The study, which was put out by Boston University, specifically looks at "non-practicing entities" (NPE), or "patent trolls." How these trolls operate is by buying and licensing patents without making the products of their own. Many major tech companies, like Apple, Google, and Samsung, have been criticized … Read more

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit against hotel chain Wyndham Worldwide and three subsidiaries for allegedly storing data in plain text and other security failures that enabled hackers to access more than 600,000 payment card accounts in three data breaches in less than two years.

The hackers exported the payment card account data to an Internet domain address registered in Russia, according to the FTC lawsuit (PDF). They then used the data stolen from Wyndham's data center in Phoenix to make transactions, resulting in fraud losses of more than $10.6 million, the suit … Read more

Record label EMI is tightening its grip on the personal assets of Michael Robertson, the longtime tech entrepreneur, maverick, and founder of MP3tunes.com.

MP3tunes.com, a pioneering cloud music service, fought a five-year long copyright battle with EMI before going bust last month. In the lawsuit against MP3tunes and Robertson, EMI claimed that the company encouraged users to pirate copyright songs. After nearly five years of legal maneuvering, MP3tunes ran out of money.

Neither Robertson nor representatives from EMI were available for comment. We'll update as soon as we hear back.

After MP3tunes filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy … Read more

In this blogging, social-networking, open-information age, unflattering photos of people pop up left and right. But would you sue someone for posting such an image? Or even more, sue Google for refusing to take it down?

That's exactly what minority owner of the Miami Heat NBA Team Ranaan Katz has decided to do. According to paidContent, Katz has based his argument on copyright infringement but also wrote in the complaint that the photo is "partially distorted due to its unflattering nature."

The photo in question shows Katz standing courtside during a basketball game with his eyebrows raised, … Read more

If a judge approves Facebook's settlement of a class-action lawsuit regarding "sponsored stories," the social network will give users more control over the advertising tool, which features users' profile photos and other information in ads for businesses and products the users have "Liked."

Reuters reported today that the settlement agreement includes giving users the ability to determine what, if any, user information can be featured in ads, and adding new language to Facebook's guidelines informing users of sponsored ads, according to court documents filed Wednesday. TechCrunch reported that user opt-outs will apparently apply on … Read more

The Texas Attorney General seems unhappy with Google. What started as an antitrust lawsuit two years ago has now morphed into an investigation into the Web giant's alleged attempts to withhold documents from the Lone Star State.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a civil lawsuit against Google this week alleging that the search engine has redacted or refused to turn over documentation based on false attorney-client privilege, according to AllThingsD. Supposedly, Google has refused to hand over 14,500 documents claiming attorney-client privilege. Abbott said some of these documents are indeed protected, however, many others are not.

Here'… Read more

Samsung Electronics has scored a legal victory against rival Apple in a Dutch court and will seek compensation for its damages.

That's according to an article on Dutch Web site All About Phones that was translated by The Verge.

The Netherlands' District Court of The Hague ruled that Apple violated a patent related to a 3G technology owned by Samsung. Samsung had previously attempted to use four patents to get Apple's iPads and iPhones banned in the country, but had its efforts rejected by the court.

Samsung said in a statement sent to CNET that it was pleased … Read more

In a court brief filed today, Facebook alleges that trading system glitches during its IPO last month and other actions on the part of Nasdaq contributed to a decline in the share price that prompted dozens of investor lawsuits.

The claims are made in a motion Facebook filed seeking to have the 40 or so lawsuits consolidated into one case in federal court in New York City, where Wall Street is located. The lawsuits allege that Facebook violated laws by not publicly disclosing that it was lowering its revenue projections prior to the IPO because of lower-than-expected growth in ads. … Read more

Facebook is expected to make its first public response as early as tomorrow to the wave of investor lawsuits regarding the company's lackluster IPO.

The social-networking giant is planning to file a motion to consolidate all the shareholder lawsuits pending against it, providing inside perspective on the role that the Nasdaq stock exchange's performance had on the stock's trading activity, a personal familiar with the matter told The New York Times. The IPO's lead underwriters -- Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase -- are also expected to join the motion, the paper reported.

Facebook representatives … Read more