settlement

Nvidia, Rambus settle patent dispute

Nvidia and Rambus have settled a longstanding patent license dispute.

The agreement covers a "broad range" of chip products offered by Nvidia and settles all outstanding claims, including resolution of past use of Rambus' patented innovations, the companies said. The term of the agreement is five years.

Though neither financial nor technological details were disclosed, the dispute between the two companies has not exactly been private.

In 2008, Rambus sued Nvidia, accusing the graphics chip supplier of violating 17 Rambus-held patents on memory controllers. At that time, Rambus claimed that chipsets, graphics processers, and media communication processors across … Read more

AT&T to pay TiVo $215M to settle patent lawsuit

AT&T has agreed to pay TiVo at least $215 million to settle a patent infringement lawsuit involving the digital video recorder pioneer.

Under the settlement, AT&T will pay TiVo more than that minimum amount, should AT&T's DVR subscriber base exceed certain levels, the companies said in a statement announcing the mutual licensing pact. The announcement sent TiVo shares up $1.38, or 15.5 percent, to $10.30 in after-hours trading.

TiVo sued AT&T in 2009 for damages, alleging infringements of TiVo patents Nos. 6,233,389 B1 (a "multimedia … Read more

LCD makers on hook for $553 million in price-fixing settlement

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

Apple agrees to MagSafe power adapter settlement

Apple's MagSafe connections for its laptop power adapters allows the connections to be quickly detached from systems, the benefits of which are obvious to anyone who has ever caught a foot in the power cord of a charging device and yanked it to the floor from its resting perch.

The MagSafe adapter is a great idea, but a number of people complained that its first iterations did have a couple of flaws that resulted in the cable getting twisted and bent (a situation called "strain relief"). In some instances this strain would cause the cable components to … Read more

FTC, Facebook reportedly settling 2009 privacy complaint

The Federal Trade Commission and Facebook are close to finalizing a settlement over a complaint about deceptive privacy practices on the social network from nearly two years ago.

The proposed settlement, which awaits final approval from FTC commissioners, would require Facebook to let users opt in to changes in the way their information is shared, rather than forcing them to "opt out" of changes Facebook imposes on them, The Wall Street Journal reported. Put formally, that would require Facebook to get "express affirmative consent" if it makes "material retroactive changes."

The agreement also calls … Read more

Apple settles split cord MagSafe lawsuit

Apple has reached a proposed settlement in a class action lawsuit involving older models of its MagSafe power adapters.

Those particular adapters, the 60W and 85W versions that shipped on earlier models of the company's MacBook and MacBook Pro portable computers, were prone to splitting and became the target of a class action lawsuit.

The lawsuit claimed that the particular adapter design was defective to the point of where it "dangerously frays, sparks and prematurely fails to work." The 2009 filing accused Apple of knowing about, and misrepresenting the problem, claims Apple denied in court. AdapterSettlement.com'… Read more

Viacom and Cablevision settle iPad app spat

Viacom and cable operator Cablevision Systems have reached an agreement that will keep Viacom content flowing on Cablevision's iPad application.

The decision marks the end to a lawsuit filed by Viacom in June over Cablevision's Optimum tablet app, which Viacom said was not authorized to stream its content just days after its release.

"Viacom and Cablevision have agreed to resolve their pending litigation, and the Viacom programming will continue to appear on Cablevision's Optimum Apps for iPad and other IP devices," the two companies said in a joint statement.

"In reaching the settlement agreement, … Read more

Nokia likely to net $608M in Apple patent settlement

Nokia likely extracted a one-time $608 million payment from Apple as the companies settled their patent litigation, but the long-term health of the company depends on products not royalties.

Following news that Nokia settled its patent litigation with Apple, which is now licensing patents from its rival, analysts quickly moved to figure out the revenue impact. Nokia said that Apple's payment will boost dismal second-quarter results.

Deutsche Bank analyst Kai Korschelt said in a research note that Nokia is likely to get a 420 million euro payment in the second quarter. That sum, which translates to $608 million, assumes … Read more

AT&T has to track down $1 billion in data tax case

AT&T may need to knock on a few doors and place a few calls to get back nearly a billion dollars it payed to states and other governments on behalf of its wireless customers. That's one of the requirements of a class-action settlement approved last week over taxes the company is alleged to have levied improperly for wireless data.

Lawyers from Bartimus, Frickleton, Robertson & Gorny filed suits in every state claiming that AT&T was in violation of the Internet Tax Freedom Act, which placed a moratorium on taxes for Internet access until November 1, … Read more