lawsuits

Square COO Rabois resigned following harassment claim

The surprise departure of Square chief operating officer Keith Rabois is now less of mystery after the mobile-payment-processing company confirmed the high-profile executive is currently facing accusations of sexual harassment from a Square employee.

Rabois, who joined Square in August 2010, is being accused of engaging in a nonconsensual sexual relationship with a male colleague he had helped to get a job at the startup.

Rabois and Square first learned of a pending lawsuit when a New York attorney contacted Square earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal first reported Friday afternoon.

"The first we heard of any of … Read more

Dancing baby vs. YouTube-Prince case set to go to trial

The woman who posted a video of her children dancing to the Prince tune "Let's Go Crazy" and has since waged nearly a six-year legal fight with Universal Music Group over the clip, may see her day in court.

US District Judge Jeremy Fogel ruled today that a summary judgment will not decide this case, which means that if the two parties don't settle, this lawsuit will proceed to a jury trial.

The whole suit got started in 2007 when Prince asked YouTube to remove the clip of the dancing boys. When the clip got scrubbed, … Read more

CBS claims Dish concealed AutoHop ad-skipping technology

CBS amended its lawsuit against Dish Network today, claiming the satellite TV provider misled the network about planned ad-skipping technology during contract negotiations in 2011.

The lawsuit is part of a legal battle between Dish and the major television networks that erupted last year over "AutoHop," which allows customers to skip commercials at the touch of a button. The networks, including CBS, which is the parent company of CNET News, contend that the technology threatens to undermine an industry that depends on advertising revenue to help cover the cost of their shows.

In its amended lawsuit, CBS accused … Read more

Execs' e-mails key in employee no-poaching lawsuit, judge says

E-mails reveal that executives at Apple and Google saw a substantial financial benefit to a mutual agreement not to recruit each other's employees, a federal judge said today.

The comments came in relation to a lawsuit brought by five former employees at various tech companies, alleging that an illegal conspiracy eliminated competition for talent. The lawsuit, filed in 2011, accuses Apple, Adobe Systems, Google, Pixar, Intel, and Intuit of conspiring to keep workers' salaries artificially low.

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, who is pondering whether to award class action status to the lawsuit, also ordered Apple CEO Tim … Read more

Apple, Samsung add new devices to upcoming patent suit

A slew of new devices have been tacked onto the patent lawsuit in a legal order that was jointly filed by Apple and Samsung today. Included in the devices are Apple's iPhone 5 and Samsung's Galaxy S III.

U.S. Judge Paul Grewal agreed to let both companies add devices to the case, which is scheduled to go to trial on March 31, 2014. The order includes both Apple and Samsung's amended stipulations to their original filings, which are part of Apple's Galaxy Nexus case and not the patent trial between the two companies that ended last August. … Read more

Apple, Amazon ordered to try settlement in 'app store' suit

A judge has ordered Apple and Amazon to meet to try to work out an agreement about whether "app store" is a generic term before the case goes to court.

U.S. Judge Elizabeth Laporte ordered the two companies to meet on March 21 with their attorneys in tow and work to negotiate and settle the lawsuit, according to Bloomberg. It seems that the judge is looking to find other ways for the companies to come to an agreement besides taking the matter to trial.

The battle began in March 2011 when Apple sued Amazon accusing the online … Read more

Apple slapped with Russian Railways trademark suit

Russian Railways has sued Apple for alleged trademark infringement over the use of images in its online store.

It's not entirely clear what Russian Railways is alleging, with its press release simply saying it concerns infringement of the company's trademark No. 341333.

Here's the full release from Russian Railways (translated by Google):

Clarification of the lawsuit JSC "Russian Railways" company to Apple Inc.

JSC "Russian Railways" to the Arbitration Court of Moscow with a claim concerning infringement of the exclusive right to the trademark under the certificate No. 341333 by Apple Inc. We … Read more

Apple, photographer settle 'Retina' eyeball image lawsuit

Apple and Swiss photographer Sabine Liewald have settled a lawsuit involving the alleged misuse of an eyeball image used during one of Apple's keynote presentations.

News of the settlement came in a court-ordered dismissal dated last Wednesday. The two parties were scheduled to meet for a pretrial conference earlier today.

Terms were not disclosed, and Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The original complaint said Apple misused one of Liewald's images (seen above) by including it in a promotion for its latest MacBook Pro computers with the Retina display. Liewald argued that Apple acquired … Read more

Software pirate pleads guilty to theft of $100 million in goods

After being lured to U.S. territory and arrested in an undercover sting, Chinese national Xiang Li pled guilty in U.S. federal court to pirating, cracking, and selling software worth more than $100 million today, according to Reuters.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security took down Li in June 2011 after agents discovered that he was heading a pirating ring that sold stolen software on the Web. The software was mostly used by defense, space, and engineering companies and was made by Microsoft, Oracle, Rockwell Automation, Agilent Technologies, Siemens, and others.

"Li thought he was safe from … Read more