lawsuits

Since the launch of the Wii, Nintendo has been the subject of no fewer than 15 patent-related lawsuits. While many of those suits are still winding their way through the courts, Nintendo on Thursday issued a statement touting victory over Guardian Media Technologies in one of the more recent patent suits.

U.S. District Court Judge Manuel Real in Los Angeles struck down allegations that the Wii could play DVD movies.

"We are very pleased with the court's decision," Rick Flamm, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of legal, said in a statement. "Nintendo vigorously … Read more

IBM says that if its former head of mergers and acquisitions, David Johnson, were to depart for Dell it would be a violation of his contract, and last week sued Johnson in federal court.

IBM says it is concerned that Johnson working at Dell would cause him to divulge IBM trade secrets to Dell. Johnson worked for 27 years at IBM, most recently as vice president of corporate development, responsible for overseeing mergers and acquisitions. The papers filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on May 21 show IBM is specifically concerned because … Read more

Updated at 5:50 p.m. PDT with plaintiff saying he will drop the lawsuit; at 2:35 p.m. with legal expert comment; at 1:15 p.m. with information from Facebook's terms of service; and at 12:30 p.m. with more details, comment, and background.

A Florida librarian and activist said on Tuesday that he will drop a civil lawsuit he filed against Facebook alleging that the social network failed to adequately protect users from a virus.

Theodore Karantsalis, of Miami Springs, Fla., was seeking $70.50 from Facebook in the lawsuit, which was filed a … Read more

It's been a busy 24 hours for Apple and Cartier lawyers.

Luxury watchmaker Cartier on Friday sued Apple for trademark infringement because of a pair of applications available on its App Store. By Saturday, however, Cartier decided to withdraw the suit, The Wall Street Journal reported.

At the heart of Cartier's infringement claim was a pair of apps called Fake Watch and Fake Watch Gold Edition. The apps are made by Digitopolis Game Studio, which interestingly enough, was not named in the lawsuit.

Filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the lawsuit claimed the applications give … Read more

A federal jury in Tyler, Texas, on Wednesday ordered Microsoft to pay $200 million in a patent infringement case.

The jury ruled that the custom XML tagging features of Word 2003 and Word 2007 infringed on a patent from Toronto-based I4i.

A Microsoft representative said the company was "disappointed" by the verdict and would seek to have it reversed.

"We believe the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the I4i patent is invalid," Microsoft spokesman David Bowermaster said in a statement. "We believe this award of damages is legally and factually … Read more

Henry McMaster, the South Carolina attorney general who threatened Craigslist with criminal prosecution last week, must assume Web users and the people of his state don't take the time to read.

Just a few hours after Craigslist announced that it had filed a lawsuit against McMaster for making threats and alleging managers of the site were in some way responsible for prostitution ads that have appeared on the site, McMaster claimed victory.

He suggested that it was he and his threats that prompted Craigslist to implement changes to the site, such as setting up a system to review ads … Read more

Those annoying robocalls asking if you'd like to extend the factory warranty on your car may soon come to an end.

Last week, the Federal Trade Commission filed lawsuits against three companies--Voice Touch and Transcontinental Warranty, both of Florida, and Network Foundations, based in Illinois--alleging these companies violated the Do Not Call registry law by making more than 1 billion robocalls since 2007 to residences, businesses, and mobile phones.

The suit also alleges that the calls, which have generated more than $10 million since 2007, offer unnecessary and false warranty extensions for several thousands of dollars. And that the … Read more

Correction 5/18: Gracenote was incorrectly listed as a partner of Shazam.

Earlier this week, a company called Tune Hunter accused music-finding service Shazam as well as a host of consumer electronics makers, wireless service operators, and digital music retailers of infringing on its patent on a music identification system.

Shazam is named along with Samsung, Apple, Amazon.com, Napster, Motorola, Gracenote, Verizon Wireless, LG Electronics, AT&T Mobility, and Pantech Wireless in a suit filed Tuesday over U.S. Patent No. 6,941,275, which was issued to Remi Swierczek/Tune Hunter in September 2005. The suit accuses … Read more

RealNetworks has accused the major film studios of antitrust violations in documents filed Wednesday with a federal court.

Real, a software company known best for the company's video and music player, has asked U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel for permission to file an amended second complaint against the six largest film studios as well as Viacom, the entertainment conglomerate and parent company of Parmount Pictures.

Real has been involved in a legal conflict with Hollywood over its release last year of RealDVD, a software that duplicates DVDs and stores the copies on a computer hard drive. The Motion … Read more