lawsuit

Judge mulls over Facebook's offer in 'sponsored stories' suit

It looks like Judge Richard Seeborg may be turning a corner in the lawsuit over Facebook's "sponsored stories" feature. He said today that he would review the social network's second settlement offer and would issue a ruling "very shortly," according to Reuters.

The crux of the case focuses on Facebook's use of advertising in its sponsored stories. The original five plaintiffs, which aimed at representing more than 100 million members in a class-action suit, claimed the social network violated users' right to privacy by publicizing their "likes" in advertisements without asking … Read more

Nintendo fans line up early for the Wii U

Thursday's CNET Update is ready for the next level:

Nintendo's Wii U goes on sale Sunday, and gamers are lining up early at the Nintendo World store in New York. The first in line is the Power Glove-wearing super fan Isaiah Triforce Johnson. He's been paid by corporate sponsors while waiting outside the store for nearly a month. Other fans began showing up on Monday and Tuesday.

This Nintendo World store will sell the first Wii U console at a midnight launch event. The system comes in two models, a Basic Set in white for $300, and … Read more

When Samsung talks strategy, it thinks of Apple

Samsung's worldwide war with Apple will be one of the main focuses at the South Korean company's annual strategy meeting next month, according to a report.

Some 200 "chiefs" as well as top Samsung executives will meet in South Korea next month as part of the company's annual strategy meeting, local news outlet The Chosun Ilbo reports.

According to the report, the company plans to talk shop about its goals, which include changes to its product sales and its legal strategy with Apple.

The two rivals are currently entrenched in a massive legal battle with … Read more

Zynga faces retaliatory lawsuit brought by Kixeye

Kixeye took another stab at Zynga in the ongoing legal battle between the two gaming companies.

The game maker announced today that it filed a cross-complaint against Zynga in the Superior Court of California. The move comes as retaliation for an earlier suit that Zynga filed against both Kixeye and one of its employees who formerly worked on Zynga's CityVille game.

"We will fight to our last breath to keep this predatory company from accessing our confidential information and best practices," Kixeye CEO Will Harbin said in a statement to CNET today. "We intend to defend … Read more

Microsoft hit with lawsuit over Surface's storage space

Microsoft is being sued for allegedly misleading advertising about the amount of storage space in its new 32GB Surface tablet.

The lawsuit was brought by California lawyer Andrew Sokolowski who claims that he bought the device under the premise that he'd get 32GB of storage but soon found out it actually came with much less, according to the Associated Press.

Sokolowski's argument is true. Microsoft's Surface, which hit stores last month, is advertised as having 32GB of storage when in fact there is only 16GB of free storage space for users to fill with music, documents, and … Read more

Uber faces new legal challenge, at home in San Francisco

It looks like Uber has yet another legal hurdle to surmount, this time on its home turf in San Francisco.

The popular ride-summoning startup, which has recently dealt with regulatory challenges in Washington D.C., New York, and Chicago, is now being sued in San Francisco by the city's cab drivers, who are claiming unfair business practices.

The fast-growing service, which allows customers to use smartphones to arrange transportation in several U.S. cities, announced last month that in the San Francisco market it was testing out a taxi service option within the Uber app, alongside its existing sedan … Read more

Papa John's pizza up against $250M lawsuit for text spam

What looked like an easy shortcut to earn some extra cash could now ending up costing Papa John's millions. The pizza chain is being targeted in a $250 million class-action lawsuit in which customers allege that Papa John's sent out hundreds of thousands of illegal text messages.

"After I ordered from Papa John's, my telephone started beeping with text messages advertising pizza specials," one of the plaintiffs in the case Erin Chutich said in a statement. "Papa John's never asked permission to send me text message advertisements."

Apparently, in 2010, Papa John'… Read more

Google asks court to ax book-scanning suit from Authors Guild

Google is trying to convince the courts to throw out a book-scanning lawsuit filed against it by the Authors Guild.

In a brief submitted to the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals last Friday, Google argued that a suit filed on behalf of all authors whose books have been scanned shouldn't be allowed because most authors support the scanning.

Backing up its claim, the company yet again cited a survey that found 58 percent of the authors polled approved of Google scanning their books so the content could be searched online. A full 45 percent said they had … Read more

In your FaceTime: Apple gets sued by VirnetX -- again

VirnetX, which has already won $368.2 million in damages, isn't quite done with Apple.

The patent holding and security software company, which earlier this week won an earlier suit against Apple in a Texas court, has now slapped the electronics giant with a new lawsuit. As in the prior complaint, VirnetX is accusing Apple of infringing four of its networking patents through the use of FaceTime.

Those patents, Nos. 6,502,135, 7,418,504, 7,921,211 and 7,490,151, cover advancements for secure communication over the Internet. That includes technology for creating a virtual private … Read more