An appeals court argument over the patents relating to the MP3 file format between Alcatel-Lucent and Microsoft is still continuing, even though a lower court jury overturned a previous judgement that saw Microsoft paying a $1.5 billion award to Alcatel-Lucent.
Topic: Lawsuits
Judge sees that your privacy doesn’t matter in Google/Viacom lawsuit
As part of its $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube, Viacom had asked for the source code for all of its search functions on the YouTube site, its new "Video ID" program and databases containing all user information and every video hosted on YouTube, including all private videos and those removed.
Microsoft fights EU – again
Microsoft and the European Union have not had a best relationship, especially on Microsoft’s business policies. After alleging that the giant engaged in price fixing, the European Commission handed down massive fines.
The first was handed down in 2004 after losing their case with the Commission and was handed down a USD$690M. The second was handed down after an appeal and not paying the first fine and handed down a record USD$1.4 billion.
Now it looks like the Commission want more money, as it has currently two investigations against the giant.
But Microsoft is fighting back, after announcing that it will be fighting the latest fine; appealing to the European Court of First Instance (How many courts do they have?), hoping it could be reduced or dropped.
A spokesperson of the Commission, Jonathan Todd, has defended the decisions, saying that the courts upheld that Microsoft refused to comply with the ruling for 3 years.
But if that does not work, Microsoft is trying to get on the good side; with trying to create an “open” standard to help defend itself against one investigation launched, which is about Microsoft engaging in anticompetitive behaviour in the word processing market with Microsoft Office.
Guitar maker adds stores in ‘Guitar Hero’ lawsuit
Guitar manufacturer Gisbon Guitar has now added six major retailers to its lawsuit against Activision’s Guitar Hero. The stores are Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, Gamestop, Toys-R-Us and Amazon.
The decision to add them to the lawsuit was made “reluctantly”, according to a statement released by the manufacturer.
Pirates to sue media giants
The Pirate Bay has filed criminal charges against the big media companies over alleged attacks against the site.
The police complaint, which names all the Swedish subsidiaries of music and movie companies, follows a leak over the letters of MediaDefender, a firm allegedly hired to disrupt the site torrent tracker.
Prince to sue YouTube
Prince, one of those singers from the 80s (or was it the 70s), has now decided to do what most rich and successful people/companies do best… sue YouTube.
“YouTube … are clearly able (to) filter porn and paedophile material but appear to choose not to filter out the unauthorised music and film content which is core to their business success,” he said in a statement released today.
2Clix to sue Whirlpool
Whirlpool founder, Simon Wright is being sued by the accounting software company 2Clix for “injurious falsehood”.
2Clix is suing for $150,000 plus damages, also two forum posts to be deleted.
Whirlpool wrote that “Users should refrain from doing anything that might expose Simon to contempt of court such as making statements that prejudge the outcome of the case. Please keep any comments polite and factual.”
Comics to testify in court
Hosts of Comedy Central’s two late-night comedy shows, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report (broadcast on The Comedy Channel in Australia), Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are listed as three and four of 32 people called to testify to a court about the lawsuit against Google and Youtube by Viacom, owners of Comedy Central.
ConnectU has two weeks to prove infringement
A federal judge in Boston has now given ConnectU two weeks to amend it’s copyright-infringement suit against Facebook after Facebook sought to have it dismissed.
The case goes that ConnectU founders had hired Facebook’s Zuckerberg to write code for their “Harvard Connection,” a social networking site for Harvard. They also alleged that Zuckerberg stole the idea and code and made Facebook.
Facebook faces fraud claim
The BBC is reporting that Facebook, the second-largest social networking site, is now facing legal action by a rival site. The site, ConnectU, have claimed that Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea while they were in Harvard.
Watchdog sues Google
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the Australian equivalent to the Federal Trade Commission in the US, has now launched legal action on Google and the Trading Post, which is owned by Telstra under the Sensis brand.