legal

A search of Apple manager Paul Shin Devine's house earlier this month by federal agents turned up more than $150,000 in cash stored in shoe boxes, according to statements made by prosecutors Monday.

Devine, an Apple global supply manager, was arrested last week for allegedly taking kickbacks from several suppliers to Apple. He pleaded not guilty to 23 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy, and accepting kickbacks last week. The indictment says he used his role at Apple to acquire confidential information, which he then sold to several suppliers to help them negotiate better contracts with his … Read more

Printer manufacturer Lexmark is suing replacement cartridge makers that it says are infringing on its patents.

The Lexington, Ky.-based company on Friday filed a patent infringement complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. Both suits accuse 24 companies that import replacement cartridges for Lexmark laser printers of violating 15 patents owned by Lexmark.

Both suits name the same 24 defendants. The ITC complaint--the now-standard venue for taking patent disputes against companies that import goods to the United States--asks that the defendants' products be banned from import … Read more

There's yet another episode to the oddball tale of Paul Ceglia, the New York man who says a 2003 contract with eventual Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg entitles him to an 84 percent share of the company: Ceglia's local newspaper, the Wellsville Daily Reporter, produced a canceled check allegedly proving that Ceglia did, indeed, pay $3,000 to someone named Mark Zuckerberg for...something.

Facebook has not said it's authentic, but it isn't disputing the authenticity of the check, either.

"We have never disputed that Mark did some work for Ceglia," a statement from Facebook … Read more

An Apple manager was arrested Friday for allegedly accepting kickbacks from Asian suppliers, totaling more than $1 million.

Paul Shin Devine worked at Apple as a global supply manager and allegedly used his position to obtain confidential information from the company, according to the San Jose Mercury News. The information was then allegedly sold to the suppliers, helping them negotiate more favorable contracts with Apple.

"Apple is committed to the highest ethical standards in the way we do business," Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said in a statement. "We have zero tolerance for dishonest behavior inside or outside … Read more

The first lawsuit on behalf of a shareholder has been filed against Hewlett-Packard in connection to the resignation of former CEO Mark Hurd.

The Wall Street Journal first reported on Thursday that a Connecticut law firm is representing HP shareholder Brockton Contributory Retirement System in a complaint against HP's board of directors, Hurd, and interim CEO Cathie Lesjak. The suit accuses the board of breach of fiduciary duties in how it handled Hurd's resignation.

The board on Friday announced that it asked Hurd to resign as chief executive of one of the world's foremost technology companies after … Read more

Social-networking pioneer Friendster used to tout its industry relevance by talking about its portfolio of patented technologies--well, now those patents belong to Facebook.

A set of documents from the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) reveal that Facebook acquired the 18 patents earlier this summer from MOL Global, the Malaysia-based payments company that purchased Friendster last year.

The patents include descriptions of phenomena that will sound familiar to many a Facebook user--"feeding updates to landing pages of users of an online social network from external sources," which sounds a lot like news feed activity fed through … Read more

Microsoft said Wednesday that it has settled a patent dispute with Salesforce.com, with both companies licensing each other's patents and the cloud software firm paying an undisclosed sum to Redmond.

Financial details were not disclosed.

"We are pleased to reach this agreement with Salesforce.com to put an end to the litigation between our two companies," said Microsoft deputy general counsel Horacio Gutierrez in a statement. "Microsoft's patent portfolio is the strongest in the software industry and is the result of decades of software innovation. Today's agreement is an example of how companies … Read more

In a twist that makes the whole story sound like the Coen brothers penning an episode of "Arrested Development," New York resident Paul Ceglia claimed in an interview with Bloomberg published Monday, that he might never have found the musty old papers containing proof that he owns 84 percent of Facebook--except that last fall, state troopers dispatched by the office of state attorney general Andrew Cuomo arrived at his house to arrest him for fraud in the wood-pellet business, and he was forced to unearth various old paperwork.

You heard that right.

"If this thing hadn'… Read more

A preliminary ruling found that Intel's pricing practices did not hurt consumers, snapping a long legal losing streak for the chipmaker.

In a 112 page opinion, a special master for the U.S. District Court in Delaware recommended that the court deny class action status to plaintiffs seeking damages resulting from Intel pricing practices that, the plaintiffs alleged, "severely limit" PC makers from purchasing processors from Intel's competitors.

The "purposes and effect" was to exclude Advanced Micro Devices from the market, resulting in higher prices, according the plaintiffs.

Rejecting these allegations, Special Master Vincent … Read more