court

Ouch! Yahoo ordered to pay $2.7B in Mexican lawsuit

A Mexican court walloped Yahoo with a huge judgment today, ordering it to pay $2.7 billion to a couple companies accusing it of breaching contract related to a yellow pages listings service.

Details are pretty scarce about the initial complaint. Yahoo's press release noted that Worldwide Directories S.A. de C.V. and Ideas Interactivas, S.A. de C.V. claimed breach of contract, breach of promise, and lost profits arising from contracts related to a yellow pages listings service.

Yahoo, meanwhile, said it believes the claims are without merit. It plans to vigorously pursue all appeals.

We'… Read more

Ericsson sues Samsung for alleged patent infringement

Ericsson has filed a suit against Samsung for patent infringement.

The Swedish telecommunications equipment maker said today that it launched the lawsuit after the two companies were unable to reach an agreement about renewing patent licensing deals.

Samsung previously licensed Ericsson's patents in 2001 and renewed terms in 2007, but licenses have now expired. According to Ericsson, Samsung refused to renew the licensing agreements for its patents on FRAND terms. FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) terms are used by industry groups to set standards for technology and products, and are aimed at encouraging competitiveness without allowing rights holders to … Read more

Apple quietly pulls apology-hiding code from U.K. site

Less than a week after Apple was rumbled by Reddit users for including code to hide a court-ordered apology to Samsung on its U.K. Web site, the code has now been removed.

The code forced visitors to scroll down the page in order to see an apology that Apple was ordered to display on its U.K. Web site for one month, by resizing the central image of the new iPad mini and "sticking" four separate product advertisements at the bottom of the browser window.

This meant that no matter how tall their browser window is or … Read more

Will Supreme Court protect your right to resell your own stuff?

The U.S. Supreme Court spent this morning wrestling with an obscure section of copyright law that could curb listings of used DVDs, CDs, books, and even GPS devices through marketplaces including eBay and Amazon.com.

Large copyright holders -- including software companies, the Motion Picture Association of America, and the Recording Industry Association of America -- have urged the court to limit Americans' right to resell legally purchased products manufactured outside the United States.

Many of the justices seemed skeptical. Justice Stephen Breyer suggested that the copyright holders' reading of the law would invoke a parade of "horribles,&… Read more

Philippines court halts a contentious cybercrime law

Days after a strict cybersecurity law went into effect in the Philippines, the country's Supreme Court suspended it.

According to the Associated Press, the court issued a temporary restraining order to freeze the government's enforcement of the Cybercrime Prevention Act 2012. Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said the law will be suspended for 120 days. The court plans to hear oral arguments from the law's supporters and critics in January.

President Benigno Aquino III signed the law last month and it became official last week. There were no reports of anyone violating the law.

Thousands of people … Read more

Supreme Court closes door on warrantless eavesdropping suit

The long-standing warrantless spying case ended at the hands of the Supreme Court today. After six years of working its way up through the courts, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's lawsuit against the National Security Agency -- which aimed to hold telecom companies liable for allowing government eavesdropping on U.S. residents -- was terminated.

The Supreme Court declined to review a lower court ruling on the case today, closing the door on further appeals. Its decision did not address the merits of the case.

Hepting v. AT&T was a class-action suit filed by the American Civil Liberties … Read more

Military court to review tight secrecy in Bradley Manning case

A military appeals court will be asked tomorrow to decloak the prosecution of Bradley Manning, an Army private accused of handing thousands of classified documents to Wikileaks.

Prosecutors have insisted on intense secrecy in the case. No transcripts of the legal proceedings have been published. No court orders have been disclosed. To date, even the government's written legal arguments remain off-limits to the public.

So far, at least, military courts have been perfectly happy to accede to those requests in Manning's court martial. A trial judge, Denise Lind, rejected requests for access to the records, as did the … Read more

Facebook asks court to dismiss $15 billion privacy suit

Facebook has asked a federal court to dismiss a $15 billion privacy lawsuit because the Facebook users suing the social network didn't specify how they were injured by the company's actions, Bloomberg reported today.

The suit, filed in May, accuses Facebook of violating user privacy by tracking which Web sites the users visit even when they're logged out of Facebook.

Matthew Brown, a lawyer representing Facebook, told a U.S. district judge in court in San Jose, Calif., that the plaintiffs haven't said which sites they've visited, what kind of data was collected, or whether … Read more

Lawsuits over Facebook's IPO flop to be consolidated in NY

Facebook's wishes have been granted, at least for now. The dozens of lawsuits brought against the social network over its bungled initial public offering have been consolidated and will be heard before one federal judge in New York, according to Reuters.

Approximately 50 lawsuits have been brought against the social network, some of its underwriters, and the Nasdaq exchange. Earlier today, a panel of federal judges ruled that all of these cases will be collected throughout the U.S. and transferred to U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet in Manhattan.

According to Reuters, Facebook said that it was pleased … Read more