Lawyers Archive

  • Zoom announces R24 home studio in a box

    Zoom announces R24 home studio in a box

    So you're always wanted to produce records, but lacked the money to either hire a studio or build one your self. Not a problem any more, Zoom has launched the R24, which is an interface, controller, and sampler, all in one.

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  • Motorola and RIM settle patent dispute with a good old cross-licensing deal

    Motorola and RIM settle patent dispute with a good old cross-licensing deal

    We always like to hear of companies burying the hatchet (and the lawyers with it, if at all possible), and our latest source of good vibes are two North American phone makers that have been at each other's throats over patents since early 2008. Motorola and RIM had a previous intellectual property-sharing deal that expired at the end of '07 and with the companies unable to come to a suitable extension agreement, it all spiraled out into a big and silly legal discord. That has at long last been settled now, with RIM paying a one-off fee and regular royalties, as well as licensing some of its own patent catalog out to Moto, in exchange for using the Americans' knowhow in WiFi and other areas. All in all, an inevitable conclusion to an unnecessarily legalized negotiation. Now how about both you guys get back to building us those QWERTY sliders and 2GHz Androids?

    Motorola and RIM settle patent dispute with a good old cross-licensing deal originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Dude emails AT&T CEO, offered a Cease and Desist for his troubles

    Dude emails AT&T CEO, offered a Cease and Desist for his troubles

    Hey, guys! Guess what happens if you try to send an email to the AT&T CEO? AT&T sends out their lawyers and threatens you with a cease and desist letter. A guy named Giorgio G. emailed AT&T asking about rates and whether he can get an iPhone upgrade. Obviously, Randall Stephenson isn't in the customer service game so he doesn't want silly emails like that. So AT&T's executive response team called Giorgio back threatening a C&D.

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  • Justice? 80,000 Americans facing copyright-related lawsuits

    Justice? 80,000 Americans facing copyright-related lawsuits

    We haven't really progressed beyond the year 2004, have we? With respect to copyright news, I mean. The latest: the "US Copyright Group" has filed suit against 20,000 BitTorrent users, with a cool 30,000 lawsuits now pending. If you total all the various different "Hollywood" (you know what I mean) lawsuits, that means that 80,000 Americans now face some sort of traffic-lawsuit.

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  • Those drones you use in Modern Warfare 2? They could be illegal in real life.

    Those drones you use in Modern Warfare 2? They could be illegal in real life.

    You know all those drones you kids use to rain grim death upon your unfortunate friends in Modern Warfare 2? Well, according to an American University law professor's Congressional testimony, they may be illegal under international law. Of course, they could be totally fine, too, it's just that nobody really knows for sure. That's probably not what the U.S. military wants to hear, given how much it has spent, and will spend, on drones.

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  • Netflix settles lawsuit, cancels contest

    Netflix settles lawsuit, cancels contest

    Well, the lawyers have won again. Netflix settled the privacy lawsuit brought about by their last contest out of court, and canceled the next contest. Good thing we have outraged class action lawsuits to protect us!

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  • That student spying case is now officially boring

    That student spying case is now officially boring

    Remember the story about the school district that spied on its students at home? Well it just got boringer. Now that the lawyers are involved and some of the IT guys have been put on leave, this he said/she said/school officials saw story has just jumped the shark. To recap: The Lower Merion School District gave their students MacBooks. The MacBooks had a theft protection system built in designed to capture images of the laptop's surroundings in the case of a theft. The school district instead took pictures of a kid eating Mike&Ikes at home and accused him of being a pill popper. Essentially, the school spied on a student at home and is claiming it was only trying to recover a stolen laptop. As we later learned, however, some school officials enjoyed turning on the cameras just to freak the kids out, a decidedly Orwellian thing.

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  • Remember when I was all like “The iPad does Flash?” Yeah. Well. No.

    Remember when I was all like “The iPad does Flash?” Yeah. Well. No.

    Yes, I knew Apple would never add Flash. Yes, I knew it was probably an accident that they showed Flash. But Apple, as we see, does nothing without running it past a vat full of lawyers. That they showed Flash on an iPad running on the NY Times website was clearly a mistake and, more [...]

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  • Apple further tips their hand about tablet name

    Apple further tips their hand about tablet name

    It appears that Apple has tipped their hand regarding the name of their expected tablet computer. Way back in September of 2009, Apple filed a lawsuit against Fujitsu regarding the name, "iPad". Apple hasn't been aggressive about fighting for the name, but they did file for the name on an international scale, and they own that trademark.

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  • Google files for Nexus One trademark

    Google files for Nexus One trademark

    The mystery of the Nexus One continues to grow ever deeper, but we can pretty much confirm Google's planning to sell something under that name: the search giant filed an intent-to-use trademark application for "Nexus One" on December 10th, and in order to be granted the trademark registration it'll have to use the mark in commerce at some point in the future. Now, don't get too carried away -- sure, that could mean free unlocked GSM Android sets for all, but it could also just mean Google's planning to sell the Nexus One as its next-gen Android Developer Phone. Considering everything we've heard points to the device being limited to T-Mobile 3G, we'd say the developer phone theory is still the most likely, but it's all up in the air until Google provides a sample of the Nexus One mark being used in commerce to the USPTO -- or, better yet, announces something official.

    Update:
    Ruh roh. As we're sure you're aware, the "Nexus" name is a riff on Philip K. Dick's Nexus-6 replicants in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and ultimately in Blade Runner -- and his estate is none too pleased that Google's using it without permission. According to the New York Times, Dick's daughter -- who is in charge of licensing his work -- was never told of Google's plans, and she's contacted the lawyers now that she's found out. We're guessing Google can still make nice though: she says she would have been open to an agreement had contact been made earlier. So... let's get on that, guys.

    [Thanks, Amit]

    Google files for Nexus One trademark originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Apple hit with iPhone digital camera patent lawsuit

    Apple hit with iPhone digital camera patent lawsuit

    Looks like Apple's lawyers will be extra busy in the coming days. Some entity by the name of St. Clair Intellectual Property Consultants has filed suit against the house that Jobs built, alleging that the iPhone infringes upon several of its patents.

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  • Targeted by Hollywood, OpenBitTorrent lives to fight another day

    Targeted by Hollywood, OpenBitTorrent lives to fight another day

    Not a day goes by without coming across one or more stories related to The Pirate Bay. Today is no different, with OpenBitTorrent (a tracker that Hollywood has accused of being The Pirate Bay's spiritual successor, serving some 550,000 “works”) being given a new lease on life by a Swedish court. The gist is, Hollywood wanted the tracker shut down, but said Swedish court denied the action.

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  • Verizon goes after Sprint’s ‘most dependable 3G network’ ad claim

    Verizon goes after Sprint’s ‘most dependable 3G network’ ad claim

    Looks like Verizon's addicted to the sweet taste of success: following its victory over AT&T regarding the Map For That ads, Big Red's complaining to the The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus about Sprint's "America's most dependable 3G network" tagline. Verizon says that a recent Nielsen survey shows its network drops fewer calls than Sprint's, and for now the bureaucrats agree -- the board's asked Sprint to stop airing the ads. For its part, Sprint says one study doesn't tell the whole tale, and it's going to keep showing the ads while it appeals to the National Advertising Review Board. In other news, Verizon's lawyers were seen heading to the local BMW dealership late last night, following a run-in with Sprint's attorneys at the Mercedes-Benz showroom.

    Continue reading Verizon goes after Sprint's 'most dependable 3G network' ad claim

    Verizon goes after Sprint's 'most dependable 3G network' ad claim originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Law firm asks, ‘Were you banned from Xbox Live? We want to help.’

    Law firm asks, ‘Were you banned from Xbox Live? We want to help.’

    It's safe to say that we hear at CrunchGear think you should be able to do whatever you want with hardware that you buy. Let's take console modding. You wanna flash the drive on your 360 for whatever reason? Fine, go ahead. But don't think that you can log onto Xbox Live with said modded console, and play your misbegotten wares (or is that warez?), on Microsoft's network. It's against the TOS, it makes a mockery of the entertainment medium that you purport to support, and, well, is unfair to the other players.

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  • Verizon responds to AT&T’s Map For That lawsuit: ‘the truth hurts’

    Verizon responds to AT&T’s Map For That lawsuit: ‘the truth hurts’

    Filed under: ,

    Sure, Verizon's doubled down on the 3G map ads in response to AT&T's false advertising lawsuit, but eventually the company's lawyers had to file a response and, well, ain't nobody backing down in this one. Here's the freaking introduction:
    AT&T did not file this lawsuit because Verizon's "There's A Map For That" advertisements are untrue; AT&T sued because Verizon's ads are true and the truth hurts.
    Yeah. It's gonna be like that. Verizon goes on to argue that even AT&T concedes the maps are accurate, and that pulling any of the ads off the air without proof that they're misleading consumers would be unfair, and that at the very least both parties need time to investigate further. Honestly? We've read it over a couple times now and while the legal arguments are certainly interesting, it's hard not to get the impression that Verizon drafted this response with publication in mind -- check out this quote:
    In the final analysis, AT&T seeks emergency relief because Verizon's side-by-side, apples-to-apples comparison of its own 3G coverage with AT&T's confirms what the marketplace has been saying for months: AT&T failed to invest adequately in the necessary infrastructure to expand its 3G coverage to support its growth in smartphone business, and the usefulness of its service to smartphone users has suffered accordingly.
    See what we mean? Now, we still think there's some merit to the idea that Verizon's ads improperly conflate 3G coverage area with 3G service quality, but that's really not what AT&T's arguing -- hell, it's busy pimping EDGE. We'll see if these two can solve their differences and get back to work, but we've got the feeling this thing ain't over yet.

    Update: Here's the PDF, in case you're interested.

    Verizon responds to AT&T's Map For That lawsuit: 'the truth hurts' originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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