Tech Law

With the timeframe for its PlayStation 3 release already being questioned by some, Sony was dealt another setback this week when it lost a bid to appeal a ruling that it violated a smaller firm's gaming patent. Sony had hoped to be able to appeal the ruling that found it had infringed on the patent ...

The showdown between Google and the Department of Justice (DoJ) over the search engine's refusal to turn over search records heads to court on Tuesday, with Google planning to argue that the right to privacy outweighs the government's need for the information. The two sides were scheduled to make ar...

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has agreed to a US$1.1 million settlement from an interactive marketing firm that he said reused e-mail addresses and other consumer information without authorization. Spitzer described the case involving Datran Media as being possibly "the largest breach of p...

Potentially reopening a chapter from the earlier days of the wireless telecommunications boom, the U.S. Justice Department said it intends to pursue a civil fraud case against Wall Street money manager Mario Gabelli. The DoJ is seeking permission to directly sue Gabelli, who runs Gamco Investors, cl...

Google is moving to settle a class action lawsuit alleging widespread click fraud on its paid search network, setting aside US$90 million to repay advertisers who can prove they fell victim to the practice during a four-year period starting in 2002. The payouts would take the form of account credits...

Last Friday -- essentially the eleventh hour of a years-long lawsuit -- Research In Motion reached a US$612.5 million settlement with NTP, relieving legions of customers who have come to feel they cannot possibly last very long without their BlackBerries. In this suit, NTP successfully challenged RI...

Research In Motion begins the week with one of the biggest hurdles the company has faced behind it, thanks to a US$612.5 million settlement with patent holder NTP, a deal that averted a possible shutdown of the BlackBerry e-mail service in the U.S. With more than nearly six years of legal turmoil pu...

The U.S. Department of Justice confirmed this week it is investigating possible price fixing among the major recording labels for online music. The probe is similar to action taken by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who last month continued an investigation of digital download collusion and...

A judge has cleared the way for Toys 'R' Us to terminate its e-commerce partnership with Amazon.com, a 10-year dot-com era partnership the toy seller has been seeking to terminate for nearly two years. Toys 'R' Us sued Amazon in May of 2004, seeking to terminate an agreement struck in 2000 under whi...

Skype has landed in the midst of a semiconductor industry battle between AMD and Intel. AMD, the No. 2 chipmaker, is seeking documents from the VoIP company about its dealings with market leader Intel, according to a Feb. 28 subpoena. Skype, now owned by Internet auction giant eBay, has set up the s...

The recent US$15 million settlement between ChoicePoint and the Federal Trade Commission signals regulators have cranked up the heat on companies that allow personal customer data in their possession fall victim to breach or exposure. ChoicePoint, a broker of consumer data, acknowledged that informa...

Yahoo on Monday filed a lawsuit against wireless content company MForma and a group of former Yahoo employees, alleging the theft of the Internet portal giant's trade secrets. According to the lawsuit, which was filed in Santa Clara County state court in California, the employees copied large amount...

I admit it, I've got a problem. Smaller than a wallet, this little black box comprises my phone and Internet connection, sending a continuous stream of e-mail and news. It wakes me to the tinny sound of "El Toreador" or "The Entertainer," automatically adjusting to the local time zone. My wife calls...

The U.S. Justice Department is arguing that Google's privacy concerns are not reason enough for it to withhold search records being sought by investigators, likely setting the stage for a court battle over the data. In a court filing made late Friday, the Bush administration said because individual ...

The federal judge weighing whether to grant an injunction that could lead to the shutdown or alteration of Research In Motion's BlackBerry mobile e-mail service ended a hearing Friday without making a ruling. District Judge James Spencer said he would issue a decision on an injunction "as soon as re...