Tech Law

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington and the Securities and Exchange Commission have lodged criminal and civil enforcement actions against a former senior portfolio manager at Microsoft and his friend, alleging insider trading. They also accuse the two of planning to u...

More than eight years ago, the Authors Guild filed a class action against Google on behalf of thousands of authors, claiming that Google infringed the authors' copyrights. The Authors Guild recently lost its case based on the fair use doctrine that's generally reserved for nonprofit use by academic...

Attorneys for Snapchat executives Evan Spiegel and Robert Murphy have applied to the California court for a restraining order and order to show cause against cofounder Reggie Brown, who is currently in litigation with the company over his ouster. The restraining order would keep Brown from publicizi...

Sen. Edward Markey plans to soon introduce legislation that will restrict the bulk collection of Americans' cellphone data by U.S. law enforcement agencies. "We need a 4th Amendment for the 21st century," he said. "Disclosure of personal information from wireless devices raises significant legal and...

The European Commission has issued a stark warning to Nokia to not become a patent troll. The company sold most of its mobile phone business to Microsoft earlier this year but retained its patent portfolio. The EC cleared the acquisition last week, but the deal has sparked concerns that Nokia may mo...

The United States House of Representatives on Thursday passed the Innovation Act, a bipartisan bill seeking to curb frivolous lawsuits by patent trolls, by a vote of 325-91. Bill H.R. 3309, whose chief sponsor is House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, will go before the Senate where anoth...

In the waning days of the current session of Congress, patent reform is one issue that's very much alive. Major IT companies and business associations are making sure their voices are heard in what has become a typical end-of-year legislative scramble. Their efforts may not result in passage of a bi...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday announced it would not hear an appeal by Amazon and Overstock.com challenging a New York law that requires e-commerce companies to collect taxes from shoppers in the state even if the retailers don't have facilities there. The decision is the latest twist in an incre...

Samsung Electronics must pay Apple $290 million in damages for infringing five of its patents, a federal jury in California decided on Thursday. The sum may not make a huge mark -- or even a moderate one -- on Samsung's balance sheet, but the verdict gives Apple one more victory against its rival as...

U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin has ruled in favor of Google in a lawsuit filed by the Authors Guild over the Google Books project. "In my view, Google Books provides significant public benefits," Chin said. "It advances the progress of the arts and sciences, while maintaining respectful consid...

Companies across the IT sector are in favor of improving the U.S. patent system and generally support efforts in Congress to improve patent protection. However, not all IT companies are in favor of specific proposals to improve the patent process. A current example is a patent reform bill recently i...

Witnesses squared off at a Senate subcommittee hearing on Thursday that focused on the controversial and combustible subject of patent assertion entities, also known as "patent trolls." The Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Insurance held the hearing, with both advocates...

Google and the European Commission's delicate negotiations on a settlement regarding the search engine giant's alleged antitrust violations this week hit an unusual snag: The terms of Google's second offer were outed on Wednesday, opening them up to unexpected public scrutiny. The new offer -- inclu...

A class action asserting that LinkedIn harvests and sells users' email addresses was brought in September 2013. More than a month after the lawsuit was filed, LinkedIn still uses the same approach to collect email addresses and personal information -- that is, it encourages users to "sync your conta...

A consortium of technology companies is suing Google and Android manufacturers in its first patent lawsuits after it outbid the search giant for thousands of patents previously owned by Nortel. Rockstar, owned by Apple, Microsoft, BlackBerry, Ericsson, Sony and EMC, has accused Google of infringing ...