Tech Law

Federal authorities arrested Fremont, Calif., resident Winifred Jiau Tuesday on charges related to her involvement in an insider trading scheme. Jiau has been charged with conspiring to commit securities fraud and engaging in securities fraud by selling material nonpublic information about publicly ...

Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen's company, Interval Licensing, on Tuesday reopened a patent lawsuit originally filed last August in Seattle against 11 companies, including Apple and Google. Interval claims the defendants violated four patents owned by Paul Allen's company Interval Research before it ...

The SEC is getting curious about intensified trading in shares of private social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and social game developer Zynga. The SEC reportedly has sent information requests to several participants in the trading of shares of these four private companies. The co...

Let the exceptions and exemptions begin, Net neutrality critics cry, as the Federal Communications Commission's newly approved rules take effect for all but a chosen few -- mobile broadband providers, that is, with a Google-Verizon pact taking the lead. Striking similarities between the FCC ruling a...

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has apparently opened an inquiry into former HP CEO Mark Hurd's sudden departure from the company last August. The SEC is looking into whether Hurd leaked information about HP's planned $13.9 billion acquisition of Electronic Data Systems to Jodie Fisher, ...

Net neutrality may be anything but after the Federal Communications Commission votes Tuesday on the proposal, rumored to contain a controversial "usage-based pricing provision" that could boost service provider bottom lines. A leaked PowerPoint presentation reveals two large wireless suppliers -- Al...

The U.S. Commerce Department's proposed federal Internet privacy rules are a giveaway to data collectors, according to some consumer groups. Other critics say they could spell the end of the free Internet. The Commerce Department wants to create an online privacy bill of rights and a code of conduct...

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has handed down a ruling that delights privacy advocates and Fourth Amendment purists: In U.S. v. Warshak, it found that the government should have obtained a search warrant before seizing and searching defendant Stephen Warshak's emails, which were stored by email...

Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla have a lot in common with Apple, Google, HTC, Motorola, and Research In Motion. They are all warriors in the ongoing war to see who can amass the largest number of the most lucrative technology patents. Edison and Tesla waged their battle from the late 1860s through t...

Apple, Google and others reportedly have entered into a bidding war for the patents held by Nortel Networks, which is liquidating its assets in bankruptcy. Nortel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2009 but failed to emerge successfully and began selling assets in mid-2009. Nortel...

A federal judge on Friday dismissed a patent lawsuit Interval Licensing -- Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen's company -- filed last August in Seattle against 11 firms, including Apple and Google. Interval claims the defendants violated four patents owned by Paul Allen's company Interval Research on te...

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously said in his 1964 Order that he could not use words to describe pornography but "I know it when I see it." Even though judges may not be able to define "social media," they generally understand the complex circumstances in legal disputes. However, s...

Google is tightening its copyright and piracy protection procedures, instituting new measures that will facilitate Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown requests and will better oversee search advertisers that use copyrighted or trademarked terms. Specifically, Google will roll out four changes:...

The bones of a plan to balance consumer privacy and businesses' need to gather data online was aired yesterday by the Federal Trade Commission and was greeted with both praise and criticism. In a 122-page preliminary report, the agency called for any company collecting or using consumer data that ca...

The European Commission has opened an antitrust probe of Google for allegedly discriminating against competing search services by restricting its advertising partners from placing ads on their sites. It also is investigating whether Google has restricted advertisers from moving their data to competi...