Tech Law

Two technology associations with significant clout on Capitol Hill are in talks to combine forces. The two organizations, the AeA, formerly the American Electronics Association, and the ITAA, or Information Technology Association of America, began merger discussions several months ago. "The real syn...

Internet retail giant Amazon.com is muscling into the wine industry. The company plans to start selling wine from California's Napa Valley and other wine-producing regions in the U.S. later this year. Although Amazon has not confirmed the news, the Napa Valley Vintners Association has been holding w...

With the exception of unlimited plans, major wireless carriers have raised their prices for text messaging almost in tandem by more than 100 percent over the last three years, a fact that caught the attention of U.S. Senator Herb Kohl, chairman of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee. Kohl sent a lette...

Interactive "social networking" is a growing phenomenon, as the success of MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and similar Internet sites suggests. Such social networking sites allow geographically dispersed individuals who share common interests to locate and interact with breathtaking speed and ease. Earli...

Comcast has answered the Federal Communication Commission's order -- to not only cease its controversial network management practices, but also reveal them publicly -- with a legal maneuver of its own: The cable provider has asked the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit to overturn the ruling. Prior...

No one can say what 27-year-old Kevin Cogill expected when he apparently posted nine songs from an unreleased and long-awaited Guns N' Roses album called "Chinese Democracy" to his Web site earlier this summer. It could have been anything from monetary gain to a desire to be the first to distribute ...

A federal judge in San Jose, Calif., has thrown out a copyright infringement lawsuit launched by Io Group against Veoh Networks. Io Group, which also does business under the name Titan Media, produces adult video content. Veoh is a site similar to YouTube where users can upload and watch user-genera...

Microsoft will receive nearly $21 million from Immersion, a company that develops "tactile-feedback" technology, after the two companies agreed to settle a lawsuit. San Jose, Calif.-based Immersion has developed tactile feedback technology which makes video game controllers vibrate when there is an ...

Congress has become increasingly interested in the privacy implications of behavioral marketing. This summer, the Senate has held hearings, and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce has followed the charge by seeking more information from Internet service providers and technology companies reg...

Some two weeks after the FCC rebuked Comcast for its network management practices, the government agency has spelled out details of the cable provider's marching orders in a 67-page supplement. Within the next 30 days, Comcast must make a full disclosure to the FCC of the behavior that lowered the r...

Nintendo has been hit with a lawsuit alleging patent infringement. Hillcrest Labs has filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission and a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Maryland against the video game giant. Hillcrest Labs makes and licenses many handheld interactive media devices...

To the surprise of few, Dell is losing its preliminary approval to trademark the phrase "cloud computing." The Patent and Trademark Office has sent the company a "non-final" refusal of its application to own the term. Dell has six months to submit counter-arguments or the PTO will abandon the applic...

Facebook continues to feel the ramifications of its controversial Beacon advertising platform, which for a short while last year broadcast information about the social networking site's users' activities without their express permission. A class action lawsuit has been filed against Facebook as well...

Every blogger should know the story of Heather B. Armstrong, nee Hamilton. In February 2002 she was fired from her job for blogging about her job. Blogs were relatively new at that time, and they were on few employers' radars. Hamilton, though, crossed an invisible line -- one not explicitly defined...

Tiffany has appealed a ruling in a federal court that online auction company eBay isn't responsible for keeping its users from selling fake jewelry that uses Tiffany's trademark. Tiffany, one of the world's most recognizable brands in the jewelry sector, filed its suit against eBay in 2004, claiming...