Legal

Samsung hires judge who ruled against Apple

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 13, 2016

Remember a UK judge who took at face value the ruling that Galaxy devices didn't infringe any of Apple's patents because Samsung's tablets "are not as cool" as the iPad? The one who recently chastised Apple for lack of integrity and opined for the appeals court it should be ordered to apologize in newspaper ads for asserting Samsung's tablets had copied the iPad? Yeah, that guy.

A well-known patent blogger revealed Thursday that same judge is now receiving paychecks from Samsung as a legal expert through a law firm which represents Samsung Electronics in its case against Ericsson. Conflict of interest, much?

Samsung fails in its bid to block iPhone and iPad sale in Japan

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Samsung has lost its patent lawsuit over Apple's iPhone and iPad in Japan as a Tokyo court ruled Thursday in favor of Apple. Needless to say, Samsung said it was disappointed by the court's decision and promised to conduct a thorough review of the ruling and "take the measures necessary to protect our intellectual property rights", Reuters reported this morning.

The Tokyo District Court said Samsung hadn’t negotiated “sincerely” with Apple over patents, also ruling the Galaxy maker now cannot seek damages from Apple...

Brazil lawsuit claims iPad 3 made intentionally obsolete

Ed Sutherland ∙ February 22, 2013

Did Apple withhold features from the third-generation iPad, then make the tablet obsolete just six months afterwards by unveiling the iPad 4 - with the missing items? That's the accusation being made against Apple in a class-action lawsuit filed Thursday in Brazil. At the heart of the lawsuit brought by the Brazilian Institute of Politics and Law Software (IBDI) is the charge Apple released the "new iPad" in May 2012, then in October introduced the iPad 4 alongside the iPad mini. By updating the processor and other features Apple has produced planned obsolescence...

Petition to legalize cell phone unlocking will get response from White House

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 11, 2018

On January 26th of this year, the DMCA exemption that made unlocking your cell phone legal, expired, subsequently making the popular practice illegal. Now, folks who go about unlocking their handsets risk serious legal repercussions.

Obviously, people weren't too happy with the way this played out, so an online petition was started to re-legalize unlocking. And as of today, that petition has surpassed 100,000 signatures, meaning the White House must issue a response...

Apple now a lone holdout in the e-book price fixing suit

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 8, 2013

Last September, three of the nation’s top five book publishers settled with The United States Justice Department (DOJ) over alleged collusion in the pricing of e-books, despite Apple crying foul and accusing Amazon of assisting the government's agenda. Following DOJ's deal with HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Hachette, Penguin followed suite in December 2012 and today DOJ announced that Macmillan has stricken a similar settlement with Uncle Sam, leaving Apple as a lone holdout in the suit...

The iPhone moniker is in jeopardy in Brazil

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 4, 2013

When Apple acquired rights to the iPhone moniker from Cisco ahead of the 2007 iPhone launch, the company probably never dreamed that it could face losing naming rights in Brazil. Reuters in December 2012 relayed a local report explaining that the Brazilian electronics maker IGB Eletrônica SA owns a trademark for the “IPHONE” term in Brazil. And now, another report has it that IGB could indeed be the rightful holder of the iPhone trademark in the country...

Court rejects Apple’s request to revive Galaxy Nexus sales ban

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 31, 2013

In another round of legal back and forth, a U.S. appeals court on Thursday again rejected Apple's attempt at the Galaxy Nexus sales ban, Reuters reports. The news gathering organization characterized the court's decision as "dashing the iPhone maker's attempt to recover crucial leverage in the global patent wars".

Apple could still appeal the decision to the United States Supreme Court though success is not guaranteed as the high court "has made it more difficult for patent plaintiffs to secure sales injunctions in recent years".

The full trial is scheduled for March 2014. The Galaxy Nexus case is based on patents that were not part of the high-stake Apple v. Samsung trial which culminated when a California jury awarded Apple with $1.05 billion in damages in August 2012...

The EFF clarifies legality of jailbreaking and unlocking in the US

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

The big news this week, aside from the new 128GB iPad and the impending jailbreak, has been that unlocking your phone became illegal in the US on Saturday. Law-breakers face a fine of up to $500,000 and/or 5 years in jail.

Well today, the folks over at the EFF (the Electronic Frontier Foundation) commented on the new regulations and have broken down what they really mean for us end-users. There's both good news and bad news...

White House petition goes up to make unlocking phones legal again

Cody Lee ∙ January 29, 2013

By now, you've likely heard of the recent change in DMCA policy that makes the act of unlocking newer cell phones illegal. And even though the EFF clarified some things for us earlier today, it still sounds like we're getting screwed.

In fact, some folks feel so strongly about the new law that they've started a White House petition calling for the Obama administration to either rescind the decision, or create a new bill making unlocking permanently legal...

12 Apple users in UK sue Google over Safari tracking

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 19, 2018

Although US District Judge Susan Illston recently approved the $22.5 million fine Google agreed to pay in order to settle the FTC claim that it illegally bypassed user privacy settings in Safari, the Internet giant is not yet off the hook over in the United Kingdom, where a group of twelve disgruntled users decided to take the search behemoth to the court over the scandal. A group called "Safari Users Against Google's Secret Tracking" hired a law firm to file a complaint conveniently timed ahead of the sixth annual Data Privacy Day in the country...

Unlocking your phone could cost you up to $500,000

Cody Lee ∙ January 28, 2013

Last week, we reported that unlocking your cell phone was going to become illegal in the US on January 26th. And it did. While there are some exceptions to the law— you can still unlock pre-2013 phones—it's still devastating for cell phone owners.

And it gets worse. According to a new report, the penalty for breaking this new unlocking law is a fine of up to $500,000, 5 years in jail, or both. That's right, half a million dollars for unlocking your phone. And yes, that includes first-time offenders...

Pressure mounts on Apple to reveal iOS source code

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 25, 2013

Samsung's first crack at cornering Apple into providing the iOS source code came in November 2011, when it argued at an Australian court it needed to take a look into the iPhone 4S firmware in order to determine the extent of an alleged patent infringement.

And on its own turf in South Korea, the Galaxy maker is putting pressure on the Cupertino, California firm to reveal the iOS 6 source code to judge whether Apple's mobile operating system - specifically, the Notification Center feature - infringes its technology patents.

To say that Apple wasn't impressed would be an understatement: lawyers for the iPhone maker called Samsung's request “insane” and argued its rival is trying to force it into revealing its “most important data”...