Posted on March 25, 2009, at 12:20 pm .
Verizon has settled a lawsuit filed last month against Feature Films for Families, a Utah-based telemarketing company, for illegally calling Verizon customers and employees to advertise the movie, “The Velveteen Rabbit.” In addition to a permanent injunction preventing any future calls, the Utah-based telemarketer has agreed to a $25,000 cash settlement, which Verizon is donating to the National Domestic Violence Hotline (NDVH).
The lawsuit alleged Feature Films for Families illegally used an autodialer to call Verizon customers about the movie. The lawsuit stated that over 10 days in early February, nearly 500,000 calls were made to Verizon Wireless customers and employees from the telephone number 917-210-4609. When customers answered these calls to their wireless phones they heard either a prerecorded voice message or an individual reading a script promoting the anticipated release of the film.
Now if only Rogers can file a similar lawsuit against the people calling me about my renewing my car insurance (I don’t drive).
Posted on December 26, 2008, at 2:09 pm .
This isn’t really the news anyone wants to hear during the Christmas season, but it appears as though Motorola needs a holiday lesson about the value of sharing. RIM filed suit with Motorola on Christmas Eve, alleging that the mobile phone company has improperly blocked their attempts to hire current and laid-off Motorola employees. The suit, filed in state court in Chicago on Tuesday, comes three months after Motorola alleged that RIM violated an agreement reached in February that the two companies would not solicit each other’s employees. RIM has asked for a court order to invalidate the agreement, saying in its complaint that the pact had expired in August and was no longer enforceable.
“RIM entities continue to grow and hire new employees within the United States and globally against a backdrop of recent public announcements by Motorola that it has and will continue to make massive layoffs,” said RIM’s lawsuit.
RIM is also seeking unspecified damages for what it called “unfair competition” practices by Motorola. Motorola spokeswoman Jennifer Weyrauch-Erickson declined to comment on the lawsuit.
|via Reuters|
Posted on November 19, 2008, at 11:18 am .
File this under: interesting to follow, but not going to happen. Spansion, the number 3 worldwide maker of flash memory chips, has sued Samsung, the Samsung is the world’s biggest memory chip maker, citing patent infringement.
“Spansion has patents that are fundamental to flash memory. Samsung itself has cited these patents many times in its own patent filings, underscoring industry acceptance of the fundamental nature of Spansion’s (intellectual property),” Robert Melendres, Spansion’s general counsel, said in a statement.
This story gets interesting, however, when it is noted that Spansion also wants to block all U.S. sales of BlackBerrys, iPods and many other electronics because they use Samsung chips. Spansion claims more than “100 million mp3 players, cell phones, digital cameras and other consumer electronic devices” are made with Samsung flash memory chips that violate Spansion patents. While it is highly unlikely that we’ll see a hold in BlackBerry sales due to this lawsuit, it will be interesting to see how much Samsung will pay to make this go away, and if that cost will be passed down to the consumer — namely, us.
|via IntoMobile|
Posted on November 3, 2008, at 12:40 am .
Mformation Technologies, a handset management software firm, filed suit with RIM on Friday for patent infringement. Mformation alleges in its lawsuit that RIM has infringed upon two patents related to methods of “remote device management.”
“After refusing to license Mformation’s disclosed systems and software, RIM modified its BlackBerry software to include Mformation’s patented systems and methods of remote management,” Mformation said.
Mformation did not specify what remedies it is seeking. The lawsuit was filed in the District Court for the Northern District of California. We’ll obviously follow this story closely and let you know how it develops.
(via Reuters)
Posted on June 4, 2008, at 11:14 am .
Looking to keep its legal winning streak alive, RIM filed a preemptive suit yesterday against German patent troll IP Com, asking a Texas federal court to declare that RIM hasn’t infringed on three IP Com patents. RIM has also asked the court to issue an injunction preventing IP Com from using the patents to sue RIM for infringement.
Not to be outdone, IP Com has countersued RIM in Germany, and IP Com managing director, Cristoph Schoeller, had this to say:
IP Com had been negotiating a license agreement with RIM when RIM filed its lawsuit, Schoeller said. “We thought we were in negotiations,” he said, adding that he believes RIM may be trying to intimidate IP Com.
Good. You’re a patent troll: you make money solely by suing other companies for patents you hold. You deserve everything you get.
Posted on June 3, 2008, at 10:05 am .
Mere months after their victory over Visto in the United Kingdom, RIM has laid the legal smack down on the company once again. The Globe and Mail is reporting that Visto has agreed to pay damages to RIM after a Federal Court judge found that the company infringed on three of RIM’s patents. For those keeping score at home, this means the end of a suit that dates all the way back to the summer of 2006. Yeesh.
Both sides have yet to work out the damages Visto will have to pay, but RIM must be happy with the moral victory. Jack McCoy strikes again!
Posted on April 1, 2008, at 3:30 pm .
Deutsche Telekom, parent company of a completely obscure, totally unknown, tiny little company called T-Mobile, sent a letter to Engadget Mobile claiming that the use of the color magenta in their logo constituted a trademark infringement and ever-so-politely asked them to stop using it. Early April Fool’s Day joke or not, Engadget fought back by making a few tiny changes to their logo and site layout. In a show of solidarity, a bunch of other blogs made similar changes. It remains to be seen whether this is an elaborate gag (in which case, thumbs up to everyone involved) or yet another example of absolutely ridiculous lawsuits.
Posted on July 26, 2007, at 9:42 am .
During a conference call yesterday discussing his company’s quarterly results, Qualcomm’s CEO, Paul Jacobs, said that the company has been unable to resolve its messy patent dispute with Broadcom because a deal would hurt its licensing business. Jacobs told investors that Broadcom wants its customers to be exempt from paying Qualcomm licensing fees for a large chunk of its intellectual property portfolio as part of a settlement, which Jacobs claimed was unacceptable.
Considering that Qualcomm has lost its last two court cases against Broadcom, this might simply be conference call posturing. However, things get trickier when Verizon’s recent deal with Broadcom is taken into account. Verizon is set to pay Broadcom a licensing fee, Verizon’s CEO said he would seek a way to receive compensation for the payments, which many have taken as an expectation that Qualcomm would end up footing the bill. Sounds crazy, but Verizon is Qualcomm’s largest carrier customer, and while no deal is in place, Qualcomm brass has already made overtures about supporting their “very important customer”.
In no way is this messy story over yet. Keep hitting BBCool and we’ll continue to fill you in with all the juicy details.
