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Apple Computer, Beatles Record Label Back in U.K. Court This Week

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 27, 2006 - 11:55am.
New York - The Beatles' record label, Apple Corps, will be in court again this week for a case that will determine whether Apple Computer violated an agreement between the two companies over the use of the Apple trademark in the music business, The New York Times reported. This is Apple Corps' third lawsuit against the iPod maker, which in 1991 paid over $26 million to the label to settle the second lawsuit -- at the same time promising not to enter the music business. Apple Computer was sued for the third time in 2003, after it launched its successful iTunes music download store; the hearing this week will determine whether Apple's forays into the music industry violate its 1991 agreement with Apple Corps.
tags: U.K | Court | Apple Computer | Beatles Record | Label Back |

French Court OKs File-Sharing for Personal Use

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 9, 2006 - 3:48am.
Paris - The District Court of Paris has ruled that downloading and uploading content to peer-to-peer file-sharing networks is legal, as long as it is for personal use, The Register reported. The French record label trade group SCPP sued a Frenchman in late 2004 for allegedly offering 1,212 music tracks for download on file-sharing networks. The District Court of Paris found that the acts of downloading and uploading on peer-to-peer networks constituted "private copying." The SCPP is appealing the ruling. Meanwhile, the French Parliament is also weighing a proposal to charge file-swappers a $6 per month voluntary surcharge for accessing peer-to-peer networks.
tags: French | File-Shar | Personal | OKs | Court |

Court Date Postponed for Google Defense of Government Search Subpoena

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 3, 2006 - 6:56am.
San Jose, Calif. - The federal judge appointed to hear Google's defense of its refusal to turn over search results to the U.S. Justice Department has been postponed, from Feb. 27 until March 13. The Justice Department has sought records of search engine results from users of AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft as well, but only Google refused to provide the data the government hopes to use in defense of a law meant to protect minors from online pornography. As a result of the subpoenas, Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), said he plans to introduce a bill that would restrict the keeping of users' search records and other data by websites, CNET News.com reported.
tags: Google | Court | Subpoena | Postpond | Defense | Date | Government |

Court Rules Independent Battle.net Game Servers Violate Copyrights

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 6, 2005 - 6:26am.
St. Louis -- The U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that programmers violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) when they created their own multiplayer game servers for Vivendi Universal-owned game publisher Blizzard Entertainment's games, CNET News.com reported. Programmers had created their own unofficial versions of Blizzard's Battle.net online gaming service for titles like "Diablo" and "Warcraft", after complaints about the official site's performance. In its 3-0 decision, which upheld a lower court's October ruling, the appeals court said that the defendants violated the agreement they clicked on when installing Blizzard's games on their computers that prohibits reverse-engineering.
tags: Law | Court | Battle.net | Violate Copyrights | Rules |

Court Asks Google, Geico to Settle Search Ad Trademark Dispute

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 17, 2005 - 9:20am.
Mountain View, Calif. -- A federal court has asked Google and car insurance firm Geico to settle a dispute over whether Google violates Geico's trademarks by selling search ad listings for Geico rivals that are triggered when users search for the terms "Geico", CNET News.com reported. While the court ruled that Google did not violate Geico's trademarks with the search terms, it said the use of the words "Geico" and "Geico Direct" in the actual text of the competitors' ads on Google search pages may violate Geico's trademarks. However, Google may also claim that the ad copy text is the responsibility of the advertisers who placed the ads in the first place, or invoke a special exemption from trademark infringements enjoyed by printers and publishers, Marquette University Law School assistant professor Eric Goldman told News.com.
tags: Google | Court | Geico | Ad Trademark Dispute |

Court Says WhenU Can Serve Pop-Up Ads on Competitors' Websites

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 5, 2005 - 5:03am.
New York -- A federal appeals court has ruled that Internet adware developer WhenU did not violate companies' trademarks when using them to serve pop-up ads for their competitors. WhenU's software is often bundled with file-sharing programs or other applications, and once installed then monitors Web surfing and overlays its clients' ads when users visit a competitor's site. Contact lens retailer 1-800-Contacts sued WhenU for trademark violations in 2002; when a lower court sided with 1-800-Contacts, WhenU appealed the ruling, which was overturned on Monday by the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals. "A trademark owner is not entitled to control your desktop just because you happen to be visiting its website," said Fred von Lohmann, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed an amicus brief on behalf of WhenU in the case. "This decision is good news for consumers who want the freedom to install tools that help them customize their web-surfing."
tags: Internet | Law | Court | Pop-Up Ads | Competitors' Websites |

Appeals Court Declines Review of $65 Million Sex.com Domain Verdict

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 1, 2005 - 4:44am.
San Francisco -- The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected an appeal of a $65 million judgment against Stephen Cohen, who was ruled to have stolen the domain name Sex.com from its rightful owner and profited some $40 million over five years, USA Today reported. Gary Kremen bought the rights to Sex.com in 1994 from registrar Network Solutions, which then in 1995 turned the domain over to Cohen, after he claimed in a forged letter than Kremen approved of the exchange. Kremen sued, and in 2001 a court ruled in his favor and returned the domain, along with $65 million in damages. Following the ruling, Cohen fled the country and remains a fugitive. He has still not paid Kremen, who says he now makes about $8 million a year in ad revenue from Sex.com. Cohen told USA Today this week that he plans to appeal last week's ruling from the 9th Circuit to the Supreme Court.
tags: Law | Court | Sex.com | Domain Verdict | Declines Review |

FTC Asks Court to Compel Blockbuster on Hollywood Bid Data

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 4, 2005 - 7:17am.
Washington -- The Federal Trade Commission on Friday took video rental giant Blockbuster to court to compel the company to provide additional details of its bid to acquire No. 2 video chain Hollywood Entertainment. In its motion filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the FTC said Blockbuster's response to its initial request was "insufficient and inadequate," and asked the court for additional time to review the merger proposal with the corrected Blockbuster data. Hollywood Entertainment has already rejected Blockbuster's $1.3 billion bid for the company in favor of a lower offer from Movie Gallery, the nation's third-largest movie rental chain. However, Blockbuster said in response to the FTC inquiry that it will still go ahead with its takeover bid.
tags: FTC | Blockbuster | Court | Hollywood Bid Data |

Court Overturns $565 Million Eolas Patent Ruling Against Microsoft

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 2, 2005 - 7:53am.
San Francisco -- A federal appeals court has overturned a $565 million patent infringement judgment against Microsoft and ordered a retrial of the lawsuit, brought by Internet browser developer Eolas, a UCLA spin-off. The decision was hailed by both Microsoft and Eolas, as the split ruling included provisions benefiting both sides. Most importantly, the appeals court found that the lower court incorrectly threw out the "Viola" browser, developed by Pei Wei, which Microsoft had argued represented "prior art" that would invalidate the Eolas patent. "It's a huge victory," Andy Culbert, associate general counsel of patent litigation for Microsoft, told News.com. "The essence of our defense was that this patent was invalid, based on the good work done by Pei Wei, and the court of appeals has completely vindicated our assertions."
tags: Law | Microsoft | Court | Eolas Patent |

Court to Revisit French Suit Over Yahoo's Nazi Auctions

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 11, 2005 - 11:06am.
Sunnyvale, Calif. -- The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Thursday said that it will rehear some arguments in a suit filed by a pair of French human rights groups trying to ban the sale of Nazi-related items on sites run by Yahoo, the Associated Press reported. The Union of Jewish Students and the International Anti-Racism and Anti-Semitism League, both based in France, first sued Yahoo five years ago, winning a French court order to block Yahoo's sites in France from selling Nazi memorabilia. Selling or displaying racist material is a crime in France. Yahoo, however, kept the items -- which included swastika-laden flags and excerpts from Hitler's "Mein Kampf" -- on its more popular U.S.-based site, which is still accessible to French surfers. Following another court ruling in 2001, Yahoo theoretically now owes more than $5 million in fines. "If American companies have to worry that foreign judgments entered against them might be enforceable, it could end up with companies censoring their web sites," Mary Catherine Wirth, a senior corporate council at Yahoo, told AP.
tags: Law | Yahoo | French | Court | Nazi Auctions |

Court Rules Lexmark Can't Invoke DMCA Against Third-Party Ink Cartridges

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 27, 2004 - 5:04am.
Louisville, Ken. -- A federal appeals court has overturned a ruling that banned a maker of replacement ink cartridges for printers from selling its products because they allegedly violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Kentucky-based printer maker Lexmark includes security chips in its replacement ink cartridges designed to prevent third-party companies from profiting off of toner sales. Lexmark sued North Carolina-based Static Control Components, arguing the company violated a provision of the DMCA that prohibits circumvention of copyright security on devices when it reverse engineered and released ink cartridges with chips that would be recognized and accepted by Lexmark printers. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati has ordered a lower court to hold new hearings on the matter. "We should make clear that in the future companies like Lexmark cannot use the DMCA in conjunction with copyright law to create monopolies of manufactured goods for themselves just by tweaking the facts of this case," the 6th Circuit wrote in its ruling. A similar ruling from an appeals court in Washington (Chamberlain v. Skylink) upheld the rights of companies to develop and sell "universal" remote control garage door openers.
tags: Law | DMCA | Court | Lexmark | Third-Party Ink Cartridges |

EU Takes Greece to Court over Ban on Computer Games

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 14, 2004 - 10:30am.
Brussels -- The European Commission (EC) announced on Thursday that it plans to take Greece to the European Court of Justice to reverse the country's ban on PC games. The EC said that it had decided to refer Greece to the court over its ban on the "installation and operation of electrical, electromechanical and electronic games, including computer games, in all public and private places," including premises providing Internet services, such as cyber cafes. The Commission also said that Greece's decision to outlaw video games to stop online gambling essentially violates the EU treaty on the free movement of goods and services. Furthermore, the EC said that it plans to take Greece to task for not having notified the EU of the law when it was in its draft stage, which is an infringement of Directive 98/34/EC.
tags: Law | EU | Court | Ban | Greece | Computer Games |

Court Tosses Suit Brought by ReplayTV Owners Against Studios, Networks

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 12, 2004 - 3:48am.
San Francisco -- A federal court has thrown out a case brought by owners of ReplayTV personal video recorders against Hollywood movie studios and TV networks, which asked for a ruling declaring that device features like skipping commercials and forwarding shows to other ReplayTV owners are legal. U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper on Friday ruled that essentially there was no need for a "declaratory" ruling because Hollywood had already dropped its case against ReplayTV maker Sonicblue, so ReplayTV owners had no legitimate fear of being sued. The ruling did not legalize the controversial features however, which were deleted from newer ReplayTV devices when Sonicblue was acquired by the parent company of Japanese consumer electronics firms Denon and Marantz.
tags: Law | Court | Studios | Networks | Tosses |