Items tagged with Lawsuit
Video games are supposed to be fun, and can be a great way to relieve stress and connect with friends in person and online. One of the most popular video games on the market today is Fortnite from Epic Games. Unfortunately, Epic is facing a lawsuit in Canada that is seeking class-action status. The lawsuit alleges in-part that Epic made Fortnite too addicting, with its developers specifically targeting young children. The lawsuit was filed by a Montreal legal firm on behalf of the parents of two minors, age 10 and 15. Documents in the lawsuit liken Fortnite to cocaine, noting that much like the narcotic drug, Fortnite releases the chemical dopamine in the brain and then kids can become dependent...
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GlobalFoundries rocked the tech industry yesterday when it announced that it had filed multiple lawsuits in the United States and in Germany alleging patent infringement abuses by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and its partners/customers. At the heart of the lawsuits are 16 patents covering 28nm, 16nm, 12nm, 10nm, and 7nm product lines. “For years, while we have been devoting billions of dollars to domestic research and development, TSMC has been unlawfully reaping the benefits of our investments," wrote GlobalFoundries SVP Gregg Barlett in a statement yesterday. "This action is critical to halt Taiwan Semiconductor’s unlawful use of our vital assets and...
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Apple has never taken kindly or turned a blind eye to companies that try and make copies of its devices or software. It has in the past crushed companies that were trying to make Mac clones, and Apple has now filed a lawsuit against a company called Corellium that specializes in virtualized environments and software virtualization. Corellium of course also makes a virtualized copy of iOS that is meant to be a security tool for researchers. Apple doesn't see the benefit in offering such a service and says that the "true goal is profiting off" what Apple calls blatant infringement. The lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of Florida. Corellium markets products that allow the creation of virtual...
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A court has approved Google's Pixel and Pixel XL smartphone settlement. The class-action lawsuit alleged that Google knowingly sold devices with defective microphones. Owners of those devices are eligible for cash reimbursement in the settlement, but there a few conditions Pixel owners must meet with the most important being that they purchased the Pixel or Pixel XL before January 7th, 2017. The biggest payout possible in the settlement is up to $500, and to get that much from the $7.25 million settlement you must be able to document your microphone woes with the Pixel devices. All owners of the Pixel or Pixel XL that purchased before the January 7th, 2017 deadline are eligible for up to $20....
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Some owners of the Google Nexus 6P smartphone had serious issues with the device that led to a class action lawsuit being filed against Google and Huawei, the maker of the smartphone. The law firm that handled the class action lawsuit has announced that impacted owners of the Nexus 6P can now file their claims and has a website standing by to process those claims. The claim website gives owners of the Nexus 6P the ability to file an online claim through September 3, 2019. To get reimbursed in the settlement, users have to submit documentation that proves they purchased a Nexus 6P smartphone between September 29, 2015, and May 3, 2019. Users also have to choose one of three filing options and...
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Apple is no stranger to class action lawsuit; it's caught in a legal row right now that has to do with the so-called loop disease defect on the iPhone 7 smartphone. Apple is also facing an EU probe into antitrust complaints raised by Spotify. Apple is now facing another lawsuit that pertains to iTunes. Apple is being sued by three iTunes users who allege that Apple disclosed their listening habits to advertisers. The three people suing Apple are from Rhode Island and Michigan, and the trio claims that Apple violated laws protecting records of entertainment purchases in those states. The three are seeking class-action status with other residents of those states. The lawsuit alleges that...
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Qualcomm shares soared when it was announced that it had reached a multi-year deal with Apple to settle the pair's long-running global patent licensing fight. Today, Qualcomm shares are heading the opposite direction after a U.S. judge ruled that the company's patent licensing practices are both unlawful and anticompetitive. QCOM is down 11 percent today as of this writing. The ruling was handed down by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, whose name should be familiar to those that have followed lawsuits involving "big tech" over the past decade. Koh ruled that given its position as the leading supplier of 4G LTE modems found in modern smartphones, it has unfairly backed its customers into...
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Owners of the original Google Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones who have devices that were manufactured before January 4, 2017, may get some money from Google. Google has agreed to a proposed settlement for a class action lawsuit that was brought by owners of the original Pixel devices who claim they were sold devices with defective microphones. The settlement could see owners getting up to $500 from Google. Google finally admitted that there was an issue with the microphone in some of the smartphones in March of 2017 when it said that less than 1% of Pixel phones had a hairline crack in the solder connection on the audio codec. That crack caused issues for affected users when calling and when...
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Sammy Davis Jr. offered up some helpful advice to would be criminals in a theme song he sang for Baretta, a detective show that ran in the late 1970s. He said, "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time." But what if you didn't do the crime in the first place? Well, if you're an 18-year-old student in New York, you apparently sue Apple for $1 billion. That is the amount Ousmane Bah is seeking for being falsely accused and arrested for theft at an Apple Store, according to a lawsuit filed today. In the lawsuit, Bah claims he was at his senior prom in Manhattan when the alleged thefts occurred. So how exactly did he get accused of the crime to begin with, if he wasn't even there? We only have...
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In what is a somewhat surprising turn of events, Apple and Qualcomm have agreed to settle all ongoing litigation between the two companies. The two have been going back and forth with lawsuits around the globe over patent licensing relating to 4G LTE modems used in Apple's iPhone and iPad products. Apple accused Qualcomm of using monopolistic practices to extract exorbitant licensing fees from its customers. Qualcomm countered by saying that Apple infringed on many of its patents, which resulted in successful sales bans both in China and in Germany. However, it appears that all of those past battles are now just water under the bridge. Apple has agreed to pay...
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Epic Games is the company behind the incredibly popular battle royale game Fortnite. However, Epic Games has been facing a series of lawsuits from people claiming that the dance moves characters in the game perform are copies of dances they invented. One such suit and the first to go to court is from a rapper called 2 Milly, whose real name is Terrance Ferguson. The rapper sued Epic Games claiming that the Fortnite dance called "Swipe It" is based on the dance he invented called "Milly Rock" and was used in the game without his permission. Epic has asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit stating that the suit is "fundamentally at odds with free speech principles." Epic also claims in the suit...
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Well, you could see this one coming from a mile away. Remember that Group FaceTime bug we wrote about yesterday? The one that Apple apparently knew about since at least last week? Predictably, someone has gone and filed a lawsuit and is seeking unspecified punitive damages on claims of negligence, product liability, misrepresentation, and warranty breach. In case you missed it, the bug allowed users to exploit the Group FaceTime feature in iOS to spy on another iPhone, iPad, or even a Mac user. We say "allowed" (past tense) not because the bug has been squashed (soon, but not yet), but because Apple has disabled Group FaceTime while it works on a fix. Before that happened, a user could place...
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Bethesda launched a very popular mobile game called Fallout Shelter, and as tends to happen anytime a game gets that popular, there were copycats. Most notably the Westworld Mobile game from Warner Brothers based on the hit HBO series of the same name seems to have too many things in common with Fallout Shelter. When Westworld Mobile launched, players and critics quickly noticed that it looked and felt very much like Fallout Shelter, so much so that Bethesda filed suit against Warner Brothers and developer Behavior Interactive in June 2018, alleging copyright infringement among other things. Bethesda said in the suit, "Behaviour breached its contract with Bethesda and utilized its restricted...
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Back in 2017, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a suit against Qualcomm alleging antitrust violations, and only reached trial this week. Odds are that even if the FTC wins the suit against Qualcomm, and licensing fees and royalties that smartphone makers are charged decreased, the smartphone makers would simply pocket the savings and consumers will continue to pay the same prices. While the FTC is accusing Qualcomm of antitrust violations, the price of royalties that Qualcomm charges is 5% of the cost of the device up to $20 per handset maximum. That certainly is a hefty chunk for the smartphone makers, but $20 isn't likely to make a smartphone shopper change their mind about buying...
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