Mar 04
Apple Inc. has filed a federal lawsuit against “the world” for violating its U.S. Patent 3,141,5926 “Removing a Booger by Performing Gestures with a Finger.” Apple is demanding licensing royalties from all world citizens who pick their nose, and a cease & desist order against Kleenex tissues for providing citizens with an alternate method to jailbreak boogers and avoid Apple’s patent.
This new legal action follows a similar lawsuit that Apple filed against rival phone maker HTC for allegedly violating 20 of Apple’s mobile phone patents. The Apple patents include “novel” inventions such as U.S. Patent 7,657,849 for unlocking a phone with a finger swipe.
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Popularity: 1% [?]
Jul 29
Beware all bloggers and tweeters: What you write may get you sued!
Chicago woman Amanda Bonnen discovered this lesson the hard way. Her 117-character rant on Twitter may cost her more than $50,000 as the result of a defamation lawsuit filed by the target of her ire. That’s $427 a letter!
Bonnen was having trouble with her landlord and complained of alleged mold in her apartment. So like many of us, she ranted about her frustration on Twitter:
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Popularity: 1% [?]
Feb 19
The decline of western civilization is now complete. The #1 app for the iPhone is iFart, the digital equivalent of a whoopie cushion. The software sold $10,000 worth on its first day. And since no good deed goes unchallenged, there are over 75 farting apps now available for the iPhone.
And just when you thought that things couldn’t get any stinkier, InfoMedia, which developed iFart Mobile, filed a legal complaint in Colorado District Court against Air-O-Matic, makers of the rival “Pull My Finger” app. Apparently Air-O-Matic sought $50,000 from InfoMedia for using the terminology “pull my finger” in a news release and YouTube promo video. Air-O-Matic also asked Apple to remove iFart from the iPhone App Store, but Apple told the companies to work it out themselves.
So InfoMedia decided to take the matter to court, claiming that the term “pull my finger” is common English slang and a “descriptive phrase” and therefore not covered by trademark.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Nov 19
This is scary, folks. If you use Microsoft Visual Studio to create web services, you could be subject to lawsuits for patent infringement. Yes, simply using a software program puts your company and livelihood at legal risk, yet another sign of how terribly flawed is the U.S. software patent system.
Fortunately, Microsoft is coming to save the day. Microsoft filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco last week to defend users of its Visual Studio development tools. The lawsuit seeks to invalidate several patents that WebXchange is using to sue three large companies: Allstate Insurance, Dell computer and FedEx.
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Popularity: 3% [?]
Aug 08
In a ruling that’s likely to send shock waves throughout the technology industry, the California Supreme Court upheld a 136-year-old state law against non-compete clauses in employment contracts. The ruling says that employers cannot restrict employees from working for a competitor or soliciting former clients once they leave the company.
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Popularity: 3% [?]
