Judge Skeptical of Facebook Suit

Lawyers for the founders a social networking Web site will get a chance to revise their infringement complaint against their big-name competitor, Facebook Inc. But they may face an uphill battle, if comments by a Boston federal judge during a pretrial hearing yesterday are any indication. Judge Douglas Woodlock was…

Jul 26, 2007 8:29 PM CDT

Counterfeit Arrests a ‘Milestone’

A Microsoft lawyer who battles illegal copies of the company’s software sees “a real milestone” in yesterday’s seizure of more than $500 million worth of Chinese-made counterfeits. The FBI and Chinese authorities cooperated to seize the counterfeit Microsoft and Symantec software and arrest 25 people, the New York Times reports.…

Jul 25, 2007 2:56 PM CDT

Firm’s Archive Search Not Illegal

A Pennsylvania law firm has emerged unscathed from its trip through the “Wayback Machine.” Judge Robert Kelly of Philadelphia has ruled Harding, Earley, Follmer & Frailey did not infringe a company’s copyright by obtaining its archived Internet pages using a search tool called the Wayback Machine. Nor did the law…

Jul 24, 2007 1:20 PM CDT

Patent Profits Elusive

Patents may pave a path to litigation rather than profits, especially in the information technology industry, according to a study by two researchers. They found that patent litigation in the United States cost $16 billion in 1999, while companies reaped only $9.3 billion in patent profits, the New York Times…

Jul 16, 2007 5:40 PM CDT

The Day the Internet Music Dies

Playing music on the Internet gets more expensive on Sunday—in some cases prohibitively so—because of inaction by a federal appeals court. Sunday is the day that broadcast royalty rates will increase because of a decision by an obscure group of federal judges called the Copyright Royalty Board, the Los Angeles…

Jul 13, 2007 5:05 PM CDT

Big Firms Rise in IP Survey

Big law firms are giving patent-litigation boutiques a run for their money. IP Law & Business began surveying law firms in 2000 to determine their amount of patent work, according to a story on the latest findings. At the time, IP specialty firms “ruled the top of the charts.” Since…

Jul 13, 2007 1:47 PM CDT

Dueling Motions Denied

A federal judge has denied dueling motions in a patent infringement case that seek to disqualify the other side’s lawyers. Senior U.S. District Judge William Schwarzer of San Francisco ruled in a suit that claims RealNetworks infringed patents for organizing and playing video and audio files, the Recorder reports. Because…

Jul 6, 2007 1:10 PM CDT

Video Rivals Settle Patent Dispute

Netflix has settled a suit that alleged Blockbuster stole its business method to charge subscribers a monthly fee to rent videos online. Blockbuster revealed the settlement in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports. Details of the agreement were not disclosed. A…

Jun 28, 2007 8:39 PM CDT

Suit Claims Restaurant a Copy

A New York chef has sued a competitor for copying the look and feel of her restaurant. Rebecca Charles, who owns the Pearl Oyster Bar in the West Village, says the competing restaurateur has copied her white marble bar, gray trim and straw-back chairs, the New York Times reports. She…

Jun 27, 2007 1:03 PM CDT

Plavix Patent Upheld

A federal judge in Manhattan today upheld a patent on the blood thinner Plavix. U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein said Plavix’s maker, Sanofi-Aventis, was entitled to an injunction barring a competitor’s generic version of the drug for four years, the Wall Street Journal reports. Apotex Inc. had sought to invalidate…

Jun 19, 2007 5:52 PM CDT

Qualcomm Hires DLA Piper

Semiconductor maker Qualcomm has hired the DLA Piper law firm to help it battle accusations that it failed to turn over more than 35,000 documents in a patent infringement case. The law firm replaces Day Casebeer Madrid & Batchelder of Cupertino, Calif., the Recorder reports. Qualcomm says in court papers…

Jun 14, 2007 12:27 PM CDT

Anti-Bootlegging Law Upheld

A federal statute that bars bootlegged copies of performances survived an initial review before a federal appeals court today. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in New York ruled Congress had the authority to enact the law under the commerce clause. However, the 2nd Circuit asked U.S. District…

Jun 13, 2007 7:49 PM CDT

E-Discovery Order May Be a First

A Los Angeles magistrate has ordered a Web search engine to collect customer data stored in random access memory in perhaps the first case to require such discovery.

TorrentSpy, a search engine that directs users to video files, is appealing the order, the Recorder reports. The company is being sued for copyright infringement by six movie studios seeking access to RAM to learn more about the files sought by site visitors.

Jun 13, 2007 12:24 PM CDT

EU Court: This Bud’s for Anheuser

A European court ruled today that Anheuser-Busch may use Budweiser and Bud brand names on merchandise such as T-shirts and barbecue sauce. Reuters reports that Czech brewer Budejovicky Budvar lost its bid to prevent its competitor from registering the trademarks for products other than beer before the Court of First…

Jun 12, 2007 2:51 PM CDT

Motion Claims 35,000 Documents Withheld

A pending motion for sanctions claims chip maker Qualcomm failed to turn over more than 35,000 discovery documents in a patent infringement case. Qualcomm had sued rival semiconductor maker Broadcom for infringing two Qualcomm patents for video compression, but lost at trial four months ago. In court papers filed late…

Jun 7, 2007 12:35 PM CDT