Tech Law: Activision Sues EA, Google Appeals $761 Small Claims Verdict, More
A look at highlights of the past week in the high tech legal world: courts, regulation, and lawsuits.
Activision sues EA — Whoever came up with the phrase “it’s only a game” didn’t count on the PC gaming market. Activision sues EA over who owns the Brutal Legend title. [Source: GameDaily]
Rambus drops some patent claims against Nvidia — Rambus has asked the International Trade Commission to drop an investigation regarding whether Nvidia infringed on four patents. [Source: CNET]
Google wins appeal on $761 small claims case — Google appeals a small claims case that became popular and potentially opened the door for many disgruntled AdSense customers to sue for poor service — in this case, canceling the account of Think Computer Corporation without giving a reason why. An interesting read. [Source: Huffington Post]
Symantec and McAfee settle with NY AG — Both Symantec and McAfee have settled an action brought by the New York Attorney General over their allegedly renewing customers’ software subscriptions without their knowledge. Total penalties are $750,000. Wonder how many days worth of subscription income that is? [Source: Associated Press]
Vizio gets ITC stay — LCD TV vendor Vizio got a stay in U.S. courts of an International Trade Commission exclusion order, the result of a patent action by Funai. [Source: DigiTimes]
Judge tosses Wii patent suit — Nintendo prevailed over Guardian Media Technologies and its patent suit when a judge dismissed the action. [Source: CNET]
Microsoft and Mississippi make up — Microsoft will pay $40 million to the state of Mississippi and offer $60 million in vouchers to settle a class action suit over Windows and Office pricing. [Source: CNET]
Canada says no to business method patents — The Canadian Patent Appeal Board denied Amazon.com a one-click ordering patent in Canada. [Source: The Inquirer]
Gavel image via Flickr user Thomas Roche, CC 2.0.
Erik Sherman is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in Newsweek, the New York Times Magazine, Technology Review, the Financial Times, Chief Executive, and other publications. Follow him on Twitter.
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