If you trust the prosecution, Microsoft is guilty of labeling computers as "Windows Vista Capable" when they really can only run the basic edition of Windows Vista. While this sounds like an absolutely ridiculous reason to sue Microsoft, it is a very legitimate case. Microsoft labels almost all new computers as "Windows Vista Capable", which makes users think they are buying all the cool stuff that's advertised in the "Windows Vista Experience", such as Aero. In truth, users can only run the basic edition of Windows Vista, which comes with no such luxuries. The defense (aka Microsoft) claims that this is really not the case, and that "Windows Vista Premium Certified" is just one way to prove that Microsoft "conducted a very broad and unprecedented effort" to educate everyone on the latest version of Windows.

A news post at Heise online caught my attention earlier today. Linked below is a picture out of the first tab patent (patent # 1,435,664) from 1922. Over 70 years Later this patent merged into a patent (# 5,160,296) owned by the father of an opera developer which was the first web browser utilizing tabbed browsing. The developer later on switched to the Mozilla team and so they were allowed to implement tabbed browsing. As Microsoft introduced the internet explorer 7 it was time for the Mozilla foundation to strike back.

Anyone remember Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy? If not, it was a promising game with good reviews that didn't exactly do too well in the retail market. It seemed to be all but forgotten, until a screenwriter noticed strange similarities between his work (titled Psi-ops) and the previously mentioned game. Accusing Midway of plagiarism, the man is suing for $1.5 million USD. Midway has not commented on this situation.

Some people claimed it was bound to happen. Some people hoped it never would. Pirates didn't care one way or another, and continued uploading illegally-obtained clips to YouTube. There have been tons of rumors regarding YouTube getting sued, and Viacom can proudly claim that they are the first company to actually do it. Viacom was unable to reach a licensing agreement with YouTube, and ordered their clips off YouTube. YouTube attempted to comply, but piracy appeared to prevail. The lawsuit details 160,000 clips still on the site, and wants $1 billion USD in damages. Viacom claims that YouTube's business model, which is "based on building traffic and selling advertising off of unlicensed content, is clearly illegal and is in obvious conflict with copyright laws". YouTube claims that they have done everything in their power to remove Viacom's content from their website, and is almost certain the courts will agree.

A former model who now lives in Ohio recently signed up for a Yahoo Email account. This doesn't sound like anything special, however, it became very special the moment Yahoo sent the lady her first Email. She got an email full of tips on how to use the Yahoo account...with her picture on top. She is now suing Yahoo for $20 million USD. She is demanding $10 million for lost profits, and another $10 million to cover attorney fees and the like. The official complaint claims "that the image has been sent to millions of users around the world without Stovall's authorization, violating her right to privacy and right to publicity--that is, to control the commercial use of her identity".

Seattle- A US federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against Microsoft by Alcatel-Lucent, alleging that Microsoft infringed on Alcatel-Lucent's patents on speech to text technology.

This ruling comes one week after a jury awarded Alcatel-Lucent $1.52 billion in a seperate lawsuit, the largest ever in a US patent case. Microsoft plans to appeal that ruling.

We reported a couple days ago that Sony would never use rumble in the PS3, as it was a "last generation feature". However, in a recent press release, Sony announced that they had fixed their problems with Immersion, who's technology made it possible for Sony's earlier PlayStation's to have rumble. To make things even more interesting, Sony and Immersion are now business partners. Sony on this partnership:

We are very pleased to have reached a cooperative agreement with Immersion regarding the use of its advanced vibration technology (haptics technology). We look forward to working closely with them as we explore new and innovative ways to utilize this technology in PlayStation products.

Chances are that this means we'll see a rumble feature in the PS3...eventually.

RIAA launches website for music copyright violators to pay without going to court

People who are caught by the RIAA usually have to pay a substantial amount of money to record companies. And so, the RIAA has decided to make a little website dedicated to helping the average pirate through the process of getting caught. P2Plawsuits.com is dedicated to doing three things. The first thing they do is post a list of questions convicted pirates might ask, and proper answers to them. The second thing the RIAA posts on their website is options/details on how to reduce the convict's fine, and even settle out of court. The third thing that the RIAA does is link to a website detailing the advantages of downloading legal music, which also hosts a list of legitimate music downloading services.

With Microsoft receiving a hefty $1.5 billion fine the other day, MP3 patents are once again in the spotlight as a company in Texas is now trying to sue… well every company that makes MP3 players really. At the moment, Apple, SanDisk and Samsung are the three major names involved, but this case has the potential to draw more companies in - although it may seem quite ambitious as things stand. The company behind the lawsuits is known as Texas MP3 Technologies Ltd. which holds a patent which it claims covers the production an "MPEG portable sound reproducing system." The patent was issued in June, and now the company hopes to make money out of the MP3 player industry, which was worth approximately $6.1 billion last year.

During the last week already Blizzard Entertainment and Vivendi Games filed against Michael Donnelly, creator of WoW Glider. WoW Glider is a so called Bot which acts for you and controls your character while you are away. Blizzard respectively Vivendi, who are known for banning thousands of players because of using such 3rd party software, accused Donelly of violating their rights associated with "World of Warcraft", of infringing copyrights owned by them, violating the DMCA and so on.
A fairly one-sided and biased presentation of what happened can be found at MarkeeDragon.

If you are interested in more forensic details you can read a few documents regarding the claims and counterclaims over here.

The lawsuit, brought about by investors, accuses computer maker Dell Inc. of "secretly receiving approximately $250 million a quarter in likely illegal kickbacks payments" from its long time partner Intel. This money was supposedly received in return for an exclusive purchase agreement for Intel's microprocessors. Chip maker Intel claims that the accusations are just a renewal of similar previous complaints by chip maker AMD (Advanced Micro Devices). Dell would not comment on the lawsuit. In the past Dell has only used processors manufactured by Intel, but just last year began buying processors from Intel's competition AMD.

In addition, Dell is also currently under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the U.S. Justice Dept. for its accounting practices.

Source: CNNMoney

The two companies previously agreed the deadline was on Thursday, but on Thursday evening( the 15th of Febuary ) Cisco extended the deadline nearly another week. I see this as an interesting strategy, Cisco seems to be aiming at at achieving a settlement here.

Some of you may have heard that The Ant Commandos were known for making an aftermarket Guitar Hero controller. Of course, you may also remember that they never got permission from Activision to make/use it. And so after a considerable amount of lawsuits/counter-suits, they settled. Now, with Harmonix having left the Guitar Hero project, things have gotten much stickier. Some Red Octane employees left the Guitar Hero project, and went over to The Ant Commandos to help them make their own game. This game is being accused of using elements that were clearly used in the Guitar Hero series, and some forms of DDR. Activision responded immediately by banning the demo from being downloaded. The demo will remain banned unless The Ant Commandos can prove that they developed their game without the help of the Red Octane employees or Reverb Communications.

About a week ago, Turner broadcasting tried to promote Aqua Teen Hunger Force in Boston. However, this creative advertising, which involved hiding blinking electronic devices around the city, went dreadfully awry. The devices were misinterpreted as a terrorist attack, drawing a police response similar to 9/11. Public transportation, including entire roads and rivers, effectively halted as the city descended into a panic. At the height of the alert, Boston authorities mobilized bomb squads, federal agents, the coast guard, hundreds of officers, and emergency crews. Red faced, Turner broadcasting and marketing firm Interference agreed to pay $2 million USD as compensation for the disturbance.

There has been a dispute between Apple Corps and Apple Inc. (once known as Apple Computer Inc.) for some time now - it originally dates back to the late 1970s. After a settlement of $80,000 in 1981, Apple Inc. agreed to stay out of the music business as part of the deal, and both companies carried on as they were. But during 2006, Apple Corps (which was founded by British band The Beatles) claimed that iTunes and the iPod broke the agreement and has been trying to sue Apple Inc. ever since. However, today it has been revealed that the two have settled their differences, and although very little information about the agreement has been revealed, it seems both sides are now happy with the outcome and there is even the possibility of an iTunes deal to let Apple Inc. sell The Beatle's music, although that isn't certain.

Many people are very unhappy with the lack of good/WHQL certified drivers for their very expensive G80 video cards. A thread on NVIDIA forums has been swarming with lots of flames and FUD toward the G80, and has been closed by one of their moderators. And so, instead of protesting the only (or so they are accusing) way NVIDIA really lets them, G80 users are trying to get enough research/evidence together to start a class action lawsuit against NVIDIA. Anyone who wants to help support this lawsuit, please visit NVidiaClassAction.org. NVIDIA Class Action wants evidence such as screen shots and box covers claiming Vista compatibility in some way.

The site motto is rather catchy.

The surprise we've all been waiting for - a $650 coaster.

Fox Entertainment Group gave YouTube a very nice subpoena. This subpoena demands the full identity of mister "ECOtotal". Fox wants this information mainly because "ECOtotal" had posted a bunch of Simpsons and 24 episodes, some of which were posted before they were released on television. The VP of Fox Entertainment Group feels that "the uploaded material could cause Fox irreparable harm". Ecototal's YouTube account has been suspended.

While Cisco is busy worrying about whether or not Apple will get to use the iPhone name, Canadian telecommunications provider Comwave is threatening to take legal action against Cisco if they do not change their own iPhone's name. Comwave has owned and been offering an iPhone service since 2004. The president of Comwave claims that "there has been a Comwave iPhone for years, and, (according to)Canadian law on first use, iPhone is ours". Comwave claims that both Cisco and Apple should have thought of other names for their various telecom devices.

Four angry families are suing MySpace, because all of them have one thing in common. All four families have a daughter that's been sexually assaulted by a guy they've met on MySpace, and been seduced into meeting. Two law firms, Barry & Loewy of Austin, Texas, and Arnold & Itkin of Houston, says the familes are filing separate suits in the Los Angeles Superior court. MySpace is being accused of being negligent, reckless, fraudulent and misrepresenting itself. MySpace wants to point out that Myspace is "an industry leader on Internet safety", and that they make some serious effort to get parents to take responsibility for their kids. The families of the victims are after several million dollars each.

Fenner Investments sues Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo for infringing on its joystick

It sounds too nonsensical to be true, but Texas-based Fenner Investments sued all three console manufacturers for infringing their copyright on a "low-voltage joystick port interface" (patent number 6,297,751). The patent basically states:

The joystick port interface according the present invention is a low power port which interfaces a typical 5 Volt joystick peripheral device with a lower power computer port. The low-voltage joystick port interface includes a bidirectional buffer circuit and a pulse generator which, together, generate a digital pulse signal, representing a joystick coordinate position, based on an input analog measurement signal.

If Fenner wins the lawsuits, then they will succeed in banning all three consoles from market, as they are seeking damages and an injunction against the consoles.

A lawsuit filed in Ontario Superior Court, which aspires to gaining class-action status, accuses Dell of selling notebooks with defects...that they knew about. The prosecution is claiming that the Dell Inspiron 1100, 1150, 5100, 5150 or 5160 were designed in a way that caused premature motherboard failure due to overheating. A Dell spokeswoman has no comment on this lawsuit.

On December 18th, 2006, Cisco released a set of Skype compatible wifi phones, basically claiming the iPhone name. Cisco and Apple had been talking about who should rightfully get to use the iPhone name since then. When Apple unveiled it's iPhone at Macworld this year, Cisco sued. Cisco wants to halt all sales of the Apple iPhone.

Kodak sued Sony back in 2004, claiming that Sony had infringed on it's patents on digital camera technology. Since then, Kodak and Sony have been counter suing for the control of 10 patents. Sony and Kodak have officially settled by starting a cross licensing agreement, so that both companies have the rights to use the same technology.

Taiwanese MP3 manufacturer Luxpro has stated that they are planning on suing Apple for $100 million. Luxpro was originally sued by Apple on claims that it was copying the design of Apple's iPod Shuffle. Luxpro countered the claims by saying that the prominence of its logo and a series of "easy-to-operate features" were adequate differentiation. After winning an appeal against Apple, the company now plans to move onto the offensive. In a press release, the company stated that it would be suing Apple for 100 million USD. The figure is to receive compensation for Apple's earlier lawsuit in which Luxpro claims they lost valuable market opportunities and a large amount of product orders.

A U.S. research institute has sued Nokia, Samsung Electronics and Matsushita-owned Panasonic for violating a patent for Bluetooth technology, potentially putting the free wireless standard at risk. The Washington Research Foundation, which markets technology from the University of Washington, is seeking damages from the three mobile-phone makers for using a radio frequency receiver technology without paying royalties, according to court papers obtained by Reuters on Wednesday. Nokia, Samsung and Panasonic declined to comment the story.