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Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce

  • February 19, 2020

    Deaf Organization Settles Website ADA Accessibility Suit With MIT

    SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — On the heels of its settlement of a website accessibility suit with Harvard University in December, National Association of the Deaf (NAD) on Feb. 18 moved for preliminary approval in Massachusetts federal court of a similar consent decree in a parallel Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) lawsuit against Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) under which the school agrees to various procedures to provide captioning for new and existing online content (National Association of the Deaf, et al. v. Harvard University, et al., No. 3:15-cv-30023, National Association of the Deaf, et al. v. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, No. 3:15-cv-30024, D. Mass.).

  • February 19, 2020

    Facebook, Reddit, Giphy Seek Dismissal Of TV Anchor’s Right Of Publicity Suit

    PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia television anchor’s publicity rights lawsuit over the online use of a photo of her merits dismissal for lack of jurisdiction, as well as immunity under the Communications Decency Act (CDA), Facebook Inc., Reddit Inc. and Giphy Inc. argue in motions filed in Pennsylvania federal court on Feb. 10 (Karen Hepp v. Facebook Inc., et al., No. 2:19-cv-04034, E.D. Pa.).

  • February 18, 2020

    Blind Group’s Software Accessibility Suit On Dispatcher’s Behalf Dismissed

    BOSTON — The National Federation of the Blind Inc. (NFB) failed to establish that a software firm violated an employment discrimination law by selling software that was inaccessible to a hospital employee, a Massachusetts federal judge ruled Jan. 31, granting the company’s motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim (The National Federation of the Blind Inc. v. Epic Systems Corp., No. 1:18-cv-12630, D. Mass., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19858).

  • February 18, 2020

    Oracle:  Attorney-Client Privilege Wrongly Applied To Rimini Technical Documents

    LAS VEGAS — More than a year after it was granted an injunction in a long-running software copyright dispute with Rimini Street Inc., Oracle USA Inc. filed an objection to a Nevada federal magistrate judge’s discovery ruling on Feb. 12, asserting that the defendant is using the attorney-client privilege to shield continued infringement (Oracle USA Inc., et al. v. Rimini Street Inc., et al., No. 2:10-cv-00106, D. Nev.).

  • February 18, 2020

    Panel Orders Dismissal Of Texas Patent Action Against Google

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Feb. 13 directed a federal judge in Texas to dismiss allegations that Google LLC’s Pixel smartphones infringe three patents; in the same order, a concurring judge wrote separately to “raise questions about Google’s business model” (In re:  Google LLC, No. 19-126, Fed. Cir., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 4588).

  • February 14, 2020

    Facebook, Twitter Seek Supreme Court Guidance Over SCA Subpoena Responses

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Feb. 7, Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. filed a petition for certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether subpoenas requiring the disclosure of users’ nonpublic social media account contents, which they say violate the Stored Communications Act (SCA), are constitutionally permissible (Facebook Inc., et al. v. The Superior Court of San Francisco County, et al., No. 19-1006, U.S. Sup.).

  • February 14, 2020

    DOD, Microsoft May Not Continue JEDI Program While Amazon’s Protest Is Considered

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge on Feb. 13 granted Amazon Web Services Inc.’s motion to preliminarily enjoin the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and Microsoft Corp. from proceeding with any activities related to the multibillion-dollar Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract, which was recently awarded to Microsoft, pending resolution of Amazon’s lawsuit alleging that its JEDI bid was rejected due to President Donald J. Trump’s dislike of the company and its Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey P. Bezos (Amazon Web Services Inc. v. United States, No. 1:19-cv-01796, Fed. Clms.).

  • February 13, 2020

    Booking.com Tells Supreme Court Lanham Act Allows Generic ‘.Com’ Trademarks

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Citing the Lanham Act’s “primary significance” test, Booking.com B.V. argues in its Feb. 12 merits respondent brief to the U.S. Supreme Court that the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals correctly found that the adding of the top-level domain (TLD) “.com” to a generic term can create a protectable trademark if the relevant public does not view the mark as generic (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, et al. v. Booking.com B.V., No. 19-46, U.S. Sup.).

  • February 13, 2020

    Oracle To High Court: Google’s Java Code Copying Was Egregious Plagiarism

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals correctly deemed the copying of thousands of lines of Java code by Google LLC to not have been fair use, Oracle America Inc. argues in its Feb. 12 merits respondent brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, calling Google’s actions “clear-cut copyright infringement” and asking the high court to affirm the judgment in its favor (Google LLC v. Oracle America Inc., No. 18-956, U.S. Sup.).

  • February 11, 2020

    Amazon, Microsoft Debate Discovery, Trump Deposition In JEDI Contract Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. —  In redacted documents filed Feb. 10 in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, Amazon Web Services Inc. and Microsoft Corp. argue over Amazon’s motion to supplement the administrative record (AR) in its protest of the recent awarding of the multibillion-dollar Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract to Microsoft by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), including Amazon’s requests for document production and a deposition of President Donald J. Trump (Amazon Web Services Inc. v. United States, No. 1:19-cv-01796, Fed. Clms.).

  • February 10, 2020

    Federal Judge Dismisses Class Action Alleging Deceptive Gigabyte Advertising

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — A federal judge in California on Jan. 23 entered a take-nothing judgment in favor of a manufacturer and seller of electronic storage devices one day after finding that despite having amended their putative class action complaint, the plaintiffs have failed to a state a claim that the defendant’s product packaging is misleading under California's unfair competition law (UCL), Consumer Legal Remedies Act (CLRA) and false advertising law (FAL) (John Dinan, et al. v. SanDisk LLC, No. 18-05420, N.D. Calif., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10155).

  • February 07, 2020

    Google To 9th Circuit: AdWords UCL Suit Properly Dismissed For Lack Of Standing

    SAN FRANCISCO — In a Feb. 3 appellee brief, Google LLC tells the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that a trial court properly dismissed claims alleging breach of contract and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) related to a purported overcharge scheme in its AdWords program, arguing that the lone plaintiff in the nine-year-old lawsuit lacked standing and failed to comply with federal discovery rules (Rene Cabrera v. Google LLC, No. 19-16466, 9th Cir.).

  • February 07, 2020

    D.C. Circuit Denies Rehearing Petitions In Suit Challenging Net Neutrality Repeal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a pair of per curiam orders issued Feb. 6, the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied four petitions to rehear a consolidated suit filed by a variety of businesses, states and organizations that opposed the Federal Communications Commission’s 2017 repeal of net neutrality (Mozilla Corp., et al. v. Federal Communications Commission, et al., No. 18-1051, D.C. Cir.).

  • February 06, 2020

    Apple, Amici Urge Supreme Court To Decide Patent Apportionment Issue

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Apple Inc. on Feb. 4 filed a reply brief supporting its petition for certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court to decide a standard for considering apportionment and intervening patent invalidations in infringement cases, seeking to reverse a $439 million judgment against it (Apple Inc. v. VirnetX Inc., et al., No. 19-832, U.S. Sup.).

  • February 06, 2020

    Bitcoin Cash Antitrust, Negligence Lawsuit Dismissed Without Prejudice

    MIAMI — A blockchain and mobile technology firm saw its complaint alleging conspiracy claims against a variety of parties in the bitcoin cash industry dismissed without prejudice on Feb. 4 by a Florida federal magistrate judge who also denied the plaintiff’s motion to conduct jurisdictional discovery related to several foreign defendants (United American Corp. v. Bitmain Inc., et al., No. 1:18-cv-25106, S.D. Fla.).

  • February 05, 2020

    Privilege Claims In 11,000 Documents Challenged By Plaintiffs In Bitcoin Row

    WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Three weeks after a bitcoin pioneer submitted documents in a long-delayed response to multiple discovery orders, the plaintiffs in a dispute over the ownership of a bitcoin fortune filed a challenge to thousands of the defendant’s privilege designations in Florida federal court on Feb. 2, accusing him of a “pattern of obfuscation” (Ira Kleiman, et al. v. Craig Wright, No. 9:18-cv-80176, S.D. Fla.).

  • February 04, 2020

    Coverage Triggered But Insurer Did Not Act In Bad Faith, Federal Judge Rules

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York on Jan. 31 granted a financial services company insured’s cross-motion for summary judgment as to its breach of contract claim in its lawsuit seeking indemnity for an underlying settlement arising from alleged “spoof emails” that resulted in a $5.9 million fraudulent wire transfer, but ruled in favor of the insurer as to a bad faith claim (SS&C Technology Holdings, Inc. v. AIG Specialty Insurance Company, No. 19-07859, S.D. N.Y., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17201).

  • February 03, 2020

    Federal Circuit Upholds Patent Board In Win For Google, Microsoft

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A patent owner’s effort to overturn a Patent Trial and Appeal Board determination of invalidity was unsuccessful Jan. 30, when the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals instead agreed that the claimed method for emulating video streaming over a network is obvious (Koninklijke Philips N.V. v. Google LLC, et al., No. 19-1177, Fed. Cir., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 2911).

  • January 31, 2020

    VirnetX Opposes Apple’s Certiorari Petition In Network Technology Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — An owner of secure internet communications patents on Jan. 21 asked the U.S. Supreme Court to deny a petition for certiorari by Apple Inc. in a long-running patent infringement dispute, arguing that the petition, which raises questions of apportionment and patent validity, is “plagued by fatal defects” and “presents no issue warranting review.” (Apple Inc. v. VirnetX Inc., et al., No. 19-832, U.S. Sup.).

  • January 31, 2020

    In Caltech Patent Trial Against Apple, Broadcom, Jury Awards $1.1B

    LOS ANGELES — The California Institute of Technology on Jan. 29 secured a $1.1 billion verdict in a dispute with Broadcom Ltd. and Apple Inc. over three data encoding patents owned by the university (The California Institute of Technology v. Broadcom Ltd., et al., No. 16-3714, C.D. Calif.).