Dan Levine
Judge Rejects Apple Bid for Injunction against Samsung
Judge Lucy Koh of the US District Court, Northern District in San Jose (CA) rejected Apple’s latest bid for a permanent injunction against Samsung in another sign of the diminishing impact of the smartphone patent wars.
In her ruling, Judge Koh said Apple’s reputation as an innovator “has proved extremely robust” despite Samsung’s patent infringement. “Apple has not demonstrated that it will suffer irreparable harm to its reputation or goodwill as an innovator without an injunction,” Judge Koh wrote.
Judge says concerned about Apple, Google hiring settlement
A US judge said she had concerns about approving a $324.5 million settlement involving Apple, Google and two other tech companies in a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to avoid poaching each other's workers.
Tech employees filed a class action lawsuit against Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe Systems in 2011.
The case has been closely watched due to the potentially high damages award and the opportunity to peek into the world of Silicon Valley's elite. The four companies agreed to settle with the plaintiffs in April for a total of $324.5 million. The plaintiffs had planned to ask for about $3 billion in damages at trial, which could have tripled to $9 billion under antitrust law.
US District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California must approve the deal.
Wiretap claims fail against Facebook, Zynga in disclosure lawsuit
A US appeals court dismissed federal wiretap claims against Facebook and Zynga in a civil lawsuit over disclosure of user information to advertisers. In a separate ruling, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals also revived breach of contract claims under state law against Facebook over the information disclosures.
Representatives for Facebook and Zynga could not immediately be reached for comment. Users of Facebook and Zynga filed separate class action lawsuits against the companies in 2010 that have been consolidated on appeal.
The plaintiffs claimed that when they clicked on a Zynga game or a Facebook ad, advertisers and other third parties received their Facebook IDs and Facebook page address, court filings show. In its opinion, a unanimous three-judge 9th Circuit panel ruled that the plaintiffs could not bring civil wiretap claims against the two companies because the information allegedly disclosed to advertisers did not qualify as the "contents of a communication" under the law.