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Technology
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June 14, 2013
Bill Would Regulate Spying Technology Aimed At TV Viewers
Two lawmakers on Thursday introduced a bill to shield consumers from new television technology that monitors their activities while advertisements are playing, roughly a year after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office handed an initial rejection to Verizon Communications Inc.’s patent application for such technology.
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June 14, 2013
PE-Backed CDW Preps $738M Public Offering
Private equity-backed Illinois information technology retailer CDW Corp. is going public, filing a prospectus Friday for an initial public offering worth up to $738 million six years after it was taken private by Madison Dearborn Partners LLC and Providence Equity Partners in a $7.3 billion buyout.
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June 14, 2013
Alioto Fee Objector Looks To Take $47M Fight To 9th Circ.
A class member in the liquid crystal display price-fixing case on Thursday asked the Ninth Circuit to review a $47 million attorneys' fee award to Joseph M. Alioto's law firm based on its $28 million dispute with a lender.
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June 14, 2013
Holder, EU Officials Form Expert Group To Review NSA Spying
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and European Union officials on Friday agreed to convene a group of experts to delve into the workings of recently leaked phone and Internet surveillance programs operated by the U.S., as Holder attempted to assuage fears about the programs' reach.
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June 14, 2013
Sens. Urge Kerry To Press India On IP Enforcement
Sens. Max Baucus and Orrin Hatch on Friday urged U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to prod India's political leaders to overhaul the country's patent and copyright regime at an upcoming meeting, saying India's intellectual property laws lack adequate enforcement measures and treat U.S. businesses unfairly.
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June 14, 2013
Deals Rumor Mill: Vodafone, Siemens, KKR
Vodafone could pad its $9.6 billion buyout bid for Kabel Deutschland after the Germany company spurned the initial offer, while Siemens is looking for a way out of its 50-50 joint venture with Nokia that carries an estimated worth of $9.4 billion.
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June 14, 2013
Cisco, HP Sue Patent Holder Over Wi-Fi Litigation Blitz
Cisco Systems Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. went to court Wednesday on behalf of their customers, filing separate lawsuits against a so-called patent troll that lodged dozens of infringement suits earlier this year against hotel and coffee chains that offer Wi-Fi Internet access.
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June 14, 2013
Best Buy, T-Mobile Resolve LCD Cartel Suits Against Epson
A California federal judge Thursday approved two agreements releasing Seiko Epson Corp. and affiliates from cases brought against them by Best Buy Co. Inc. and T-Mobile USA Inc. as part of multidistrict antitrust litigation alleging price-fixing on liquid crystal display panels.
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June 14, 2013
GAO Reopens CIA Cloud Computing Bidding After IBM Protest
The Central Intelligence Agency shouldn't have given a $600 million cloud computing contract to Amazon.com Inc. because it didn't treat all bidders equally, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a decision released Friday granting an IBM Corp. bid protest.
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June 14, 2013
ITC Affirms That BDT Didn't Infringe Overland Data Patents
The U.S. International Trade Commission on Thursday affirmed a ruling from one of its judges that German tape library manufacturer BDT AG didn't infringe two data storage patents held by Overland Storage Inc.
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June 13, 2013
Extradition Of NSA Leaker Is Far From Slam Dunk For US
With the prospect of extradition looming for the former Booz Allen Hamilton employee who admitted leaking details of the National Security Agency's secret surveillance of phone records and Internet activities, experts say he will probably try to limit America’s reach by casting any charge as politically motivated, among other strategies.
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June 13, 2013
Apple Claims Win With USPTO Decision In Samsung Row
Apple Inc. told a California federal judge Thursday that it won on a key claim in its patent dispute with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., when the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently said it would re-examine allegedly rejected claims in the so-called rubber-banding patent.
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June 13, 2013
Apple Urges ITC To Widen Samsung Import Ban
Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. traded fresh blows Wednesday in their epic patent infringement fight, with Apple urging the U.S. International Trade Commission to prohibit additional Samsung smartphones and Samsung arguing that a wider ban would hamstring American consumers.
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June 13, 2013
Sprint, SoftBank Defend $22B Deal Against Dish Backlash
Sprint Nextel Corp. on Thursday stood by the sweetened $21.6 billion buyout offer SoftBank Corp. unveiled this week, after rival bidder Dish Network Corp. urged the Federal Communications Commission to demand a new analysis of the modified deal, which now includes a poison pill.
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June 13, 2013
Equinix TKOs Shareholder Suit Over $700M Merger
A California federal judge on Wednesday threw out a putative class action by Equinix Inc. shareholders who alleged the company misrepresented its finances following a $700 million acquisition of competitor Switch and Data Facilities Co. Inc., saying the plaintiffs’ third amended complaint merely rehashed old arguments.
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June 13, 2013
Jury Finds Netgear, D-Link Infringed Ericsson Router Patents
A Texas federal jury Thursday found that D-Link Systems Inc., Netgear Inc., Belkin International Inc. and four others infringed three patents protecting Internet routers and other wireless communications systems held by Ericsson Inc., noting appropriate damages for each defendant ranging from $425,000 to $3.6 million.
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June 13, 2013
Arcovis Says Co-Founder Used Trade Secrets in $40M FDA Deal
Technology company Arcovis LLC sued a former employee for $10 million Thursday, alleging she breached her fiduciary duties by sharing trade secrets with a business partner to get a share of a $40 million IT services contract with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
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June 13, 2013
Privacy Group Wants FCC To Probe Verizon Over Govt. Spying
The Electronic Privacy Information Center on Wednesday asked the Federal Communications Commission to investigate Verizon Communications Inc. over its decision to comply with a recently leaked secret court order that required it to turn over all its customers' phone records to the federal government.
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June 13, 2013
Telemarketer Agrees To Pay $4M And Shut Down Over Robocalls
Florida-based telemarketing company The Green Savers LLC on Thursday paid nearly $4 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it defrauded thousands of consumers with so-called robocalls offering bogus credit card deals.
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June 13, 2013
Sony, Nikon Skeptical Of Kodak's $650M Spinoff Plans
Sony Corp., Nikon Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and others all filed limited objections Thursday to bankrupt Eastman Kodak Co.'s $650 million plan to spin off its document imaging business to its British retirees, saying they wanted to make sure their patent infringement claims are preserved.
Expert Analysis
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Event-Driven Investors Don't Always Vote 'Yes'
Two recent M&A transactions — MetroPCS/T-Mobile and Plains Exploration/Freeport McMoRan — demonstrate that event-driven investors are not automatic yes votes for M&A transactions and buyers who fail to deliver a premium are at risk of having their proposals voted down, says Leonard Chazen of Covington & Burling LLP.
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A Strategy For Dealing With The CLS Bank Decision
Until a clear framework for determining patent eligibility of software inventions is articulated — which the Federal Circuit was unable to do in CLS Bank International v. Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. — it may make sense to be more aggressive in developing patent portfolios for computer implemented inventions that include a greater range of claim types and a greater range of specificity, says Edward Van Gieson of Beyer Law Group LLP.
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Procurement: The Hidden Path To Maximizing Profits
Unlike large corporations, law firms require their procurement professionals to be generalists, handling everything from office supplies to insurance and benefits to library services. In order to recruit the right talent, law firms should ensure personnel are involved in strategy development and establish continuing development opportunities, say Adam Stoklosa and Clayton Fox of HBR Consulting LLC.
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Even Vt. Hasn't Done Enough To Challenge 'Patent Trolls'
Although Vermont can be congratulated for being at the forefront of the battle against abusive patent litigation, the factors it has articulated to determine whether an entity has made a bad faith assertion of patent infringement can be criticized as lacking, says John Hanley of Steptoe & Johnson LLP.
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And Now A Word From The Panel ...
At its May 30 hearing in Louisville, Ky, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation will address arguments concerning whether to create MDL proceedings for three different food industry consumer fraud cases, which involve overlapping class actions filed in various jurisdictions throughout the country. Of particular interest in these cases is the approach adopted by the food manufacturer defendants with respect to MDL centralization, says Alan Rothman of Kaye Scholer LLP.
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Rise Of The Machines — Predictive Coding Goes Mainstream
The pros of using predictive coding far outweigh the cons. Given the heavy pressure on law firms and in-house counsel to reduce discovery costs, as well as the Justice Department's recent stance on the subject, it appears predictive coding will continue to emerge from the obscure world of legal technology to the mainstream of legal practice, say Michael Moscato and Myles Bartley of Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle LLP.
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SEC’s Unbundling Rules Get Breath Of Life
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commision’s “unbundling” requirements have largely been the stuff of SEC lore — periodically referred to but rarely seen in corporate governance matters. However, thanks to the high profile dispute between David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital and Apple, the unbundling rules may finally be coming out of the shadows, say attorneys with King & Spalding LLP.
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An Update On Joint Infringement In Cloud Computing
Assuming a feature of cloud-based email service warrants patent protection, a method claim may need to cover the conduct of two or three entities that act in concert to put the email application into service. For claims of that sort, the Akamai decision makes proving induced infringement easier, says Steven Amundson of Frommer Lawrence & Haug LLP.
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FCC Ruling Provides TCPA Guidance For Courts
The Federal Communications Commission’s long-anticipated ruling in the Charvat v. Echostar and U.S. v. Dish Network LLP matter is significant because it confirms that companies that do not exercise undue levels of control over their telemarketers or their call centers will not be held liable when those third parties violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, say attorneys with Locke Lord LLP.
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Benefits For Cloud Providers Adhering To US-EU Safe Harbor
The U.S. Commerce Department recently concluded that the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor's flexibility can account for any potentially unique data protection issue that may be raised by cloud computing, which suggests the program's ongoing value to U.S.-based enterprises seeking to ensure adequate data protection of personal information processed from the EU, say attorneys with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC.