Jan 12

Microsoft files motion to dismiss Apple’s ‘App Store’ trademark claim, says term is generic

Posted in: Apple, AppStore, Law, legal, Microsoft, steve jobs, SteveJobs, Today's Chili

That Apple had the original App Store isn’t under dispute, but should the company have the right to exclude others from using the same term to describe their program repositories? Microsoft says no, and has this week filed a motion with the US Patent and Trademark Office asking for it to dismiss Apple’s trademark claim for “App Store.” The application seeks to secure for Apple the exclusive use of the term in the context of computer software broadly, not just on the mobile front, but Microsoft is arguing that its constituent words are generic (or simply descriptive) both individually and as a pair. In making its case, the Redmond company cites Steve Jobs himself, whose exposition on the topic of Android fragmentation included specific mention of multiple “app stores” for the Google OS. It would seem this has been brewing for a while, too, as the last update — dated 7th of July, 2010 — on Apple’s trademark application notes there’s a pending opposition to its claim. Now that Microsoft’s escalated its complaint to asking for a summary dismissal, it’ll be interesting to see on which side of the great divide the decision falls.

Continue reading Microsoft files motion to dismiss Apple’s ‘App Store’ trademark claim, says term is generic

Microsoft files motion to dismiss Apple’s ‘App Store’ trademark claim, says term is generic originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 03:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechFlash, IDG News (Good Gear Guide)  |  sourceMicrosoft’s motion [PDF], ‘App Store’ application (USPTO)  | Email this | Comments

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Jan 10

California Supreme Court says warrantless searches of suspects’ text messages are legal

Posted in: Law, legal, search, Today's Chili

Planning on getting arrested in California any time soon? You’d better make sure your text archives are free from any incriminating information as the state’s Supreme Court has now ruled it legal for police to check your missives folder without the need for a warrant. The justification for this privacy intrusion is that a phone search is “incidental” to a lawful arrest and its contents, much like the contents of your pockets or bags, fall within the realm of reasonable search. Two of the judges in the case did dissent, with one noting that “never before has it been possible to carry so much personal or business information in one’s pocket or purse,” which she argues should afford your iPhone, Droid or BB a higher level of privacy protection than, say, the packet of gummy bears you have in the other pocket. What do you think?

California Supreme Court says warrantless searches of suspects’ text messages are legal originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Phone Arena  |  sourceYahoo! News  | Email this | Comments

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Jan 08

Apple pulls VLC from the iTunes store

Posted in: Apple, AppStore, Law, legal, open source, opensource, Today's Chili

Looks like VLC’s role as champion of open-source legal rights is no more — rather than lawyer up, Apple’s taken the easy way out, and simply removed the VLC media player from the App Store. Rémi Denis-Courmont — the VideoLAN developer who originally sued to have it removed — reports that an Apple attorney informed him that the company had complied with his takedown request, and pulled the app accordingly, which likely puts the kibosh on other potential VLC ports as well. If you think about it, the open-source community may have just planted the first brick in a walled garden of its own.

Apple pulls VLC from the iTunes store originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Jan 2011 13:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceTUAW  | Email this | Comments

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Dec 28

CCTV cameras help solve ‘six crimes a day’ in London, says Metropolitan Police

Posted in: Law, london, Today's Chili, uk, united kingdom, UnitedKingdom

Been questioning the value of having omnipresent surveillance cameras tracking your every move? Well, if you’re an outlaw, you still won’t like them, but for the rest of us law-abiding types, London’s Metropolitan Police has a comforting stat to share: almost six crimes a day are being resolved with the help of CCTV footage. It’s being used primarily to aid the identification of perps on the run, and the number of suspects identified as a result has gone up to 2,512 this year. There is a bright light for criminals, however, as the Met admits digital recordings aren’t kept around as long as VHS ones used to be, meaning that if you slip the dragnet once, you’ll probably be alright. So good news for everyone!

CCTV cameras help solve ‘six crimes a day’ in London, says Metropolitan Police originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Dec 2010 05:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceBBC  | Email this | Comments

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Dec 24

Monster sues Fanny Wang, purveyor of fine knockoff headphones

Posted in: headphones, kirf, Law, lawsuit, legal, Today's Chili
Monster Cable’s reign of legal terror has resulted in several things over the years — a tiff with the Chicago Bears over the “Monsters of the Midway” nickname, a lawsuit against a minigolf company, and eventually even a hard ban on the pages of Engadget — but we can’t say we ever expected the target of a Monster lawsuit to try and use the case for cheap free publicity. Well, surprises come in all forms: the delightfully-named Fanny Wang is now proudly proclaiming that it’s being sued for copying Monster’s Beats headphones and trying to score some free good press — even though it appears that Fanny’s headphones are indeed a fairly close copy of Beats. (Just check the image above.)

To give you an idea of the ridiculousness at work, Fanny’s presently hosting a copy of the Beats design patent and Monster’s complaint on its own website, right next to a rebuttal of the charges. Fanny claims its headphones have different packaging and minor design differences such that “no reasonable consumer would likely confuse the two,” which we suppose is arguably true — but we’d also point out that Fanny’s original press release proudly proclaims that “the same sound engineer who designed the Beats by Dr. Dre acoustics tackled the Fanny Wang collection.” Copy, coincidence, or crafty PR strategy? You be the judge… for now.

Monster sues Fanny Wang, purveyor of fine knockoff headphones originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Dec 2010 10:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceFanny Wang  | Email this | Comments

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Dec 22

Motorola seeks ‘Xoom’ trademark around the world, could well be the name of its Android tablet

Posted in: Law, legal, moto, motorola, rumor, slate, speculation, tablet, Today's Chili, xoom

The guys over at Pocketnow have been doing their intellectual property homework lately and they’ve uncovered an atypically broad trademarking effort being carried out by Motorola. The Droid maker has sought to be associated with the term “Xoom” in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and even Taiwan, signifying that whatever the company intends to do with the name will play a pretty significant role in its future plans. The category applied for is defined as “Mobile computers and related accessories,” which really narrows things down to the one device Moto has in its labs that everyone’s talking about: its Android Honeycomb tablet. All this legal team activity seems to point to its name being the Motorola Xoom, but there’s still time for minds to change and branding to be revised. Hey, at least we know what the logo will look like.

Motorola seeks ‘Xoom’ trademark around the world, could well be the name of its Android tablet originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Dec 2010 06:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Pocketnow  |  sourceUSPTO, CIPO (Canada), OHIM (Europe)  | Email this | Comments

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Dec 14

iPad versus Kindle: even the Supreme Court can’t decide (video)

Posted in: amazon, amazon kindle, AmazonKindle, Apple, apple ipad, AppleIpad, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, ipad, kindle, Law, slate, tablet, Today's Chili, video

Supreme Court judges are supposed to be some of the sagest dudes and ladies around, but even they can’t agree on which e-reading device is best. Amazon’s multimillion-selling Kindle is the weapon of choice for newly appointed Justice Elena Kagan, however old pro Justice Antonin Scalia prefers to battle the bulge of briefs using his iPad. Who will prevail in this titanic struggle? Probably good old paper, actually, as both are said to use their electronic devices as supplements to, rather than replacements for, the old fashioned reading method. See the video revealing these shocking facts after the break.

Continue reading iPad versus Kindle: even the Supreme Court can’t decide (video)

iPad versus Kindle: even the Supreme Court can’t decide (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 04:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Wired  |  sourceCSPAN (YouTube)  | Email this | Comments

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Dec 09

Cypress Hill backup singer sees himself in Grand Theft Auto, sues Rockstar

Posted in: Games, gaming, Law, lawsuit, legal, Today's Chili
Our friends, this next post is fraught with danger, excitement, and West Coast rappers with names like B-Real, Sen Dog, and Michael “Shagg” Washington. Indeed, the latter is alleging that Rockstar appropriated his likeness for the character CJ, a hood in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas whose life apparently shares many details with his own troubled upbringing, “including how the teen-agers in his gang rode around on bicycles,” according to his lawyer. It seems that way back in 2003 the Cypress Hill backup singer met with reps from the game studio for a two hour interview “to talk about street life,” and the next thing you know, San Andreas is released and you have criminals riding around on bikes! Coincidence? Mr. Shagg doesn’t think so, and he’s asking for twenty-five percent of Rockstar’s profits from the game — approximately $250 million — because they’ve “stolen his image and never paid him.” Now that we think of it, isn’t there an obsessive gadget blogger in that game that looks awfully familiar? We’d better call our lawyers.

Cypress Hill backup singer sees himself in Grand Theft Auto, sues Rockstar originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 16:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Joystiq  |  sourceIGN  | Email this | Comments

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Dec 05

Federal Wi-Net bill proposes a femtocell and WiFi hotspot in every federal building

Posted in: hotspot, Law, legal, Today's Chili, us, usa, wifi, Wireless

Here’s one way to fix the spectrum crunch: set up wireless base stations and WiFi hotspots in every single one of the 9,000 buildings currently owned and operated by the US General Services Administration. That idea, along with the proposal that such installations be made mandatory in all future federal structures, was put before the US Senate this Friday. It’s argued that installing femtocells at those locations would improve reception indoors, lighten network loads in busy areas, and expand accessibility for more rural locales. Ubiquitous WiFi routers, on the other hand, hardly require any justification beyond “common sense,” but you should be aware that the Federal Wi-Net bill also asks for a $15 million budget for the performance of retrofitting and future installs. Full PR after the break.

Continue reading Federal Wi-Net bill proposes a femtocell and WiFi hotspot in every federal building

Federal Wi-Net bill proposes a femtocell and WiFi hotspot in every federal building originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 01:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Slashdot, Hillicon Valley  |  sourceUS Senate  | Email this | Comments

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Dec 03

Dispute over Square card reader patent gets litigious

Posted in: iPhone, Law, lawsuit, patent, Today's Chili

As folks who follow such things may be aware, there’s been some dispute over the origin of Square’s card reader technology more or less since the company (led by Twitter’s Jack Dorsey) went public with it last year. That dispute has now gotten even more contentious, however, with Square and its chairman, James McKelvey, taking aim at REM Holdings and Robert Morley, who actually holds the patent to the technology. The key issue is that McKelvey is not listed as one of the inventors in the patent, despite claims that he was the one that actually conceived the idea in a “flash of inventive insight,” and that he and Morley worked together to develop the idea (and later discussed obtaining patent protection with Jack Dorsey). And that’s pretty much where things stand at the moment — Square is requesting a court order to add McKelvey as a co-inventor on the patent, but there’s no indication as to when or if that will happen.

Dispute over Square card reader patent gets litigious originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 14:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceTechCrunch  | Email this | Comments

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