Hasta La Gadget!

Wondering why Engadget still has a permanent ban on covering Monster Cable products, even after the company tried to make amends for its frivolous lawsuit and strong-arm settlement offer against Monster Mini Golf? Well, it’s because the company hasn’t actually changed its ways — not only did we just catch them trying to peddle their overpriced snakeoil cables using rigged displays for the third time, Noel Lee’s lawyers have dusted themselves off and filed a lawsuit against Monster Transmission, a performance auto supplier in Florida. Yes, Monster Cable is suing an American automotive manufacturing company in the middle of a recession. Brilliant PR move, don’t you think? So yeah, the ban stands — and we’d recommend steering your friends to any number of cable brands that are just as good, much cheaper, and far less burdened with the stink of desperation than any of Monster’s products.

Update: Monster Cable’s sending out a statement saying “Monster does not have an issue with Monster Transmission” and that the “case was filed last year, before the Monster Mini Golf matter was settled” but it sounds to us like they’re playing fast and loose with their timeline to distract people — we just spoke to Achilles Thomas, one of the owners of Monster Transmission, and he said the initial lawsuit was filed between October and November of 2008 and hasn’t come close to settling, even though the Mini Golf case settled in January. Naughty, naughty.

Read – Audioholics post on the lawsuit
Read – Monster Transmissions

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Monster Cable learns nothing, sues Monster Transmission originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Well, that was fast — just a month after Microsoft set the open-source world on fire by claiming that TomTom’s use of Linux violated its FAT filesystem patents, the two companies have settled, with TomTom paying the always-popular “undisclosed amount” and letting MS license four of its navigation patents for free. What’s more, TomTom has also agreed to remove certain functionality from its PNDs within two years. That’s huge — not only did TomTom’s attorneys calculate that the total cost of this settlement was less than the cost of a trial and a potential loss, the overwhelmingly one-way nature of the deal implies they felt they were holding a bad position. Since we don’t know if that was more to do with the navigation patents or the FAT patents, we can’t really say what’s going to happen next, but Microsoft’s made no bones about the fact that it thinks Linux violates all sorts of its IP, and cruising to an easy settlement in a month like this just might encourage its legal department to go digging for gold in troubled economic times. We’ll see.

Filed under: GPS

Microsoft and TomTom settle Linux patent suit, Linux not necessarily in the clear originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

As expected, Google and LG have joined Apple, AT&T, and Verizon in settling their visual voicemail patent lawsuits with Klausner Technologies. The LG agreement is the more straightforward of the two, since it covers LG devices like the Versa directly, but things get more complicated with Google since it doesn’t actually make its own phones — Klausner wouldn’t say if the agreement shielded Android licensees from patent claims. We’re hoping Google’s attorneys got it all sorted out, but we’ll see who else is next on Klausner’s naughty list.

Read – Google
Read – LG

Filed under: Cellphones

Google, LG settle visual voicemail patent suits with Klausner originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Look sharp, Julius: you may have thought the debate over white space internet was over since the FCC approved the Google- and Microsoft-backed plan and the industry’s gearing up to make it reality, but part of the new gig is learning that nothing’s ever over while NAB still has lawyers at its disposal — the prickly broadcasting organization has filed suit to stop the tech from hitting the market. As usual, NAB says that despite all the convoluted geolocation sensing and interference detection measures the White Spaces Coalition promises to implement, TV signals will be interfered with, and that’s not okay. Of course, we’ve heard all these arguments for years now, and while white space devices have had a rocky test history, they’ve been successful recently — it seems like NAB is taking advantage of confusion at the FCC following the delayed DTV transition to try and pull the rug out while no one’s looking. A bastard move, to be sure, but we doubt it’s going to be successful — going up against both the government and the heavy hitters of the tech industry is rarely a winning idea.

Filed under: Wireless

NAB throws down, sues FCC over white space internet originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Well, we can’t say we didn’t see this one coming — the US District Court for the Central District of California just ruled that Guitar Hero doesn’t infringe Gibson’s goofy patent on “simulating a musical performance.” Just as we thought, the case more or less turned on whether Guitar Hero controllers are actually “musical instruments,” and not surprisingly, the court said they’re not — it called them “toys that represent other items.” What’s more, the court also found that Gibson’s patent only applies to devices which output analog audio signals and not MIDI signals or other types of control signals, so it’s looking like other rhythm game developers are in the clear for now. We’re guessing this also means Gibson’s similar lawsuit against Harmonix for Rock Band is on hold while the company decide whether or not to appeal — let’s hope it decides this nonsense isn’t worth it.

[Thanks, Matt; warning, PDF read link]

Filed under: Gaming

Gibson loses Guitar Hero patent lawsuit, gets booed off stage originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments