court

Patent ruling good or bad for tech?

Now that the U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that abstract processes, or business methods, cannot be patented, it's important to look at how this could affect the tech industry.

The case in question was rejected because the patent at issue was a process not tied to a "machine," which is one standard for patentability.

Overall, it seems like a ruling that should favor companies that make hardware and software because while it narrows the types of patents that can be filed, in return should protect them from the frivolous patent suits that have flooded the … Read more

Supreme Court denies Samsung appeal

The Supreme Court has refused to consider appeals from Samsung Electronics in a case against Rambus, a memory design and patent licensing company, closing a saga that began in 2005 over alleged patent infringement.

The court's decision to stay out of the case leaves in place an April appeals court ruling (PDF) that a district court had no jurisdiction to grant an order that--while technically in favor of Rambus--included negative opinions about the company.

Rambus first sued Samsung in 2005 for allegedly violating its patents of various dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, devices. Samsung immediately countersued in the … Read more

Calif. Supreme Court finds noncompete clauses invalid

The California Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a long-standing state law ruling that employers can't restrict employees from working for a competitor or soliciting former clients when they leave the company.

That may be good news for California-based tech employees who want to take their skills to another company, or head a start-up that may directly compete with their former employer. "Noncompete" contracts, in place largely to protect an employer's intellectual property, began being used by companies during the dot-com boom to prevent losing valuable workers in a competitive technology labor market.

Microsoft and Google battled … Read more

COPA anti-Net porn law: Down but not out

The U.S. Department of Justice has been fighting an extended legal battle since 1998 to enforce a federal law that targets Web sites deemed "harmful to minors." On Tuesday, it lost again.

This week's ruling (PDF) by the Philadelphia-based Third Circuit Court of Appeals means Web site operators can continue to relax, at least for now, about the Child Online Protection Act being enforced against them. COPA includes criminal penalties, including fines and six months imprisonment, for anyone found guilty of violating it.

The court concluded that COPA "cannot withstand a strict scrutiny, vagueness, or … Read more

A great day for individual freedom

Thursday was a great day for all of us in the United States of America.

In its ruling on the case District of Columbia v. Heller, our Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment to the US Constitution means what it plainly says: the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right.

In its decision (available here, along with the dissenting opinions), the Court rejected decades of mendacious propaganda from… Read more

Judge sets Facebook hearing status to 'private'--hmm

Kicking the public out of a courtroom is an option that should be used rarely, and extremely judiciously, which is what makes U.S. District Judge James Ware's decision Monday disappointing.

Ware shuttered the doors to a San Jose, Calif., hearing pitting Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg, probably the world's youngest self-made billionaire, against Harvard University classmates who claim Zuckerberg stole ideas and source code from a similar venture called ConnectU. Ware took this extraordinary step without notice, without a formal request from either side, and without even specifying why it was necessary.

This is at odds with the … Read more

Supreme Court grants victory to Quanta in patent case

The U.S. Supreme Court handed a big victory to Quanta Computer on Monday when it held that the doctrine of patent exhaustion barred LG Electronics' claims against it.

In doing so, the Supreme Court reversed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's previous decision that patent exhaustion did not apply to method claims and extended that doctrine to licenses for products that "substantially embod[y] a patent." This case is likely to substantially change the playing field for patentees seeking to monetize their patents in a vertical industry value chain.… Read more

The 404 116: Where two Wongs make a right

Since Jeff's still partying in New Orleans, we invite CNET Labs Technician Joseph Kaminski into the studio today to chat about the imminent 3G iPhone release, its arch-nemesis, the Samsung Omnia, and the Green Lantern's epic battle with the color yellow. We also watch a video of a wild office rampage in Russia and warn America about the perils of being "Wilson-ed." EPISODE 116 Download today's podcast

Supreme Court rejects fantasy baseball dispute

Major League Baseball has struck out in its attempt to get the U.S. Supreme Court to intercede in a fantasy baseball dispute.

The justices on Monday said they won't take up MLB's challenge, backed by the National Football League Players Association, of prior court rulings favoring a fantasy league company. The announcement came without comment in a standard list of case statuses published by the high court (PDF).

MLB's Internet media arm, later joined by the pro-baseball players' union, had claimed that C.B.C. Distribution and Marketing--a Missouri company that sells fantasy sports products via … Read more

Judge agrees Dell engaged in fraudulent, deceptive practices

A New York State Supreme Court said Tuesday that Dell and its financial services arm misled customers.

Judge Joseph Teresi ruled that the world's second-largest PC maker engaged in fraud, false advertising, deceptive business, and abusive debt collection practices. The company was accused by the state of New York of offering no-interest or no-payment financing options for its products while Dell Financial Services would fail to honor them.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed the suit in May 2007, asking for an injunction against the company's business practices and monetary damages for affected customers.

Further court proceedings … Read more