Posts tagged Sued
Microsoft Sued By Company That Won Patent Lawsuit Against Google In 2012
Feb 1st
New York-based Vringo has sued Microsoft over two patents that pertain to the ranking and placement of ads in search results. The patents were originally developed in the early ’90s and owned for a long time by Lycos, which later sold them. They wound up at Vringo, a company that sells video…
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Google Sued by Germany’s Former First Lady for Prostitution-Related Search Suggestions
Sep 11th
Germany’s Bettina Wulff is taking Google to court over suggestions she is a prostitute in Google autocomplete results. Google can remove piracy autocomplete suggestions; should victims of defamation have the same protection?
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Google Sued By Texas Attorney General To Turn Over Documents
Jun 21st
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Google has been sued by the Texas Attorney General’s office. The Texas Attorney General is currently investigating Google’s alleged anti-competitive behavior and potential abuse of power. That investigation is essentially parallel…
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In Wake Of Penguin, Could You Be Sued For Linking To Others?
May 15th
Many webmasters have been desperately trying to fix poor SEO work done to a site thanks to the recent Penguin update targeting webspam and the bad link warnings sent from Google. The only current way to discredit a link is to have it removed as reverse nofollow functionality for webmasters simply…
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How You Could Get Sued For Using Pinterest
Feb 18th
The Boston Business Journal stopped using Pinterest one day after setting up its account after realizing it could be sued for images it uploaded to the site.
Web editor Galen Moore started playing around with the rapidly-growing social network on Thursday as a possible way to share the visual images that the Boston Business Journal uses in its coverage of real estate development: things like blueprints, artists conceptions and photos. But by Friday afternoon he had pulled the content after taking a careful read of Pinterest’s user agreement and finding out the company reserves the right to sell images users upload.
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“Exceptions for publishers of user-generated content protect Pinterest, but they don’t protect you,” Moore wrote with a link back to an earlier ReadWriteWeb article. “Unless you know you have a ‘worldwide, irrevocable,’ perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free license,’ you’d better tread carefully.”
In other words, if you upload an image that doesn’t belong to you and Pinterest sells it, you could be sued for copyright infringement.
Like Moore, we’ve asked Pinterest for comment. We’ll update if we hear back from them.
It’s unlikely real estate developers, who are notoriously hungry for publicity of their projects, would quibble with the business weekly for publishing their plans in the paper and on Pinterest. And Moore acknowledges in most cases, permission to do so would be just a phone call away. But not everyone is going to be that lucky, and for now, Moore and his colleagues are going to sit out the Pinterest craze.
“I hope we’ll find another way to use Pinterest safely. The service shows fascinating potential,” Moore wrote. “But if you operate a business, or have any net worth to speak of, I recommend a careful read of the fine print.”
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Google Sued By buySAFE Over Trusted Stores Program
Dec 28th
TechCrunch reports a company named buySafe is suing Google over their Trusted Stores program, which Google launched in October. buySafe claims several strong things in this law suit: (1) Patent Infringement (2) Stealing proprietary business information (3) Pushing buySafe customers to switch to…
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Facebook Bitten by Hand that Feeds It: Social Network Sued Over Sponsored Stories Ads
Dec 20th
On Friday, a California judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit against Facebook brought by users who believe that displayed ads featuring advertisers their friends “like” violates the state’s Right of Publicity Statute. Although she allowed the case to proceed, Judge Koh dismissed charges that Facebook unjustly enriched itself using sponsored ads. The Plantiffs in the [...]
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Google Sued for Showing Defamatory Results
Jun 26th
In New Dehli, Arindam Chaudhuri filed a major lawsuit against Google and several other sites for publishing and distributing “defamatory, libelous, and slanderous articles.” His action created a maelstrom of debate on whether or not aggregation websites, including search engines, can be held responsible for showing libelous information created by other groups.
Karnika Seth, an expert in cyber law who resides in New Delhi, states that, “A search engine is not entirely to be blamed and it is difficult for them to monitor their content because of their huge database.” Rodney Ryder, a cyber crime expert, agrees that it’s illogical to sue sites like Google because “it’s just a content aggregator, and not the publisher.”
However, some groups insist that Google has a greater level of responsibility than it is living up to. Koena Mitra, a Bollywood actor, stated that, “Google should probably become like imdb and verify all our details through us,” while fellow actor Eesha Koppikhar stated that “Google should have a censor mechanism that scrutinizes content before it is put up.”
For most, the issue comes back to a very basic principle: open or vetted? Google has long taken the open approach, putting responsibility on publishers and the defamed to resolve their conflicts, while assuming that content that is both relevant and accurate will be what surfaces in Google’s algorithm. However, other groups believe that vetting is an important way to prevent innacurate, useless, or defamatory content from appearing. Blekko, a small engine, is an example of a search site that curates its content.
A Google India spokesperson stated in response to the lawsuit that, “We are disappointed that search engines that use computer algorithms to create automated indexes of the world wide web are sought to be held liable for content that is indexed as search results.”
[Sources include: the Hindustan Times]
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Google Sued for Showing Defamatory Results
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Apple Sued for Trademark Infringement by VOIP Company iCloud Communications
Jun 10th
Apple has had its share of trademark disputes in recent years, such as Cisco’s trademark of the iPhone trademark and Fujitsu’s ownership of “iPad.” Now iCloud Communications is suing Apple over the iCloud trademark, according to The Next Web.
iCloud Communications is based in Arizona and filed the suit in the U.S. District Court there. The company was founded in 2005 offers a variety of VOIP, SIP, PBX and conferencing services.
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The suit, made available on Scribd by The Next Web’s Brad McCarty, includes a history of Apple’s trademark suits going back to the company’s beginnings, when it was sued by the Beatles’ record company Apple Corp. From the suit:
As was the case of the “iPhone” and “iAd” marks, Apple discreetly applied for a foreign trademark registration for ICLOUD months prior to the launch announcement on June 6, 2011 (Apple applied initially in Australia for iPhone, Canada for iAd and Jamaica for iCloud). That foreign ICLOUD application appears to now form the basis for the various iCloud applications for which Apple filed in the United States on June 1, 2011. Apparently, Apple is attempting to use a foreign jurisdiction’s laws to gain priority for its U.S. registrations while circumventing the notice and publication requirements for trademark applications filed here in the United States with respect to “intent-to-use” applications
iCloud Communications described this as “just one more example of Apple’s “act first and worry about the consequences later” approach to trademark use.”
The suit follows allegations that Apple swiped the concept and branding of a rejected App Store app.
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Before iCloud is Revealed, Apple Sued by German Developers Claiming Antitrust
Jun 6th
When you are one of the biggest corporations in the world and it is your biggest day of the year, you are a lightning rod of attention, both good and bad.
The Web is buzzing about Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference. Of the topics to be discussed at the keynote, Apple’s newest product – iCloud – is drawing the most attention. In that vein, a German music-streaming startup called Simfy has filed a lawsuit against Apple for allegedly withholding approval of its iPad application because it is a potential competitor to the iCloud streaming service.
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The Next Web was the first to report the Simfy suit. Simfy is claiming that Apple not approving the Simfy app is a violation of antitrust laws. Now, despite all the rumors and anticipation, Apple has not actually said exactly what iCloud is going to be. It could be a lot of things from digital storage to music streaming to an all-purpose personal cloud. We will know exactly what iCloud entails later today during the WWDC keynote.
Simfy offers an on-demand streaming service, much like European counterpart Spotify, and operates in Germany, Austria and Switzerland with plans to expand. Given Spotify’s troubles to reach the U.S. shores, do not expect Simfy to be leaving Rheinland any time soon.
Simfy has an iPhone/iPod version of the app available in Europe. That brings up an interesting question: Apple developers sign an agreement that explicitly says they will abide by the rules, guidelines and practices of Apple App Store approval. If Apple denies a claim for any reason, is there legal recourse? Antitrust is a heavy charge and The Bundeskartellamt is the German equivalent of the Federal Trade Commission as it oversees competition between businesses in Germany.
Apple has had a couple issues with app developers over approvals. In the music streaming department, Apple yanked Grooveshark after complaints from a music label in the United Kingdom. Yet, Pandroa, MOG and Rdio all exist happily in the App Store and do well.
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