Ameranth, Inc. filed a lawsuit against Apple, Inc. earlier this week in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California alleging that Apple’s new Passbook product infringes on Ameranth’s patented technology. According to the complaint, Ameranth develops products to generate and synchronize menus and hospitality information across fixed, wireless, and web platforms. It claims to have been nominated…
Kohanowski v. Burkhardt, North Dakota Supreme Court (9/25/12) Contracts The future brother-in-law of Jessica Burkhardt tried to sue her on quasi-contract principles for a loan he gave his brother. The money was supposed to be used to help Burkhardt and Kohanowski buy a house together; the brother-in-law says Burkhardt was in the room on the other end of the phone…
Last week, my colleague Ilana Bergstrom and I attended a session called “Law School for Digital Journalists” at a conference hosted by the Online News Association. Although both of us went to law school, the session seemed like an opportunity to learn about the unique issues that online journalists face. Indeed, the session promised “classes [on] the full range of…
Last Tuesday, The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) upheld a decision to deny Apple’s trademark application to register its music feature mark that’s used on iPhones and other Apple products. The reason? The mark was confusingly similar to another mark that’s now owned by MySpace. Both marks consist of two musical eighth notes on an orange background. MySpace’s mark was originally issued to…
Wellons v. Warden, Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison, US 11th Cir. (9/19/12) Constitutional Law, Criminal Law Petitioner, a death row inmate, appealed the district court’s denial of his petition for writ of habeas corpus brought pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 2254. Petitioner contended that he was denied a fair trial by an impartial judge and unbiased jury because the jury gave…
Today, we headed out in the morning to spot the Space Shuttle Endeavour as it flew over NASA’s Ames Research Center. After quite a bit of waiting, we spotted the Space Shuttle Endeavour heading towards us. The Dumbarton Bridge is below.
In a Solomonic ruling, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Manuel Mendez recently denied a defendants’ sweeping Notice to Admit social media account postings by a personal injury plaintiff in Carr v. Bovis Lend Lease (read the decision below). In New York, unless a party objects to another’s pre-trial Notice to Admit, they run the risk of admitting something they don’t disagree…
Facebook and Apple have been hit with another patent infringement lawsuit brought by small, relatively obscure research/technology companies. Yesterday, PersonalWeb Technologies and Level 3 Communications filed a suit against both technology companies in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The two plaintiff companies allegedly each own an undivided 50 percent interest in the patents at issue.…
Check out our summary writer’s picks of interesting opinions that have come their way during the past week. Coleman v. City of Mesa, Supreme Court of Arizona, Arizona Supreme Court (9/7/12) Civil Rights, Constitutional Law This case involved the intersection of municipal zoning regulations and the right of tattoo artists to ply their trade. After the City of Mesa denied Plaintiffs…
Yesterday, the Regents of the University of California and Eolas Technologies, Inc. filed a lawsuit against Facebook in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The suit alleges that Facebook has infringed on four different patents owned by the Regents and to which Eolas has an exclusive license. Eolas was founded by Dr. Michael D. Doyle, who,…