eBay's Skype has reached a settlement with Joltid over a breach of license that will now see the sale of the VoIP firm go through without litigation hassles.

Joltid Ltd, a Swedish firm owned by Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, had claimed peer-to-peer technology owned by Joltid, and not eBay, was being used in a breach of license with every download of the Skype software.

It's now been announced that the investor group led by Silver Lake, which is to acquire a majority stake in Skype, has reached a settlement agreement with Joltid and Joost that gives Skype ownership over all software previously licensed from Joltid.

As part of the settlement, Zennstrom and Friis will join the investor group and the Skype board with a 14% share in exchange for providing Joltid software and a significant capital investment.

This now ends all litigation currently pending against the investor group and eBay.

"We'll be free to concentrate all of our efforts on building the world’s greatest communications software", says Skype in a blog post.

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Tags: Software Biz Skype Lawsuits eBay Joltid

Skype and Joltid settle originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:11:46 +0000

Hank Risen, the owner of BlueBeat.com, which was found last week to be selling MP3s of the Beatles' catalogue for as little as 15p per track, has defiantly stated that he owns the copyrights in the songs that he's selling.

EMI filed a lawsuit against the company, and Hank Risen - the owner - has issued a bizarre defense filing that claims that he - not Apple Corps or EMI - owns the sound recordings. He says that because he's re-recorded them using "psycho-acoustic simulation" which "express the way [he] believe[s] a particular melody should be heard as a live performance", he owns the recording.

Risan told EMI in an email that he's got a successfully registered copyright on those recordings with the US Copyright Office, but a judge will now have to decide whether those recordings are sufficiently different to the originals to justify a new copyright. Legal precedent, particularly with regard to sampling, suggests he might be facing an uphill battle.

For now, though, BlueBeat.com still continues to offer free streams of the Beatles' catalogue, and 25-cent 160kbps MP3s. It'll be interesting to see how the judge in the case interprets the law. We'll keep you posted.

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Tags: Audio Music BlueBeat EMI Beatles Copyright Music downloads Lawsuits

BlueBeat claims it owns copyright in Beatles tracks originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:03:24 +0000

It seems Verizon's "there's a map for that" AT&T bashing campaign has not gone down well with the latter's legal department.

AT&T is suing Verizon and has filed a motion to get the adverts pulled as it considers them "misleading".

As those who've seen the spots will know, the adverts compare Verizon's 3G coverage with AT&T's using red and blue splotches across a map of the States.

Verizon is a 3G network, so its coverage looks rather more impressive than AT&Ts, which covers a lot more of the States than is shown, but just not 3G.

"We believe the ads mislead consumers into believing that AT&T doesn't offer ANY wireless service in the vast majority of the country", says AT&T in the legal complaint.

The iPhone operator goes on to speculate: "Verizon's misleading advertising tactics appear to be a response to AT&T's strong leadership in smartphones".

We will keep you posted with developments.

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Tags: Phones AT and T Verizon Lawsuits Advertising

AT&T sues Verizon over "there's a map for that" ads originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:48:34 +0000

Spring Design, the maker of the?Alex dual-screen ebook reader?is suing Barnes & Noble over claims that the bookseller copied ideas and features in releasing its own ebook, the?Nook.

"We showed the Alex e-book design to Barnes & Noble in good faith with the intention of working together to provide a superior dual screen e-book to the market", said Spring Design vice president of Sales and Marketing, Eric Kmiec in a statement.

According to the company who says they showed Barnes & Noble the Alex in spring 2009, "the lawsuit asserts Barnes & Noble misappropriated trade secrets and violated the parties' non-disclosure agreement when it copied Alex' features into its recently announced Nook e-book".

Both ebooks announced in the same week (20 October), use a colour touchscreen display powered by Android to navigate through menus, rather than the e-ink display, which is used solely for reading.?

The Barnes & Noble Nook is expected to hit the company's stores on 30 November with many stores already covered in merchandising materials and dedicated booths to lure customers to go "electronic".

Barnes & Noble was unavailable to comment at the time of writing. We will keep you posted.?

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Tags: Gadgets eBook readers ebooks Barnes and Noble Barnes and Noble Nook Spring Design Spring Design Alex Lawsuits Biz

Spring Design sues Barnes & Noble over Nook ebook originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:37:30 +0000

It's been revealed how much money Facebook has been awarded in damages over a recent anti-spam case against internet "marketer" Sanford - or as he's known Spamford - Wallace.

Facebook filed the anti-spamming case in February after Wallace accessed people's Facebook accounts and sent phony mail and posts.

The Californian court awarded the social networking website $711.2 million in damages. This follows an $870 million award Facebook won in November 2008 against a different spammer.

It seems Wallace has not learnt from past mistakes - Wallace was ordered to pay MySpace $230 million in damages back in May 2008.

"While we don't expect to receive the vast majority of the award, we hope that this will act as a continued deterrent", Facebook said.

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Tags: Software Online Facebook Lawsuits Spam

Facebook awarded $711 million from spammer originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:53:41 +0000

Nokia has announced that it has filed a complaint against Apple with the Federal District Court in Delaware, alleging that Apple's iPhone infringes Nokia patents for GSM, UMTS and wireless LAN standards.
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Nokia is naming ten patents in the suit that relate to technologies "fundamental to making devices which are compatible with one or more of the GSM, UMTS (3G WCDMA) and wireless LAN standards".

The patents cover wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption and have apparently all been infringed by all Apple iPhone models shipped since the iPhone was introduced in 2007.

Nokia says it has spent over 40 billion euros over the last 20 years on various patents, some of which have made it to being the industry standard. While almost all the major mobile manufacturers pay Nokia for licence agreements to use the tech covered by the patents, it appears Apple has refused to do so.

"The basic principle in the mobile industry is that those companies who contribute in technology development to establish standards create intellectual property, which others then need to compensate for", said Ilkka Rahnasto, vice president, legal & intellectual property at Nokia.

"Apple is also expected to follow this principle. By refusing to agree appropriate terms for Nokia's intellectual property, Apple is attempting to get a free ride on the back of Nokia's innovation".

Tags: Phones Nokia Apple Lawsuits iPhone Patents Biz

Nokia sues Apple over alleged iPhone patent infringements originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:43:18 +0100

We brought you the news of the lawsuit, way back in spring 2008, and can now reveal the verdict. Apple has lost the right to call its own-brand Mac mouse the "Mighty Mouse".

Man & Machine, American medical hardware specialist suppliers, has now been granted the trademark on "Mighty Mouse" from the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

In the lawsuit, Man & Machine says Apple began selling its Mighty Mouse over 1 year after it began selling waterproof and chemical resistant mice under the same name in 2004.

It seems The USPTO agreed, and Apple's next mouse - currently rumoured to be coming soon with possible touch technologies - will have to launch with a new name.

9to5Mac is currently running a poll with suggestions for the new name. The Mac Mouse, Apple Pro Mouse or the iMouse seem the most logical, but we guess we'll just have to wait and see...

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Tags: Hardware Apple Mice And Keyboards Biz Lawsuits Man and Machine

Apple loses Mighty Mouse trademark battle originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:33:11 +0100

Amazon's decision to remotely delete digital copies of George Orwell's 1984 from customer's Kindles has cost it $150,000.

The figure - a settlement amount reached between Amazon and a high school student - is in addition to the $30 compensation it offered each affected customer.

The lawsuit was filed by a 17-year-old high school student in the States in July. As well as losing the digital copy of the book, the student lost electronic notes he had made for an assignment.

Amazon had deleted 1984, and Animal Farm, as it found out the correct rights had not been obtained. In an apology Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos called the move "stupid".

The $150,000 is to be donated to "a charitable organization that promotes literacy, children's issues, secondary or post- secondary education, health or job placement".

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Related links:

• News - Amazon pulls 1984 from Kindle
• News - Student sues Amazon over Kindle deletion

Tags: Gadgets Amazon Kindle Lawsuits Biz

Amazon settles for $150,000 over Kindle deletion originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:19:30 +0100

The founders of Skype are suing the investment company that is buying the internet telephony service from current owner eBay, demanding billions in compensation for copyright infringement.

In a move that's highly likely to disrupt the $1.9 billion buy-out, Joltid Ltd, a Swedish firm owned by Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, claims peer-to-peer technology owned by Joltid, and not eBay, is being used in a breach of license with every download of the Skype software.

Joltid and Skype are currently in a legal dispute in Britain over software rights, but this brings the fight to the new owners, and the American court system with the lawsuit filed in Northern California.

"The Skype companies have continued to infringe Joltid's copyrighted works on a massive scale. Each day that the Skype Companies continue to make available its Internet telephone software for download, Skype users download Joltid's copyrighted works approximately six times per second" says Joltid, claiming damages of $75 million a day.

"Their allegations and claims are without merit and are founded on fundamental legal and factual errors", eBay said in a statement.

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Related links:

• News - eBay conforms to rumour, sells Skype

Tags: Software eBay Lawsuits Skype Phones VoIP Biz Joltid

Skype founders sue for billions in damages originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:41:38 +0100