lawsuit - page 3

Legal battle may be to blame for Apple breaking its FaceTime promise

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FaceTime
Apple's open wish for FaceTime never happened.
Screenshot: Apple

At WWDC, Apple revealed that it will finally make it possible to do FaceTime group calls for up to 32 people. That’s great news — provided that all your friends, family and co-workers use Apple devices.

But it didn’t have to be like this. Back in 2010, when Steve Jobs introduced FaceTime, he made a big point about how it was set to become an open industry standard that could be used by Apple’s competitors, as well as Apple. Nearly a decade on, that still hasn’t happened. And now a theory has emerged as to why.

Samsung must pay Apple $539 million for violating iPhone patents

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Samsung
Samsung argued it should pay just $28 million.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

A jury has decided that Samsung must pay Apple $539 million in damages, following four days of deliberation — and years of ongoing legal battles.

The verdict is almost exactly in the middle of the $1 billion in damages Apple was requesting, and the $28 million Samsung’s lawyers felt the South Korean tech giant should pay.

Disgruntled users are suing Apple over its ‘defective’ MacBook keyboard

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MacBook butterfly keyboard
The butterfly switch made MacBook keyboards thinner. It also reportedly broke them.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s MacBook butterfly switch keyboards are landing its makers in court, thanks to a new class action lawsuit which was filed in California court this Tuesday.

The class action suit alleges that Apple is selling a product that is known to be defective. In particular, it claims that the keyboard stops working as it should when dust and other particles begin to build up under the keys. As a result, customers can be made to pay out hundreds of dollars in repairs in cases where the laptop is no longer under Apple warranty.

Apple demands $1 billion from Samsung for patent infringement

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Apple and Samsung return to court
Apple and Samsung are battling it out again.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Apple wants Samsung to cough up a whopping $1 billion in damages for infringing iPhone design patents.

The two companies again returned to court this week over the long-running dispute, which first began seven years ago. Apple told jurors that Samsung should hand over all the profit it made on four devices that were heavily inspired by the iPhone. Samsung’s lawyers disagree.

Finding unbiased jurors for Apple vs. Samsung trial wasn’t easy

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Samsung
Apple and Samsung went back to court this week. Or tried to.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

There have been no shortage of days in court in the ongoing Samsung vs. Apple legal battle, which has raged since 2012. Something that is lacking? Unbiased jurors, apparently.

While a new round of courtroom drama kicked off this week, it apparently took a long time on day one to find jurors who were in a position to make a non-biased judgement. In all, multiple candidates were excused for various reasons of partiality. Here are some of them.

Despite lawsuits, Qualcomm will still provide chips for 2018 iPhones

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Qualcomm patents
Qualcomm will share manufacturing duties with Intel.
Photo: Qualcomm

Breakups can be complicated. If you’ve built a life together, then extricating yourself from the other party isn’t necessarily as easy as ripping off a band-aid.

That’s a life lesson which applies to Qualcomm and Apple. Despite spending the last year-and-a-half feuding with one another, it seems that 2018-era iPhones are still going to rely on Qualcomm for a certain number of chips.

Because life is complex that way.

Apple must shell out $502.6 million to feed ‘patent troll’

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Apple could be a $2 trillion company by end of 2021
Apple has to pay out half a billion buckaroos in damages.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple must pay $502.6 million to patent holding company (read: so-called “patent troll”) VirnetX Holding Corp., a federal jury in Texas has ordered.

This is the latest installment in a dispute that now stretches back eight years. The patents Apple has allegedly infringed one include ones related to secure communications, used by FaceTime, VPN on Demand and iMessage.

Apple’s old sapphire nightmare continues with new lawsuit

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Apple is gobbling up sapphire supplies at an alarming rate of knots. Photo:
Apple is facing a lawsuit from one of the companies in its sapphire supply chain.
Photo: GT Advanced Technologies

Despite seemingly dropping plans for a sapphire display for the iPhone, Apple continues to be haunted by its brief venture into manufacturing using the material.

In addition to Apple’s sapphire supplier GT Advanced Technologies going bankrupt several years back, this week Apple was handed a lawsuit by manufacturer Hebei Hengbo Fine Ceramic Material. The company claims to have fallen out with Apple over terms for a contract involving high purity alumina melt stock, a material used as part of the sapphire process.

iPhone slowdown lawsuit wants to examine Apple’s battery data

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iPhone
iPhone slowdown case has caused multiple lawsuits around the world.
Photo: Apple

Apple has said that it will reduce the cost of replacement batteries as a result of its iPhone slowdown controversy. However, according to a new lawsuit leveled against Apple this practice could wind up destroying valuable evidence.

In a motion filed in Los Angeles by lawyer Adam Levitt of DiCello Levitt & Casey, the claimant says that it is important to, “maintain and preserve any data [Apple] collects through diagnostic testing in order to protect the claims of all affected consumers.” In other words, stop throwing away batteries!

Apple named in class-action lawsuit alongside AMD and Intel

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A10 processor
Apple's A-series chips are also susceptible to Meltdown and Spectre bugs.
Photo: Apple

Apple has been named in a class-action lawsuit alongside AMD and Intel. The case filed in Israel, one of many expected to hit major chip manufacturers, comes after the discovery of the Meltdown and Spectre bugs that leave billions of users at risk.

370,000 people in South Korea are suing Apple

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iphone 8
Customers aren't happy about Apple's iPhone speed throttling.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The first ever class action lawsuit filed against Apple in South Korea involves 370,000 individuals — or the equivalent of one out of every 138 people who live in the country.

As with many of the recent lawsuits filed against Apple, this particular class action suit accuses Apple of purposely slowing down the speed of older iPhones with a software update. The group filed its suit with the Seoul Central District Court on Thursday, demanding 2.2 million won ($2,000) per person affected by the iPhone speed throttling.

Nearly 67,000 iPhone users in South Korea want to sue Apple

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iPhone SE 2 could cost $399 just like the first-gen iPhone SE
Users aren't happy about Apple throttling iPhone speeds.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple has been the subject of multiple class action lawsuits since admitting that it purposely throttles the speed of older iPhones. However, no lawsuit is quite as big as one that’s brewing in South Korea — where nearly 67,000 iPhone users have applied to join a suit against Apple.

The number of potential plaintiffs reportedly doubled over the course of Friday — from 34,000 applicants in the morning to 66,800 by the end of the working day, claims law firm Hannuri Law.

Apple hit with two lawsuits over slowing down iPhones

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iPhone SE 2 could cost $399 just like the first-gen iPhone SE
Apple says that it slows down older iPhones, but for good reason.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Well that didn’t take long! Within a day of Apple acknowledging that it’s software updates cause older iPhone models to slow down, Apple has been hit with not one, but two class action lawsuits from folks outraged that it would behave in this way.

Both suits are asking for unspecified damages from the company.

Chinese clothing company sues Apple over App Store logo

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Kon vs. Apple
Spot the difference?
Photo illustration: Kon/Apple

Apple is facing a lawsuit in China from a local clothing brand, which argues that Apple is infringing on its design trademark with its logo for App Store.

Apple changed the icon for the App Store in August this year — jettisoning the previous image showing a ruler, pencil and paintbrush crossing over to form an “A” shape, in favor of a simplified version of the same image. Unfortunately, clothing brand Kon has been using a similar image dating back to 2009, supposed to show skeletons bones symbolizing triumph over death.

Qualcomm targets iPhone X in its ongoing war with Apple

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Face ID
Qualcomm claims that the 2017 iPhones are violating its patents.
Photo: Apple

Hot on the heels of Apple suing Qualcomm over its Snapdragon processors, Qualcomm has fired back by filing a patent lawsuit (a counter-countersuit?) against Apple for technology in the iPhone 8 and iPhone X.

Qualcomm filed its grievance with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. It singles out five patents that Apple is allegedly infringing on — including tech related to radio frequency transceivers, power management in mobile CPUs, image enhancement using depth-based data, and more.

Apple under investigation for patent infringement

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Apple adds 5 new vice presidents to its executive lineup
Possible patent infringement covers Macs, iPhones, iPads, iPods, and Apple TVs.
Photo: Lyle Kahney/Cult of Mac

The U.S. International Trade Commission has confirmed that it is investigating Apple for allegedly infringing on patents on various devices, including Macs, iPhones, iPads, iPods, and Apple TVs.

The probe was launched following a complaint from Aqua Connect Inc. and subsidiary Strategic Technology Partners of Orange, California.

Trump administration will weigh in on Apple antitrust case

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App Store
The Supreme Court's ruling could have a huge impact on the App Store.
Photo: Apple

The highest court in the U.S. is debating whether or not it should hear an appeal from Apple on a class-action lawsuit that it lost in a lower court.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court asked the Trump administration’s Justice Department for its opinion on the case. Apple is accused of charging illegally high commissions on the sale of apps in its App Store, but the group suing Apple isn’t developers, it’s a bunch of consumers who purchased the apps.

Apple faces ugly lawsuit for breaking FaceTime

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FaceTime
A judge has ruled a lawsuit against Apple can proceed.
Photo: Apple

A judge has ruled that a lawsuit against Apple for breaking FaceTime in iOS 6 can continue.

It is alleged that the iPhone-maker purposely allowed the feature to be disabled on older devices in an effort to force users to update to iOS 7.

Apple paid Nokia $2 billion in cash to settle patent battle

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Nokia
Keeping Nokia at bay isn't cheap.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Apple paid $2 billion in cash to settle its most recent patent battle with Nokia.

Neither party revealed the sum when they put their differences aside and entered into a new licensing and business cooperation agreement back in May. But Nokia’s earnings reveal that the Finnish firm received a massive payout to drop its patent lawsuit.

Apple’s biggest rivals back fight against Qualcomm

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Red iPhone in hand
Other tech companies aren't happy that Qualcomm's trying to ban the iPhone.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple has some serious backup in its battle against Qualcomm, as a lobbying group representing some of tech’s heaviest hitters (including a handful of Apple’s biggest historic enemies) have called on regulators to reject Qualcomm’s bid to ban the importing of iPhones.

Some of the names in said group? Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Samsung — all of whom have filed official comments in support of Apple with the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Spotify sued for allegedly streaming 2,445 songs without permission

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Spotify
Spotify has found itself the subject of two new legal battles.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Spotify has been hit with two new lawsuits from music publishers claiming that the streaming music giant has illegally published songs from the label, without the proper permissions.

Artists’ work that is covered in the lawsuit include Miranda Lambert, Willie Nelson, Kenny Chesney, and Guns ‘N Roses, and others. 2,445 songs are highlighted by the lawsuit.

Qualcomm CEO hints that Apple feud could be settled out of court

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encryption
Things may not wind up in court after all.
Photo: orangesparrow/Flickr CC

It seems that the once-rapidly escalating war of attrition between Apple and Qualcomm may be coming to an end.

Speaking at the Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen this week, Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf said that issues such as the one between Qualcomm and Apple, “tend to get to resolved out of court, and there’s no reason why I wouldn’t expect that to be the case here.”

Apple asks court to block Qualcomm double-dipping

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Qualcomm patents
Apple doesn't want to pay twice for Qualcomm chips.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple’s ongoing legal battle with Qualcomm just got even more interesting after the iPhone-maker branded its partner’s license agreements invalid.

Cupertino is fighting to prevent Qualcomm from taking a cut of every iPhone sold, and to prevent the chipmaker’s alleged double-dipping to maximize revenue it earns from its modem chips.