legal

No settlement in sight for Apple vs Qualcomm legal battle

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Qualcomm patents
Qualcomm has become Apple's biggest legal foe.
Photo: Qualcomm

Apple is making zero effort to reach a settlement in its wide-ranging legal battle with Qualcomm.

The iPhone-maker used Qualcomm wireless chips in its devices for years, but the two sides recently started butting heads over how much Apple owes in royalties. Qualcomm alleges that Apple should pay it an additional $7 billion and it looks like it will have to go to war for every cent.

Qualcomm demands iPhone ban in China

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iPhone 8
Qualcomm wants China to stop making iPhones.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s bitter legal feud with Qualcomm is being taken to an all-new level over in China.

The San Diego-based chip company has filed a lawsuit with a Beijing intellectual property court demanding all sales and production of the iPhone to be banned.

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 stops giving Nokia the stink eye

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Nokia digital health
Nokia’s health devices could return to Withings.
Photo: Nokia

Apple is again selling Nokia devices after settling a legal battle over patent infringement.

Nokia health accessories, which are compatible with iPhone and iPad, returned to the Apple online store on Wednesday almost two months after the two companies reached an agreement.

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.

Apple must pay $2 million to employees it screwed over

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Apple sign
Gene Levoff is accused of insider trading while at Apple.
Photo: Milo Kahney/Cult of Mac

Apple’s former retail employees have come away victorious in their long legal battle against Apple in California.

A jury has ordered Apple to pay $2 million, after the iPhone-maker has found to have illegally denied retail staff meal and rest breaks and took weeks or months to give departing employees their last checks.

iPhone’s Touch IC Disease pandemic triggers lawsuit

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3D Touch app switching
An insidious defect is effecting iPhone 6 owners.
Photo: Ste Smitch

Touch IC Disease, a glitch with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus that results in gray, flickering bars at the top of the devices’ screens and a loss of touch sensitivity, has earned Apple its latest class-action lawsuit.

Caused by an apparent design flaw in the iPhone 6 series, Touch IC Disease is more prevalent among the larger iPhone 6 Plus devices. While the problem made headlines for the first time last week, a proposed class-action lawsuit filed Saturday claims Apple has long been aware of the defect, which can render devices useless.

China’s media watchdog sues Apple over obscure film

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China iPhone sales
Apple has been hit without another lawsuit in China.
Photo: Apple

Apple is facing yet another legal headache in China thanks to what may be the craziest lawsuit yet in a year that has been full of wacky legal battles

China’s media watchdog, The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT), has filed a lawsuit against Apple, claiming the company has violated its intellectual property by broadcasting an obscure patriotic film from 1994.

Apple and FBI will duke it out at congressional hearing March 1

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encryption
The war on encryption ensues next week.
Photo: orangesparrow/Flickr CC

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee announced both FBI director James Comey and Apple’s general counsel Bruce Sewell are testifying at a congressional hearing on encryption March 1. The saga is far from over, since both will state their cases on the matter of whether the government should have access to users’ iPhone data.

The congressional hearing ultimately revolves around a single question: how can the FBI efficiently do what’s necessary to combat threats without invading users’ privacy and potentially making iOS a more vulnerable operating system? Right now there are two polar opposite positions.

Apple must unlock the iPhone 5c’s encryption… or else

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The iPhone 5c might be broken wide open. And what's next?
The iPhone 5c might be broken wide open. And what's next?
Photo: Apple

In December 2015, Syed Rizwan Farook shot up an office party in an apparent terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California. He may have coordinated the attack on an iPhone 5c.

Since then, authorities have been trying to decrypt the device. And now, a U.S. magistrate is trying to force Apple to unlock it.

Posting weed on Instagram could land you in jail

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legal-marijuana-weed-pot
Only blaze up if you want to pay up.
Photo: Brett Levin/Flickr CC

If you like blazing up every now and then, make sure you don’t post it on Instagram. Since marijuana use is still federally recognized as illegal in the United States, posting a picture with that Mary Jane could mean you wind up with a serious fine or even some significant jail time.

Social media strategist Shannon Self says that an Instagram post with someone smoking marijuana is punishable by a fine of up to $150,000 or 18 months of jail time. That’s especially true in many states that still have laws in place banning marijuana either medically or recreationally.

European court rules Apple and other tech companies are violating privacy

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The European Court of Justice just handed down a disruptive ruling.
The European Court of Justice just handed down a disruptive ruling.
Photo: Cédric Puisney/FlickrCC

In a landmark decision Tuesday, the European Court of Justice ruled that European Union regulators can override the Safe Harbor agreement, a 15-year-old accord that has — until now — allowed Apple, Google, Facebook, and about 4,500 other U.S. companies to transfer data from European users to the U.S.

The court believes that the current agreement violates European citizens’ right to privacy by exposing their private data to the U.S. government through the American companies’ cooperation with U.S. intelligence agencies.

Publishers criticize Apple for ‘completely crazy’ News app email

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Apple-News-iOS-9
Publishers are frustrated with Apple's hasty attempt to lock them in to the forthcoming News app's terms and conditions.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s iOS 9 News app hasn’t even seen the light of day yet, but publishers are already heavily discontent with the email Apple sent out to them regarding its terms and conditions. The email essentially tells publishers what they’re agreeing to by opting in to the News app and assumes they agree unless they explicitly state otherwise.

Even if publishers don’t like the terms and conditions Apple lays out, Apple is basically forcing their hands unless they later specify that they don’t agree. In that case, of course, they also don’t get to be a part of the News app. The terms and conditions themselves don’t entirely appear to be causing the uproar, but rather the odd presumption that all the publishers are automatically willing to participate even in total silence.

BlackBerry wins nearly $1 million in damages over Ryan Seacrest’s Typo iPhone case

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Blackberry won its case against Ryan Seacrest. Photo: Typo
BlackBerry won its case against Ryan Seacrest. Photo: Typo

Remember Typo? They were the Ryan Seacrest-backed company that released a case that gave your iPhone a BlackBerry-like QWERTY keypad.

Not so surprisingly, BlackBerry wasn’t happy. The company sued Typo for “blatantly copying” the BlackBerry’s iconic keyboard.

Now there’s good news for BlackBerry. The beleaguered smartphone maker is getting a much-needed cash injection as a result of the lawsuit, because Typo has been ordered to pay a nearly $1 million fine.

Apple wins LTE patent case against WiLan

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gavel-court-hammer-judge-lawsuit

A U.S. judge has ruled in Apple’s favor in litigation filed against the company by Canadian patent licensing company WiLan, reports Reuters, after the judge issued a public statement on the case Wednesday afternoon.

Apple was being sued for supposedly violating two LTE patents held by WiLan, but a summary judgement from Judge Dana Sabraw ruled that the patents were invalid and note infringed.

In Court, Apple Tries To Squeeze More Blood Out Of Samsung’s Stone

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7823878-macro-photo-of-pliers-squeezing-blood-from-a-stone

Right now, Apple has over $156 billion in its war chest, prompting investors like Carl Icahn to pretty much riot to try to get at some or all of it.

Compared to $156 billion, $16 million is a drop in the ocean of Apple’s money, an amount so small that Tim Cook wouldn’t think twice to even sign the check. But when it comes to Samsung, Apple’s intellectual property arch rival, Cupertino wants to wring out every drop of money it can.

Publishers To Pay iBookstore Customers $3 For Each NYT Best Seller Purchased

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Apple can't ditch its ebook compliance monitor.
Apple can't ditch its ebook compliance monitor.
Photo: Apple

While Apple decided to hold out for a court battle — that it eventually lost — five of the publishers involved in the iBookStore price fixing antitrust case have already reached settlements with the DOJ. Two of those publishers, Penguin and Macmillan, are already sending out emails to customers to notify them that they’re eligible to receive iTunes credit, or a check for the settlement.