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Apple lawsuits - page 2

Lawsuit accusing Apple of concealing slowing 2018 iPhone demand gets go-ahead

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2018 interview with Tim Cook suggests Apple was working on iCloud backup encryption
A shareholder lawsuit accuses Apple and CEO Tim Cook of making “materially false and misleading” statements about iPhone XS demand.
Photo: Apple

Apple must defend in court bullish statements made by CEO Tim Cook and other executives about 2018 iPhone demand. iPhone sales were actually slowing at the time, leading to a drop in the company’s share price.

A judge ruled Tuesday that a shareholder lawsuit accusing the company of deliberately misleading investors can go ahead.

Apple pays $18 million to settle lawsuit saying it broke FaceTime on older devices

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FaceTime
Lawsuit argued Apple broke FaceTime on older devices.
Photo: Apple

Apple agreed to pay $18 million to claimants in a California class-action lawsuit that argued Cupertino broke FaceTime on older iPhone devices to save money.

The court filing, made Monday, means that members of the class action each will receive a whopping $3 for their troubles. However, that amount could increase if some members fail to cash their checks. The remainder of the money will cover lawyer fees and other costs.

Apple sues former App Store manager over book that spills insider secrets

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Apple's not happy about former Apple employee Tom Sadowski's new book, App Store Confidential.
Apple's not happy about the new book App Store Confidential.
Photo: Murmann Verlag

Apple is suing former German App Store manager Tom Sadowski and his publisher over App Store Confidential, a new book that reveals “business secrets” Apple says Sadowski wasn’t legally allowed to disclose.

Cupertino’s lawyers are asking Sadowski and publisher Murmann Verlag to destroy all manuscripts of the German-language book, and to recall any copies currently in circulation. Apple says the book contains information that is of “considerable economic value” to the company.

Apple restores banned BlueMail app but devs say fight is not over

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Mac App Store
The email app BlueMail finds itself on the outside of the "closed garden."
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Banned email app BlueMail is back in the Mac App Store, just one week after its developers tried to publicly rally other small companies to speak out against Apple’s App Store practices.

Ben and Dan Volach’s eight-month appeal of Apple’s ban ended Tuesday when the App Store relisted BlueMail. But the brothers say they will continue to fight Apple in court on claims the tech giant stole patented features of the app before booting it from the App Store.

Judge slams ‘dumb’ FCC in iPhone radiation lawsuit; case moves to trial

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The FCC is currently shut down.
A California judge whacks the FCC with a ruler over its testing standards for radiofrequency radiation, but says the case will continue.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

U.S. District Judge William Alsup allowed a proposed class-action lawsuit against Apple over allegedly exposing iPhone owners to high levels of radiofrequency radiation to move forward Thursday. However, the judge also blasted the Federal Communications Commission for its “dumb” testing standards.

Judge greenlights Apple’s lawsuit against former chip engineer

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Apple sues former chief architect of iPhone chips
Apple is suing its former chip engineer, center, for breach of contract.
Photo: Nuvia

A chip engineer who left Apple to start a new company lost ground in court after a judge allowed the tech giant to move forward with a breach-of-contract suit against him.

Gerard Williams III asked Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Mark Pierce to dismiss the suit, saying California law allows people to plan new business ventures while employed elsewhere. But Pierce denied the request, telling Williams the law doesn’t allow people to “create a competitive enterprise … on their employer’s time and with the employer’s resources.”

Class-action lawsuit against Apple’s butterfly keyboard moves forward

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The third-generation
The butterfly keyboard was one of Apple's biggest mistakes.
Photo: iFixit

Apple finally moved on from its disastrous MacBook butterfly keyboard, but the class-action lawsuit related to them is moving forward.

A U.S. federal judge rejected Apple’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit today. That sets up the company for a big legal showdown with customers trying to prove Apple knew about serious problems with the keyboard — but kept selling it anyway.

Apple sues company that lets users run iOS in a browser

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Company that ported iOS to browsers hits back at Apple
Company that ported iOS to browsers hits back at Apple
Image: Corellium

Apple is suing Corellium, a company founded by former iPhone jailbreakers whose product lets users run iOS firmware in a web browser.

“There is no basis for Corellium to be selling a product that allows the creation of avowedly perfect replicas of Apple’s devices to anyone willing to pay,” Apple’s lawyers argue in the suit.

Apple v. Qualcomm: You win some, you lose some

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Qualcomm patents
The ITC sided with Apple over Qualcomm today in one case, but things went the other way in a separate decision earlier in the afternoon.
Photo: Qualcomm

Just hours after an International Trade Commission judge ruled in favor of Qualcomm in a patent infringement lawsuit with Apple, the Commission as a whole made the iPhone maker the winner in a separate dispute between the pair of companies.

This is a demonstration of how much acrimony there is between these two, who were once close allies.

Apple Stores reshuffled in Texas to foil patent trolls

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Apple wants patent trolls to stop ‘gaming the system’
Don’t feed the trolls.
Photo: Andrew Becraft/Flickr CC

Apple is closing a pair of retail stores in east Texas, and opening a new one nearby to take on their traffic. But this has little to do with customer convenience; it’s likely all about patent lawsuits.

The move could easily save Apple millions of dollars.

Apple accuses Qualcomm of witness tampering in latest courtroom spat

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Qualcomm headquarters
Lawyers got heated in the courtroom today for the latest Apple v. Qualcomm patent battle.
Photo: Qualcomm

This week’s legal fight between Apple and Qualcomm reached a point generally only seen on TV courtroom dramas: the iPhone maker accused its rival of witness tampering.

The complaint comes after Apple’s star witness decided at the last minute not to testify.

Italy fines Apple $11.4 million for throttling older iPhones

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France fines Apple $27 million for intention iPhone 'throttling' controversy
Samsung had to pay up as well.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Italy’s antitrust watchdog has fined Apple 10 million euros ($11.4 million) for slowing down iPhones with aging batteries. The country also hit Samsung with a fine of 5 million euros ($5.7 million) for issuing software updates to artificially slow down its mobile phones.

Apple’s got slapped with an extra 5 million euros for failing to give customers clear information about maintaining and replacing iPhone batteries.

Appeals court reverses $234 million patent-infringement ruling against Apple

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A8 chip
Turns out the A7, A8 and A8X didn't infringe on a patent held by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Photo: Apple

An appeals court just reversed the 2015 decision against Apple made in a patent-infringement lawsuit brought by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The original court ruled that the iPhone-maker owed the university $234 million for infringing on patented microchip technology in the iPhone and iPad.

Apple faces lawsuit for allegedly suppressing conservative viewpoints

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Apple gadgets
Five of the biggest tech companies are mentioned in the suit.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple is one of five tech companies — along with Google, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter — targeted in a new lawsuit accusing them of displaying bias against right-wing news outlets.

The lawsuit comes from Larry Klayman, founder of Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch and a former Department of Justice prosecutor. It alleges that the companies are working together to “quash and/or limit advocacy by conservative and pro-Trump public interest groups, advocates and others to further the leftist anti-conservative agendas.”

Apple confirms new MacBook Pro keyboard is protected against debris

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Apple MacBook Pro keyboard
How’s the sound on your 2018 MacBook Pro?
Photo: Apple

Apple won’t publicly admit that it tweaked the 2018 MacBook Pro keyboard to fix the hardware’s biggest flaw. But in a leaked internal document, the company says it installed a new “membrane” to “prevent debris from entering the butterfly mechanism.”

Aussie court fines Apple for refusing to fix iPhones bricked by ‘Error 53’

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touchid
Remember Error 53 that bricked so many iPhones because the Home button had an unauthorized repair? It's still haunting Apple.
Photo: Apple

An Australian court levied a A$9M ($6.7M) fine against Apple for refusing to fix iPhones and iPads because they’d had third-party repairs. That’s against the law in that country.

The refusals happened in the midst of the “Error 53” mess, in which iPhone units became permanently disabled after having their Home button replaced by non-Apple repair techs.

Apple v. Samsung $1 billion patent lawsuit in the hands of a jury

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Apple and Samsung return to court
There's no doubt the design of the Galaxy S copies the iPhone. A jury will soon rule on damages in the Apple v Samsung patent lawsuit.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

The decade-long Apple v. Samsung patent-infringement trial is nearing its end. A jury is expected to announce Monday whether the premier Android-maker owes Apple $1 billion for copying the iPhone’s design.

Apple’s $16 billion tax trial will finally kick off this fall

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What’s it like to have your startup bought by Apple? Stressful
An appeal of an EU ruling that Apple benefited from Ireland functioning as a tax haven will kick off this fall.
Photo illustration: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

A court case to determine if Apple owes the European Union about €13 billion will begin in about six months.  The trial will determine if Ireland gave Apple illegal tax incentives.

The two are actually appealing a decision by the European Commission made in 2016 that Ireland is effectively a tax haven.

iPhone 4s sparked house fire, lawsuit claims

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iPhone 4s
A lawsuit claims the battery of an iPhone 4s is responsible for a house fire.
Photo: Apple

The insurance company for a Wisconsin man is suing Apple claiming his iPhone 4s caused a house fire last year that left significant property damage.

The lawsuit, filed recently by Xai Thao and State Farm insurance company, blamed a faulty lithium ion battery in the handset for causing the fire. Thao says the iPhone 4s contained the original factory battery.

Qualcomm fights back with counterclaim against Apple

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iPhone 6s teardown
Pegatron will team up with an Indonesian manufacturer..
Photo: iFixit

After being sued by Apple for allegedly charging royalties on technology it did not own, Qualcomm is fighting back with a lawsuit of its own, claiming Apple is misleading and has breached its contract with the company.

Qualcomm has long been responsible for the wireless chips used in iPhones, iPads and many other Apple devices, but the relationship between the two turned sour back in January when Apple filed a $1 billion lawsuit against the chipmaker.

Apple slaps Swatch with lawsuit over ‘Tick different’ trademark

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Swatch Tick different
Sounds remarkably similar to "Think different."
Photo: Swatch

Apple is suing Swatch over the Swiss watchmaker’s “Tick different” trademark.

Apple claims the trademark is a play on the “Think different” slogan it used for an iconic ad campaign in the late 1990s. To win the legal battle, Cupertino must prove that at least 50 percent of consumers associate the phrase with Apple branding.

Patent troll’s $533 million win against Apple gets reversed

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Apple adds 5 new vice presidents to its executive lineup
Apple's legal problems just got a big lighter.
Photo: Lyle Kahney/Cult of Mac

Apple’s long-standing legal battle with patent troll Smartflash is finally nearing an end.

A previous jury verdict from 2015 that required Apple to pay $533 million to Smartflash was thrown out by a federal appeals court today. The lawsuit between the two companies has been ongoing since 2013, after Smartflash accused Apple’s iTunes software of infringing on its data storage patents.

Apple faces class action lawsuit over AppleCare+ refurbs

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Crack! This one's got to go back to Apple.
Crack! Apple's replacement program is facing a lawsuit.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple was hit with a new class action lawsuit today in California by customers who have purchased the company’s AppleCare and AppleCare+ plans to cover damages on iPhones and iPads.

At the heart of the lawsuit is Apple’s long-held policy to replace broken devices with units that the company claims are good as new in performance and reliability, even though they’re second-hand refurbished models.

3rd-party Apple Watch faces, and how the iPhone was really invented, this week on The CultCast

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cult cast
Catch our unfiltered reactions to Apple's newest products.
Photo: Apple/Erfon Elijah

This week on The CultCast: You’ll laugh, you’ll cry — wait till you hear the latest lawsuit aimed right at Apple’s biggest products. Plus: Leaked photos of EarPods with a Lightning connector look better than expected; why we may never get third-party Apple Watch faces; Netflix is adding a feature it swore would never happen; and a man builds a vibrant photography career in the world of sports with nothing but his iPhone. Oh, and Val Kilmer dances with a carrot in his derriere. Just hit play already.

Our thanks to Freshbooks for supporting this episode. FreshBooks is the easy-to-use invoicing software designed to help small business owners get organized, save time invoicing and get paid faster. Get started now with a 30-day free trial.

Apple could face class-action lawsuit over ‘Error 53’

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touchid
Unauthorized repairs could brick your iPhone.
Photo: Apple

A U.S. law firm is considering filing a class-action lawsuit against Apple for the “Error 53” security measure that permanently disables iPhones that have been fixed by unauthorized repair shops instead of Apple’s Genius Bar.

Controversy surrounding the Error 53 message erupted last week after it was found that repairs involving Touch ID can potentially brick iPhones without any warning. Apple insists Error 53 is a feature of iOS, but many have pointed out that the company appears to be using it as a tool to keep iPhone users from getting their devices repaired by anyone but Apple Stores.