Recent Entries in Wireless and the Law
Best Use of Phone Camera So Far in Classrooms in Texas?
When the cell phone camera was first introduced, and analysts told me that a good use of it would be to take a photo of your car where you parked it so that you could find your car in the parking lot when you came back. Â After driving through four floors on a parking structure, when I couldn't …
HTC EVO, Sensation vs Apple iPhone – ITC Says 2 Pat Android Infringers
Apple has chosen its competitors to sue on all fronts, and there has been an initial decision by the U.S. International Trade Commission for "stealing original technology." The ITC can ban imports of such popular smartphones as the HTC EVO 3D or the HTC Sensation 4G.The judge found two out of …
Free Press Says Verizon’s App Tethering Ban in Violation of C Block Licenses
Free Press filed a complaint today with the Federal Communications Commission against Verizon for violating LTE network license rules.Licensees of the C Block of the upper 700MHz block may not "deny, limit, or restrict" the ability of their customers to use the applications or devices of the cus…
Net Neutrality Rules Passed by FCC for Transparency, Anti-Blocking and Anti-Discrimination
The FCC voted today to enact new "Net Neutrality" rules. The rules include transparency for what consumers are specifically buying, while prohibiting outright blocking of legal websites.Many are debating what the ruling means. In the meantime, here's some text from the FCC themselves:Ru…
AT&T Class Action Settlement Tax Refunds for iPhone, BlackBerry, Smartphone & Mobile Data
AT&T sent text messages to subscribers letting them know that they may be eligible for refunds if they paid for smartphones (including iPhone and BlackBerry) or mobile data services from November 1, 2005 up to and including September 7, 2010. AT&T will process settlement refunds without adm…
Mobile Content Class Action Settlement Gives $10 or 3 Month Sub Refund for Mobile Content
A group of mobile content providers, including Cylon, Cellfish Media, Predicto Mobile, Too Lazy, the application provider 3C Interactive, and the aggregator OpenMarket, have agreed to settle a number of class action lawsuits against them, involving claims that these companies charged wireless su…
$10 or 3 mo. Refund Due to Mobile Content Buyers/Subscribers
A group of mobile content providers, including Flycell, Inc., Glomobi, Mobilefunster, Inc., Thumbplay, Inc., WebAMG Holdings, as well as the marketing affiliate Glispa, LLC, and the aggregator Motricity, Inc., have agreed to settle a number of class action lawsuits against them, involving claims…
Mobile Cellular FM Radio Chip Mandate Protested by CTIA, CEA, TIA, ITI, RCA & More
A coalition of six technology industry associations sent a letter today to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the U.S. House and Senate Judiciary Committees asking them to resist efforts to include an FM technology mandate for mobile devices in any legislation addressing an unrelated conflict b…
Watchdog Group Growls Foul at Tiered Structure and Absence of Wireless
Before we got a chance to figure out the Google/Verizon net neutrality document a watchdog group is already barking at it.Google and Verizon's new joint broadband proposal pays lip service to the idea of "net neutrality," but actually would completely undermine the open and free Internet we enjoy,…
Class Action Unlimited Data Lawsuit Filed Against T-Mobile in CA
A class action lawsuit filed in Yolo, California claims that T-Mobile deceptively marketed its mobile phone data plans as unlimited, while capping data at 10 or 5 gigabytes before cutting off access to the 3G network and drastically reducing speeds. The suit claims that the plan was falsely repre…
Library of Congress Jaibreaks Jailbreaking 4 iPhone, Smartphones and Cells
The Electronic Frontier Foundation claimed a victory with the Library of Congress DMCA, making it okay for owners to jail-break and unlock locked phones. In its reasoning in favor of EFF's jailbreaking exemption, the Copyright Office rejected Apple's claim that copyright law prevents people from i…
CTIA Sues San Fran for “Right-to-Know” Cell Phone Radiation Law
CTIA-The Wireless Association is fighting San Francisco for its "Right-to Know" cell phone radiation law and claims it challenges the FCC and misleads consumers. First CTIA pulled out of San Francisco for its fall conference, moved future conferences to San Diego and now comes the lawsuit.Their publ…
NTP email Patent Holder Sues Apple, Google, HTC and LG
NTP Incorporated, the company founded by Tom Campana, the inventor of wireless email, yesterday filed lawsuits against Apple, Inc., Google Inc., HTC Corp., LG Electronics Inc., Microsoft Corporation, and Motorola, Inc. in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia for…
Get $7-$10 Check from Class Action AT&T mMode, ENH, Out of Cycle and UCC
AT&T proposed settlements of class action lawsuits relating to certain billing practices of AT&T Wireless Services, Inc., including Santa Barbara Cellular Systems, Ltd. (“AWS”): The settlement is for charges for mMode Data Service, if the subscriber did not authorize the charges…
Roommate Was Whistle Blower for iPhone 4G Finder: Says Affidavit
The iPhone 4G finder Brian Hogan who sold his 'find" to Gizmodo was turned into police by his roommate, Katherine Martinson, who called Apple after Hogan connected the errant iPhone 4 to her computer. The iPhone 4G prototype was returned to Apple and Brian Hogan regretted his mista…
Touchy iPhone Patent Issues Continue HTC Defends Firsts, First
HTC disagrees with Apple's legal actions, especially in the touchscreen department. Apple contends that HTC's phones infringe on 20 of its patented technologies such as iPhone two-finger screen recognition.Peter Chou, chief executive officer, HTC Corporation said "From day one, HTC has focu…
Kodak Files Lawsuits Agaisnt BlackBerry and iPhone for Image Preview and Digital Camera Process Patent Infringment
Eastman Kodak Company a has filed lawsuits against Apple Inc. and Research In Motion Limited (RIM) alleging the infringement of Kodak digital imaging technology. The Kodak complaint, filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), specifically claims that Apple's iPhones and RIM's camera-e…
Nokia Sues Apple Over Patent Infringment
Nokia announced it has filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging that Apple infringes Nokia patents in virtually all of its mobile phones, portable music players, and computers. The seven Nokia patents in this comp…
Class Action Lawsuit Alleges Palm Pre/Pixi Users Suffered from Data Loss
A Bay Area man filed a class action lawsuit against Palm and Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) for losing most all the contacts, appointments and other data stored by many of the hundreds of thousands of Sprint users of the popular Palm webOS line of mobile phones, including the Palm Pre and Pixi. The data los…
CTIA Approves FCC’s Approval of “Shot Clock”
Today, CTIA-The Wireless Association® President and CEO Steve Largent issued the following statement after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to approve a "shot clock" for tower siting applications: "On behalf of CTIA and the wireless industr…
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