Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Cyber Tech & E-Commerce

February 28, 2024
JMOL Debated, $700 Million Settlement Mulled In Google Play Store Antitrust MDL

SAN FRANCISCO — Citing a California federal court’s observation that a jury verdict in its favor was based on “an abundance of evidence,” Epic Games Inc. opposes a motion for judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) by Google Inc. after a jury found it liable for monopolization and tying in an antitrust multidistrict litigation over app distribution and in-app purchases (IAPs) related to Google’s Play Store.
February 27, 2024
Debtors Of Cryptocurrency Company Seek Recovery Of $22.5M Improper Premium Payment

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — The wind-down debtors of a cryptocurrency company have sued directors and officers liability insurers in a New Jersey court seeking to recover no less than $22.5 million in premiums plus interest and costs, accusing the insurers of a “cash grab” and alleging that the premium funds were part of transactions that unfairly or improperly depleted the debtors’ assets or improperly diluted the claims against those assets.
February 27, 2024
Constitutionality Of Florida, Texas Social Media Laws Argued In High Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a long session of back-to-back U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments Feb. 26 in disputes over whether Florida and Texas laws that prohibit viewpoint discrimination by large social networks violate the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the justices explored issues such as what constitutes a common carrier, the Communications Decency Act (CDA), public accommodations and expressive speech, with their questions frequently returning to whether the records in both cases, which pertain to preliminary injunctions, were sufficiently developed and whether the cases should be remanded for discovery and further development.
February 27, 2024
Call Of Duty Players Say Activision’s Esports Monopoly Caused $120M In Damages

LOS ANGELES — Two professional players of the video game “Call of Duty” (CoD) and one affiliated business entity allege in a complaint filed in California federal court that developer Activision Blizzard Inc. has violated the federal Sherman Act, California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by monopolizing all CoD-related esports and excluding existing teams, allegedly causing the plaintiffs more than $120 million in damages.
February 23, 2024
Group To 9th Circuit: Social Media 1st Amendment Ruling Is ‘Nearly Dispositive’

PASADENA, Calif. — More than 21 months since the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in a nonprofit organization’s appeal of the dismissal of its free speech suppression claims against Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook Inc.), the appellant on Feb. 22 filed notice of a Louisiana federal court’s recent finding that it was likely to succeed on almost identical claims in a parallel suit claiming that the social media operator colluded with the federal government in violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
February 22, 2024
Epic Calls Apple’s $73 Million Costs, Fees Tab In Antitrust Dispute An Overreach

OAKLAND, Calif. — Responding to Apple Inc.’s motion that it be required to indemnify more than $73 million in court costs and other fees related to their 3-1/2-year monopolization row, Epic Games Inc. tells a California federal court that most of the amounts sought are unrecoverable under controlling precedent, California law and the very agreement under which the defendant seeks indemnification.
February 21, 2024
4th Circuit Finds ISP Willful In File-Sharing Suit, Reverses $1 Billion Judgment

RICHMOND, Va. — Although a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a jury’s finding that internet service provider (ISP) Cox Communications Inc. was liable for contributory infringement related to its subscribers’ unauthorized online sharing of copyrighted musical works, the panel on Feb. 20 concluded that the plaintiff record labels did not establish the necessary direct financial benefit to establish vicarious infringement, leading it to vacate that part of a trial court’s judgment and accompanying $1 billion award to the plaintiffs, remanding for a new trial on damages.
February 20, 2024
Google Says UCL, Other Claims In AI Training Lawsuit Fail

SAN FRANCISCO — Vague allegations and hypothetical damages involving the scraping of websites and other sources for data used in the training of artificial intelligence cannot form the basis of California unfair competition law (UCL) and other claims because the potential usage was adequately disclosed and individuals lack a privacy interest in information they themselves publicly disclosed, Google LLC tells a federal judge in California in seeking dismissal.
February 20, 2024
High Court Won’t Hear Meta’s Appeal Over Standing In Biased Housing Ads Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its Feb. 20 order list, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition for certiorari by Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook Inc.) in a putative class action in which it has been accused of participating in housing discrimination, leaving unanswered the social network operator’s question over the proper standard for determining whether a plaintiff has standing to sue under Article III of the U.S. Constitution.
February 16, 2024
Judge Disqualifies Law Firm From Job Search Sites’ Row Over Prior Representation

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California federal judge hearing a lawsuit brought by the operators of a job search and resume-creation website against a competitor for copyright infringement and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) granted the plaintiffs’ motion to disqualify a law firm whose attorneys included the defendant’s general counsel and one defendant’s wife, due to the firm’s prior representation of the plaintiffs.
February 15, 2024
RICO Claim Tossed From Suit Alleging App Captures Data With Cyberpirated Marks

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A federal judge in California denied arbitration and dismissed a Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act claim from a putative class complaint accusing a software company of collecting and selling personal data from a budgeting application for smartphones and of using cyberpirated trademarks and other information to entice users to enter their banking information but permitted the app user’s remaining claims under Utah and California law to proceed.
February 14, 2024
Judge Unseals Grant Of Summary Judgment In Apple Watch Heart Rate Tracking Row

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Feb. 13 unsealed a partly redacted version of his order granting Apple’s Inc.’s motion for summary judgment on claims that it violated federal antitrust law and California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by impairing a competitor’s heart rate tracking app tailored for the Apple Watch to monopolize the market.
February 14, 2024
Government: AI-Assisted Invention Patents Require ‘Significant Human’ Role

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patent applicants must be “natural persons” — artificial intelligences cannot be listed as inventors — and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) analysis of applications including artificial intelligence-assisted inventions focuses on whether a significant human contribution exists, according to guidance published in the Federal Register on Feb. 13.
February 14, 2024
Judge Dismisses Bulk Of Writers’ Copyright-Based Claims Against OpenAI

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted in part and denied in part a motion by OpenAI Inc. and its affiliated companies involved in developing the ChatGPT artificial intelligence (AI) program to dismiss claims brought against it in two putative class actions filed by authors who say ChatGPT’s development and operations infringe their copyrights.
February 14, 2024
GitHub, Microsoft, Coders To Confer Over Discovery In AI Copyright Licensing Row

OAKLAND, Calif. — In a dispute over licensing and attribution of computer code in open-source artificial intelligence (AI) collaborations, a California federal judge scolded defendants GitHub Inc. and Microsoft Corp. and five John Doe plaintiffs for not complying with the proper procedures for submitting discovery letters, leading him to deny the relief sought by the parties and to once again order them to meet and confer over their remaining discovery disputes.
February 13, 2024
RIAA, MPA, Other Amici Back DOJ In DMCA 1st Amendment Fight

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Five trade associations teamed up on an amicus curiae brief supporting the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in a dispute over the constitutionality of certain provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), telling the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that a trial court was right to enforce the statute’s anti-circumvention provision because technological protection measures (TPMs) serve an important role in protecting copyrights and free speech.
February 13, 2024
Amazon Accused Of Unfairly Imposing New Ad-Free Streaming Costs In Class Suit

SEATTLE — A California resident filed a putative class action in Washington federal court accusing Amazon.com Inc. of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by abruptly inserting ads into its Amazon Prime video streaming services unless subscribers pay a higher monthly fee.
February 12, 2024
Studio To 2nd Circuit: Discovery Rule Applies In Posted Photo Infringement Suit

NEW YORK — In an appellant reply brief, a photography studio tells the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that it sued over the online posting of its copyrighted pictures within three years of learning of the purported infringing use, making its complaint timely under the “discovery rule.”
February 09, 2024
Amici Tell High Court Feds Coerced Social Media To Censor, Violate 1st Amendment

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Atlantic Legal Foundation (ALF) filed one of several amicus curiae briefs on Feb. 8 supporting the respondents who sued to halt federal government parties from coercing social media platforms to censor their users’ speech, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to find that this censorship of disfavored speech, much of it related to COVID-19 and related issues, violated the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
February 09, 2024
FTC, States Oppose Amazon’s Motion To Dismiss Sherman Act Monopolization Claims

SEATTLE — In a brief opposing a motion by Amazon.com Inc. to dismiss claims that it monopolizes online retailing markets, the Federal Trade Commission and a group of 17 states that joined it in a complaint tell a Washington federal court that they “seek to end Amazon’s monopoly maintenance scheme, restore the competition Amazon has quashed, and prevent a recurrence of Amazon’s illegal behavior.”
February 08, 2024
Judge Rules In Apple’s Favor In Challenge Brought By Heartbeat App Developer

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge entered final judgment in favor of Apple Inc. after entering a sealed order granting Apple’s motion for summary judgment on claims that it violated federal antitrust law and California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by allegedly violating its patents for heart rate tracking technology tailored for the Apple Watch to monopolize the market.
February 07, 2024
In Supplemental Briefs, Crypto Firm, Clients Debate Arbitration Clause’s Validity

SAN FRANCISCO — In the wake of rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a cryptocurrency exchange and three of its clients who sued over funds lost in hacking and phishing schemes on Feb. 6 filed supplemental remand briefs in California federal court in which they dispute whether the Ninth Circuit’s finding that a 2021 user agreement (UA) was enforceable and not unconscionable applies to a 2022 UA.
February 07, 2024
Online News Site Suffers Blow; Panel Says Use Of Copyrighted Photo Not Fair

RICHMOND, Va. — The Independent Journal Review (IJR) must face allegations that it infringed a copyrighted photograph of musician Ted Nugent without a defense of copyright invalidity in place, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Feb. 6.
February 06, 2024
Union Argues It’s Not Liable For Flight Attendant’s Online Speech Firing

NEW ORLEANS — A Southwest Airlines Co. flight attendant’s firing in connection with her social media messages, including some about abortion, was not influenced by the union of which she was a nonmember objector, the union argues in a reply brief filed in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in three consolidated appeals filed after the trial court awarded the flight attendant damages and ordered her reinstatement.
February 06, 2024
Justice Kagan Denies Firm’s Petition To Enjoin Apple’s ‘Censorship Of Software’

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A software company that pursued monopolization claims against Apple Inc. after its coronavirus tracing app was rejected from distribution at Apple’s App Store saw its bid for injunctive relief from the U.S. Supreme Court denied without comment on Feb. 5 by Justice Elena Kagan.