Newsfeeds
Groklaw NewsPicks
Digging for Truth

  • Comcast trying out Internet usage pricing, dropping caps
    Comcast said Thursday it will introduce a trial for usage-based billing for its Internet subscribers in a move seen to pre-empt more complaints the cable company favors its own Web video service over rivals.

    Usage-based pricing would allow Comcast to charge its customers for the amount of data they use with a utility meter rather than pay a flat fee like they do today. Currently, that flat fee is priced on Internet speed and also features a 250 GB data cap each month. - MSNBC

  • China clears Google purchase of Motorola Mobility
    Google on Saturday said that Chinese regulators approved its $12.5 billion deal to buy Motorola Mobility, clearing the path for the Internet titan to complete the acquisition early next week.

    US and European regulators gave approval to the purchase in February.

    Conditions put on the rubber stamp from China's Ministry of Commerce included Google keeping its Android software for gadgets such as smartphones and tablet computers free and open for at least five years. - AFP

  • PTO Overrules Federal Circuit [Fresenius v. Baxter]
    Simultaneously with the litigation, the PTO began reexamination proceedings on the '434 patent in 2006. The examiner rejected the claims as obvious based on the same primary prior art reference combined with some secondary references. While the reexamination was pending at the Board of Appeals, the Federal Circuit issued its 2009 opinion affirming the validity of the claims in the Frenesius litigation.

    The BPAI affirmed the examiner's rejection. Specifically, the Board held that due to the lower standard of proof required to prove invalidity in a reexamination proceeding than in litigation, and that the PTO must use the broadest reasonable claim interpretation, the Board was not board by the Federal Circuit's decision. Baxter appealed the Board's reexamination decision to the Federal Circuit.

    The Federal Circuit affirmed the Board's rejection of the claims, specifically agreeing with the Board's analysis of the different burdens of proof....

    This issue is going to arise more often in the future due to the America Invents Act. Inter Partes Review and Post Grant Review proceedings may lead to more determinations of validity by the PTO. When these are filed after or in conjunction with litigation, there may be more disparate validity determinations. - Inventive Step

  • US says it will bar some Motorola Mobility phones
    Some Motorola Mobility smartphones infringe on a Microsoft patent and will be barred from importation to the United States, a U.S. trade panel said on Friday.

    The order by the U.S. International Trade Commission has been sent to President Barack Obama, who has 60 days to consider whether to overturn it for policy reasons....Both sides can appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. - Diane Bartz, Reuters

  • Stewarts Law acts for facebook users who have filed a Consolidated Digital Privacy Class Action
    Facebook users today filed an amended consolidated class action complaint in federal court in San Jose, California in the case In re: Facebook Internet Tracking Litigation, No. 5:12-md-02314-EJD. The class action asserts federal statutory and California State causes of action related to the revelation in September 2011 that Facebook was improperly tracking the internet use of its members even after they logged out of their accounts. The action consolidates 21 related cases filed in more than a dozen states in 2011 and early 2012....

    The class action is being led by court-appointed co-lead counsel Stewarts Law US LLP and Bartimus, Frickleton, Robertson & Gorny, P.C. David Straite, Partner at Stewarts Law, stated: "This is not just a damages action, but a groundbreaking digital privacy rights case that could have wide and significant legal and business implications." - Stewarts Law press release