Tag Archives: settlement

Apple and Amazon Urged to Reach Settlement

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Think outside the box.

Think of this as a teaser for a heavyweight match that will take place in a few months.  A judge has ordered that Apple and Amazon attempt to reach a settlement over use of the word “Appstore” before their big court date in the summer.  Apple, the technology giant, claims that they own rights to the phrase and had already sued the e-commerce site Amazon.com.  A judge had ruled that Apple had no claim to the fictional phrase.  U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte has urged the two companies to gather this spring in attempts to avoid a later clash over the intellectual property, copyrights, or trademarks.  If no settlement is reached, Apple and Amazon will soon go before a judge in Southern California over using “Appstore”. Read more

Pinterest Stuck With New Lawsuit

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Put it on the board!

The latest legal battle in social media could be a pretty sharp one.  The popular photo-sharing network Pinterest is being sued by a man claiming that a potential investor stole his ideas.  Theodore Schroeder of Ocean City, NJ cites that he met with several people while attempting to expand on his idea of a “board”-related social media site, called RendezVoo.  One of these venture capitalists was Brian Cohen, who eventually went on to make a deal with Pinterest which included, Schroeder claims, his own intellectual property.  Mr. Schroeder is seeking monetary compensation upwards of $75,000, stating that it took time, money, and other resources for him to continue his attempts to build RendezVoo.  Pinterest has countered saying the lawsuit, filed right around the holidays, is “baseless”. Read more

Papa John’s Ordered to Give Up the Dough

Papa John’s: It’s probably not better pizza.

Whoever thought text messages offering special deals on pizza would be a bad thing?  A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Papa John’s for sending illegal messages to their potential clients.  Plaintiffs are claiming that while they originally provided their cell phone numbers to the take-out pizza chain, they did not consent to receive advertisements via text message.  Some members of the class-action suit have reported to receive multiple texts back-to-back, and also at odd hours of the night.  The third party mobile marketing agency, OnTime4U, is also a defendant in the suit.  Plaintiffs are seeking compensation at the rate of $500-$1500 per text message.

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National Guard and Defense Contractor Have Bad Chemistry

Wait, Water Plants Could Be Unsafe?

Cancel your vacation plans to any water plants in the Middle East.  American defense contractor KBR was recently ordered to settle with the United States National Guard in response to a toxic chemical issue.  About a dozen soldiers took up the lawsuit, claiming KBR knew all along that they were being exposed to a drug called “carcinogen hexavalent chromium” at an Iraqi water facility.  A judge in Portland, Oregon ordered the settlement of $85 million with each individual member of the National Guard receiving around $7 million.  The soldiers are currently suffering from respiratory issues, trouble breathing, and skin conditions that will require extensive health care for the immediate future.

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Credit Will Do “Fine”

Credit Problems Stacking Up?

The likes of Target and Starbucks are about to enter round 2 of the heavyweight fight against Visa and Mastercard.  The settlement, which is roughly $7.2 billion, will bring an end to 7 years of litigation concerning the credit card companies themselves and big merchants, such as Target, Starbucks, and Wal-Mart.  The large merchants are protesting the proposed answer over “swipe fees” that they are ordered to pay in return for granting their customers quick service to their credit cards.  The underlying issue is that the nearly 8 million merchants are saying the deal is unfair for them, claiming the credit card companies are in bed with the banks and are focused on monetizing with no regard for business.  The economics of the settlement are also in question, as well as the $550 million tied up in a preliminary deal between the two parties poised to stop the bleeding.

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