Court Gives OK to Consumer Lawsuit Against Nextel for Billing Rip- Offs ; Case Against Nextel Stems From Cell Phone Giant's 2003 Decision to End Itemized Billing, Conceal Charges for Phony Messages, FTCR Says
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SANTA MONICA, Calif., Sept. 22 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A California Court of Appeal yesterday overruled a lower court decision that had blocked a consumer rights organization from proceeding with a lawsuit against cell phone giant Nextel for unfair billing practices.
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When Verizon Wireless filed an almost perfunctorily brief lawsuit against the FCC in a federal appeals court on Monday, analysts and wireless industry observers were baffled. With the FCC having written up the 700 MHz spectrum auction order in late July, didn't the company have enough time to complain then? Surprisingly, a clue to its motives comes not from itself or its lawsuit but from the FCC.
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NTP Inc, which last year won a $612.5 million settlement from the maker of Blackberry, has sued several leading wireless companies for patent infringement, according to court papers.
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Internet telephone company Vonage Holdings Corp. was ordered in federal court Tuesday to pay Sprint Nextel $69.5 million in damages for infringing on six telecommunications patents owned by Sprint Nextel Corp.
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Technology problems arise as Sprint and Nextel merge. Also: Symantec buys Veritas.... Illinois' governor bans violent video games for minors & hellip;.  and more.
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Reports that Sprint Corp. may be close to a $36 billion takeover of Nextel Communications Inc. yesterday alarmed consumer advocates, who predicted it would lead to less competition and higher prices for wireless service.
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Verizon Wireless and Nextel Communications, two of the country&#39;s biggest cellphone operators, said yesterday that they planned to drop their lawsuits against each other.
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The U.S. International Trade  Commission has denied Qualcomm Inc.'s  request to stay  an order banning imports of new phone models with Qualcomm  chips the trade agency said infringe a Broadcom Corp.   patent, Broadcom said on Friday.
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- Broadband telephone services provider Vonage  Holdings Corp.  said it intends to continue its fight  against a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Verizon  Communications Inc. .
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The U.S. FTC has settled a complaint filed last year against a company accused of illegally selling telephone records.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. International Trade Commission said that QualcommÂ is infringing on one of Broadcom's patents, dealing a blow to Qualcomm in anÂ ongoing patent battleÂ between the companies. The Commission hasn't yet issued a penalty for the infringement and Qualcomm pledged to appeal the decision. The companies are in the midst of many other lawsuits with each other regarding cell phone patents. Broadcom said the Commission could bar Qualcomm from importing its chips to the U.S., forbid Qualcomm from selling the infringing products in the U.S., and even ban the import of phones containing the chips. But Qualcomm says that the Administrative Law Judge, who made the initial ruling that was upheld by the Commission, has recommended against barring the import of phones that use the chips. The Commission made its ruling on Friday and both Qualcomm and Broadcom released statements on Monday. The Commission will issue its remedy decision by Feb. 9. Qualcomm has downplayed the importance of the technology in question, saying it is based on software and not fundamental to CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), the mobile technology that Qualcomm created and is best known for. Qualcomm has said previously that it is exploring ways to work around the technology. The two companies have several other outstanding cases against each other. One is set to be tried in March, another in May, and a third doesn't yet have a trial date set. Broadcom is also appealing an antitrust suit that it filed against Qualcomm which has been dismissed. Broadcom is also one of five technology companies that filedÂ anticompetitive complaints against QualcommÂ with the European Commission. Â
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WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court turned away a challenge Monday to the federal do-not-call registry, ending telemarketers' bid to invoke free-speech arguments to get the popular ban on unwanted phone solicitations thrown out.    The court, without comment, let stand a 10th U.S...
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Verizon Wireless and Nextel Communications, two of the country&#39;s biggest cell phone operators, said yesterday that they planned to drop their lawsuits against each other.
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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has settled a complaint with an online company it says was illegally selling telephone records.
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(InfoWorld) - A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that Broadcom could press forward with an antitrust case against rival chip maker Qualcomm, but on only two of the eight original charges, the companies said. Broadcom says Qualcomm has created a monopoly in the market for wireless technology standards such as CDMA (code division multiple access). The decision by a group of three judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reverses a verdict by a lower court to dismiss the entire case. In August 2006, a district court in New Jersey had approved Qualcomm's request to dismiss all eight charges. Last month, Qualcomm lost another round in the long-running battle, when the Bush administrationÂ decided not to block a banÂ imposed by the U.S. International Trade Commission on the domestic sale of mobile devices using certain Qualcomm chips. Broadcom says Qualcomm has infringed its patents on the communications chips used in cell phones. And in May, a federal court jury awarded Broadcom $19.6 million in damages after finding thatÂ Qualcomm had willfully infringed three of its patents. That chain of legal losses helped push Qualcomm's general counsel, Lou Lupin, to resign in August. When the case returns to the New Jersey court, Broadcom will argue that Qualcomm has failed to fairly license the technology for cellular wireless standards, and ask the judge to eliminate Qualcomm's patent royalties and pay triple damages and attorney's fees, according to a statement by Broadcom General Counsel David Dull. However, Qualcomm said that the appellate court judges had merely upheld the two remaining charges on a legal technicality, and vowed to vigorously dispute them in court. Neither Broadcom nor Qualcomm returned calls for comment. Â
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(InfoWorld) - U.S. mobile users waiting for the next crop of phones could breathe a sigh of relief Wednesday when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted a stay on an import ban against handsets that use some Qualcomm chips. The International Trade CommissionÂ (ITC) ordered the ban in JuneÂ after theÂ Qualcomm chips were found to infringe Broadcom patents. It only affected future models, not current imports. If imposed, it could affect handset makers including Motorola, Samsung Electronics, and others, whoÂ filed motions seeking the stay. The latest move lets those manufacturers bring in the new phone models while Qualcomm appeals the ITC's order and seeks a reversal of the patent-infringement ruling. The fight for the stay was considered an uphill battle. Smith Brittingham, a lawyer with Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, said in June he could only remember one time when such a ruling had been stayed pending an appeal. âIt would be a significant victory for Qualcomm,â he said at the time. Last month theÂ Bush administration turned downÂ a request by Qualcomm to stop the ban. The stay affects the third-party companies that filed motions, which also include Kyocera Wireless, Sanyo Fisher, T-Mobile USA, LG Electronics MobileComm USA, and AT&T Mobility. The circuit court didn't grant a stay for Qualcomm's own imports, but Qualcomm does not itself import the chips found to infringe Broadcom's patents, according to a Qualcomm press release Wednesday. Broadcom went to the ITC seeking an import ban only against Qualcomm. The third parties and Qualcomm argued in the appeals court that the ITC didn't have the authority to exclude products imported by other companies. The court said the third parties had a substantial case and the harm they might suffer weighed in their favor, according to Qualcomm. Broadcom could not immediately be reached for comment. In July,Â Broadcom reached a deal with Verizon WirelessÂ that would let Verizon continue to import phones using the disputed technology. Under that deal, Verizon will pay Broadcom $6 for every handset, PDA (personal digital assistant) or data card that uses EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) mobile broadband technology. The payments have a ceiling of $40 million per calendar quarter and a lifetime maximum of $200 million. As part of the deal, Verizon also will drop its effort to overturn the ruling. The patent fight is one of a series of intellectual-property disputes between mobile pioneer Qualcomm and Broadcom, a communications chip maker that has moved aggressively into the mobile arena. (Nancy Gohring in Seattle contributed to this story.) Â
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The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal by commercial telemarketers opposed to the popular program, in which consumers can put their names on a list if they do not want to be called.