DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

Companies Qualcomm Inc FollowMarch 21 (Reuters) - A federal judge has ruled that shareholders suing chip maker Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) for allegedly hiding anticompetitive sales and licensing practices may bring their claims as a class action. U.S. District Judge Jinsook Ohta on Monday rejected Qualcomm's argument that the sales practices were already publicly known. The class covers investors who bought Qualcomm common stock between Feb. 1, 2012 and Jan. 20, 2017 and incurred losses. Qualcomm paid the Korea Fair Trade Commission 1.03 trillion won ($912.34 million) in 2017 for what the regulator called unfair business practices in licensing and chip sales. The case is Shah v. Qualcomm Incorporated et al., U.S. District Court, Southern District of California, No.

"Plaintiffs' general allegation that the merger may cause 'higher prices, less innovation, less creativity, less consumer choice, decreased output, and other potential anticompetitive effects' is insufficient," wrote U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Corley. The decision does not affect the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) regulatory challenge to the largest-ever gaming industry deal. Microsoft announced its bid last year, and it also faces competition scrutiny in the EU and UK. A spokesperson for Microsoft and lawyers for the company did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. The case is Demartini v. Microsoft Corp, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, 3:22-cv-08991.

☆ Samsung wins jury trial in 'S10' trademark lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Blake Brittain | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

FILE PHOTO: A Samsung employee poses with the new Samsung Galaxy S10 5G smartphone at a press event in London, Britain February 20, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls(Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd convinced a Los Angeles federal jury on Friday that its Galaxy S10 phones do not violate the trademark rights of a talent-management agency that also uses the “S10” name. S10 Entertainment, which manages the pop singers Anitta and Normani, said it began using the S10 name in 2017. “As a result of confusion between Samsung’s S10 phone line and S10 Entertainment’s S10 mark, the value and goodwill of S10 Entertainment’s Instagram and social media footprint has been severely diminished,” the lawsuit said. The case is S10 Entertainment & Media LLC v. Samsung Electronics Co, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, No.

"Tesla needs to open up its ecosystem and allow competition for the servicing of Tesla [vehicles] and sales of parts," said plaintiffs lawyer Matthew Ruan of Freed Kanner London & Millen, who filed one of the proposed class actions. The proposed class in both cases would include anyone who has paid Tesla for repairs or parts since March 2019. Ruan said the potential class includes hundreds of thousands of Tesla owners and lessees, so damages could total hundreds of millions of dollars. Tesla joins other major vehicle makers facing "right to repair" antitrust litigation over alleged exclusionary conduct. Read more:Harley-Davidson hit with class actions over 'right to repair' restrictionsU.S. FTC settles with Weber grills over 'right to repair'FTC votes to make 'right to repair' a priority, drops 1995 merger policyReporting by Mike ScarcellaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Companies Wells Fargo & Co FollowWASHINGTON, March 15 (Reuters) - The former head of Wells Fargo's retail bank is facing prison time after pleading guilty to obstructing a bank examination in relation to the sweeping phony accounts scandal that roiled the bank in 2016. An attorney for Tolstedt, who ran the bank's retail and small business lending from 2007 to 2016, declined to comment. But, in this case, Ms. Tolstedt took steps to cover up misconduct at Wells Fargo," Joseph McNally, acting U.S. attorney for the central district of California, said in a statement. A spokesperson for Wells Fargo declined to comment. The development marks a rare instance of a senior bank executive facing prison time as a result of their job, but some said it does not go far enough.

☆ Tesla owners sue the carmaker, claiming they've faced long waits and high prices at service centers
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Tesla owners are suing, claiming they've faced long wait times and high prices at service centers. The carmaker has faced criticism over its service centers in the past. The electric-car maker has faced criticism over its service centers in the past. To date, Tesla has less than 200 service centers in the US. For comparison, GM or Ford owners can choose from thousands of independent repair and maintenance shops.

"Meta's discovery gluttony confirms its request of eBay is not worthy of the burden Meta seeks to impose," eBay's lawyers told the California court. EBay's Quinn Emanuel attorneys derided Meta as a "litigant that has completely disregarded the bounds of reason and proportionality" in seeking information from third parties. A representative from eBay and its attorneys at Quinn Emanuel did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Lawyers for eBay contend the company doesn't compete with Meta on social networking but does face off over the Facebook Marketplace e-commerce service. The case is Federal Trade Commission v. Meta Platforms Inc, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No.

[1/2] A sign for Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) headquarters is seen in Santa Clara, California, U.S. March 10, 2023. REUTERS/Nathan Frandino/File Photo/File PhotoMarch 13 (Reuters) - SVB Financial Group (SIVB.O) and two top executives were sued on Monday by shareholders who accused them of concealing how rising interest rates would leave its Silicon Valley Bank unit, which failed last week, "particularly susceptible" to a bank run. It appeared to be the first of many likely lawsuits over the demise of Silicon Valley Bank, which U.S. regulators seized on March 10 following a surge of deposit withdrawals. Silicon Valley Bank had an estimated $209 billion of assets and $175.4 billion of deposits before its collapse, in the largest U.S. bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis. The case is Vanipenta v SVB Financial Group et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No.

☆ Some brands are 'slack-filling' to cleverly disguise how much product you actually get
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

There's a name for that empty part of the packaging: slack-fill. Dworsky suggested that some brands used slack-fill to deliberately mislead shoppers into thinking they're getting more product than they really are. The firm noted that these lawsuits are generally dismissed, in part because it's hard to prove that slack fill is nonfunctional. Halo Top and Mondelez have been unsuccessfully sued over slack-fill, too, lawsuits viewed by Insider show. But slack-fill lawsuits aren't always dismissed.

March 9 (Reuters) - Bytedance's TikTok Inc persuaded a federal jury in Los Angeles on Thursday that its Stitch feature does not violate trademark rights belonging to British video-editing company Stitch Editing Ltd. The jury rejected Stitch Editing's argument that TikTok confuses consumers by using the Stitch name to brand the popular social-media platform's technology for "stitching" videos together. It sued in 2021 over TikTok's Stitch technology, which allows users to splice other videos on the platform into their own. Stitch Editing told the court that TikTok's use of "Stitch" gave users the mistaken impression that the companies are affiliated and threatened to drown out its brand. The case is Stitch Editing Ltd v. TikTok Inc, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, No.

REUTERS/Mike Blake/File PhotoMarch 3 (Reuters) - Urban scooter company Lime sued Hertz Corp on Thursday alleging unfair competition and accusing the rental car giant of improperly hiring the startup's senior engineers. The loss of engineers has "significantly harmed" Lime, which provides short-term e-bike and scooter rentals in about 30 countries. Hertz Corp, which operates the Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty vehicle rental brands, is a subsidiary of Hertz Global Holdings Inc (HTZ.O). Cong, now at Hertz, did not immediately respond on Friday to a message seeking comment. A representative from Lime did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

March 1 (Reuters) - Roche's Genentech Inc (ROGING.UL) sued Biogen MA Inc on Tuesday in San Francisco federal court, claiming Biogen owes additional patent royalties from worldwide sales of its blockbuster multiple-sclerosis and Crohn's disease drug Tysabri. Genentech's lawsuit said Biogen owes royalties for all the Tysabri that was produced using Genentech's patents before the patents expired, even if it was sold later. According to Genentech, Biogen has refused to pay royalties on any Tysabri sales since the patents expired more than four years ago. It said Biogen owes royalties for "most or all" of the Tysabri sold in "2019 and beyond," which it said was made with the patented technology before the patents expired. The case is Genentech Inc v. Biogen MA Inc, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No.

Companies Tesla Inc FollowFeb 27 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) and its Chief Executive Elon Musk were sued on Monday by shareholders who accused them of overstating the effectiveness and safety of their electric vehicles' Autopilot and Full Self-Driving technologies. They said Tesla's share price fell several times as the truth became known, including after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began investigating the technologies, and reports that the Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating Musk's Autopilot claims. The share price also fell 5.7% on Feb. 16 after NHTSA forced a recall of more than 362,000 Tesla vehicles equipped with Full Self-Driving beta software because they could be unsafe around intersections. Monday's lawsuit led by shareholder Thomas Lamontagne seeks unspecified damages for Tesla shareholders from Feb. 19, 2019 to Feb. 17, 2023. Tesla's share price closed Monday up $10.75, or 5.5%, at $207.63, but the stock has lost about half its value since peaking in Nov. 2021.

[1/2] A person uses virtual reality headset at Meta stand during the ninth Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 8, 2022. The FTC sued Meta in July to stop the Within deal, arguing that Meta's purchase would reduce competition in a new market. Judge Edward Davila of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California rejected the FTC's concerns, and declined to order a preliminary injunction. The FTC's effort had been seen as a test of the agency's ability to prevent Meta from acquiring small would-be rivals. Reporting by Diane Bartz in Washington Editing by Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ DOJ alleges Google destroyed chat messages that it was required to save during antitrust investigation
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

According to the DOJ, Google should have adjusted its defaults in mid-2019, "when the company reasonably anticipated this litigation." Meanwhile, DOJ alleged, Google "falsely" told the government it had "'put a legal hold in place' that 'suspends auto-deletion.'" The alleged issue is one that previously came up in Epic Games' antitrust litigation against Google. The DOJ alleged that even after Epic confronted Google about the chat deletion concerns in that case, Google still withheld its deletion policy from the federal government "and continued to destroy written communications in this case." Scallen said that if Google "didn't give clear directions to retain" relevant chats "this notion that they left it to the individuals, that's just not responsible."

☆ Court Allows the PGA Tour to Directly Sue LIV Golf’s Saudi Backers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Andrew Beaton | Louise Radnofsky | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Yasir Al-Rumayyan, left, governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Majed Al-Sorour, CEO of Golf Saudi, center, and Greg Norman, CEO of LIV Golf. Since the beginning of the high-profile legal wranglings between the PGA Tour and its rival LIV Golf last year, the Tour has consistently angled to place LIV’s backing from Saudi Arabia at the center of the feud. Now, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has granted one of the PGA Tour’s chief goals. A ruling issued late Tuesday will allow the Tour to add Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, LIV’s financial backer, and its governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan , as defendants in its lawsuit against LIV.

The case involves a group of consumers who contend Facebook exploited user data to maintain its market power. Representatives for Quinn Emanuel and Facebook declined to comment, and a spokesperson for Hagens Berman did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Scarlett in recent court filings said Quinn Emanuel was not respecting her view as a leading antitrust attorney based on her gender. Quinn Emanuel denied the claim, saying it has "worked very hard to be cooperative with all counsel on the case, including female counsel." Donato started the appointment process from scratch in January amid quarreling between Seattle-based plaintiffs' firm Hagens Berman and 900-lawyer Quinn Emanuel.

Feb 15 (Reuters) - The founder of WallStreetBets, which has been credited with helping ignite investors' frenzy into "meme" stocks, sued Reddit Inc on Wednesday, accusing it of wrongly banning him from moderating the community and undermining his trademark rights. According to the complaint filed in federal court in Oakland, California, Rogozinski applied to trademark "WallStreetBets" in March 2020, one month before his ouster, when the community reached 1 million subscribers. "Jamie was removed as a moderator of r/WallStreetBets by Reddit and banned by the community moderators for attempting to enrich himself. Meme stocks typically gain popularity through discussions, often among inexperienced investors, in online forums such as WallStreetBets and Twitter. The case is Rogozinski v Reddit Inc, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No.

[1/3] Representations of cryptocurrencies are seen in front of displayed FTX logo in this illustration taken November 10, 2022. Sequoia, Thoma Bravo and Paradigm did not immediately respond on Wednesday to requests for comment. The 30-year-old son of Stanford Law School professors has pleaded not guilty to fraud and other charges for allegedly looting billions of dollars from FTX customers. A Manhattan federal court hearing on whether to tighten bail is scheduled for Thursday, after Bankman-Fried allegedly tried to communicate improperly with potential government witnesses. The case is Rabbitte v Sequoia Capital Operations LLC et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No.

☆ Robinhood wins dismissal of shareholder lawsuit over 2021 IPO
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Jonathan Stempel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

"Plaintiffs thus failed to plead that Robinhood did not disclose 'material factors' that would make an investment in Robinhood speculative or risky," Chen wrote. Shareholders in the proposed class action said Robinhood had concealed "severe deterioration" in the two months before the Menlo Park, California-based company's IPO. Chen also dismissed claims against Robinhood Chief Executive Vladimir Tenev, other company officials, and the IPO underwriters led by Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan. Robinhood reported on Wednesday a loss for 2022 of $1.03 billion, or $1.17 per share, on net revenue of $1.36 billion. The case is Sodha et al v Robinhood Markets Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No.

Feb 9 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday sanctioned Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) and its law firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher for “delay, misdirection and frivolous arguments” in a data privacy lawsuit over the company’s sharing of user information with third-parties. Representatives for Gibson Dunn and Facebook did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Los Angeles-founded Gibson Dunn has represented the company in numerous matters. The court had ordered Facebook to turn over data it had collected on the plaintiffs in the case, regardless of whether it had been shared. The case is IN RE: Facebook, INC. Consumer Privacy User Profile Litigation, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No.

"It's judge shopping on steroids," said Sarah Lipton-Lubet, executive director of the progressive legal advocacy group Take Back the Court. The Biden administration has called the lawsuit "unprecedented" and urged Kacsmaryk to not deprive women of a long-approved safe and effective drug. At least eight have led to rulings blocking Biden policies, with several more pending. The chief judges of Texas federal courts have the authority to reallocate cases to other judges, but have largely not done so, he said. Absent a change, litigants have every right to take advantage of that structure to seek a favorable judge, he said.

☆ U.S. investigating Elon Musk's Neuralink over hazardous pathogens
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Rachael Levy | Thomson Reuters | Award-Winning Journalist Covering Corporate Governance. Her Reporting Has Prompted Federal Investigations | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Feb 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Transportation said on Thursday it is investigating Elon Musk's brain-implant company Neuralink over the potentially illegal movement of hazardous pathogens. The Department of Transportation spokesperson said the agency took PCRM's allegations "very seriously." Reuters reviewed the UC Davis records cited by PCRM in its letter. Neuralink messages and records not shared with UC Davis are not subject to such information requests. A UC Davis spokesperson would only say that the university abides by all biohazard and lab safety regulations.

Feb 9 (Reuters) - A unit of medical device maker Medtronic plc (MDT.N) must pay $106.5 million to competitor Colibri Heart Valve LLC for patent infringement, a Santa Ana, California federal jury said Wednesday. The jury concluded after a seven-day trial that Medtronic CoreValve LLC's Evolut devices violate a Colibri patent for replacing heart valves in patients with heart disease, representatives for the companies confirmed Thursday. A spokesperson for Medtronic said the Minneapolis-headquartered company strongly disagrees with the verdict and will appeal. It alleged doctors use Medtronic's devices in a way that infringes Colibri's patent, which covers a method for controlling the deployment of self-expanding artificial heart valves. The case is Colibri Heart Valve LLC v. Medtronic CoreValve LLC, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, No.

☆ Elon Musk's Neuralink may have illegally transported pathogens, animal advocates say
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Rachael Levy | Thomson Reuters | Award-Winning Journalist Covering Corporate Governance. Her Reporting Has Prompted Federal Investigations | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Reuters reviewed the UC Davis records cited by PCRM in its letter. PCRM obtained the records from UC Davis through public information requests. Neuralink messages and records not shared with UC Davis are not subject to such information requests. A UC Davis spokesperson would only say that the university abides by all biohazard and lab safety regulations. During its partnership with UC Davis, Neuralink grew frustrated with what it regarded as the slow pace of testing on primates, current and former company employees told Reuters, and has since built out extensive in-house animal testing facilities.

Search resuls for: "District of California"

25 mentions found