Dec 2, 2021
Read Chapter 3 on free speech
Not, however, the US Supreme Court.
The UK Supreme Court issued a ruling making it much harder to file class-action lawsuits against Google. An existing lawsuit claiming that Google collected too much information failed because the plaintiffs had not proved that any user was harmed, either financially or emotionally. Proving harm in privacy cases is often a hurdle.
www.cityam.com/supreme-court-shock-google-ruling-sends-shockwaves-through-london-legal-community.
Judge Griesbach accepts the limitations on §230 suggested by the Seventh Circuit. (Though those limitations were not actually part of a decision.)
But Armslist still wins its case, on a Wisconsin theory of lack of liability when the negligent act is only remotely connected to the subsequent harm.
This is the group that sued a large number of hotels and coffeeshops for using Wi-Fi access points, for around $3,000 each.
The usual theory was that the manufacturers of the access points had paid the patent fee. But that the customers would have to spend much more than $3,000 to get that recognized.
However, in the end Innovatio settled for much, much less. They were sued by Cisco, and while the original RICO lawsuit was thrown out, Cisco got the per-device licensing fee reduced to around 3 cents. The judge originally ruled that the FRAND licensing fee was 9.56 cents per device, but the settlement reached a lower value (probably because part (if not all) of the licensing fee had been paid.
What is the deal with software patents?
Obvious in context
Software-patent issues
Broad patents and the Wright brothers
Benson, Flook and Diehr
Federal Circuit
Examples of software patents
Heckel examples
Eolas
E-data
i4i
NTP
Patent trolls
Business methods
Apple patents
Stallman
Graham
Europe
KSR v Teleflex
Bilski
Mayo Labs, Myriad Genetics
Abstract patents; Ultramercial and Alice