Google has reached a preliminary settlement in a class-action lawsuit filed in 2020 over its Chrome browser’s Incognito mode. The lawsuit, originating in the Northern District of California, accused Google of secretly “tracking, collecting, and identifying users’ browsing data in real-time” even when using Incognito mode.

Led by Florida resident William Byatt and Californians Chasom Brown and Maria Nguyen, the legal action alleged Google’s violation of wiretap laws. It claimed that websites using Google Analytics or Ad Manager gathered information from browsers in Incognito mode, including web page content, device data, and IP addresses. The lawsuit also accused Google of linking users’ private browsing activity with their existing profiles.

Google’s initial attempt to dismiss the lawsuit, based on the warning displayed when activating Incognito mode, was rejected by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in August. The judge highlighted that Google had not explicitly informed users about continued data collection during private browsing.

Following negotiations, Google and the plaintiffs have agreed to terms that will lead to the dismissal of the litigation. The finalized agreement is expected to be presented to the court by the end of January, with court approval anticipated by the end of February.

This development halts a scheduled February 5, 2024 trial. The lawsuit, seeking at least $5 billion in damages, claimed that Google’s analytics, cookies, and apps allowed tracking even when users believed they were browsing privately. The settlement terms remain undisclosed, pending court approval by February 24, 2024.

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A proposed settlement between Google LLC and the plaintiffs involved in consolidated class action lawsuits has recently garnered attention. This settlement aims to address concerns surrounding the inclusion of Google Search queries in referrer headers and during the provision of certain Google services. If you used Google Search and clicked on a search link between October 25, 2006, and September 30, 2013, you may be eligible to participate in this settlement as a Settlement Class Member. In this article, we will explore the details of the settlement, its implications, and what it means for you as a Google user.

Users need to establish if they used Google Search between October 25, 2006 & September 30, 2013

The proposed settlement, while not an admission of wrongdoing by Google, seeks to resolve the legal claims brought forward in the Lawsuit. As part of the settlement, Google will pay $23 million to compensate Settlement Class Members who file Claims, as well as cover attorneys’ fees, litigation costs, and settlement administration expenses. Additionally, Google has committed to revising its “FAQs” and “Key Terms” webpages to provide clearer information regarding the disclosure of search queries to third parties via referrer headers.

It is crucial to understand the legal rights affected by this settlement, regardless of whether the public chooses to take action. This notice serves as a means to inform the public of the proposed settlement, rights, available benefits, and options. The notice has been authorized by Judge Edward J. Davila of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, who is overseeing this class action known as In re Google Referrer Header Privacy Litigation. The Plaintiffs, who sued Google LLC, are represented in this case, and the settlement is designed to benefit all Settlement Class Members.

To determine if you are a Settlement Class Member, you need to establish whether you used Google Search and clicked on a search result in the United States between October 25, 2006, and September 30, 2013. The Settlement Class also includes individuals who can bring claims on behalf of these users, such as representatives, heirs, administrators, and assigns. If you have any doubts about your eligibility or questions about the settlement, you can contact the Settlement Administrator through the provided contact page on the Settlement Website, www.RefererHeaderSettlement.com. The amount of compensation for each class member will depend on various factors, including the number of claims submitted and the costs associated with administering the settlement. As of now, each claimant is estimated to receive approximately $7.70 for an Approved Claim for American citizens only.

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In a recent settlement, Google has agreed to pay $8 million to resolve a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The lawsuit alleged that Google ran misleading advertisements for its Pixel 4 smartphones in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston markets. The company was accused of creating false narratives through DJs’ testimonials without actually providing them with the devices. This article explores the details of the case, the implications for Google, and its subsequent efforts to revive the Pixel line with the Pixel 6 series.

The Pixel 4 series was unreleased when the ads claiming “Personal Use” aired on the Radio

According to the lawsuit, Google produced ad scripts that DJs at iHeartMedia read on-air, claiming personal use and endorsement of the Pixel 4. These ads touted features like Night Sight mode and Google Assistant’s capabilities. However, at the time the commercials aired, the Pixel 4 had not been released, and the announcers had never laid hands on the devices. The Texas Attorney General’s office accused Google of engaging in false, misleading, and deceptive acts.

The settlement with Texas marks Google’s second payout related to the same radio spots. Previously, the company settled with the Federal Trade Commission and six other states for $9 million. These settlements highlight the need for transparency and honesty in advertising practices. Attorney General Paxton emphasized the importance of holding corporations accountable for their misdeeds, ensuring that large companies do not receive special treatment under the law.

Despite the controversial ad campaign, the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL failed to live up to expectations. The devices aimed to challenge Apple’s iPhone with features like secure Face Unlock and Motion Sense. However, the Soli radar chip’s potential for gesture controls was underutilized, limiting its functionality.

The settlement of the lawsuit against Google for misleading advertisements serves as a reminder of the importance of truthfulness in marketing campaigns. While the Pixel 4 faced numerous challenges and fell short of expectations, Google is determined to bounce back with its Pixel 6 series. As the company learns from past mistakes, it aims to regain consumer trust and deliver an enhanced smartphone experience.

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Huawei is one of China’s biggest names in AIoT products, which means that from time to time, people try to make easy profits using that name.

A similar incident occurred recently where an unauthorized seller was selling knockoff Huawei earbuds by fooling customers. The guilty party named Shenzhen Jinyun Video Equipment Co., Ltd. infringed on Huawei’s trademark and also used the “FREEBUDS” trademark for the counterfeit products. They also used taglines like “official genuine Huawei only” and “official original equipment” on their online products page to trick customers.

After numerous complaints from the victims of this long-running scam, Huawei investigated the matter and sued Shenzhen Jinyun Video Equipment Co., Ltd for trademark and copyright infringement. Other than that, Huawei also demanded 3 million yuan ($450,000 approx) for economic losses and also demanded that the accused bear the litigation cost.

The case was heard in the Yuhang District People’s Court of Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, China, which ruled in Huawei’s favor and ordered Shenzhen Jinyun Video Equipment Co., Ltd to pay Huawei an amount of 1 million yuan ($150,000 approx) as compensation.

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Xiaomi and InterDigital have recently struck a global licensing deal. The move from the brand enables it to resolve legal disputes between the two companies over Xiaomi’s use of InterDigital’s patents that cover various mobile technologies.

According to a RCRWireless report, the Chinese tech giant has entered into a global licensing deal with InterDigital to settle lawsuit that both companies were involved in. This lawsuit was filed in China and in India over different aspects of the technology use and licensing rates of some of InterDigital’s standard essential patents (SEPs). Through the new agreement, both firms have agreed to dismiss all pending legal disputes. Furthermore, the licensing agreements covers InterDigital’s SEPs for 3G, 4G, and 5G cellular, along with Wi Fi and High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC).

Paul Lin, Xiaomi’s VP of global business development and IP strategy stated that “Xiaomi has continuously invested in core standards research to emerge as a top contributor to standard essential technologies in the world.” He further added that “In the past year, the Xiaomi and InterDigital teams worked hard to understand each other’s needs and diligently seek to narrow the gaps. I’m glad, now that all disputes are resolved between the two parties, Xiaomi can remain laser-focused on bringing innovative products to market.

Similarly, InterDigital’s chief licensing officer, Eeva Hakoranta said that the company is “very pleased to conclude this agreement with Xiaomi, which recognizes our long-term investment in research and innovation in standards-based technologies and the strength and breadth of our patent portfolio across several key technologies.”

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Zoom Video Communications, the company behind the popular Zoom platform, has agreed to pay $85 million and improve its security practices to settle a lawsuit that claimed that the company violated users’ privacy rights.

The lawsuit alleged that the platform shared users’ personal data with Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn. It also talked about letting hackers disrupt Zoom meetings in a practice called “Zoombombing”, reports Reuters.

In the settlement agreement, the company denied wrongdoing. A preliminary settlement still requires approval by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California.

As for the compensation, the subscribers of the platform in the proposed class action would be eligible for 15% refunds on their core subscriptions or $25, whichever is larger while others could receive up to $15.

Apart from monetary compensation, Zoom has also agreed to security measures including alerting users when meeting hosts or other participants use third-party apps in meetings and providing specialized training to employees on privacy and data handling.

Though Zoom collected about $1.3 billion in Zoom Meetings subscriptions from class members, the plaintiffs’ lawyers called the $85 million settlement reasonable given the litigation risks. They intend to seek up to $21.25 million for legal fees.

The usage of Zoom surged during the COVID-19 pandemic as companies and companies, schools, and colleges opted for online meetings instead of in-person conduct. It had 497,000 customers with more than 10 employees in April 2021, a substantial increase from 81,900 in January 2020. But the company says that the user growth could slow or decline as more people get vaccines and return to work or school in person.

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Elon Musk-led electric carmaker Tesla has agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle a lawsuit that claims that the company used a software update to reduce the maximum battery voltage in 1,743 Tesla Model S sedans, reports Reuters.

As a part of this settlement, owners of the vehicle will get getting $625 each which is touted to be “many times the prorated value of the temporarily reduced maximum voltage.” This is based on the proposed settlement documents filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

Do note that the proposed settlement is subject to approval by a judge. A U.S. judge set a Dec. 9 hearing on the proposed settlement for the lawsuit that was filed in August 2019.

Lawyers, who filed the lawsuit for the car owners said that the “voltage limitation was temporary, with a 10% reduction lasting about 3 months, and a smaller 7% reduction lasting another 7 months before the corrective update was released in March 2020.”

A subsequent update restored about 3 percent of the battery voltage in these vehicles, and a third update released in March 2020 was designed to fully restore the batteries’ voltage over time as the vehicles are driven, the settlement documents said.

The documents further add that the company data shows 1,552 vehicles with the maximum battery voltage fully restored and 57 have had battery replacements. As for the other vehicles, the maximum voltage should continue to be restored over time.

Tesla recently announced that its revenue stood at $11.9 billion in Q2 2021, beating analyst expectations and showing a 98 percent increase compared to the same period of last year. GAAP earnings per share soared by 920 percent year-on-year to $1.02.

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Recently, the Chinese smartphone maker, Huawei, agreed to pay the US Chipmaker Qualcomm a large sum of 1.8 billion US Dollars to settle their long disputed patent infringement lawsuit. Since then, both companies have signed a new long term deal despite the rising tension between the US and China.

For those unaware, Qualcomm currently holds patents on various key smartphone components and generally licenses its products/IP for revenue. Huawei had been one of its customers but had allegedly withheld payments since 2017. Back in 2019, the latter finally agreed to pay 150 million US Dollars for every quarter for using the former’s technology up until 2018.

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After the settlement, Huawei and Qualcomm have now inked a new agreement that will license the latter’s patented technology to the former. This deal is also a sort of a win-win scenario for both sides, with the chipmaker already seeing the benefits as its stock value has risen to record heights just by the deal. Huawei also benefits from the deal by gaining access to various Qualcomm technology, especially key components for smartphones, which is quite crucial after the company lost its chip supply from TSMC due to US sanctions.

Notably, Qualcomm CEO also stated that the new deal is “consistent with the framework of our licensing programme and incremental to the partial payments received from Huawei under the interim agreement in prior years”. So, we will have to wait and see as to what more this new deal might bring to the table in the near future.

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Previously, we had reported that Lenovo’s former Vice President and head of Lenovo Mobile China, Chang Cheng, announced his decision on leaving the company. After working in Lenovo for 19 years, the senior executive had supposedly retired (due to familial reasons) but today we learned that he has officially joined Xiaomi, its competitor.

The news came as a surprise as Lei Jun, Co-Founder and Chairman of Xiaomi Group, welcomed Chang Cheng as the new Vice President of the Chinese tech giant. However, Lenovo has now released a statement that could possibly entangle the former VP in legal constraints.

According to Lenovo’s statement, all employees working with the company have to sign a non-competition agreement; this means that former employees are under a contract to not enter into a competition of any kind with the employer after the employment period has ended. Hence, Chang Cheng, the former VP of Lenovo, joining Xiaomi technically breaches the contract.

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Lenovo Group’s response states that if a violation in the breach is confirmed, the company will be seeking a recourse within the legal frameworks. In other words, there is a chance of a lawsuit being filed against Chang Cheng if he does not comply with the terms and conditions of breaching a non-competition agreement. The terms and conditions in question will either convey a monetary figure being paid to Lenovo and will most likely have him agree to a non-disclosure agreement regarding Lenovo’s operations.

Notably, a lawyer from a Beijing firm has pointed out that the competition agreement does not fall under mandatory signing. Hence, it will have to be confirmed if both parties have signed the contract. If Chang Cheng is found having has signed a non-competition agreement, he is liable to pay compensation in a fixed amount as stated in the agreement for the violation.

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This seems like a season of lawsuit settlements in the tech world. After Apple and Qualcomm announced the settlement of their lawsuits which was called the biggest court battle in the tech world in recent times, it’s now Huawei and Samsung who have reached a settlement for an 8-year long lawsuit.

According to the reports, through a litigation mediation of the Higher People’s Court of Guangdong Province, Huawei Technologies and Samsung (China) Investment have reached a settlement for a series of infringement disputes related to the standard-essential patents.

For the cross-licensing of standard-essential patents worldwide, both the companies have developed a framework of the Patent Licensing Agreement and all the relevant litigations have been resolved. The companies have also started withdrawing their complaints.

Reports indicate that both the companies have been trying to conduct negotiations since 2011 or the patent cross-licensing but it didn’t materialize until now. In the past eight years, the companies filed over 40 lawsuits.

Earlier last year, in January, Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court ruled in favor of Huawei and said that Samsung‘s 4G mobile phone produced and sold in China infringed Huawei’s two patents. However, Samsung immediately appealed to the Guangdong High Court.

Now, under the constant mediation through the Guangdong High Court, Huawei and Samsung have finally reached a settlement. However, the specific conditions for this settlement have not been disclosed yet.

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Last month, Apple and Qualcomm announced that the companies are settling their lawsuits. The settlement includes a payment from Apple to Qualcomm as well as a chipset supply agreement. Later, it was revealed that Apple is paying at least $4.5 billion to Qualcomm as a part of the agreement.

(Via)

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One of the most intense high tech legal battle in the recent has now finally come to an end. Smartphone maker Apple and chipset manufacturer Qualcomm has announced that the companies are settling their lawsuits.

Effective immediately, all litigation between the two companies has been dropped, and the companies have signed a new patent license and chip supply agreements. The companies have not shed light on the details as the agreement is largely a private matter.

The settlement includes a payment from Apple to Qualcomm as well as a chipset supply agreement, suggesting that Apple will buy Qualcomm chips for future iPhones. However, the companies did not say how much the payment will be.

It seems that Apple will be making a one-time payment to Qualcomm to cover any IP use since Apple cut off payments to Qualcomm in 2017. Apple has also signed a 6-year patent license agreement with Qualcomm, which is being backdated to April 1st. The agreement includes a further 2-year extension option, which if Apple eventually chooses to exercise it, would take the agreement through April 2027.

Apple will also resume buying chips from Qualcomm. The companies have also signed a separate chipset supply agreement and the official announcement doesn’t say for how long beyond the fact that it’s a “multiyear” agreement. This suggests that the Qualcomm is once again going to be supplying modems for Apple’s iPhones and iPads.

Soon after the announcement went public, Intel announced that it is exiting the 5G smartphone modem business. However, the company said that it will continue to invest in its 5G network infrastructure business. It’s noteworthy that Intel was the sole supplier for iPhone modems last year but the recent report said that Apple had concerns about Intel’s ability to supply next year’s iPhone models with 5G modems.

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After the news about settlement broke, Qualcomm’s stock rose more than 20 percent, boosting its market cap by about $14.5 billion to more than $84 billion. This seems to be Qualcomm’s best day since 1999. Further, Apple was up less than 1 percent but Intel sharply dipped.

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