Apple has not been doing well in New York’s Southern District under Judge Denise Cote, so the company is trying a last-minute effort to get the damages trial moved to a different venue. Or rather, split into two venues. They want the judicial panel for multidistrict litigation to return the consumer class action suits to the Northern District of California — where many of the suits were originally filed, and where Apple is located — and they ask for the states’ suit to be returned to the Western District of Texas, where it was first filed by the Texas Attorney […]
Legal
People, Etc.
At William Morrow, Kate Nintzel has been promoted to executive editor. At Candlewick, Mary Lee Donovan has been promoted to editorial director. At becker&mayer!, Dana Youlin has been promoted to editorial manager, Delia Greve has been promoted to senior editor, and Nicole Burns Ascue is now associate editor. In the UK, Anna Valentine will re-join Orion in May as publishing director, non-fiction, reporting to Amanda Harris, newly promoted to deputy publisher. Valentine was most recently publishing director at HarperCollins UK. Mavis Gallant, 91, one of Canada’s most distinguished short story writers and literary figures, died Tuesday morning in Paris, where […]
Appeals Court and Government Agree that Apple Monitor’s Role Is Limited
Apple appears to have gotten most of what they wanted from the extended court skirmish over the scope and role of court-appointed monitor Michael Bromwich. Yes, their request for a complete stay of the monitor pending appeal of Judge Cote’s verdict was denied by the three-judge Court of Appeals panel, but the ruling did explicitly and significantly limit what the monitor can do. The Court of Appeals writes that during oral arguments even the government “explicitly stated” the order for the monitor’s duties “should be interpreted narrowly.” So in their brief ruling, the Court of Appeals reaffirms that the monitor […]
Publishers Warn Trade Representative On Canada and Fair Use
We are accustomed to America’s intellectual property creators warning about inadequate protection for their work in countries such as China, Ukraine and Russia. But on Friday, organizations representing industries that rely on copyright (including the AAP) called out Canada for special attention and a place on the US Trade Representative’s “watch list” among others. The AAP explained in a release that Canada’s Copyright Modernization Act 2012 “expanded its fair dealing exceptions to include an undefined ‘education’ purpose. The education exception lacks any specific parameters, thus conflicting with established international norms regarding exceptions, and has also been subject to excessively broad interpretation, […]
Canada Settles eBook Pricing Investigation with Four Publishers
The one holdout in resolving governmental concerns over the establishment of agency pricing for ebooks, Canada announced that their Competition Bureau has signed consent agreements with Harper, Hachette, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster. The Bureau said, “This agreement should benefit Canadian consumers by lowering the price of ebooks in Canada. Businesses operating in the digital economy must realize that anti-competitive activity will not be tolerated, whether it occurs in the physical world or the digital one.” The settlement resolves allegations of violation of Canada’s Competition Act. The four publishers have “agreed to remove or amend clauses in their distribution agreements […]
FYI, There’s Nothing New About the Latest Demand for Big Damages from Apple
For a while now, we’ve cautioned readers: a) not to get caught up in the day-to-day legal maneuverings between Apple and the government (the main things that matter are the appeal, and the damages trial, in that order), and b) to be wary of stories from organizations that don’t have a deep understanding and coverage of this complex battle. So today you’ll see headlines about the latest filing from the class action attorneys suggesting that Apple should pay damages of between $720 million and $840 million. But this is nothing new. We guesstimated back in June 2013 — before the […]