Recently in Intellectual Property Category

And then there was one.

After a fifth publisher settled on Wednesday, Apple is alone in fighting against the U.S. Justice Department's accusations that the company and publishers conspired to fix e-book prices. If Judge Denise Cole's comments on Thursday are reflective of the strength of the government's case, we could see Apple come to a last minute settlement as well.

They better hurry. The trial is set for June 3rd.

By now, many of you have heard of Prenda Law. The porn-trolling "law firm" spent years sending demand letters to (and filing boilerplate lawsuits against) those who illegally downloaded porn. Many of the letters contained shades of blackmail, with hints that their investigation of the matter would reveal that person's pornographic proclivities to neighbors and relatives if a settlement wasn't reached quickly.

The legal basis of the scheme was simple: The lawyers acquired the copyrights to pornographic films and assigned the rights to a number of newly-formed shell companies, such as Ingenuity 13. Prenda Law would then monitor BitTorrent for IP addresses and file subpoenas to obtain the identities behind the IPs.

The lawyers would then send the blackmail letters, offering to settle for about $4,000. They'd also file boilerplate lawsuits in bulk, hoping for default judgments. If anyone lawyered up and fought the case, they'd drop it and move on to the next porn pirate.

How much would you pay for 24 songs? Jammie Thomas-Rasset is expected to pay $222,000 for two dozen songs that she downloaded through Kazaa, a now-defunct peer-to-peer file sharing service.

Thomas-Rasset is famous in legal circles for being the first defendant to be tried before a jury in the U.S. for unauthorized file-sharing, according to Ars Technica. She asked the Supreme Court for relief against her after her case bounced through three trials and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Monday, the Supreme Court denied her petition for certiorari.

What's in a name? Everything.

The right name is memorable, descriptive, and ideally evocative of positive feelings and connotations. The wrong name, however, can ruin a perfectly good business or product.

When it comes to domain names, there are a number of unfortunate examples, such as the site we cited last week, Who Represents? (whorepresents.com). Or take for example, Experts Exchange (expertsexchange.com). Because this domain name will be on business cards, promotional materials, and typed by customers, you'll want to be very careful when choosing it.

Aaron Swartz, a famous Internet activist and computer programmer, committed suicide Friday. He was 26.

In Silicon Valley, it seems that everyone has a story about how Aaron influenced one of their projects. But while Aaron will be remembered for developing the RSS standard and his contributions to Reddit, he also left his mark on the legal world.

Apple's lawsuit against Amazon is still ongoing but at least one claim, relating to Amazon's Appstore, has been resolved.

That doesn't mean the case is over. Back in 2011, Apple filed suit against Amazon for trademark infringement, false advertising, dilution, and unfair competition. Only the false advertising issue has been resolved.

U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton dismissed Apple's complaint as it related to false advertising. Her Jan. 2 decision also suggests that Apple's other claims may not succeed.

You may not pay attention to the legal rights for most Christmas gifts you receive. But if you're one of millions who received an ebook for the holidays, knowing about the legal rights to ebooks is particularly important.

That's because purchasers of ebooks can be more aptly compared to renters and licensees than outright owners, reports the Los Angeles Times.

So unlike your TV or sweater, there are legal restrictions over what you can and cannot do with an ebook. Here are three reminders about an ebook owner's legal rights:

In the latest round of the Apple/Samsung lawsuit in Silicon Valley, Apple was the loser after it lost a petition to ban the sale of certain Samsung devices.

Shortly after the jury ruled in Apple's favor earlier this year, the company filed a motion asking the judge to ban the sale of Samsung's smartphones in the United States. Last week, Judge Lucy Koh rejected the request.

The ruling is the first in a series of decisions Judge Koh will be making in the coming weeks and months. Her first finding may set an unhappy precedent for Apple.

Lawyers who sue people en masse for pirating pornography are often demonized as 'copyright trolls' but at least one of those people is satisfied with his chosen legal career.

Meet John Steele, who is often on the filing end of lawsuits alleging copyright infringement of porn films. While the Internet may hate him, he's got a full caseload and business doesn't look like it's slowing. He's even proud of his accomplishments.

Steele partners with big porn companies to go after the people who are illegally downloading copyrighted movies. In that sense what he does is not unlike other copyright lawyers who go after infringers. It's his methods that make it unique.

Apple and Samsung are engaged in a global war over intellectual property and patent infringement associated with smartphones and tablets. In the European campaign, Apple looks to have lost its battle, and has now been forced to make a public apology to Samsung.

Britain's Court of Appeal upheld a lower court's ruling that despite some similarities, Samsung did not infringe upon Apple's designs with its Galaxy tablet. In a backhanded victory, the court basically said Samsung could not have copied Apple because the Samsung product was simply "not as cool," reports Reuters.

The British court's ruling is valid throughout Europe and is expected to end the legal dispute in that region.