Social media posts can be a helpful tool or destructive force for businesses. In some cases, social media blunders can end up costing millions of dollars. Take for example the recent tweet made by the director of the recent “Fantastic Four” movie, where he strongly criticized Fox, the studio responsible for producing the movie. Director
The founder of Oculus VR Inc., which makes the virtual reality headset the Oculus Rift, has been accused in a lawsuit of taking confidential information and passing it on to others. In 2014, Facebook acquired Oculus for $2 billion, hoping to get a front row seat to the untapped virtual reality market. The Oculus Rift
An old lawsuit against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. has been revived in California by a U.S. District Court judge. A class action involving 10 plaintiffs is now able to continue after waiting for a period of five years. The tobacco company is being accused of a breach of contract, deceptive practices and unfair competition, because of a
Sherman Oaks is a neighborhood in the southern San Fernando Valley that is about 15 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. In 2008, the Los Angeles Department of City Planning estimated Sherman Oaks had a population of 65,436. The Los Angeles Times reported that the $69,651 median household income in 2008 was high for the
Burbank is a city in Southern California’s Los Angeles County that is approximately 12 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, not to be confused with the census-designated place in Santa Clara County at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay area also named Burbank. According to the 2010 US Census, the city of Burbank
Century City is a commercial and residential Los Angeles neighborhood in the Westside region of Los Angeles County. The Los Angeles Department of City Planning estimated that it had a population of 5,934 in 2008, but the Southern California Association of Governments estimates that Century City has a daytime population of 48,343. According to the
James Cameron and 20th Century Fox are facing their fourth lawsuit in the past year over the 2009 film “Avatar,” according to the entertainment news website Deadline.com. Fantasy landscape artist William Roger Dean filed a complaint alleging copyright infringement, contributory infringement, breach of implied contact, unfair competition and unjust enrichment against Cameron and Fox on June 27. He
Beverly Hills is a city located in southwestern Los Angeles County. According to the US Census, Beverly Hills had a population of 34,109 as of 2010. The city is well-known for the three-block long shopping district of Rodeo Drive as well as its many posh restaurants, such as Spago. The headquarters for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Live Nation Entertainment are
On June 20, the Santa Barbara Independent reported that the Santa Barbara Certified Farmers Market Association is considering a temporary fee hike for vendors in order to pay lawyer’s fees resulting from a complaint filed by two members and one ex-member. The antitrust lawsuit brought by Jeff and Roxanne Hendrickson of Santa Rita Flower Farm
Culver City is a Southern California city located in western Los Angeles County, and it has a population of 38,883, according to the US Census. A little over a month before Yahoo Inc. agreed to pay $1.1 billion for Tumblr, the six-year-old New York-based blogging network opened its first West Coast branch with a seven-person
The entertainment news website Deadline.com reported on May 30 that the film company Merchant Ivory Productions and the film distribution company Janus Films came to a deal in a copyright infringement lawsuit. Merchant Ivory filed a lawsuit last August alleging that Janus was infringing copyrights by distributing 25 of its films after their licensing deals expired. Janus
Three producers filed a $60 million breach of contract lawsuit over the Oxygen cable television channel’s 2011 reality series “Tori & Dean: sTORIbook Weddings.” According to the Hollywood Reporter, Denny O’Neil Jr., Jake Hall and Charles Malcolm claim that they registered an idea with the Writers Guild in 2007 for a show called “Wedding Rescue,” in which
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Madden NFL, the Electronic Arts, Inc. (EA) game, has sold more than 100 million copies and grossed over $4 billion in sales. The next annual release will be the 25th anniversary edition of the football game. Robin Antonick developed a prototype for a football game on the old Apple II operating
The light-emitting diode (LED) technology was at the center of a recent lawsuit that delivered a financial jolt to one California company. The Alabama Media Group reported that a jury handed down a $3 million verdict in favor of Clarence “Buddy” Scroggins, and his company Complete Lighting Source. Scroggins filed a lawsuit alleging fraud and breach
Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. is in good shape in the patent infringement lawsuit it filed against Microsoft Corp. Last April, US International Trade Commission Judge David Shaw ruled that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console violated four of Motorola’s patents and later recommended a ban on the sale of the Xbox console in the United States. However,
Napa Valley has long been one of the premier viticultural regions in California—if not the United States. The Napa Valley Register reported that one grape grower near the Napa town of Calistoga is filed a lawsuit against a winery last month for an alleged breach of contract. Frederic Constant, owner of Diamond Mountain Vineyard claims that
A May 2012 advertisement from satellite service provider Dish Network touts the company’s sports offerings, but Dish threw the flag on the “Worldwide Leader in Sports” when it accused cable television sports programming giant ESPN of breach of contract. On February 28, a federal jury awarded Dish $4.86 million in one of its four breach of
A trailer for Deponia, an adventure game created by Daedalic Entertainment was recently posted online. According to the video game website Gamasutra, it was one of four Daedalic titles that Lace Mamba Global Ltd. agreed to publish and distribute when the developer signed a contract with the British publisher in June 2010. In an open letter
According to the Hollywood Reporter, KTLA-TV’s Knutsson started his relationship with the station in 1995 after establishing himself as an expert reporter on technology. Within two years, his reports were being syndicated to about two dozen other TV stations across the country. Knutsson signed a five-year deal with KTLA in 2008, but the CyberGuy claims
In a 1986 interview with Fortune magazine, investor and philanthropist Warren Buffet said that the “perfect amount” of money for parents to leave their children is “enough money so that they would feel they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing.” Before musician Ray Charles died in 2004, the singer gathered most
Professional wrestler Ric Flair returned to World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE) during the December 2012 event. However, several months before that show, rival promoter Total Nonstop Action (TNA) filed a lawsuit against WWE after Flair reportedly backed out of his TNA contract in order to return to the competitor. The other defendant named in the
Back in November, we wrote about a federal judge ordering Canadian video game developer Silcon Knights to recall and destroy all unsold copies of Too Human. This was the result of a nasty court battle beginning in 2007, and the judge also ordered all other games containing North Carolina-based Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3 game engine be recalled
The technology news and information website Ars Technica reported that Sunnyvale, California-based chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) filed a lawsuit against four former employees it alleges “collectively downloaded over 100,000 files onto external hard drives in the six months before leaving” to join competing graphics chip maker Nvidia. The company also alleges that the
There was widespread outrage and furor when the online photo sharing and social networking service Instagram released an updated version of its privacy policy and terms of service on December 17, 2012. Some of the changes that prompted the backlash included: Instagram claiming it could share information about its users with its parent company, Facebook,
In a video, professional golfer Rory McIlroy talks about some of the benefits of wearing apparel made by Foothill Ranch, California-based sports equipment manufacturer Oakley, Inc. However, after Fox Sports reported that the No. 1-ranked golfer in the world signed a deal with Nike Golf last month that is worth “at least” $200 million, Oakley
A Wall Street Journal video discusses Marissa Mayer, the businesswoman who was Google’s first female engineer and held key roles with the multinational corporation before being appointed president and CEO of Yahoo in July 2012. The move made the 37-year-old Mayer the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company, but she is now facing what
This past August, a San Jose, California, jury awarded over $1 billion in damages to Apple Inc. in its intellectual property case against Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd. At a hearing tomorrow, Samsung will attempt to have the jury verdict overturned while a judge is also expected to rule on whether to ban several Samsung products from the
Kansas City, Missouri-based Hallmark Cards, Inc. has long been the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States ever since being founded over a century ago. For the past seven years, Hallmark had been engaged in a legal dispute with Monitor Company Group of Massachusetts. On November 19, 2012, the Kansas City Star reported
On Wednesday, we referenced a copyright infringement lawsuit that Warner Bros. settled last year in regards to tattoo art it used for “The Hangover Part II.” On November 20, 2012, Bloomberg reported that the estate of late author J.R.R. Tolkien is suing Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. Entertainment unit for alleged copyright infringement and breach of contract. The
The Washington Post reported on November 1, 2012, that language learning software developer Rosetta Stone Inc. agreed to drop the trademark infringementlawsuit it filed against Google three years ago after the two companies reached a settlement. Rosetta Stone sued the search site in 2009, accusing it of selling trademarked phrases like “Rosetta Stone” and “language library”
The video game news website Gamasutra reported on October 31, 2012, that independent game studio Checkpoint is suing Japanese publisher Marvelous AQL and other parties for breach of contract, theft of trade secrets and other claims. Gamasutra reported that the complaint filed by Checkpoint CEO Brian Wiklem states that Marvelous paid the studio $2.5 million in startup costs
The November 30, 2009 “Sexiest Man Alive” issue of People Magazine included an advertisement from General Motors (GM) promoting the company’s Terrain SUV. The GM ad featured the muscular, shirtless torso of a male underwear model with the head of legendary scientist Albert Einstein. The ad also included the tagline “Ideas are sexy too,” and
“The Black Eyed Peas Experience,” trailer was released late last year for Wii and Kinect. However, publisher Ubisoft believes there should have been versions for Apple’s iOS platforms as well. The video game website Player Attack reported on October 16, 2012, that Ubisoft has filed a $1 million lawsuit against BEP Music, LLC, the band’s trademark holders.
