Australian High Court Lets Samsung Sell Tablet

Samsung Electronics Co. can get its rival to Apple Inc.’s iPad 2 on Australian store shelves before Christmas after the country’s highest court denied the U.S. company’s bid to maintain a ban on Samsung Galaxy tablets. Chief Justice Robert French, on behalf of the three-judge High Court panel, said that Apple failed to persuade them that it could win on appeal and denied the company a hearing. He reinstated an appeal court judgment lifting the ban on the Galaxy 10.1 tablets in Australia.

Clinton Urges Countries to Fight Censorship Online

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other international leaders urged countries and private businesses to fight increasing efforts to restrict access to the Internet by repressive governments and even some democratic ones. Opening a two-day conference on digital freedom here sponsored by Google and the Dutch government, Mrs. Clinton warned that restrictions on the Internet threatened not only basic freedoms and human rights, but also international commerce and the free flow of information that increasingly makes it possible.

Judge Says Blogger Doesn't Qualify as Journalist

A U.S. District Court judge in Portland, Ore., ruled that a blogger who wrote about an investment firm that subsequently accused her of defamation must pay the company $2.5 million because she's a blogger who doesn't legally qualify as a journalist. Crystal Cox, whose blogs are a mixture of fact, opinion, and commentary, wrote several posts that were critical of Obsidian Finance Group and its co-founder, Kevin Padrick.

Justice Dep't Investigating E-Book Pricing

The U.S. Justice Department confirmed that it is conducting an antitrust investigation into the pricing of electronic books, the latest antitrust watchdog to probe whether there was improper collusion by publishers and Apple Inc. to prevent discounting. At a congressional hearing, Sharis Pozen, the Justice Department's acting antitrust chief, said: "We are also investigating the electronic book industry, along with the European Commission and the states attorneys general."

RIM Drops 'BBX' Name After Losing Trademark Ruling

Research In Motion has unceremoniously dumped the "BBX" brand name it had chosen two months ago for its new BlackBerry operating system after a U.S. court embarrassed the beleaguered smartphone maker by slapping a temporary ban on its use. In yet another public relations debacle for a company that has suffered through a series of them recently, the court said RIM could not use the BBX name until it could sort out copyright infringement allegations.

Yahoo Spammers Face $610 Million Judgment

Nigerian and Thai scammers who spammed Yahoo! customers about a fake lottery must act now on a $610 million default judgment against them, a federal judge ruled. For several years, the spammers flooded inboxes with millions of emails about a Yahoo! lottery, which a fraud, promising large cash awards for sweepstakes the email customers had not entered.

India, South Korea Seek Greater Internet Monitoring

Two of Asia's largest democracies, India and South Korea, are trying to beef up monitoring of the Internet and social-networking sites as they try to reconcile the demands of free speech with government interest in policing potentially offensive content. Kapil Sibal, India's minister of communications and information technology, said that the government is pushing for a framework to prevent content deemed offensive to religious communities and other groups from appearing online.

Apple, E-Book Publishers Face EU Antitrust Probe

Apple Inc., the world’s biggest technology company, and five e-book publishers are being investigated by European Union antitrust regulators over deals that may restrict sales across the region. The probe targets the iPad-maker’s deals with Lagardere SCA’s Hachette Livre, News Corp.’s Harper Collins, CBS Corp.’s Simon & Schuster, Pearson Plc’s Penguin and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH’s Macmillan division, the European Commission said in an e-mailed statement.

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The GigaLaw Firm helps companies of all sizes protect their brands online, using domain name dispute policies – such as the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) – and other legal tools available to copyright and trademark owners on the Internet.