Samsung manufactured and sold plasma TVs for six years through November 2014 “when it knew or should have known that these televisions would fail prematurely,” alleged a complaint (in Pacer) filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Oakland, California, that seeks class-action status. The TVs “are defective in that they contain ill-suited, under-graded and/or inadequate internal components, including capacitors, which prematurely fail during normal operation of the televisions,” it said. Oakland resident Alexis Bronson paid $1,700 to buy his 51-inch Samsung plasma set in August 2013 at a local Best Buy store, said the complaint. Bronson soon noticed red lines appearing on the screen and two years after purchase “sporadically” began having problems powering the TV on or off, it said. Bronson’s TV can’t be fixed “due to the unavailability of repair/replacement parts” after Samsung discontinued its plasma business in late 2014 (see 1407080054), it said. “Samsung violated reasonable expectations of consumers when the likelihood and frequency of television failures exceeded the inventory and availability of component parts necessary to remedy the defect in the Samsung plasma televisions,” it said. Samsung didn’t comment.

Various models of iPhones and iPads violate three U.S. patents on fingerprint authentication technology held by South Korean company Firstface, alleged a complaint (in Pacer) filed Friday against Apple in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. One of the patents (8,831,557), issued in September 2014, was the basis of a federal complaint that Firstface also filed Friday against Samsung (see 1804140001). Two 2017 patents in the Apple complaint -- 9,633,373 granted April 25, and 9,779,419 granted Oct. 3 -- “are not at issue” in the action against Samsung, “but are in the same patent family as the '557 patent,” said Firstface lawyers in a notice of pendency (in Pacer) filed Tuesday with U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero in San Francisco. Apple didn’t comment Tuesday.

The Supreme Court dismissed U.S. v. Microsoft as moot, given the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act (see 1804030057). The Cloud Act allowed DOJ to obtain a new search warrant in a case with data access implications abroad. The case is moot given the original warrant in question was superseded, Justice Samuel Alito said, announcing the decision Tuesday. Software & Information Industry Association Senior Vice President-Public Policy Mark MacCarthy applauded the decision, saying with the law, the U.S. has “an updated legal framework that enhances law enforcement access to critical data for investigations, provides for law enforcement cooperation between the United States and our allies, and establishes strong human rights protections.”

​Various models of Samsung smartphones and tablets infringe a U.S. patent describing methods of pairing a device’s “activation button" with “fingerprint authentication” security technology, alleges a complaint (in Pacer) filed Friday in U.S. District Court in San Jose. Samsung’s intentional infringement is “evident when Samsung encourages and instructs customers and other end users in the use and operation of the Accused Products, including use of the activation button to turn on the display and unlock the device using fingerprint authentication,” alleges plaintiff Firstface, a South Korean company and current assignee of the September 2014 patent (8,831,557). There can be no doubt Samsung knew about the invention for years because Ideazzan, Firstface’s South Korean “predecessor” company and the patent’s original assignee, tried to license or sell the intellectual property to Samsung in 2013 when it was still in the application phase, says the complaint. Samsung therefore is aware that each of its infringing products contains memory and a processor “that are specifically programmed and/or configured to implement the functionality” of fingerprint authentication described in the patent, it says. "Firstface and Ideazzan are one and the same. Simply a formal name change a few years ago," Firstface lawyer Ed Nelson emailed us Sunday. Samsung didn’t comment.

The class-action complaints against HBO and boxers Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao aren't from disappointed sports fans with buyers' remorse about an underwhelming bout but from consumers fraudulently induced the active suppression of material facts by the sellers to buy something they wouldn't have purchased otherwise -- pay-per-view packages, the plaintiff appellants said in a docket 17-56366 reply brief (in Pacer) filed Tuesday with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The appellants said all the state laws at issue require a commercial vendor or promoter to disclose material facts to consumers. They are challenging a lower court's August dismissal of the class-action complaints (see 1801170015). Appellee outside counsel didn't comment Wednesday.

Smart glasses company Vuzix filed a defamation lawsuit against Richard Pearson in New York State Supreme Court Thursday, alleging two articles Pearson wrote contain false, misleading and defamatory statements. The company seeks $80 million in damages. Vuzix alleged Pearson published “false and defamatory ‘short and distort’” articles in Moxreports.com and Seeking Alpha to drive the share price down after taking a short position in the company. As a direct result of Pearson’s articles last month, Vuzix shares dropped 30 percent to $5.15, said the complaint. In the Seeking Alpha article titled “Vuzix: Far Worse Than Anyone Had Imagined,” Pearson cited a “massive promotion campaign on Vuzix” by IRTH Communications in which 30 media outlets gave “effusive reviews of Vuzix's Blade all based very visibly” on Alexa-enabled features. The articles appeared as "news" with no disclosure of payment. “NONE of the journalists could get the critical Alexa feature to function, yet precisely ALL of them aggressively touted ‘Alexa’ in reviews,” said Pearson. Vuzix “aggressively spread its own ‘news’ via website and social media, sharply inflating stock price to raise $30 million,” he said, saying “promoters behind Vuzix and tied to Vuzix’ head of IR have been tied to an extensive string of imploded stock frauds.” The company said it has 66 patents and it cited its three-year supply agreement with Toshiba (see 1803120014). Intel bought $24.8 million in Series A preferred stock in January 2015, it said. Pearson had 5,195 followers on Seeking Alpha Friday; the Vuzix article was listed as an editor’s pick. Pearson didn’t comment Friday.

The FCC likely will again deny Dish Network and designated entities SNR Wireless and Northstar Wireless bidding credits, and Dish likely will have to again head to court, New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin emailed investors Thursday evening. He said despite the loosened Dish control of the DEs (see 1804040004), the company faces "seemingly anti-Dish stance" by the FCC. If the agency rules against the Dish DEs, they likely will sue, with the issue ultimately not getting resolved until 2020 or 2021, he said. If the DEs succeed, the question becomes whether the DEs can reclaim the relinquished AWS-3 spectrum licenses without any further payments, he said.

Dish and designated entities Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless amended their agreements, with Dish loosening its control of those companies. The renegotiated DE agreements came after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit's August ruling that upheld the FCC withholding the DEs' AWS-3 auction bidding credits due to their too-close connections to Dish (see 1708290012). In an SEC filing Wednesday, Dish said its amended Northstar agreement says Northstar no longer has to consult with it about budgets and business plans and removed the requirement that its systems be interoperable with Dish's. Dish also agreed to exchange $6.87 billion in Northstar debt for 6.87 billion nonvoting shares. It said Dish also agreed to lower the interest rate on $500 million in Northstar debt still outstanding from 12 percent annually to 6 percent, to eliminate the higher interest rate that would apply in a default and to modify or remove some obligations for Northstar to prepay the loan. The satellite service provider said the amended SNR agreement has the same terms, though with Dish exchanging $5.065 billion owed for 5.065 billion nonvoting shares. Dish also said it agreed on identical terms modifications for $500 million in SNR shares still outstanding. The company said that other issues related to the remand remain in negotiation. The satellite-TV provider said SNR and Northstar have put in multiple requests with the FCC for meetings to discuss a cure to the DE control issue but that the agency hasn't granted an audience. The agency didn't comment. The agreements put Dish and the DEs "one step closer" to regaining the $3.3 billion AWS-3 spectrum discount, ultimately giving Dish close to 200 more spectrum licenses atop its close to 100 MHz, which would point to an IoT partnership or M&A, Maquarie analyst Amy Yong wrote investors. She said with negotiations ongoing, the process could run through the second half of this year or into 2019.

The Entertainment Software Association challenged FCC repeal of net neutrality regulation. ESA filed a motion Wednesday to intervene against the commission's order in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Mozilla v. FCC, et al., No. 18-1051. "Consumers deserve rules of the road that prevent blocking, throttling and other restrictive conduct -- and enable the great online experiences," said Stan Pierre-Louis, ESA general counsel. Others filing to intervene, on different sides, this week were: the American Cable Association, Computer & Communications Industry Association, CTIA, Internet Association, Leonid Goldstein, NARUC, National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates, NCTA and USTelecom.

Microsoft doesn't object to DOJ’s request the Supreme Court dismiss U.S. v. Microsoft as moot, but reserves the right to challenge the agency’s latest search warrant, it filed Tuesday (see 1804020055). “Microsoft agrees the current case is moot and there is no reason for this Court to resolve a legal issue that is now of only historical interest.” The software maker noted the original search warrant is no longer active. DOJ argued the case is moot, given passage of the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data (Cloud) Act. The department obtained a new search warrant, which a magistrate judge issued Friday. Microsoft said it will review the new warrant or any subsequent warrants carefully before deciding if there's obligation to comply, while retaining a right to challenge the warrant on comity grounds. President Brad Smith blogged Tuesday that with passage of the act, which both DOJ and Microsoft supported, governments need to move quickly to establish international agreements. The ultimate goal, which could take years, “is a set of agreements that create an accepted model and establish clear international legal rules that satisfy law enforcement and privacy advocates alike,” Smith said.