Lawsuit | featured news

The Supreme Court on Monday blocked the massive sex-discrimination case female employees brought against Wal-Mart in a decision that might make it harder to bring future discrimination lawsuits against large corporations. The court agreed unanimously that the Wal-Mart suit could not go forward as a class action that could affect as many as 1.5 million female workers, past and present. The decision was a huge win for Wal-Mart, which could have faced billions of dollars in damages and back pay.

Oracle is seeking between $1.4 billion and $6.1 billion in a patent lawsuit against Google over the lucrative smartphone market, according to a court filing.

The FDIC is close to settling a lawsuit that accused former Washington Mutual executives of taking gambles that sparked the thrift's 2008 collapse.

Hewlett-Packard Co. has sued its friend-turned-foe Oracle Corp. in another sign of how badly the relationship between the information technology big shots has frayed.

A bipartisan group of House members will file a lawsuit Wednesday challenging U.S. participation in the Libya military mission. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama is set to defend U.S. military involvement in Libya to Congress, according to the White House.

Nokia Oyj won an almost two-year patent dispute with Apple Inc., in a settlement that awards a one-time payment and royalties to the Finnish handset maker. Nokia rose as much as 4.1 percent in Helsinki trading. The agreement will bolster the Devices & Services unit’s second- quarter profitability, Espoo, Finland-based Nokia said in a statement today. The details of the contract, under which Apple will pay an undisclosed sum and royalties for the term of the agreement, are confidential, Nokia said.

The ABA Journal reported late last week that a St. Louis federal jury, in what might be a record breaking verdict to a single plaintiff, awarded $95 million in damages to a former Aaron’s Inc. associate for sexual harassment, $15 million in compensatory and $80 million in punitive damages.

A discarded laptop found in the garbage has turned out to be a treasure trove of new information about the only lawsuit the SEC has brought over Wall Street’s mortgage debacle.

An MSNBC investigative report, and related lawsuit, claims that AT&T has “systematically overstated” the data usage of iPhone and iPad customers. Lawyers for the plaintiffs, seeking class action status, hired an independent computer firm to compare the actual amount data used by iPhone and iPad customers with the amount that AT&T bills users for.

The Walt Disney Company has agreed to pay a $3 million settlement stemming from charges that online virtual worlds once operated by Playdom, now a Disney subsidiary, violated the Federal Trade Commission rules designed to protect the online privacy of children under age 13. According to the FTC, several Playdom sites that were aimed at young audiences illegally collected and then disclosed personal data in violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). These sites included Pony Stars, 2 Moons, 9 Dragons, Age of Lore, and My DIva Doll.