Legal Roundup: Google Appeals; Apple MP3 ‘Monopoly'; Fast Charged; Microsoft Xbox 360

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) were all mired in legal issues today, managing to incorporate lawsuits, appeals and even government seizures into the mix.

Google appeals German image search copyright cases: Google told us that it would appeal the two copyright cases it lost this week (for indexing a photo and an artist’s work as thumbnails), and it has. Forbes says that the company appealed today, though a hearing date hasn’t been set yet.

Apple sued for MP3 “monopoly”: Taiwan-based Luxpro Corp. has sued Apple in Arkansas for a roster of charges: attempted monopolization of the MP3 player market, unfair competition, commercial disparagement and contract interference, InformationWeek reports. This is the latest in three years-worth of legal battles between the two companies. In 2005, Apple went to the feds in Germany, seeking to get Luxpro to change the name of its iPod Shuffle clone, the “Super Shuffle.” Apple also attempted to get Luxpro banned from making, selling or distributing MP3 players of any kind, but the injunction was eventually rejected. Luxpro retaliated in 2007, saying that it would sue Apple for $100 million in damages, though this latest claim is only for $75,000, per Justia.com

Microsoft’s Fast is raided by Norwegian authorities: The search technology firm has been charged with accounting fraud, and authorities raided the office to “secure evidence.” The charges cover activities and accounts from before Microsoft’s acquisition in January, as the company was struggling to stay afloat.

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 issues come to a head: VentureBeat reports that Microsoft is being sued for its botched handling of the glut of malfunctioning Xbox 360s — i.e. the dreaded “Red Ring of Death” — over the past year. The manufacturing problems have already cost Microsoft $1 billion, in repair costs, and there’s no telling how much the interested parties could end up suing for. Microsoft says that they haven’t actually been served with the suit yet.

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