Google-owned Motorola Mobility has withdrawn a patent-infringement lawsuit against Apple Inc., which it brought to the U.S. International Commission Trade, in order to block the importation of some Apple products: iPhones, iPads and iPods. Google’s Motorola Mobility business filed the complaint on August 18 and asked the commission to outlaw the importation of Apple products, claiming Apple had infringed seven patents for functions, including email notifications, voice controls, media players and other features.

In the withdrawal, dated Monday, Motorola Mobility said  it had not settled the dispute with Apple, and it asked to withdraw the complaint “without prejudice.” The company reserved the right to renew its case again later. No explanation was given by Motorola Mobility for dropping the complaint. A notice of dismissal was also filled in a companion civil lawsuit filed in a a federal court in Wilmington, Delaware.

According to Reuters, Apple did not return phone calls seeking comments about the withdrawal. A spokesman for Google said the Mountain View, California company would “continue to vigorously defend its partners,” a reference to the companies whose mobile devices run on Google’s open operating system, called Android. The U.S International Commission Trade indicated it planned to investigate the Motorola allegation.

Acquired by Google in May, Motorola Mobility filed a separate patent claim against Apple with ITC, which it is continuing. The $1.25 billion deal between Google and Motorola made the latter the key manufacturer of smartphones and holder of patents for the California internet titan’s legal arsenal.

Florian Mueller was the first one to report Google’s withdrawal on his blog, saying that Google withdrew the complaint in order to prevent it from being consolidated with an earlier case, thus slowing the case down. The simplest explanation would be a global settlement deal being reached between the two companies. Mueller stated that “this could be a unilateral goodwill gesture on Google’s part toward Apple if high-level settlement talks are processing well.”

“But it could also be a tactical decision involving a plan to reassert the same claims in federal court,” Mueller continued. According to him, it is more likely that parent company Google didn’t believe that the complaint would succeed in the International Commission Trade.

Motorola was seen as having one of the best legal shots against Apple, with its huge intellectual property collection, and that is what makes this withdrawal so odd. Rumor has it that the company was having trouble getting its evidence in order for the legal proceedings. High-levels talks between the parent company and Apple could also be going on.

Image Courtesy of  Lyao / Shutterstock.com

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In a move to protect their right to pursue individual and class action pay and promotion claims against Wal-Mart Stores  more than 500 former and current Wal-Mart women employees who had been part of a national class action lawsuit have filed a charge of discrimination against the retailer with the U.S. Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission (EEOC) as of Friday, Jan. 27.

That was the deadline for women in five states – Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi and North Carolina – to pursue their claims, according to plaintiffs’ attorneys Joseph Sellers, Cohen Milstein Sellers& Toll PLLC, and Brad Seligman, the Impact Fund, who represent the women.

The vast majority of the EEOC charges – some 430 – were filed in those states since the June 2011 U.S. Supreme Court decision reversing a lower court ruling certifying class action against Wal-Mart. Women in all other states who previously filed class action claims against Wal-Mart, and its subsidiary Sam’s Club, have until May 25, 2012, to file a claim with the EEOC.

“The Supreme Court did not give Wal-Mart a free pass to discriminate.  Filing an EEOC claim is one more way current and former women employees of Wal-Mart can assert their rights,” Sellers and Seligman said in a statement.  More than 12,000 women have contacted plaintiffs’ counsel directly or through the informational website, www.walmartclass.com, to discuss pursuing claims of gender-based pay and promotion discrimination.

Even in the five states with the Jan. 27, 2012, filing deadline, women with pay and promotion discrimination charges against Wal-Mart from July 2011-on can file EEOC claims against the company.

“These EEOC charges are just the down-payment—we expect to file thousands of additional charges by the May 25, 2012 deadline.  We urge women throughout the country who feel they have been discriminated against by Wal-Mart in pay and promotions to log onto the www.walmartclass.com site and register,” said Seligman.

Regional class action lawsuits on behalf of women plaintiffs who worked in California and Texas region Wal-Mart stores were filed in federal courts in those states in October 2011.  An expanded class action was filed in Texas federal court in January 2012.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/walmartcorporate/

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Former pharmaceutical representative Timothy Brennantoday filed a lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan against Warner Chilcott charging the drug corporation with illegally denying him compensation for overtime hours. The law firm of Joseph, Herzfeld, Hester & Kirschenbaum LLP represents Brennan.

The suit charges that during his four-and-a-half years of employment, Brennan often worked in excess of 40 hours a week but received an annual salary without overtime pay. The New York class action was filed on behalf of Brennan and all other pharma reps who worked for Warner Chilcott in New York during the last six years.

New York overtime law requires that employees be paid time-and-a-half overtime when they work more than 40 hours in a week, unless they are specifically exempt.

Attorney Charles Joseph, a partner with Joseph, Herzfeld Hester & Kirschenbaum LLP, stated, “The US Department of Labor recognizes that pharmaceutical reps are not exempt from overtime pay under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and New York overtime law is consistent with the FLSA.”

Joseph explained that the precedent for Brennan’s claim was set in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which found that Novartis pharma reps were entitled to overtime compensation on the same basic grounds alleged against Warner Chilcott.  (Novartis recently settled the overtime lawsuit for$99 million.) The Second Circuit issued a similar ruling in a case brought by pharma reps against Schering Plough, as have district courts in Connecticut and Illinois in cases against Boerrhinger Ingelehein and Abbott.

Brennan, who worked for the company in Manhattan, said, “For years, this company failed to pay representatives their earned overtime.  This lawsuit holds them accountable.”

“Our view is that Mr. Brennan and other Warner Chilcott reps are owed a great deal of money for working extraordinarily long hours with no additional compensation,” Joseph said. “This is a chance to achieve justice for the reps.”

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Six individuals are charged in South Florida and Pakistan for conspiring to provide financing to murder, maim and kidnap persons overseas as well as providing financing to the Pakistani, Taliban- a designated foreign terrorist organization.  South Florida U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer announced all six defendants would be charged on four-count indictments.

The defendants charged: Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan, 76, a U.S. citizen resident of Miami;  his son Irfan Khan, 37, a U.S. citizen resident of Miami;  and one other son, Izhar Khan, 24, a U.S. citizen resident of North Lauderdale, Fla.  Three other individuals also charged residing in Pakistan,  Faisal Ali Rehman, Alam Zeb and Amina Khan.  Amina Khan is daughter of Khan and her son Alam Zeb is Khan’s grandson.

Hafiz Khan and Izhar Khan were arrested by FBI agents in South Florida and are schedule to appear in federal court in Miami at 1:30 p.m. Monday, May 16, 2011.  Irfan Khan was arrested in Los Angeles and is expected to make an appearance in court the same day.   The remaining defendants are at large in Pakistan.  If convicted for each count of the indictment-could face 15 years in prison.

The FBI in collaboration with the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) had been investigating from around 2008 through November 2010 suspicious bank accounts and wire transfers from the U.S. to the Pakistani Taliban.  The funds were intended to buy guns to sustain militants, their families and support terrorism.

According to the allegations the defendants provided money and financial services to support the Pakistani, Taliban.  As of December 2007, the Pakistani-based terrorist organization was formed by an alliance of radical Islamist militants.  The U.S. State Department designated the Pakistani Taliban as a Foreign Terrorist Organization under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality act on August 12, 2010.  In Afghanistan, the Pakistani Taliban has ties to both al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer stated, “Despite being an Imam, or spiritual leader, Hafiz Khan was by no means a man of peace. Instead, as today’s charges show, he acted with others to support terrorists to further acts of murder, kidnapping and maiming. But for law enforcement intervention, these defendants would have continued to transfer funds to Pakistan to finance the Pakistani Taliban, including its purchase of guns. Dismantling terrorist networks is a top priority for this office and the Department of Justice.”

“Today terrorists have lost another funding source to use against innocent people and U.S. interests. We will not allow this country to be used as a base for funding and recruiting terrorists,” said John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Miami Office. “I remind everyone that the Muslim and Arab-American members of our community should never be judged by the illegal activities of a few.”

According to the indictment, the Pakistani Taliban has committed remorseless violence acts against Pakistan, allies, U.S. and enforcement of strict Islamic law known as Sharia.  Countless suicide bombings resulting in the death of civilians, Pakistani Police, army, government personnel, and other brutal acts of murder, kidnapping and maiming.  The indictment alleges that defendant Khan supported the Pakistani Taliban through a madrassa or Islamic school.  Khan alleged to use the madrassa as shelter and has sent children from the madrassa to train to kill Americans in Afghanistan.

The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for attacks against U.S. interests, including the December 2009 attack bombing at a U.S. military base in Khost, Afghanistan.  Along the Pakistan border seven U.S. citizens were killed.  An April 2010 suicide bomb killed six Pakistani citizens at the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar.  On May 1, 2010, Faisal Shahzad attempted to detonate an explosive device in New York City’s Times Square.  Lastly, the most recent devastating suicide attack on May 13, 2011 killed 80 people at a military training facility in northwest Pakistan.  The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.

The allegations in the indictments recorded conversations in July 2009 between Khan and Irfan plotting an attack on the Pakistani assembly that resemble the September 2008 suicide bombing of the Islamabad Marriott Hotel in Pakistan.  On September 2010 another recorded conversation, Hafiz Kahn provided information to a Pakistani Taliban militant in Karachi that the mujahideen in Afghanistan had killed seven American soldiers and declared his wish that God kills 50,000 more.

In closing, Mr. Ferrer noted, “Let me be clear that this is not an indictment against a particular community or religion. Instead, today’s indictment charges six individuals for promoting terror and violence through their financial and other support of the Pakistani Taliban. Radical extremists know no boundaries; they come in all shapes and sizes and are not limited by religion, age or geography.”

An indictment is only an accusation and a defendant are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

(Sources: Federal Bureau of Investigation Miami Field Office)

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