News (#03 March 2016)

Cases

VirnetX has sued Apple for patent infringement

The Federal District Court in Texas held that some programs of Apple, including FaceTime (an application for making video calls), iMessage (a messaging application) and a service “customized VPN”, infringe the intellectual property rights of the VirnetX holding company.

VirnetX asserts that Apple uses its patented secure communications technology. In them, VPN (virtual private network) technology aspects are described. The technologies described in the patents are used by Apple in the iMessage application. They enable owners of iPhones, iPads and Mac computers to communicate via the Internet. The patented technologies, with regard to which a trial was held, had been created by SAIC by order of the CIA. Subsequently, employees of SAIC created VirnetX. The court’s decision binds Apple to pay USD 335 million for using the data encryption technology in the VPN function. Apple will pay the remaining USD 290 million for FaceTime versions that used the patented data security technologies of VirnetX. It is the first time that a court has found Apple guilty since 2012. Then the company had to compensate to VirnetX USD 368 million. However, due to the subsequent appeals the payment of the fine was postponed.

VirnetX won a court case with Microsoft twice — in 2010 and in 2014 having sued for USD 223 million. The proceedings were about the Skype program.

 

ExxonMobil and BP bring 80-year-long litigation to an end

ExxonMobil and British Petroleum have agreed to lift the ban on the use of the name Esso for the Exxon filling station chain that had been in effect in several states of the USA since 1937.

The parties agreed to end the dispute over the name Esso after ExxonMobil had petitioned a court in December 2015 to lift the ban on using the name Esso for filling stations in 15 states. The agreement between ExxonMobil and BP was recorded by the Federal Court of Missouri.

The injunction on the use of the name Esso was imposed in 1937. In 1911 Standard Oil Company was divided into several smaller companies, among which Jersey Standard was — a former branch of Standard Oil in New Jersey. The company was selling its products under the Esso trademark (the name was created based on the pronunciation of the letters S and O, the first letters in the name Standard Oil).

Standard of Indiana Company, which also separated from Standard Oil, used similarly sounding brand S.O. The color scheme of both trademarks was identical, and in proceedings the court took the side of Standard of Indiana. Subsequently, Standard of Indiana changed its name to Amoco, and in the late 1990 it became a part of British Petroleum. According to the results of the study conducted by ExxonMobil when applying to the court, none of the 400 respondents had any associations between Esso and BP.

 

Oshchadbank won case against Delta Bank

State-owned Oshchadbank won a case from the Deposit Insurance Fund, which allowed it to keep UAH 2 billion received from Delta Bank.

On 15 December 2010 agreements for opening multicurrency and Hryvnia correspondent accounts between Oshchadbank and Delta Bank were concluded. The sum of funds on them was not specified, but previously Oshchadbank had mentioned the loss of more than UAH 3 billion in Delta.

In 2014 the need arose to secure these agreements. Consequently, the banks concluded a mortgage agreement for 11 land plots. On 25 February 2015 pledge agreements — receivables to the value of UAH 1.298 billion and UAH 459 million, were concluded.

As early on 26 February 2015 a securities pledge agreement for UAH 160 million and a foreclosure agreement were concluded. As a result, the value of assets transferred from Delta Bank to Oshchadbank came to UAH 2.033 billion.

It should be recalled that on 3 March 2015 provisional administration was imposed on Delta Bank, and on 29 September the aforementioned agreements were invalidated.

 

High Court of London noted debt of Viktor Yanukovych claim made by Russia

The Ministry of Finance of Russia has filed a lawsuit against Ukraine in the High Court of London with a requirement to repay a USD 3 billion loan granted by the President of Russian Federation Vladimir Putin to the ex-President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych back in 2013.

The litigating parties are The Law Debenture Trust Corporation PLC versus Ukraine, as represented by the Minister of Finance of Ukraine acting in accordance with the instructions of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

A reminder that the government of then Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov received a loan as part of arrangements between Vladimir Putin and Viktor Yanukovych in December 2013. The loan was given by repurchasing Eurobonds of Ukraine for USD 3 billion via the Irish Stock Exchange.

On 30 December 2015 the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine imposed a moratorium on the repayment of Russian debt.

 

Supreme Court dismissed petition of 1+1 Studio

The Supreme Court of Ukraine has put an end to the dispute between Novy Channel and the Television and Radio Broadcasting Company 1+1 Studio over the alleged violation by the latter of property rights and copyrights to the show “Controller”. Thus, the SCU dismissed the petition filed by 1+1 Studio on the ruling of the SECU of 10 November 2015.

A reminder that the Novy Channel has filed an action stating that the show “Inspector Freimut” was created by illegal (without permission of the person holding the exclusive right to permit or ban any use of work) reworking of the show “Controller”.

By its Resolution of 21 January 2015 the Economic Court of Kiev satisfied the claim by Novy Channel and bound 1+1 Studio to cease actions regarding the violation of property rights and copyrights of Novy Channel to the literary composition and to the show by their use or by reworking to create any identical works, including the “Inspector Freimut” show.

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