Author: Joe Mullin

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has sold between $250,000 and $500,000 worth of Microsoft stock, according to an Associated Press report out today. It's the largest single stock sale by anyone on the court in more than a decade.

The large stock sale is news in part because the high court agreed a few weeks ago to take a case involving alleged defects in Microsoft's Xbox 360 console. Assuming that Roberts sold all his Microsoft stock, that means he won't have to withdraw from the case.

The last time Microsoft had a case in front of the Supreme Court was 2011, in which the software giant made a last-ditch attempt to fend off a patent claim brought by i4i, a small Canadian firm. Microsoft asked the court to reconsider the standard of proof used to invalidate patents, but the justices sided with i4i in an 8-0 vote, cementing the firm's $290 million payday. Roberts recused himself from that case.

An East Texas jury has ruled that Apple must pay patent-holding company VirnetX $625.6 million for infringing four patents. It's a massive verdict for VirnetX, a company that has no products and makes its money solely through patent litigation.

The verdict form (PDF) shows the jury found Apple infringed on every patent claim that was at issue. The first question was how much Apple should pay for infringement related to two VirnetX patents that it had already been ruled to infringe, and the jury held Apple should pay $334.9 million. It also found in VirnetX's favor on every other patent claim and ordered Apple to pay another $290.7 million for infringing those patent claims.

The VirnetX v. Apple showdown may be one of the last of its kind in which a "patent troll"-style company is able to wrest a nine-figure jury verdict from a tech company. Patent trolling still abounds and is increasingly concentrated in East Texas. But the ability to get huge verdicts has been dampened by changes in case-law, particularly the Supreme Court's 2014 Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank decision that made it easier for defendants to get software patents thrown out of court.

A new lawsuit (PDF) filed against flailing tech giant Yahoo claims that company managers governing the "Media Org" were biased against men. It also claims that the company's Quarterly Performance Review (QPR) process favored female employees and that the company engaged in mass layoffs without proper warnings.

Gregory Anderson was editorial director of Yahoo's Autos, Homes, Shopping, Small Business, and Travel sections until he was terminated in 2014.

In his complaint, Anderson says that between 2012 and 2015, Yahoo reduced its work force by more than 30 percent to fewer than 11,000 employees. That constitutes a mass-layoff, which requires 60-day notice under state and federal law, he says.

Shaun Bridges, a Secret Service agent who pled guilty to stealing from the Silk Road website while he was supposed to be investigating it, has been arrested again.

The 33-year-old Bridges was arrested at his home in Laurel, MD, on Thursday, just one day before he was scheduled to turn himself in and begin serving a 71-month prison sentence. The arrest was first reported by The Baltimore Sun.

The reason for Bridges' re-arrest is detailed in documents that remain under seal at this point. However, prosecutors have detailed (PDF) some of what they found in Bridges' home when they arrested him. In their view, some of the evidence suggests he was a serious flight risk. To wit:

Privacy researcher Ashkan Soltani, who worked on several Washington Post stories regarding the Snowden leaks, has been barred from working at the White House.

In December, Soltani was hired to be senior adviser to White House Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith. On Friday, Soltani said on Twitter that to his disappointment, the White House Office of Personnel Security denied him a security authorization to work there.

"I'm told this is something that happens from time to time and I won't speculate on the reasons," said Soltani in a statement. "I do want to say that I am proud of my work, I passed the mandatory drug screening some time ago, and the FBI background check was still underway. There was also no allegation that it was based on the quality or integrity of my work."

Once a month, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's crack team of patent lawyers reaches deep into the US Patent Office's giant sack of freshly issued patents. Then they pull out one of the shadiest, saddest, painfully obvious, never-should've-gotten-even-close-to-issuance patents and subject it to public scrutiny.

This month, EFF attorney Vera Ranieri selected a highly questionable Xerox patent and yanked it into the bleak January sunlight. US Patent No. 9,240,000, entitled "Social Network for Enabling the Physical Sharing of Documents," boils down to a system of sharing documents online. It looks like exactly the kind of patent that shouldn't have made it through the system, considering new guidelines put in place as a result of the Supreme Court's Alice Corp. v. CLS decision.

"Ultimately this patent is one of hundreds or thousands of patents that don’t describe actual inventions, but rather just rehash old, obvious ideas 'on a computer' using confusing language," writes Ranieri. "The failure of the patent office to prevent this patent from issuing is regrettable, and shows just how dysfunctional our patent system is."

The newest addition to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, Tesla VP of Human Resources Arnnon Geshuri, has stepped down just a few weeks after he was appointed.

Geshuri's appointment was immediately controversial with editors of the site. The controversy grew this weekend when Ashley Van Haeften, who goes by the username Fae on Wikipedia, initiated a non-binding "vote of no confidence", in which Wikipedia's volunteer editors asked the board to remove Geshuri. The vote was ultimately 290-22 in favor of Geshuri's removal.

Geshuri's decision was announced in an e-mail message written by current board Chair Patricio Lorente and Vice-chair Alice Wiegand. The message reads:

A patent-holding company called Minero Digital seeks to exact royalty payments on a wide range of USB hubs, suing more than two dozen retailers and manufacturers last year. But the "non-practicing entity" dropped its East Texas lawsuit against Newegg subsidiary Rosewill within days of getting a call from the company's lawyer. It's not going to be easy for Minero and its president, Texas lawyer Daniel Perez, to walk away, though. Yesterday, Newegg filed its own lawsuit (PDF) against Minero in Los Angeles federal court, asking a judge to rule that Rosewill products do not infringe Minero's patent.

Newegg Chief Legal Officer Lee Cheng says the move is necessary since Minero dismissed its Texas lawsuit without prejudice, meaning it can refile the case at a time of its choosing.

"We just don’t believe Rosewill’s products and customers infringed on valid patent claims," said Cheng. "Minero’s case does not have merit, and its patent is not only expired but would suck even if it wasn’t expired. Now that they have started the litigation, it would be irresponsible for Newegg to not finish it."

The newest board member of the Wikimedia Foundation, Arnnon Geshuri, is under fire from hundreds of disgruntled editors who think he should be shown the door. They're upset at his role in a "no poach" hiring arrangement between Google, Apple, and other major tech companies while he was an HR director at Google.

Today, Geshuri addressed the community that's up in arms against him. In a message posted to the Wikimedia-l mailing list, Geshuri began by saying it was "truly inspirational" to witness the "commitment and energy of the community." His note reads, in part:

Although I would have preferred the tone surrounding my appointment to be more positive and supportive, I deeply understand and respect the criticality of free expression, rallying around convictions, and open disagreement.

Regarding the concerns that have been raised, I have listened closely. That said, in my opinion, there are some misconceptions and there are mitigating considerations. As a general matter, I will say that, throughout my career, I have been charged with enforcing company policies as part of my role as a people manager. I have tried to do so thoughtfully and consistently. I have done so realizing company policies and practices evolve over time as circumstances change.

Geshuri said he's spending his time reaching out to current and former Wikimedia board members, as well as community members.

Two former IT workers at Disney have sued, saying that Disney broke the law when it hired cheaper foreign replacements, then fired its current IT department. Disney IT employees were told they would be kept on for 90 days in order to train their replacements, who were H-1B visa holders, according to the complaints. The workers were told "if they did not stay and train they would not get a bonus and severance, which most employees reluctantly accepted."

Both lawsuits are proposed class-actions, filed in federal court in Florida. The suit filed by Dena Moore (PDF) names Disney and labor contractor Cognizant Technology Solutions, while a complaint filed by Leo Perrero (PDF) names Disney and HCL, another labor contractor.

They make a novel claim, saying that Disney violated the anti-racketeering RICO statute by engaging in a "conspiracy to displace US workers." The plaintiffs allege that Disney and the contractors weren't truthful when they filled out immigration documents, thus violating a section of the RICO law that bars "fraud and misuse of visas, passports, and other documents."