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Microsoft cracks down on ad click fraud | Seattle PI

May 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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In anticipation of a planned announcement Wednesday regarding click fraud, Microsoft has filed at least two lawsuits against companies it believes are mixed up in the illegal manipulation of online-advertising commerce.

Microsoft on Monday implicated two established websites, RedOrbit and HelloMetro, in two fraud complaints filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle. Microsoft alleges the defendants used malicious means to artificially increase the number of times that advertisements on those sites were clicked.

The defendants, Microsoft claims, used the software company’ adCenter and pubCenter platforms to surface advertisements on their websites. When a Web user clicks one of those ads, money is automatically transferred from the advertiser’s account to the ad publisher’s account.

Click-fraud perpetrators can use automated computer scripts, deploy malware, e-mail spam links or hire people to generate an inflated number of clicks on online advertisements. Such practices bring extra money to the ad publisher, and fraud is suspected when the action is hidden.

In an interestingly timed move, Microsoft filed the lawsuits two days before it announces “some significant news,” as the company has said, about click fraud trends. Seattlepi.com has learned that the announcement will provide better context for the lawsuits, though it is unclear exactly what the news will be.

A spokesperson said the announcement will also relate to a third legal filing, but Microsoft would not elaborate. Stay tuned to The Microsoft Blog on Wednesday for more information.

In the RedOrbit case (PDF), Microsoft names the company, founder Eric Ralls and 10 “John Does” as defendants. RedOrbit.com is a Tyler, Texas-based online news site that publishes articles, photos and videos about science, space, technology and health.

via Microsoft cracks down on ad click fraud.

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Microsoft Accuses Salesforce.com of Infringing Software Patents – BusinessWeek

May 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Microsoft Corp. said it sued Salesforce.com Inc. today, accusing the company of infringing nine patents for ways to make software more efficient.

The complaint targets the customer-relationship management, or CRM, software that is the hallmark of Salesforce.com’s business. It seeks a court order that would prevent the San Francisco-based company from providing features that Microsoft claims it invented.

Salesforce.com, founded in 1999, offers software that businesses subscribe to and use over the Internet for running marketing campaigns and tracking sales leads. It competes against Microsoft’s Dynamics software in the CRM market.

“Microsoft has been a leader and innovator in the software industry for decades and continues to invest billions of dollars each year in bringing great software products and services to market,” said Horacio Gutierrez, the Redmond, Washington-based company’s deputy general counsel for intellectual property and licensing. Microsoft “cannot stand idly by when others infringe” our intellectual property rights, he said.

The complaint was filed in federal court in Seattle after more than a year of talks, according to Microsoft, the world’s biggest software maker.

via Microsoft Accuses Salesforce.com of Infringing Software Patents – BusinessWeek.

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Cloud Service Users Face Confusing Legal Landscape – PCWorld Business Center

May 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Cloud computing has great benefits for businesses but legal uncertainties threaten to hamper adoption, said a group of lawyers speaking during a seminar in Seattle this week.

“We will have to create a robust legal system and we will have to do it sooner rather than later and before we have the cloud computing equivalent of an offshore oil rig blowout,” said Barry J. Reingold, a partner at Perkins Coie in Washington, D.C.

Lawyers speaking at the Law Seminars International event on Monday offered advice about the types of research companies should do before signing up for cloud services to make sure they can protect themselves from potential legal fallout.

One of the most important issues facing companies that wish to store or process data in the cloud is determining which legal systems have jurisdiction over the data. “It’s a can of worms,” said Andy James, a lawyer with Osborne Clarke.

A company using a cloud service could have users all over the world and those users’ information could be shifted to facilities around the globe. “So there are four possible legal locations for the information at any moment,” James said. Laws applicable to the location of the company’s headquarters, the location of the servers, the location of the consumer and the location of the communications equipment transmitting the information between the user and the provider could all potentially apply.

Unfortunately, he said, different jurisdictions have made different choices on which of those locations to base their cloud rules on.

via Cloud Service Users Face Confusing Legal Landscape – PCWorld Business Center.

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Toyota Lawsuit Judge Names Lead Attorneys for Cases – BusinessWeek

May 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The federal judge overseeing sudden- acceleration lawsuits against Toyota Motor Corp. appointed 21 plaintiffs’ lawyers to manage litigation involving U.S. claims.

Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, faces at least 228 federal and 99 state lawsuits including proposed class actions over economic loss and claims of personal injuries or deaths caused by sudden-acceleration incidents. The federal lawsuits were combined April 9 in a multidistrict litigation, or MDL, before U.S. District Judge James V. Selna in Santa Ana, California.

More than 70 plaintiffs’ lawyers sought appointments to leadership positions in the federal lawsuits, including about 60 who spoke at a hearing before Selna yesterday.

Selna’s appointments today include Steve Berman at Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP in Seattle as co-lead counsel for economic loss plaintiffs and Elizabeth Cabraser at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP in San Francisco as co-lead for personal injury and death cases.

via Toyota Lawsuit Judge Names Lead Attorneys for Cases (Update1) – BusinessWeek.

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