Tech Law: French Bill Scuttled, Microsoft Fined, Apple Sued, More

(MoneyWatch)  A look at highlights of the past week in the high tech legal world.

France kills Internet piracy bill -- French legislators voted 21 to 15 to kill a bill that would have allowed the government to cut Internet access to people who downloaded illegal copies of movies and music. The government plans to reintroduce the bill for another vote. [Source: Associated Press]

Microsoft ordered to pay $388 million -- A jury in a patent infringement suit that Uniloc brought against Microsoft has ordered the latter to pay $388 million to the former. Microsoft plans to appeal. (Big surprise there.) [Source: ZDNet Between the Lines]

Germany fines Microsoft for price fixing -- German antitrust regulators fined Microsoft's German subsidiary $11.8 million for working with a retailer to set the price of Office 2007. [Source: Associated Press]

Taiwan company sues Apple over touch screen patents -- Taiwan-based Elan Microelectronics is suing Apple for allegedly infringing two of the company's touch screen patents. [Source: The New York Times]

Shoe on other foot -- Online marketing expert Jeremy Schoemaker is suing a Google employee for allegedly using Google AdWords using Shoemaker's trademark "Shoemoney" as a search term, even though that would supposedly violate Google's rules for the service. [Source: TechCrunch]

HP appeals Cornell patent decision -- Cornell University had won a patent infringement case against HP. Now the latter is appealing the decision. [Source: ZDNet Between the Lines]

Gavel image via Flickr user Thomas Roche, CC 2.0.