Microsoft took legal action against Motorola on Friday, alleging Motorola's smartphones running Google's Android platform violate Microsoft patents. The suit represents the latest patent battle involving Android.

Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and Microsoft's deputy general counsel of intellectual property and licensing, said the patents relate to core functionalities of Motorola's Android phones, including synchronizing email, calendars and contacts, scheduling meetings and notifying applications of changes in signal strength and battery power. Microsoft is seeking unspecified monetary damages and a permanent injunction on allegedly infringing Motorola products.

Motorola said it will "vigorously defend itself" against the charges.

"We are disappointed that Microsoft prefers to compete over old patents rather than new products," a Google spokesman told the Wall Street Journal. "While we are not a party to this lawsuit, we stand behind the Android platform and the partners who have helped us to develop it."

The suit is notable as Microsoft is preparing to introduce phones running its new Windows Phone 7 platform--which will compete against Android phones. Motorola, once a strong supporter of Microsoft's previous Windows Mobile platform, has thrown its support fully into the Android camp. According to research firm Gartner, Android had 17.2 percent of the smartphone market in the second quarter, and Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS had 14.2 percent. Windows Mobile captured 5 percent of the market, down from 9.3 percent in the second quarter of 2009.

Five Maine residents have filed a complaint against GMAC Mortgage LLC on behalf of themselves and a class of Maine homeowners, alleging that the company systematically files false certifications that it has a right to foreclose, and false affidavits when asking courts to enter foreclosure judgments.

The suit comes after a court in Maine sanctioned GMAC for its flawed foreclosure process, according to the Center for Responsible Lending. Maine District Court Judge Keith Powers, in a Sept. 24 ruling, chided GMAC for its "high volume and careless approach" to affidavit signing, Reuters reports.

The Maine residents are represented by Andrea Bopp Stark from the Molleur Law Office in Biddeford, Maine; Thomas Cox, coordinator of Maine Attorneys Saving Homes in Portland; the National Consumer Law Center and the Center for Responsible Lending.

Nvidia has reached a settlement in the class action lawsuit that was brought against it by owners of laptops affected by Bumpgate.

The dodgy engineering in a number of the firm's mobile Geforce processors resulted in Nvidia forking out $200 million to replace chips all over the world. Now it has reached a settlement in a class action lawsuit brought by owners of laptops that were brought down by Bumpgate chips. This chould mean more financial pain for the Green Goblin, given that Bumpgate affected just about all of the largest laptop manufacturers including Dell, HP and Apple.

Nvidia and the plaintiffs reached a settlement on 12 August, when the firm said, "Nvidia has denied, and continues to deny, all allegations of wrongdoing or liability whatsoever" and is only agreeing to the settlement "solely because it will eliminate burden, expense, management distraction and uncertainties of further litigation."

What it has agreed to do is pay $13 million for the plaintiffs' legal fees, deposit $2 million into a reimbursement fund in an interest bearing bank account, and undertake a programme of chip replacement remedy, or basically replace any faulty GPUs.

Hagens Berman announced today that a securities fraud class action lawsuit has been filed against Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. in U.S. District Court in Vermont.

Investors who purchased Green Mountain common stock between July 28, 2010 and September 28, 2010, and who wish to move to be a lead plaintiff, must file a motion by November 29, 2010. You may contact our attorneys below to discuss this matter.

Green Mountain and certain of its Officers are charged with making a series of materially false and misleading statements related to the Company's business and operations in violation of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The Complaint alleges that Green Mountain artificially inflated the Company's stock price during the Class Period by issuing inaccurate and unreliable financial statements, which were not prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules.

The Complaint also alleges that Green Mountain completed a sale of 8,566,649 shares of its common stock to Luigi Lavazza on August 28, 2010, for an aggregate purchase price of $250 million, despite the fact that the Company knew its reported financial statements were untrue and that it lacked adequate internal operational and financial control systems.

Following the close of trading on September 28, 2010, shareholders learned that the SEC had launched an inquiry into Green Mountain's revenue recognition, that it had been notified by the SEC of this investigation as early as September 20, 2010, and that the Company was expected to take a restatement charge in the near term -- rendering the Company's prior reported financial statements and reports unreliable, false and materially misleading.

A U.S. judge has awarded class-action status to a lawsuit filed by traders against Amaranth Advisors over the firm’s 2006 collapse following bad bets on natural gas prices, according to Reuters. On Monday, New York district judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that futures traders who bought, sold, or held natural gas futures or options with the $6.4 billion hedge fund between Feb. 16 and Sept. 28, 2006, could sue as a group in order to lower litigation costs and possibly increase their settlements.

In her ruling, Scheindlin stated that the case “involves more than 1,000 potential claimants who are asserting claims based on common issues,” and the judge noted, “Claimants likely have no interest in pursuing their own claims, which may be prohibitively small.” The traders allege that Amaranth manipulated prices of New York Mercantile Exchange natural gas futures contracts in violation of U.S. law. A lawyer for the firm declined to comment, and Amaranth founder Nicholas Maounis is among the defendants that remains in the case.

A Florida judge has refused to grant class-action status to a lawsuit by contributors who claim Gov. Charlie Crist cheated them by becoming an independent.

The plaintiffs, Linda Morton of Naples and James Rood of Jacksonville, a former U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas, had also asked the court to freeze $7.5 million in Crist's campaign warchest, the Fort Myers News-Press reported. Senior Circuit Judge Jack Schoonover refused Thursday to convert the lawsuit to a class action and has twice refused to freeze any of Crist's funds.

Tom Grady, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said Crist, who is running as an independent for the U.S. Senate, could be hit with hundreds of small claims cases from individual donors.

Crist dropped his affiliation with the Republican Party several months ago after polls showed him losing the primary to Marco Rubio, a former speaker of the state House of Representatives and Tea Party favorite.