Court holds that playing ringtones does not amount to public performance

American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) filed a copyright infringement suit against Verizon for allowing its users to play ringtones on cell phones. ASCAP claimed that playing ringtones on a cellphone amounts to public performance rights of the copyright owner requiring Verizon to pay licensing fee. The District Court of the Southern District of New York held that playing ringtones on a cellphone does not amount to public performance under the copyright law and that Verizon is not required to pay any additional fee than the fee being paid for downloading the ringtones

SonoSite and General Electric Settle

SonoSite filed an infringement suits against General Electric claiming infringement of its patents relating to hand-carried ultrasound systems and in response General Electric filed for revocation of SonoSite’s patents. The parties have now settled the infringement suits between them through a settlement agreement. As per the agreement, SonoSite granted a world-wide license over certain patents relating to hand-carried ultrasound systems to General Electric. In return General Electric agreed to pay SonoSite a lumpsum royalty of 21 million dollars and a running royalty on the sales of the ultrasound systems covered by the patents in USA.