Netflix announced that it will settle a lawsuit that claimed that it illegally retained customers’ rental histories, an act that ran afoul of Video Privacy Protection Act and California consumer laws. The settlement, which was disclosed in a Netflix securities filing with the SEC, puts to bed a 2011 lawsuit that accused the company of VPAA and California consumer law violations. The VPPA restricts video rental companies from disclosing customer information and requires them to destroy rental history data within one year.

Blizzard has challenged Valve's efforts to secure a U.S. trademark on Defense of the Ancients - something it said it had no plans of doing. In 2011 Valve announced plans to create a sequel to the popular Warcraft II mod, Defense of the Ancients. At the time Blizzard said that it would not oppose the company, but said that it was confused by the move. Today we learn that Blizzard filed a complaint with the U.S. trademark in opposition of Valve's registration of the Dota name in late 2011.

The East Texas patent case that had more than a few technology companies (and other more traditional business that faced lawsuits) freaking out, has fallen apart for the guy that brought it to court. The case came to a dramatic conclusion Thursday when a jury ruled that the key patent in the case was invalid.

Apple is back in court assailing Samsung with two patents it obtained in December of last year. In documents filed Tuesday in the San Jose federal court, Apple used freshly-granted US Patents 8,074,172 and 8,086,604 to seek a temporary injunction against Samsung. From the patent descriptions:

Bram van der Kolk, the lead programmer at MegaUpload, is out on bail today. The 29-year-old had a hearing in the North Shore District Court before Judge Pippa Sinclair, who sorted out what the bail conditions should be before his release.

U.S. Government Prosecutor Anne Toohey argued that der Kolk would try to set up a MegaUpload replacement as soon as he was out of jail. His lawyer, Guy Foley, called the prosecution's argument ridiculous because he would remain under heavy FBI surveillance.

Rex Ng, the chief executive of 6waves Lolapps, has come out today strongly denying allegations that his company violated a non-disclosure agreement in a lawsuit filed by Spry Fox’s related to its social game Triple Town on Facebook. Seattle-based Spry Fox filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against 6waves Lolapps because alleging that 6waves’ Yeti Town mobile game copied the gameplay and look of its Triple Town Facebook game. Spry Fox said in its lawsuit that it had a non-disclosure agreement with 6waves Lolapps.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has asked all parties involved in the MegaUpload criminal case to halt any plans to delete or otherwise dispose of data hosted on severs once leased by file-hosting services. With its assets frozen and its operators in jail, MegaUpload is unable to pay for storage of the data.

Viacom's first quarter earnings would have been better if not for Rock Band. Yeah, Viacom, who owns Paramount Pictures, MTV and Comedy Central, posted a 65 percent drop in fiscal first-quarter earnings because of a charge related to the music game brand it unloaded for next to nothing. For the quarter that ended on December 31, Viacom earned $212 million, down from $610 million in the same period a year ago. On the plus side, its revenues rose 3.2 percent to $3.95 billion, but missed analysts’ estimates of $3.99 billion.

The Pirate Bay founders are going to jail, after failing to get an appeal hearing before a Swedish court. Sweden’s Supreme Court announced this morning that it will not hear an appeal by The Pirate Bay’s founders Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundström. That means that fines and jail time these men faced from lower courts in the country will be upheld.

Zack Bastian, contributor the lovely Law of the Game Blog, talks about what to expect in the Call of Duty lawsuit between EA, Activision and former Infinity Ward front men Jason West and Vince Zampella. Besides offering a look back at the case as it has progressed so far and what caused it to happen in the first place, Bastian explains why this case is so fascinating to legal eagles. Here's a sample (I encourage you to go and read the whole thing):

Those who have data on MegaUpload and were concerned that it might get deleted on Thursday by the companies that facilitate the site's storage get some good news this morning - the data has been given a slight extension. And on a related note, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has begun a campaign this week to get "innocent users" of MegaUpload’s service to get in touch with them to explore possible legal measures for retrieving their data. MegaUpload’s online storage service was shut down by U.S. law enforcement earlier this month.

Federal prosecutors have told the Associated Press that data from MegaUpload could be deleted as soon as Thursday, according to a report in CBS. This is particularly bad news for anyone that was using the service to back up files. Contrary to popular belief MegaUpload was used for other things besides sharing illegal files...

NCsoft has filed a lawsuit against the developer of the upcoming MMO TERA to stop it from launching the United States. The MMO publisher and developer filed a lawsuit at the beginning of this month against developer Bluehole Studio, claiming that it stole software and assets from NCsoft. The Korean studio employs a number of former NCsoft employees who worked on Lineage 3.

The state of California has agreed to pay the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) $950,000 in legal fees related to arguing Brown v. EMA before the U.S. Supreme Court. When combined with reimbursements for the 2008 case (which the state already paid), the grand total that California paid the ESA comes to $1,327,000.

Jagex, makers of RuneScape, announced that it has won a decisive court victory over Impulse Software (no relation to the digital distribution platform bought by GameFly, for the record). A Boston court has ordered brothers Mark and Eric Snellman, working under the name Impulse Software, to pay Jagex damages in the "six figure range" and slaps an injunction on them that stops them from developing botting software for any Jagex product, helping other people develop or use botting software or discussing Jagex, the lawsuit, or RuneScape.

On Monday federal prosecutors announced that a Los Gatos, California game developer pled guilty to several charges including conspiracy to commit mail fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Speaking to the San Jose Mercury News, the former owner of UltraCade Technologies said that some of what the government announced on Monday was "inaccurate."

After licensing talks broke down between Textron - the parent company of Bell Helicopter – and Electronics Arts, the company has decided to take the legal route to get around paying any licensing fees. Publishers are often pretty heavy handed when it comes to depictions of their work – even when the target claims fair use - but when the shoe is on the other foot, EA has a habit of seeking remedies through the court.

Microsoft and Datel have decided that it would be in both companies' best interests to settle their Xbox 360-related lawsuits against each other. The two companies have been locked in a legal battle since 2009, when Datel accused Microsoft of engaging in "predatory conduct" after an Xbox 360 update rendered all unauthorized storage devices and third-party memory cards unusable. Datel's Max Memory line of cards were among the devices affected by the update.

According to popular Fallout fan site Duck and Cover, Interplay and Bethesda have already settled their long-running legal battle of the Fallout IP. The site claims that it has confirmed that a settlement has taken place, though the details of that settlement are still unknown. The post on the site goes on to say that an official announcement will be made sometime later this month. From the site:

While some of it is based on speculation, some new entries in the Fallout Wiki indicate that Bethesda and Interplay may be close to resolving their long-running lawsuit over the Fallout IP. This entry on the Fallout Wiki - a leak of a partial court transcript dated Dec. 12 - notes that Bethesda and Interplay have agreed to leave the Fallout trilogy out of the fight moving forward.

Silicon Knights has suffered a major setback in its ongoing legal battle with Epic Games over its Unreal Engine 3 licensing dispute. A judge has granted Epic a motion to exclude an expert witness's testimony and reports that were considered key to SK's case.

The witness in question was financial analyst and accountant Terry Lloyd, who argued on SK's behalf that problems with Epic's Unreal Engine 3 licensing and functionality caused more than $58 million in damages to Silicon Knights.

The Tokyo High Court has ruled in favor of an ex-Konami Digital Entertainment employee who sued the company for discriminating against her. Yoko Sekiguchi alleged that Konami demoted her because she took six months of maternity leave in 2009 and slashed her salary by ¥200,000. The demotion and pay cut happened when she returned from her maternity leave, she claimed.

According to an accountant jointly appointed by both Viacom and former (major) shareholders of Harmonix, the former parent company of the Rock Band series makers owes in excess of $383 million. The details of the audit were revealed last week, according to this Gamasutra report.

Square Enix announced on Friday that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California has dismissed with prejudice a class action lawsuit involving its MMORPG Final Fantasy XI. The ruling came on December 20. The lawsuit was filed by San Francisco's Esther Leong in 2009 on behalf of a class (Final Fantasy XI subscribers), that accused the publisher of "deceptive advertising, unfair business practices, and fraudulent concealment with respect to the online games at the point of purchase." The game was released in North America in 2003.

A California Superior Court judge has told EA that it must defend itself in the $400 million contract-interference suit brought by Activision over Infinity Ward founders Jason West and Vince Zampella.

What started out as a robbery to pay for a tattoo ended with the death of a 7-year old girl and her uncle, according Marion County, Indiana prosecutors. Two defendants, 22-year-old Michael Bell Jr., 25-year-old Jeremy Priel, are accused of collaborating in a plot to obtain a PlayStation 3 console that Bell wanted to trade for tattoo work, according to court documents charging the two men with murder.

In September Sony updated the PlayStation Network's terms of service to include a new clause removing the ability for customers (who were more than likely upset over the major security breach that happened earlier in the year) to file future class action lawsuits. Users who accepted the new TOS had to agree to individual arbitration instead of a lawsuit if they had a grievance against Sony. Since users had to agree to the new TOS in order to sign in to PSN, many simply agreed and moved on.

According to the BBC, British telecommunications powerhouse BT has filed a lawsuit against Google, alleging that its Android mobile operating system and other services it provides infringe on six patents it holds. The lawsuit alleges that Google’s Android, Google Music, Google Maps, Google Search, Google Places, Google Offers, Google+, and Google's location-based advertising infringe on various patents it holds.

The Quebec Court of Appeal for the District of Montreal has ruled in favor of THQ Montreal and its parent company. The decision strikes down a provisional injunction obtained by Ubisoft that temporarily prohibited THQ from soliciting Ubisoft employees who were bound by a non-compete provision with Ubisoft. The lawsuit was filed by Ubisoft after THQ announced that developer Patrice Désilets had joined the studio to create a new intellectual property after he resigned as Creative Director of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed franchise.

California has launched a new eCrime unit to combat various online crimes. The new law enforcement unit created by California Attorney General Kamala Harris and announced Tuesday, aims take on various "cyber crimes" such as email scams, online fraud, piracy, child pornography, and real-world theft of computer gear by organized crime.

"Today's criminals increasingly use the Internet, smartphones, and other digital devices to victimize people online and offline," Harris said while unveiling the unit in the Silicon Valley city of San Jose.