Just a day after hearing that T-Mobile lost its magenta suit against Telia, more bad news on the legal front has been handed down to the carrier. Just this week, the Supreme Court decided to reject T-Mob's appeal in a trifecta of cases "involving the legal remedies available in millions of cellphone contracts." Each case centered around the same issue: "whether state laws that limit the ability of companies to prohibit consumers from banding together to pursue class action lawsuits are preempted by federal law." In layman's terms, T-Mobile had attempted to ban class actions and require its customers to resolve any gripes via arbitration, which clearly didn't pan out so well. Hit the read link to read the rest, Mr. 1L.

[Via PhoneScoop]

Well, would you look at that -- our good friend Deutsche Telekom seems to have lost a lawsuit it filed against rival European wireless carrier Telia over its use of the color magenta in its logo. The Danish Eastern Regional High Court today ruled that Telia and DT don't compete directly in the Danish market and that Telia isn't using the same magenta shade, leading the court to overturn an injunction DT sought against Telia's use of the color. On top of that, the court further ruled that Deutsche Telekom has to fork over 1.5M kroner ($316,188) in court costs and attorneys' fees to Telia, which probably stings a little more than having to share a color. Of course, now that magenta is the People's Color, maybe DT should look into playing a little nicer, don't you think?

[Thanks, Andreas]

Text messaging rates have always been a little ridiculous, but a new class-action suit filed in Mississippi alleges that virtually every wireless carrier you can think of is basically cheating you by charging you for received texts and not allowing you to turn the service off. The suit names AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, Alltel, US Cellular, Cellular South, and Virgin Mobile (surprisingly, T-Mobile didn't make the cut), and says that members of the class are entitled to relief for the unauthorized charges, wrongful collection, and unjust enrichment. Of course, this will all likely end in a useless settlement that nets subscribers like three extra text messages and a 20 percent discount on an "approved accessory," while the plaintiff's law firm banks millions, but we'll see how things go.

Oh, there are plenty of bad Chinese iPhone knockoffs out there, but the HiPhone may be the reigning champion these days -- so it kind of seemed like a matter of time before Apple loosed the hounds on distributors of the device. We don't have confirmation or proper human translation of the above legal notice, but it would appear Apple's European counsel Bird & Bird has delivered at least one notice to an unnamed distributor threatening €25,000 in damages (and €15,000 in legal fees) for HiPhone sales. Hardly the case of the century, but we'll let you know if we hear anything.

[Thanks, Ricardo]

Update: Reader Ben W hooked us up with a translation of the letter; we can't vouch for its veracity, but it's posted after the break if you want to check it out. Thanks, Ben!

Ruh roh kiddos, looks like you'll still be asked to hand over your cellie before checking into first period in New York. Based on a recent decision handed down by a NY court, the controversial ban on cellphones on school property will continue to remain in effect, much to the chagrin of paranoid parents and text-happy students. The report made mention that the complaints over taking away kids' "lifelines" in school were not justifiable, and it restated just how many incidents had been reported where mobiles were used for harassment on school grounds. As expected, livid parents aren't likely to accept the results and get on with things, with the NY Daily News reporting that said folks may take the issue "to the state's highest court."

[Via CNET, image courtesy of MSNBC]

Good news coming from the Motorola camp? Say it ain't so! The long-standing feud between the flagging company and investor Carl Icahn has finally come to an end, and lo and behold, the pending litigation between the two has even been dismissed. Apparently the two parties managed to agree that (effective immediately) Keith Meister, a managing director of the Icahn investment funds and principal executive officer of Icahn Enterprises would be "appointed to serve on the [firm's board of directors]," and William R. Hambrecht, founder, chairman and CEO of WR Hambrecht + Co. and co-founder of Hambrecht & Quist, would be "nominated for election" during the 2008 annual shareholders meeting. Heck, Moto's even soliciting Mr. Icahn's input in dealing with the hopeful separation of businesses -- but then again, it would probably take advice from just about anyone given the current state of affairs.

After yesterday's very real and not-at-all-fake story about Deutsche Telekom demanding Engadget discontinue using the color magenta, and today being what it is, we're putting up some new wallpaper on all the Engadget sites and ever so slightly tweaking Engadget Mobile's logo. We hope you approve!

P.S. -In a related side note, our old pals at Phone Scoop pinged us earlier this morning to let us know they've gone magenta for the day in an act of solidarity. Much love, Phone Scoop! Oh, and now so did Phone Arena, Fitch, and GearBits! Also, myself and some other eds are in on the action.

Oh did you hear? Deutsche Telekom sent us a nastygram to stop using the color magenta here on Engadget Mobile. Good times. Letter and everything else posted over at Engadget Classic.

Oh sure, we've seen alleged criminals wriggle out from under the strong arm of the law, but this one takes things to an entirely different platform. Reportedly, a truck driver in Germany was pulled over for yapping on his cellphone while cruising, but apparently, said trucker actually wasn't talking when the boys in blue saw his handset upside his melon. As the story goes, the 43-year old was actually using the freshly recharged mobile to "warm his ear" in an attempt to alleviate an earache. Astonishingly enough, he was even able to provide "an itemized telephone bill proving he had not been using the phone at the time he was stopped," thus, a court in Hamm accepted the excuse and let him go sans penalty. Something tells us this guy's got friends in low places.

[Via Switched]

It's fairly commonplace for Chinese manufacturers to crank out clones of other popular wares, but apparently, things aren't brushed off as easily when the cloning gets done by a mega-corp like Toshiba. Granted, quite a bit is lost in translation here, but the long and short of it is that NTT DoCoMo and Fujitsu are suing Tosh for creating and selling its 821T -- which, as you can see above, looks an awful lot like Fujitsu's RakuRaku handset. Reportedly, the plaintiffs have demanded that Softbank Mobile withdraw the 821T from the market, but it seems there's quite a bit more back-and-forth left to go down before the dust settles on this one.

[Via GearFuse]

You know, we'll actually be a little sad when the endless legal battle between Nokia and Qualcomm actually comes to an end -- but until then, we're going to revel in all the dirt that comes out of having over a dozen simultaneous lawsuits going worldwide. Nokia now says that it owes Qualcomm nothing for its "early" CDMA patents, because it's dropped a cool billion dollars into license payments for them over the past 15 years and those deals have expired, so it's in the clear now. As you might expect, Qualcomm disagrees, and says that if Nokia wants to keep using its tech, it's got to pay up -- that's on top of the estimated $500 million a year Nokia's already paying Qualcomm for other patents. Guys, guys, why fight like this? What's a couple billion a year between friends? Video summary of the entire dispute after the break.

[Via MocoNews]

Gulp. FCC chairman Kevin Martin is prepping for a big ol' congressional probe this morning. Martin received a letter today warning that he is being investigated for, "management practices that may adversely affect the Commission's ability to both discharge effectively its statutory duties and to guard against waste, fraud, and abuse." Martin, you'll recall, was recently accused of being in Verizon's back pocket during its attempt to revise the 700MHz open-access rule. The investigation is prompted by allegations made by "credible" FCC employees, both current and former, so far reaching -- including its handling of Comcast and the so-called, 70-percent ruling -- that Ars Technica expects it to turn the "FCC upside down." Martin has two weeks to deliver "a truckload" of records to Congress before this revolution gets televised.

Just days after the ITC upheld a December ruling that stated that Nokia did not violate Qualcomm patents, the UK High Court has handed down its decision on a lawsuit initially filed in May of 2006. If you'll recall, the case involved Nokia's GSM / GPRS / EDGE-only handsets and a pair of Qualcomm's patents "that cover certain power saving and power control technologies." Nearly two years after the spat got real, the court has ruled that "although the Nokia accused products included the patented technologies, the power saving patent is invalid and that the power control patent is partially valid but, insofar as it is valid, is not infringed by Nokia." Granted, we reckon that could have been spilled out with fewer complexities, but the end result has Qualcomm considering "whether to seek permission from the UK court to amend the patents and appeal the decision." Please, just let it go.

We remember when there was actually a glimmer of hope that the quarreling between these two may end -- man, was that a long time ago. Anyways, the International Trade Commission has reportedly upheld a judge's ruling made back in December which affirmed that Nokia did not violate Qualcomm patents. As expected, the latter firm expressed its utmost disappointment in the decision, and is already considering yet another appeal process. Then again, we may actually be a little sad if it didn't.

[Via PhoneScoop]

Phew, we were starting to worry we'd get through the week without someone suing Apple. This time it's a patent lawsuit by a Massachusetts man named Romek Figa, who claims to have patented a caller ID system infringed by the iPhone. Figa's patent, which was granted in 1990 and references two-line LCD screens and external caller ID equipment, describes a way to associate incoming numbers with stored contact names, and he's looking to halt sales of the iPhone and have Apple pony up some hefty damages and license his patent, which the company has thus far declined to do. We wonder why. We also wonder why Figa hasn't sued Nokia, Microsoft, HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson, since, you know, all those companies make phones with caller ID as well, but maybe that's coming next -- he could probably end up simply owning Moto's flailing phone division, if his lawyers play their cards right.

Update: According to statements by Figa's attorneys this morning, Moto, Nokia, and Samsung have already licensed the patent, but Apple "refused to take a license on the terms offered." Interesting -- but they also said Figa sent his demand letter directly to Steve Jobs, which seems like the least efficient way possible of handling this deal.

[Via AppleInsider]

Disclaimer: Nilay is a lawyer, but he's not your lawyer, and none of this is legal advice or analysis.