In an ironic twist, Warner Bros. has been sued this week for stealing an anti-piracy technology patent.

Medien Patent Verwaltung(MPV) of Germany is the company doing the accusing, saying Warner and Technicolor began unlawfully using the technology after it was shown to them in 2003.

The studio was shown the technology, which is "a method of marking films with a distinctive code so it could track back sources of piracy to the exact theater in which an unauthorized copy originated," in 2003, says TheHollywoodReporter.

Warner has been using it without paying an licensing fees since 2004, adds the complaint.

Says MPV: "We disclosed our anti-piracy technology to Warner Bros. in 2003 at their request, under strict confidentiality, expecting to be treated fairly. Instead, they started using our technology extensively without our permission and without any accounting to us. However, we had taken care to obtain patents to protect MPV's technology, and we are now in a position where we must assert our rights."

Warner has not yet commented.

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Yankee Stadium, home of the defending World Series champions, has just added the Apple iPad to its prohibited device list, which already included all laptops.

Team officials say it is nothing personal to the iPad, but bunches the tablet in with all laptops.

The ban is a "security-and-safety" issue, they add.

When asked, Major League Baseball said iPad bans are a team-by-team decision, and the New York Mets and the Seattle Mariners have already announced the device is allowed in their respective stadiums.

In April, the iPad was banned in Israel due to wireless standards irregularities, but the ban was subsequently lifted.

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Apple has been sued this week over patents relating to its popular iTunes store, in a case that could take down the world's most popular online music store.

The suing company, Sharing Sound, is accusing Apple of infringing patents relating to "djustable length displays of textual and other data," as well as patents related to online music stores.

Sharing Sound says they hold the patent for "distribution of musical products by a web site vendor over the Internet," which seems incredibly broad, and practically describes any music downloading site that has song previews, a shopping cart, and a legal music player.

The exact patent targeting Apple "has a provision that downloaded songs have a unique identifier included in the file to link the files to a particular purchaser," says ArsTechnica.

iTunes infringes on this patent, says the suit, as all songs downloaded through the service have Apple ID, used to identify the original purchaser.

Because of the broad nature of the patent, Apple is not the only defendant, and Rhapsody, Napster, Brilliant Digital Entertainment, Microsoft, Netflix, Wal-Mart, Barnes & Noble, Amazon and GameStop are also named.

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AT&T has settled a class action lawsuit today that will mean that the carrier must unlock all phones locked to their network as long as customers meet a certain set of criteria.

Users of pre-paid phones must "provide proof of purchase of their locked handset," while any contracted user must have "completed a minimum of 90 days of active service," with the account remaining in good standing.

There is one caveat, however: "Handsets for which AT&T has an exclusive sales arrangement with a manufacturer of less than 10 months will have to wait until the 10-month period expires before they can receive an unlocking code."

That means that any phone for which AT&T has an exclusivity pact of over 10 months (namely the Apple iPhone and BlackBerry Bold 9000), then it does not have to issue an unlock code.

The final approval hearing for the settlement is on July 2nd. You can find more information at www.attlockinglawsuits.com.

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Wal-Mart has announced, about a month before Apple is set to release the iPhone 4G, that it is slashing the price of the iPhone 3GS in half.

The 16GB 3GS model will go on sale for $97 USD with two-year contract. The smartphone currently costs $197 at Wal-Mart and $199 through Apple.

Despite the iPhone 4G being leaked, Apple has yet to confirm or deny that the phone will be officially released next month.

The annual developer conference starts on June 7th, and Apple has unveiled a new iPhone model each year during the event.

New to the "iPhone HD," are a front-facing camera for video conferencing, a better standard camera (including larger lens and flash), a Micro-SIM slot (just like the iPad), 960x640 resolution, a second mic, metallic exterior (not plastic) and split side buttons for volume.

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