Well, it looks like Facebook’s attempt to have its lawsuit with Daniel Miller dismissed has failed again. The diligent reader will remember from our previous post that Miller brought a claim against Facebook alleging that the social website was in violation of copyright infringement by allowing the game ChainRX to be posted on its site. ChainRX is facially similar to Miller’s game Boomshine. Facebook has tried to have the lawsuit thrown out, claiming that Miller had not alleged a sufficient claim. The judge did not agree, saying that the threshold to have the case move forward was low and that Miller satisfied that low threshold.

In the present decision, on Sep. 22, 2010, the judge denied Facebook’s claims that Miller had failed to prosecute the case because Miller did not serve the co-defendant Yao Wei Yeo. In a previous court order, Miller was told that he had until July 30 to serve Yeo with a complaint. Miller took subsequent steps to locate Yeo: he subpoenaed the website that hosts Yeo’s website, but was only able to obtain a UPS Store address for Yeo. Miller subsequently sent a complaint to the UPS address. Even though Yeo has yet to appear in the actual lawsuit, the federal judge has ruled that Miller has met the due process requirement for service of process.

The federal judge, in his ruling, states that “[i]ndeed, it appears that defendant Yeo did in fact receive notice of this action.” After receiving the complaint in his mailbox, Yeo even contacted Facebook’s in-house counsel and discussed the case with him.

It appears that the lawsuit will continue to go forward against Facebook. We will, as always, stay on top of the action and keep you as updated as we can.

*Thanks to Josh Mosley for his continued help with this post and with the blog

In the beginning of June, Patent Arcade reported that Harmonix Music Systems, Inc. and Viacom Inc. were close to settlement in the Harmonix v. Konami case (one of two Harmonix/Konami cases). At that time, it was unclear whether the progress toward settlement in the Harmonix v. Konami case would affect sister case Konami v. Harmonix. It appears now that the two sides have reached an agreement in Konami v. Harmonix and filed a Motion to Dismiss in the Eastern District of Texas on September 15, 2010. The following day Harmonix filed a motion to dismiss a similar and concurrent case in Massachusetts.

The Motion to Dismiss indicates that:

Pursuant to the terms of a separate agreement, Plaintiffs Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. and Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. (“Plaintiffs”) and Defendants Harmonix Music Systems Inc., MTV Networks Co., Viacom International Inc. and Viacom Inc. (“Defendants”), have agreed to settle, release, adjust and compromise all claims and counterclaims in the above-captioned action. The parties, therefore, move this Court under Rule 41(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to dismiss the above-entitled cause and all claims by Plaintiffs against Defendants and all claims by Defendants against Plaintiffs made therein with prejudice.

Terms of the settlement have not been disclosed.