The Nov. 7 ruling by U.S. District Judge James Selna for Central California in Santa Ana that former Masimo engineer Marcelo Lamego misappropriated the company’s pulse oximetry trade secrets “will give comfort to companies that invest in innovation,” said Masimo’s General Counsel Tom McClenahan in a statement Thursday. The "finding of facts" ruling (docket 8:18-cv-02001) confirmed “that California’s trade secrets laws will help protect their investments from employees who seek to unlawfully use those innovations for their own benefit,” he said.

Sonos’ retail channel is “comfortably stocked” for the first time in the past three holiday seasons, said Sonos Chief Financial Officer Eddie Lazarus on the company’s Wednesday Q4 FY 2022 earnings call. The company expects a return to normal promotional activity through the holiday quarter and is “in a position to burn down a significant amount of the finished goods inventory that we have” by the end of fiscal Q1 ending, Jan. 2, Lazarus said.

Defendants Kevin David Hulse and David Arnett, operating under an entity called DK Automation, have lured consumers into purchasing business opportunities since at least February 2020, promising to build purchasers a 100% “turnkey Amazon empire” that generates “passive income on autopilot,” alleged an FTC complaint Wednesday (docket 1:22-cv-23760) in U.S. District Court for Southern Florida in Miami.

The CES 2023 exhibitor count, standing at over 2,000, is fewer than half the 4,400 that showed in Las Vegas in 2020, the last CES before the COVID-19 pandemic turned trade shows upside down globally, CTA said at CES Unveiled in New York Wednesday. About a third are international companies, said CTA CEO Gary Shapiro.

Target shares plunged 15% in morning trading Wednesday after Q4 revenue guidance citing a slowdown in consumer spending in the holiday sales quarter. Softness in discretionary spending that worsened at the end of October is continuing into November, said Target Chief Financial Officer Michael Fiddelke on the company's Wednesday Q3 FY 2022 earnings call.

Ensuring U.S. leadership in the development of telecom and other standards must be a top national priority, said National Institute of Standards and Technology Director Laurie Locascio during a Telecommunications Industry Association virtual conference Tuesday. Locascio and other speakers said industry, not governments, should lead on standards.

A draft order on updating references in FCC rules to Nielsen publications is expected to be approved with few changes at the agency’s Nov. 17 meeting, FCC and industry officials told us. Though the NPRM that preceded the order led to calls from Commissioner Nathan Simington and broadcasters for the FCC to scrutinize its relationship to the ratings company, the draft order says it's “premature to initiate a proceeding at this time” on the matter: “There is currently no apparent alternative data source for the Commission to rely upon.”

Walmart shares jumped Tuesday after Q3 FY 2023 revenue came in higher than expected at $152.8 billion, rising 8.7% vs. guidance of 5% in August (see Ref:2208160039]). Sharesclosed 6.5% higher Tuesday at $147.44.

YouTube’s announcement last week that it will cap the number of times viewers see an ad on YouTube and third-party networks addresses repetitive ads, “a well-known problem that has plagued the advertising industry for years,” said eMarketer analyst Jeremy Goldman Monday.

Amazon “misrepresents” the benefits of Prime memberships when it advertises products available for free shipping in one or two days but in reality keeps members “waiting substantially beyond” those promised turnaround times, alleged a fraud class action Thursday (docket 3:22-cv-01764) in U.S. District Court for Southern California in San Diego.