Legal Issues

Microsoft has now joined Apple in a guerrilla war against Google's Android, and Google's next steps are far from certain.

The smartphone industry is still in its infancy, but its strategic importance to computer companies big and small can't be overstated. Recent moves from Apple and Microsoft show that the big guys are not going to be shy about deploying their array of patents as competition increases.

HTC's lawyers have had a busy couple of weeks, responding to a wide-ranging patent lawsuit filed by Apple and negotiating a patent licensing deal with Microsoft. The common thread? … Read more

The mobile phone wars got more interesting late on Tuesday as Microsoft publicly asserted for the first time that Google's Android operating system infringes on its intellectual property.

Microsoft has taken the position, according to those close to the company, that Android infringes on the company's patented technology and that the infringement applies broadly in areas ranging from the user interface to the underlying operating system.

In a statement to CNET, Microsoft deputy general counsel Horacio Gutierrez said that, although Microsoft prefers to resolve intellectual property licensing issues without resorting to lawsuits, it has a responsibility to make … Read more

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has launched its own inquiry into whether Hewlett-Packard paid bribes to win a computer contract with a unit of the Russian government, according to a report on Thursday in The Wall Street Journal.

The move by regulators here follows reports on Wednesday that Russian investigators, acting at the request of German officials, raided HP's Russian offices. According to The Wall Street Journal, German prosecutors are investigating whether HP paid $10.9 million in an attempt to sell a sophisticated computer system to the Russian prosecutor general's office.

"HP has been … Read more

Want to change the world but only have 99 cents? Armchair Revolutionary is here to help.

Set to launch into beta on Tuesday, Armchair Revolutionary is a Web-based social activism platform designed to harness large-scale crowdsourcing and the boom in social gaming in a bid to support a wide variety of science and technology ventures that could benefit the world at large.

Started by the founders of The Hollywood Hill, said to be the largest social change membership organization in the entertainment-industry, Armchair Revolutionary is meant to bring people's interest in helping support worthwhile causes and the iTunes-era simplicity … Read more

It's turning out to be a busy day for Microsoft's legal team.

The software maker on Thursday lost its bid to have a full appeals court review I4i's patent case in which the Toronto company was awarded both millions in monetary damages and an injunction against the inclusion of custom XML features in Word. Separately, meanwhile, the company is suing a maker of Xbox add-ons over that company's Xbox 360 controller.

In the I4i case, Microsoft said it is still figuring out its next move, which could include asking the Supreme Court to hear the case, … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--I have seen the future of computing technology in cars, and it's not coming any time soon.

It is coming, though, and when it arrives, it may very well change the way we deal with information while we're driving. But because the auto industry moves at a truly snail's pace when it comes to innovation, it's likely to be at least five years before this vision comes to pass.

My view into this future came from a conversation I had at the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) festival with T.J. Giuli, a vehicle software systems engineer in Ford's Infotronics Research and Advanced Engineering division.

Giuli began our conversation with a quick recap of where Ford has taken in-car technology over the last few years, concluding with the fourth, and latest, version of its Sync platform, which is allowing partner companies and developers to access Sync APIs and integrate some smartphone applications with in-dash displays. The idea here, Giuli said, has been to "become more of a part of the human/machine interface."… Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--For Rob Nail, Saturday was a bonanza of opportunity.

Over dinner that night in building 20 at the NASA Ames Research Center here, Nail found himself discussing 3D printing and housing with X Prize CEO Peter Diamandis. Already, Nail had been considering buying some farming land in Northern California and had been interested in the nascent concept of 3D printed buildings. He told Diamandis that he wanted to try that on the land.

"He says," Nail recalled, "I want to make this introduction," and grabbed Nail, pulling him a few tables over to … Read more

You know all those times when you recognize someone on the subway or on the street but can't quite remember who they are?

Well, a new technology from the Swedish firm The Astonishing Tribe (TAT) called Recognizr could soon help you figure out who they are so that you can get up and greet them by name.

According to an article published Tuesday in Popular Science, Recognizr is a new application that can figure out who someone is--and auto-discover social networking information about them--based solely on a photo (see video below).

PopSci, riffing on the growing field of augmented … Read more

Microsoft and Amazon announced on Monday that the two have entered into a patent cross-licensing deal.

As part of the pact, Amazon will pay Microsoft an undisclosed amount of money, though the two sides did not disclose more details.

The deal covers both Amazon's Kindle product as well as the company's use of Linux-based servers. Microsoft has maintained that many implementations of Linux infringe on its patents and has signed numerous licensing deals that cover Linux with both companies that sell Linux-based software and those that use the operating system in their hardware.

Microsoft, which started an intellectual property licensing push … Read more