trade

A federal judge has denied Apple's effort to seal information related to its copyright infringement case against Psystar, ruling that information already publicly available on the Internet and in print is no longer protectable.

Apple had attempted to seal documents containing information about its Mac OS X operating system and computer products as a trade secret, presumably to keep others from modifying Apple's OS to run on unauthorized hardware. Apple argued that because it was not the source of the information that the trade secret protection still existed.

However, U.S. Federal District Judge William Alsup disagreed in … Read more

It's a booming holiday sales season for online merchants. As CNET contributor Don Reisinger reports, U.S. consumers spent $32 billion online from November 1 to December 18, according to research firm ComScore.

That's 18 percent more than they spent in the same period of 2010. While most online sales go smoothly, there's always a risk of a product you ordered from a Web site not arriving on time, or a product other than the one you purchased being shipped, among other possible problems.

A reader contacted me yesterday about an order he placed on Cyber Monday (… Read more

An administrative law judge at the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled today that Motorola violated only one of seven Microsoft patents.

The initial ruling today, only a partial win for Microsoft, said only that Motorola has infringed on a patent related to using a mobile device to schedule meetings.

Administrative Law Judge Theodore Essex issued an initial determination that certain Motorola devices infringed on four claims of U.S. Patent 6,370,566 held by Microsoft. The patent covers technology used to schedule an appointment on a mobile device, invite others to attend a meeting using contact information and … Read more

commentary A bipartisan group of leading members of Congress, led by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), today unveiled draft legislation that could ease tensions in a growing firefight over online piracy pitting technology industries and consumers against content providers.

The bill, "The Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade" or OPEN Act, provides a narrow and sensible alternative to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act, bills pending in the House and Senate respectively. OPEN's sponsors expect to introduce the legislation in both houses within a week. Wyden and … Read more

Federal Trade Commission officials spent the day touting a new settlement with Facebook, with FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz saying the company now will be "obligated" to keep its privacy promises.

But in reality, the agreement is likely to have little, if any, actual impact on Facebook users.

One reason is that Facebook won't have to roll back any changes to its default privacy settings, which have grown more permissive over the last few years. Photos, wall posts, and lists of friends were once visible by default only to people you were associated with; now the default settings … Read more

The U.S. International Trade Commission today said that Apple is not violating patents held by S3 Graphics in its products and is terminating its investigation on the matter.

The decision follows a mixed ruling in July, where an ITC judge found Apple to be infringing on two of S3 Graphics' patents, while not infringing on two others. A final decision on the matter was due last week, with the ITC electing to postpone it (PDF) until today for reasons unknown.

"Having examined the record of this investigation, including the administrative law judge's final ID and the submissions … Read more

Motorola Mobility stole and profited from unique source code related to mobile technology, a private technology firm alleged on a lawsuit filed yesterday.

Lemko claimed Motorola hired away an engineer responsible for creating the source code, and sent the intellectual property to its operations in China. The complaint is part of a broader legal battle between the two companies that has been raging on for years.

A Motorola spokeswoman said the company hasn't received the complaint, and wouldn't provide comment until it reviewed it.

The source code relates to a technology called position-determining entity, which relates to how … Read more

I am the first to admit when I am wrong. And indeed, I made a mistake a few weeks ago when I mentioned in this column a certain Web site as a place to sell an old iPhone without checking the reputation of the site mentioned.

In the October 4 edition of Ask Maggie, headlined Where to unload your laptop for top dollar, I listed the Web site CashForiPhones.com as a place to sell a used iPhone. Since then, I've learned from various readers and through my own investigation, that this particular Web site has a reputation for … Read more

Megaupload lives to fight another day.

The Internet file-storage business accused of helping millions around the world to store pirated videos, music, and software, has settled a copyright suit filed against it in January by Perfect 10, a porn studio with a long history of accusing tech companies of copyright violations.

Terms of the settlement weren't disclosed and representatives from the two companies did not respond to CNET's requests for comment. Megaupload is the parent company of multiple services, such as Megaporn, MegaVideo and MegaPix.

In e-mail exchanges this year with CNET, the company confirmed that it is … Read more