Open Web Developer News Desk

Google Moves to Get Around ‘Google’s Pet’ Issue

Fri, 18 May 2012 15:18:00 EDT

Google has reportedly figured out a way to sort of avoid looking like it’s playing favorites if the Chinese ever decide to let it take over Motorola Mobility. With Jelly Bean, the next version of Android, the Wall Street Journal says it’s changed its strategy. Rather than work with just one Android pet on so-called “lead devices” before releasing the software to other OEMs, it’s going to work with as many as five vendors that will get early access to the code and also get to send their developers to the Googleplex to work shoulder-to-shoulder with Google and Google’s other pets.

Data Center Fabric for Cloud Computing at Cloud Expo New York

Fri, 18 May 2012 08:00:00 EDT

Enterprise IT organizations want to deploy a virtualized data center fabric that will provide the foundation for agile private cloud computing. Getting there does not have to be difficult, but it does require a new approach to data center infrastructure design – an approach that is non-disruptive, vendor-agnostic, and very adaptable to changing business requirements. In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Bruce Fingles, Chief Information Officer and VP of Product Quality at Xsigo, will look at the limitations of traditional thinking, and show how extending the power of virtualization can help maximize performance, minimize complexity, and empower IT organizations with an agile data center fabric.

Facebook Co-Founder Gives Up US Citizenship

Tue, 15 May 2012 08:30:00 EDT

Brazilian-born Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, 30, traded in his American citizenship last September to take up residence in Singapore, a move that will cut his taxes when Facebook IPOs on Friday. He is estimated to own about 4% or 5% of Facebook. The company was valued at $77 billion–$96 billion ahead of the IPO although, according to Bloomberg, its roadshow is producing less institutional demand for the stock than expected since Facebook said last week that advertising revenues weren’t keeping pace with user growth and may not reach its rosier forecasts. It’s supposed to go out at $28–$35 a share and sell 337.4 million shares, 180 million put up by Facebook itself. The rest of the shares are coming from CEO Mark Zuckerberg and selling shareholders like Accel Partners, Goldman Sachs and Digital Sky Technologies.

Judge Finds Google Copied More Java Code than Jury Said

Tue, 15 May 2012 08:15:00 EDT

District Court Judge William Alsup, who refused last week to decide whether Google had fairly used the Java IP a jury said Android infringed, had no trouble Friday deciding that the jury made a mistake in finding Google only copied nine lines of Java’s rangeCheck code as well as infringing the sequence, structure and organization of 37 Java APIs. In a judgment as a matter of law the good judge said Google directly copied eight other Java files and that it wasn’t a petty little thing. FOSS Patents had said when it came out that the jury’s verdict was odd since “there are code files in there that are much larger than the rangeCheck function, and infringement was so clear that it shouldn’t even have been put before a jury.” The judge effectively said the blog was right.

Cloud Expo New York: Building a Private, Public, or Hybrid Cloud?

Fri, 11 May 2012 03:00:00 EDT

Whatever your course, meet Cloud complexity head on with a unified approach to handle extreme performance, reliability, availability, and simplicity. In her session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Ayalla Goldschmidt, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Oracle, will reveal the underpinnings for the Oracle Public Cloud as well as technology best-practices for developing private and hybrid cloud architectures using Oracle’s Engineered Systems together with Oracle Fusion Middleware. Oracle Fusion Middleware is a complete array of technologies enabling you to embrace the paradigm shift of cloud computing and take full advantage of the cost savings and improved agility they promise. Together with Oracle Exalogic and Oracle Exadata provide the world’s first and only integrated engineered system, which provide enterprises the best possible foundation for running enterprise applications with the performance, elasticity, reliability, and scale characteristics expected for cloud-based applications.

Google Demands New Java API Trial

Thu, 10 May 2012 08:45:00 EDT

Google, as expected, has put in its papers asking the court to declare a mistrial because the jury only decided it infringed 37 Java APIs in building Android and didn’t decide whether that infringement constituted so-called “fair use” of the code. So it wants a whole new trial “as to both infringement and fair use as to Oracle’s claim that Google is liable for infringement of its copyright on the structure, sequence, and organization of the 37 API packages.” Google claims the two issues – infringement and fair use – are “opposite sides of the same coin” and “indivisible.” It’s standing on its Seventh Amendment rights to trial by jury and a unanimous decision on liability, using its “indivisible” contention to oppose a partial retrial in front of a new jury. Oracle has yet to reply to Google’s “indivisible” argument but it wants the judge to decide the fair use question in one of those handy judgments as a matter of law (JMOLs) that both Google and Oracle asked for before.

Google and Android Infringed Oracle Copyrights

Tue, 08 May 2012 10:00:00 EDT

After days of deliberating, a San Francisco jury Monday found that Google and its Android operating system infringed the Java copyrights now held by Oracle. However, the jury remained as deadlocked as it was last Friday over the issue of whether Google made so-called “fair use” of the IP. It couldn’t come to a unanimous decision on that question. Google denied all the allegations and claimed it developed Android from scratch and that the parts of Java it did use aren’t covered by copyright. After the verdict was read Google moved for a mistrial – which would mean a whole new trial and possibly new evidence – while the judge accepted the partial verdict and forged ahead. The partial verdict says Google infringed the sequence, structure and organization of 37 Java APIs by using those APIs in Android. FOSS Patents figures that was the most important decision the jury made. The blog also figures there’s really no “fair use” case here and is critical of the instructions given to the jury about fair use.

Apple in Settlement Talks with Proview over iPad Mark

Tue, 08 May 2012 08:15:00 EDT

Apple has made an offer to resolve the imbroglio over the Chinese iPad trademark according to Roger Xie, a lawyer representing the Proview Technology (Shenzhen), the bankrupt company that claims the mark wasn’t included in the rights Apple acquired from a sister company in 2009. Whatever amount Apple’s offered it apparently isn’t enough to satisfy Proview, which owes $400 million to Chinese banks. Apple has been under pressure from a Chinese appeals court to settle but has been reluctant to sit down. It is believed the court could uphold a lower court’s decision that Proview owns the trademark.

Google Wins the Battle of the Interior Department

Mon, 07 May 2012 06:00:00 EDT

The US Department of the Interior has moved its e-mail business to Google, which sued when the agency gave Microsoft a five-year $59.3 million cloud-based e-mail contract in 2010 claiming the department’s research was “stale” and Microsoft’s security wasn’t certified for government use. It’s going with Google Apps for Government and Gmail instead. It will cover upwards of 90,000 seats. The agency’s been reconsidering its original decision since late last year. The deal is worth $34.9 million over seven years to Google and its reseller Onix Networking. Microsoft said it “will engage with our partners and DOI to review and understand the reasons for this decision.”

Cloud Expo New York: Rein in the Cloud Chaos

Sun, 06 May 2012 02:00:00 EDT

CIOs today have the opportunity to become cloud champions in their organizations, building innovative new IT models that drive new business opportunities. Whether your business is purchasing a single cloud application or driving a company-wide cloud strategy, it is essential to centralize, secure and manage the flow of information in and out of your firewall and to and from the cloud. In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Rick Nucci, founder and general manager of Dell Boomi, will outline why every successful cloud strategy must start with an integration strategy and how this can help CIOs take the reins in their cloud strategies.

The Promise of Internet Scale Design and Architecture at Cloud Expo NY

Wed, 02 May 2012 13:45:00 EDT

Cloud computing revolutionized application design, and changed the way people think about infrastructure. The rise of cloud computing coincided with a new generation of applications and services that required scale. New architecture and design had to take into account low latency network connectivity, geographic distribution, large real-time data stores, the ability to meet demand (while not knowing exactly how much demand to handle), and so much more. We refer to this as Internet Scale. We see a market trend with prospects and customers asking for hybrid hosting environments that include public cloud, private cloud, dedicated servers, storage and managed hosting. Leveraging these products and services they want to architect and deliver a solution that is Internet Scale. From a technology perspective, what is Internet Scale? Is it really viable to build to Internet Scale in a hosted environment? What does it take to achieve true Internet Scale?

First Decision in Java Trial Goes to the Jury

Wed, 02 May 2012 07:45:00 EDT

Two weeks after the trial started, the first part of the three-part Oracle case against Google went to the jury mid-day Monday. Among other things the poor jury – one of whom reportedly didn’t want to continue but the judge persuaded her to – has to struggle with are the judge’s 19 pages of instructions, instructions neither side appreciated. A pity judges aren’t required to make instructions comprehensible to the average juror instead of an eventual appeals court. This jury has to decide if Google infringed Oracle’s Java copyrights, or rather parts of Java, to wit, the structure, sequence and organization of 37 Java APIs – as the judge instructed them – in developing Android and then whether Google made “fair use” of the widgetry and thereby advanced the public interest by adding something new and different to the whole megillah – and not necessarily something profitable – two separate decisions.

‘Google Totally Slimed Sun’: Gosling

Tue, 01 May 2012 08:15:00 EDT

After Sun’s ex-CEOs Scott McNealy and Jonathan Schwartz testified for and against Oracle, respectively, last week at the Oracle v Google infringement trial, Java creator James Gosling, who hasn’t been able to hold a job at either Oracle or Google for more than a few months, waded into the discussion over the weekend on Oracle’s side. “Just because Sun didn’t have patent suits in our genetic code doesn’t mean we didn’t feel wronged,” he wrote on his web site. “While I have differences with Oracle, in this case they are in the right. Google totally slimed Sun. We were all really disturbed, even Jonathan: he just decided to put on a happy face and tried to turn lemons into lemonade, which annoyed a lot of folks at Sun.”

Judge Plans to Tell Jury Java APIs Are Copyrighted

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 09:00:00 EDT

Judge Alsup – who really wishes Oracle and Google had settled so he wouldn’t have to hear the Java trial – is proposing to decide whether APIs are copyrightable himself and not have the jury wade into that legal brier patch. However, he is also proposing to instruct the jury that the structure, sequence and organization of the asserted Java APIs are copyrightable, which between you, me and those angels dancing on the head of a pin over there is the same as saying the APIs are copyrighted. The good judge is going to wait for the jury to come home with a verdict on whether Google infringed the Java APIs – and the overwhelming evidence presented at trial suggests it did – before he says whether or not they are copyrightable and springs that tiger out of its cage.

McNealy & Schwartz Testify for Opposite Sides in Java Trial

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 08:30:00 EDT

Former Sun CEO Scott McNealy, an off-again-on-again buddy of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, testified for Oracle Thursday in its infringement suit against Google and Android. His surprise appearance – in the middle of Google’s laying out its copyright defense – was used to scotch testimony given minutes before by his pony-tailed successor at Sun Jonathan Schwartz who testified for Google. (It’s just so utterly Sun.) As in all jury trials the decision could come down to personalities. From the industry’s point-of-view it’s the first – and long-overdue – time McNealy has publicly butted heads with Schwartz whose appointment as Sun CEO is at least as unfathomable as why HP ever let Mark Hurd go.

Fabled Google Drive Arrives, Creates Rights Panic

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 07:00:00 EDT

Google finally introduced its long-trumpeted cloud-based Google Drive Tuesday hours before Apple released its Q2 results. Drive happens to compete with iCloud and Apple’s results, which could have been, shall we say, edgy, turned out to be over-the-top. Drive also competes with Microsoft’s SkyDrive, Dropbox, Box, Amazon’s Cloud Drive and SugarSync. Google says Drive users will get 5GB of free online storage for videos, photos, songs, files and PDFs that they can upload, create, edit, view, sync, share by way of different rights, collaborate on, get notifications, recognize scanned files, store, search (by word, owner, even some images to a point) and access from anywhere from PCs, Macs and Android devices (Gmail, iPhones, iPads, Chrome OS and Linux to come).

Microsoft Gets Another Android Vendor to Pay Up

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:00:00 EDT

If anybody’s making money off of Android, it’s Microsoft, which has just signed another licensing deal with another Android merchant. This time it’s Pegatron, which is gonna pay Microsoft to run Android and Chrome on its e-readers, tablets and phones. How much is secret like Microsoft’s other licensing arrangements. Nailing Pegatron means Microsoft now has four of the top five Taiwanese ODMs, according to Microsoft deputy general counsel Horacio Gutierrez. That would give it 70% of all US Android devices.

Dome9 Introduces 1-Click Cloud Server Secure Access

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 05:00:00 EDT

“Our new instant access app for Google Chrome makes it unbelievably easy to get secure access to any server, on-the-fly,” said Zohar Alon, Co-Founder and CEO of Dome9 Security, which announced on Wednesday the availability of Dome9 Instant Access for Google Chrome, a new browser-based application enabling one-click secure access to any server and any cloud for Google Chrome users. Today there are more than 30 million cloud and virtual private servers in use, and most are vulnerable to attack because their built-in security stacks such as the host firewall are too difficult to manage. Dome9 makes cloud server security manageable by delivering a GUI-based firewall management service to secure an unlimited number of Windows and Linux servers in any virtual private, cloud, collocated, and hosted environment.

First of Ivy Bridge Bows

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 08:15:00 EDT

Monday morning in San Francisco Intel wheeled out Ivy Bridge, its first cutting-edge 22nm 3-D tri-gate transistor widgets, which are also its third-generation Core processors. They were originally supposed to ship in volume the end of last year and again a few weeks ago. These first quad-core Core i5 and i7 chips are meant for desktops and conventional laptops targeting gaming, video editing and content. In a couple of months Intel will have dual-cores for Ultrabooks that compete with Apple’s ultra-thin, power-efficient MacBook Air. Server chips are also on the way.

Facebook Buys $550M Worth of AOL Patents Off Microsoft

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 08:45:00 EDT

Facebook and Microsoft said Monday on Facebook’s web site that Facebook is buying the lion’s share of the 925 US patents and patent applications that Microsoft just bought from AOL for $1.06 billion. Facebook – and Microsoft has an investment in Facebook – is buying 650 of patents off of Microsoft for $550 million cash. A quick turnover for Microsoft considering its deal with AOL hasn’t closed yet and the whole megillah needs regulatory approval. In fact, Microsoft’s general counsel Brad Smith remarked in a prepared statement that “Today’s agreement with Facebook enables us to recoup over half of our costs while achieving our goals from the AOL auction. As we said earlier this month, we had submitted the winning AOL bid in order to obtain a durable license to the full AOL portfolio and ownership of certain patents that complement our existing portfolio.”

PTO Strengthens Oracle’s Java Case

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 08:30:00 EDT

The US Patent and Trademark Office has reconsidered its so-called “final” rejection of one of the Java patents that Oracle claimed Google infringed and decided that nine of the patents claims are perfectly valid. Apparently Oracle got wind of the PTO’s change of mind late last week and rushed in Sunday to tell the court about. Conveniently, the claims upheld match Oracle’s to a “T” with a little to spare, and, as FOSS Patents points out, there’s nothing quite like teeth of a re-examined patent. Google, of course, is going to squawk but the way Oracle left it with the court it would only assert patents that weren’t rejected by the PTO. And here the PTO has validated one neatly ahead of the patent side of the case getting heard so it’s likely that Google will have to face charges of violating three Java patents not the whittled-away two.

Java Trial: Google Witnesses Incredibly Hazy

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 08:30:00 EDT

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, decked out in dark Armani duds for the trial of his landmark case against Google and Android, testified Tuesday that he had considered buying RIM or Palm to compete against Apple and its iPhone. Ultimately he decided that RIM was too expensive and Palm wasn’t competitive enough and a separate “Project Java Phone” that Oracle had started was a “bad idea.” Google’s lawyer claimed that because Oracle failed to develop its own product it’s going after Google and Android to get a piece of the action. Google CEO Larry Page, widely reported as uncomfortable on the witness stand and unable to make eye contract except with the ceiling, testified that he couldn’t remember much of anything. He appeared so evasive and said “I don’t recall” or “I’m not sure” to so many of the questions posed by Oracle’s star lawyer, David Boies, that CNBC ran the headline “Blank Page?”

Eucalyptus Gets $30 Million C Round

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 08:15:00 EDT

Eucalyptus Systems, the open source private and hybrid cloud merchant that just tied up with Amazon, has gotten a $30 million C round on top of the $25.5 million it’s already gotten. It says the C round was oversubscribed. The funding was led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP). Existing investors, including Benchmark Capital, BV Capital and New Enterprise Associates (NEA) pitched in too. Eucalyptus claims to be the most widely deployed on-premise IaaS cloud platform, but, according to Marten Mickos, who runs the joint, at $55.5 million, Eucalyptus is the “least funded” of the current crop of players like VMware, OpenStack and now CloudStack, which have got hundreds of millions of dollars at their disposal.

The Web – Changing the Way We Work

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 06:00:00 EDT

The web is fundamentally changing the way we work – is your company ready? Intrigued by how more than 4 million businesses are using Google’s cloud to work in the future? Join us as we bring Google’s highly anticipated annual gathering of business leaders together to hear: Industry experts shed light on emerging business models Customers share stories of business transformation Our product experts unveil new products Our executives answer your questions

What Cloud Computing Really Means

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 08:30:00 EDT

Cloud computing is all the rage. "It's become the phrase du jour," said Gartner senior analyst Ben Pring. The problem, according to InfoWorld, is that everyone seems to have a different definition of cloud computing. Some analysts and vendors define cloud computing as an updated version of utility computing: virtual servers available over the Internet. Others go broad, arguing anything you consume outside the firewall is "in the cloud," including conventional outsourcing, according to InfoWorld. InfoWorld talked to dozens of vendors, analysts and IT customers on various components of cloud computing. Here is InfoWorld's rough breakdown of what cloud computing is all about.

Twitter Starts an Anti-Patent Suit Crusade

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 07:00:00 EDT

With the dint of the patent wars in its ears Twitter has turned pacifist. It figures engineers and designers should control the decision to use their work in infringement suits. It’s put together a draft Innovators Patent Agreement (IPA) that commits it to using patents only for defensive purposes. It won’t use them in offensive litigation without the inventor’s permission. That obligation, however, doesn’t apply for some reason to companies that have sued anyone over patents in the last 10 years, leaving a lot of companies Twitter could up and sue without anybody’s blessing. It also doesn’t apply in cases of a pre-emptive strike.

Google Atmosphere on Tour in Chicago

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:26:00 EDT

The web is fundamentally changing the way we work – is your company ready? Intrigued by how more than 4 million businesses are using Google’s cloud to work in the future? Join us in Chicago on June 5 as we bring Google's highly anticipated annual gathering of business leaders together to hear: Industry experts shed light on emerging business models Customers share stories of business transformation Our product experts unveil new products Our executives answer your questions

Oracle’s Great Suit Against Google to Go to Trial

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 07:30:00 EDT

Monday April 16 is the start of what the judge has called the “World Series of IP cases,” an eight-week trial in which Oracle will seek to prove that APIs are copyrightable and that Google infringed 37 Java APIs when it spun up Android. The trick for Oracle, the judge said, will be convincing a jury that a programming language in the public domain can be infringed. Oracle, on the other hand, will be able to show the jury the now famous 2010 Tim Lindholm e-mail in which the Google engineer flatly told Google’s founders they needed to negotiate a Java license lest they infringe. All the alternatives, he said, “suck.” The judge has previously told Google this e-mail is a hot potato that could burn them.

NTT Data Sets Up Cloud Unit

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 06:00:00 EDT

NTT Data, the service provider, has formed a business unit devoted to cloud services. It will be led by Marv Mouchawar as president and he will report directly to CEO John McCain. Mouchawar and his team will be responsible for the overall strategy, portfolio, sales and delivery of services. NTT Data Cloud Services is supposed to draw on the strengths and resources offered by NTT Data globally and in collaboration with the NTT Group of companies including NTT Communications, NTT DOCOMO and Dimension Data.

Google Atmosphere on Tour in Dallas

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 12:00:00 EDT

The web is fundamentally changing the way we work – is your company ready? Intrigued by how more than 4 million businesses are using Google’s cloud to work in the future? Join us in Dallas on June 7 as we bring Google's highly anticipated annual gathering of business leaders together to hear: Industry experts shed light on emerging business models Customers share stories of business transformation Our product experts unveil new products Our executives answer your questions

Google Atmosphere on Tour in Seattle

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 11:00:00 EDT

The web is fundamentally changing the way we work – is your company ready? Intrigued by how more than 4 million businesses are using Google’s cloud to work in the future? Join us in Seattle on May 15 as we bring Google's highly anticipated annual gathering of business leaders together to hear: Industry experts shed light on emerging business models Customers share stories of business transformation Our product experts unveil new products Our executives answer your questions

Google Atmosphere on Tour in San Francisco

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 10:52:00 EDT

The web is fundamentally changing the way we work – is your company ready? Intrigued by how more than 4 million businesses are using Google’s cloud to work in the future? Join us in San Francisco on May 17 as we bring Google's highly anticipated annual gathering of business leaders together to hear: Industry experts shed light on emerging business models Customers share stories of business transformation Our product experts unveil new products Our executives answer your questions

Google Atmosphere on Tour in Boston

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 10:01:00 EDT

The web is fundamentally changing the way we work – is your company ready? Intrigued by how more than 4 million businesses are using Google’s cloud to work in the future? Join us in Boston on May 3 as we bring Google's highly anticipated annual gathering of business leaders together to hear: Industry experts shed light on emerging business models Customers share stories of business transformation Our product experts unveil new products Our executives answer your questions

Google Atmosphere on Tour in Toronto

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 09:34:00 EDT

The web is fundamentally changing the way we work – is your company ready? Intrigued by how more than 4 million businesses are using Google’s cloud to work in the future? Join us in Toronto on May 1 as we bring Google's highly anticipated annual gathering of business leaders together to hear: Industry experts shed light on emerging business models Customers share stories of business transformation Our product experts unveil new products Our executives answer your questions

Google’s Stock to Split 2 for 1

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 08:45:00 EDT

Rather than pay a cash dividend, which is culturally repugnant to so-called growth stocks, Google said late Thursday, after posting better-than-expected results, that it would repay its stockholders, who must be dizzy from all its up and down movement, by giving them more non-voting stock, effectively a two-for-one stock split. In a letter on the Google web site Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin restated their control over the massive company because they own the only voting stock, which won’t be part of the split. Google has its eye on Apple’s recent unthinkable move to institute a dividend because of its gargantuan cash hoard.

Technology and Managed Services Innovation via the Cloud at Cloud Expo NY

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 08:30:00 EDT

In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Nigel Mackenzie, CTO of Pacific Controls, will discuss how managed services and cloud computing are driving a whole new cycle of systems and technology innovation based on the diverse interactions cloud systems will enable between people, smart devices, systems and enterprise applications. Nigel Mackenzie is CTO of Pacific Controls, one of the leading information and communication technology (ICT) enabled machine-to-machine (M2M) automation and control solutions providers globally. Cloud Expo 2012 New York, June 11–14, 2012, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.

US Court Forbids MMI to Use German Injunction Against Microsoft

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 08:15:00 EDT

A US judge Wednesday told Motorola Mobility it can forget about enforcing the German injunction it expects to get next week that would prevent Microsoft from selling Windows and Xbox in Germany. In a bench ruling the US District Court for the Western District of Washington gave Microsoft a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction stopping it. The German infringement decision, based on a couple of patents essential to the H.264 video codec standard, is expected next Tuesday, April 17. Motorola has asserted those patents against Windows 7, Internet Explorer, the Windows Media Player and Xbox.

NetArt Chooses Open-Xchange to Enter into Cloud Application Business

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 16:00:00 EDT

Open-Xchange, the supplier of business-class email and collaboration software for cloud providers, announced an agreement with NetArt -- a provider of domain name registration and web hosting in Poland -- to bring cloud-based communication and collaboration to more than 500,000 users. NetArt will be offering Open-Xchange webmail on its service, nazwa.pl, providing end users with the most powerful email service available today. At no additional charge, nazwa.pl customers will get modern, easy-to-use integrated email, calendar and contact management. This cloud-based application can be accessed with a standard web browser (without installing software) and a PC, iPad or smartphone.

EC Opens Two Antitrust Investigations of MMI

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 09:00:00 EDT

The European Commission Tuesday formally launched two parallel investigations into the prices Motorola Mobility is demanding for licenses to its standards-essential 2G and 3G wireless patents and Wi-Fi and online compression video patents. The formal investigations [formal as in “we’re already pretty sure where this is gonna come out”] come after both Microsoft and Apple complained that its prices were excessive – if not gouging – as well as anticompetitive when they were supposed to be fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND). For instance MMI wants a very unFRAND $4 billion a year from Microsoft, almost half the sales of its entertainment division last year. Microsoft, which is suing MMI for breach of contract in the states, claims it already licenses similar patents through a consortium and asked the US court to forbid MMI from enforcing an expected German injunction. To play it safe it’s moving its distribution center out of Germany.

Facebook Sues Yahoo Down to Its Drawers

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 07:10:00 EDT

Facebook has countered Yahoo’s patent infringement claims with some patent infringement claims of its own. It’s countersuing the stricken old Internet queen in federal court in Silicon Valley, charging it with infringing 10 of its patents. According to the New York Times it’s enough to cover 80% of Yahoo’s revenues last year. Including display advertising, content personalization and photo sharing, that adds up to $4 billion. Facebook, whose users increased Yahoo’s traffic by 300% in Q4, is ticked that Yahoo would turn on it and bring suit just before it IPOs at a gargantuan $100 billion valuation. It wants the court to rule Yahoo’s broad, if not sometimes vague, fundamental patents invalid. (Unfortunately, perhaps, for Facebook they’re not all vague.) And of course it’s demanding damages.