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News

• Cisco may call home TelePresence 'UMI'

  Cisco Systems may be planning to give its consumer TelePresence system the friendly sounding name "UMI," according to a trademark application made last year.

• Motorola accuses China's Huawei in theft of secrets

  Motorola has amended a two-year-old industrial spying lawsuit to include competitor Huawei Technologies, which Motorola claims received valuable technology from its own rogue employees.

• Hollywood pushes movie streaming standard, UltraViolet

  The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), a group of 58 Hollywood studios and technology companies, is pinning its hopes for the future of entertainment on UltraViolet, an online digital locker that would allow you to buy a movie once, and stream it over the Internet for free on any other compatible devices.

• Judge refuses to force Dutch ISP to block Pirate Bay

  Dutch anti-piracy foundation Brein has failed in its attempt to force Dutch ISP Ziggo to block access to The Pirate Bay. The famous torrent site will remain accessible for Ziggo subscribers.

• Disagreements on transparency fail to stop ACTA treaty leak

  Disagreements between the European Union and the US over whether to release the current negotiating text of a secretive international copyright treaty became moot this week, with the publication on a French website of a leaked version of the latest draft of the treaty.

• UK royalty society suggests ISPs pay for pirated music

  A U.K. music royalty collection society has suggested charging ISPs for pirated content traded on their networks, as the organization claims piracy will worsen with faster broadband speeds.

• In lawsuit, XPRT says it gave eBay the idea to buy PayPal

  A company called XPRT Ventures has sued eBay for patent infringement, asking the court for US$3.8 billion in damages.

• Judge cuts file-sharing fine to $67,500

  Even after cutting a damages award in a file-sharing case to one-tenth the original sum, a judge said Friday the new fine was still excessive.

• NTP sues smartphone makers Apple, Google and others

  Patent holding company NTP, which received a US$612.5 million settlement from BlackBerry marker Research In Motion in a patent infringement case, has filed patent lawsuits against six makers of smartphones or related software, including Apple and Google.

• SCO appeals ruling in Novell case

  Following a final ruling from a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah in June, SCO Group on Wednesday filed an appeal in its long-running legal battle with Novell.

• US panel to investigate patent complaint against smartphones

  The U.S. International Trade Commission has launched an investigation into patent complaints filed by FlashPoint Technology, which alleges that four smartphone makers have violated three patents related to the digital camera functions in the devices.

• Nokia asks Russia for help retrieving N8 prototype

  Nokia has asked Russian authorities to help retrieve what it says is an unauthorized model of a future phone that a blogger wrote about and photographed on a phone review site.

• Court patent ruling leaves software patents intact

  The U.S. Supreme Court has ducked the question of whether the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) should continue to issue software patents in a ruling Monday striking down a business-method patent.

• US trade panel to investigate S3 complaint against Apple

  The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) has launched a formal investigation into four patent complaints filed against Apple by computer graphics hardware maker S3 Graphics, which asked the agency to block Apple from importing the iPhone, iPad and other products into the U.S.

• Salesforce.com sues Microsoft for patent infringement

  Salesforce.com has sued Microsoft for patent infringement, making a move in response to an intellectual property suit Redmond filed against the on-demand CRM (customer relationship management) vendor last month.