Friday - June 14, 2013
In a hotly contested case, the Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously decided that some of Myriad Genetics' patent claims were invalid for claiming products of nature. However, the Court also held that other Myriad patent claims were perfectly valid. In short, Myriad discovered the location and DNA sequence listing for two human genes that pertain to breast and ovarian cancer -- i.e., it isolated the genes from the surrounding genetic material. This effort was considerable, and Myriad obtained a variety of patents on this discovery.
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Friday - June 14, 2013
Verizon is on the hot seat. It is at the center of the story about releasing customer information to the NSA. While Verizon does make information about every call available to the agency, the actual conversation is still private -- for now, at least. To date, Verizon has been quiet as the argument rages. Is quiet what you expect from the PR department of any company caught in such a storm?
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Thursday - June 13, 2013
Time Warner Cable appears to have come up with a strategy to help stem the flow of cord-cutters: offering incentives to content providers to withhold certain properties from online entertainment platforms. Limited distribution is clearly an entrenched practice in the entertainment industry, but it seems TWC is trying to keep some content off the Internet permanently.
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Thursday - June 13, 2013
Former Palm CEO and webOS creator Jon Rubinstein is apparently still brooding over Palm's acquisition by HP. Two years later, he looks back at what HP did with webOS -- or rather what it didn't do -- and he is very disappointed, he said in a recent interview. When HP acquired Palm for $1.2 billion in 2010, it did indeed look as though webOS was destined for great things.
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Thursday - June 13, 2013
In an effort to manage acquisition fees, Pandora Radio has acquired a terrestrial radio station based in Rapid City, S.D. The move enables Pandora to be subject to licensing fees and royalties for broadcast radio stations rather than streaming stations. Internet radio services such as Pandora, Spotify, Rhapsody and Last.fm have struggled for years to balance acquisition costs with revenues.
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Thursday - June 13, 2013
Comcast's new set-top box software opens a window into how cable TV companies hope to retain customers tempted to move their eyeballs to online-only alternatives. Comcast X2 blends cable offerings like on-demand movies, program guides and digital video recording with online-only content and social media. It's an example of where the cable industry is going with its services.
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Wednesday - June 12, 2013
Google has finalized its acquisition of Waze, developer of a crowdsourced mapping app, with the goal of expanding its location-based and social maps offerings while providing users with a way to outsmart traffic. Waze has a worldwide user base of about 50 million people who log in to access or submit real-time navigational data. Google reportedly paid about $1.3 billion for the startup.
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Wednesday - June 12, 2013
Major IT companies want to seize the moment in an effort to restrain what they consider to be an abuse of intellectual property rights by so-called patent trolls. In a recent flurry of activity, lawmakers and the Obama administration have taken steps to support large IT companies seeking patent claim reforms. The big IT companies claim that current law overwhelmingly favors the patent trolls.
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Tuesday - June 11, 2013
Comcast is rolling out a neighborhood WiFi initiative designed to allow its Xfinity Internet subscribers to log in to nearby wireless hotspots outside of their home. Subscribers to the service will essentially be the hosts for two separate WiFi networks. One will be their private, secure home connection. The other signal, which Comcast would provide for free, would serve as a neighborhood signal.
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Tuesday - June 11, 2013
Softbank and Sprint late Monday announced changes to the merger agreement awaiting shareholders' approval. The new deal increases the amount of cash that would go to stockholders by reallocating funds that had been earmarked for direct investment in Sprint. SoftBank will acquire shares from current Sprint shareholders for $7.65, up from the $7.30 per share in the original bid.
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Monday - June 10, 2013
Samsung stockholders went scurrying for the exit on Friday when a research note from J.P. Morgan predicted that third-quarter shipments of the Galaxy S4 would be disappointing. The company lost about $12 billion in market value that day and edged further down on Monday. Other investment firms have also either downgraded the company's ratings or commented on its diminished prospects in recent days.
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Monday - June 10, 2013
Much has been said of the opportunities that lie in emerging retail markets, especially in countries or regions that have been less affected by recession. For many Western companies, however, a lack of confidence and basic local knowledge is stifling opportunity for international expansion. There are two key markets that I consider to be low-hanging fruit for U.S. merchants: Russia and China.
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Saturday - June 8, 2013
Facebook will simplify its advertising structure in an effort to make it easier for marketers to determine which products will help them best reach consumers, the company announced this week. Advertisers currently face a choice of 27 different formats on the social network, but the streamlining effort will cut that back to fewer than half that number.
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Friday - June 7, 2013
Homing in on consumers' frustration with the escalating costs of wireless services, FreedomPop this week announced a mobile plan that offers voice, text and data -- for free. The FreedomPop service utilizes mobile VoIP on Sprint's cellular network. The company will offer a number of Android phones for purchase, or subscribers can use their own compatible phones.
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