PATENTS
Microsoft fined over patent
A US federal jury on Friday ordered Microsoft to pay US$70 million to French telecom company Alcatel-Lucent in a patent infringement case. Microsoft had been ordered to pay US$358 million to Alcatel-Lucent by a different court, but the damages award was thrown out on appeal. The appeals court upheld the lower court’s ruling that Microsoft had infringed a patent involved with selecting the date in Outlook and other programs, but asked for a recalculation of the damages in the case. Alcatel-Lucent, then known only as Lucent, filed a 15-patent suit in 2003 against computer makers Dell and Gateway for allegedly selling machines with Microsoft software that used Lucent technology without permission.
INTERNET
US$500 offered for bugs
Facebook began offering rewards of US$500 or more on Friday to security researchers who identify vulnerabilities in the social network. “To show our appreciation for our security researchers, we offer a monetary bounty for certain qualifying security bugs,” Facebook said in a blog post. Security researchers who are the “first person to responsibly disclose” a bug that could “compromise the integrity or privacy of Facebook user data” would be eligible for a bounty of US$500, Facebook said. Facebook last month hired George Hotz, a celebrated hacker known as “GeoHot,” but has not disclosed what he is doing for the company. Hotz was sued by Sony for hacking the Japanese company’s PlayStation 3 game console and is credited with being the first person to go public with a way to hack into an iPhone.
BANKING
Shareholders sue BOA
Bank of America Corp (BOA) is facing a new lawsuit filed by a group of shareholders of mortgage giant Countrywide Financial Corp, which the bank bought in 2008. The group of investors, which include BlackRock funds, T. Rowe Price Group Inc, TIAA-CREF and several pension funds including the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, had earlier rejected a US$624 million settlement struck last year, saying the terms were inadequate. The lawsuit accused Countrywide of misleading shareholders about its finances and lending practices. Blair Nicholas, a partner at the law firm Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann, representing the investors said they will present their claims before a jury. Bank of America spokesman Lawrence Grayson said: “We intend to vigorously defend these claims.”
PROPERTIES
Prices set to rocket
Indian farmers could get six times more cash for their land under a new land acquisition bill aimed at accelerating industrial development in Asia’s third-largest economy. The bill is seen as key to defusing long-standing tensions over land purchases, a politically charged issue that has delayed mega-projects, such as a South Korean firm’s planned US$12 billion steel plant to be built in the east of the country. Industrialization has been touted by economists as a way to create faster growth and pull hundreds of millions out of poverty. However, acquiring land for factories, roads, housing and other projects has created battlegrounds across traditionally agrarian India. The legislation aims to “balance the need for facilitating land acquisition” for infrastructure, industrialization and other development while “addressing the concerns” of farmers, a government statement late on Friday said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last