ITC to Review Kodak's Patent Case Against Apple, RIM

Eastman Kodak Co. won the latest round in its patent dispute with Apple Inc. and Research In Motion Ltd., a victory with the potential to generate more than $1 billion in new licensing revenue for the camera company. Kodak rose as much as 25 percent in late trading after the U.S. International Trade Commission said it will review a judge’s findings from January that Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s BlackBerry don’t violate Kodak’s patent on a way to preview digital images using less processing power and storage space.

China's Baidu Says It Will Limit Piracy

Chinese online-search provider Baidu Inc. said it plans to start using new copyright-recognition technology on its online document-sharing platform in May to prevent sharing of pirated content. The company has been at odds with the music industry for years over an MP3 search service that includes links to unlicensed copies of songs available for free download.

EU Adviser Recommends Limits on Keyword Ads

An adviser to the highest European Union court recommended that some restrictions be placed on the rights of advertisers to use the names of rivals as keywords to generate sponsored links on Internet search engines. If the court goes along with the opinion, the decision could make some advertisers more cautious in their purchase of the search ads on Google, one of the fastest-growing areas of marketing in recent years, analysts said.

Stolen Digital Certificates Linked to Iranian Government

A malicious attacker that appears to be the Iranian government managed to obtain supposedly secure digital certificates that can be used to impersonate Google, Yahoo, Skype, and other major Web sites, the security company affected by the breach said. Comodo, a Jersey City, N.J.-based firm that issues digital certificates, said the nine certificates were fraudulently obtained, including one for Microsoft's Live.com, have already been revoked.

Apple Wants Adult "App Store" to Change Name

Apple has fired another legal salvo over the use of the term "app store," this one targeted at adult app store MiKandi. In an interview with GeekWire, fellow MiKandi co-founder Jesse Adams said that Apple specifically asked the company to stop billing itself as the "world's first app store for adults" and to stop using the term "app store" in describing its own free Android app.

Senators Want to Stop Drunk-Driving Checkpoint Apps

Four Democratic senators want to short-circuit software applications that allow drivers to identify police drunken-driving checkpoints. In a letter, the senators asked Apple, Google and Blackberry to either disable or quit selling downloadable applications that allow iPhone and iPad, Blackberry and Android operating systems to identify locations of local police DUI crackdowns.

U.S. Infrastructure Computers Called Vulnerable

Just as the computers that ran Iran's nuclear program were sabotaged and crippled by a cyber "super worm" virus, the software used to run much of America's industrial, transportation and power infrastructure -- including nuclear power plants and major airports -- is vulnerable to cyber attack, and two software companies have revealed dozens of successful hacks to prove it. The issue lies in specialized software systems sold by Siemens, Iconics, 7-Technologies and others to power plants and other infrastructure.

Judge Allows Deposition of Steve Jobs in Antitrust Suit

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs, who is out on medical leave, has been ordered by a federal judge to answer questions from plaintiffs' lawyers in an antitrust lawsuit related to his company's iTunes business. Judge Howard Lloyd of U.S. District Court for Northern California ruled that lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the suit may question Jobs for a total of two hours.

German Court Calls Google Street View Legal

A Berlin court has ruled, according to Deutsche Welle, that it's legal for Google to take the street-level pictures, striking down a lawsuit brought on by a German woman who sued Google over Street View and cited privacy and property rights. The case is complicated, because the woman who sued did so out of the possibility that her privacy might be invaded -- e.g. if Google Street View happened to take photos of the front of her house, and that the camera on top of the Google Street View vehicle would see over the hedge in front of it.

Microsoft Files Patent Suit Over Nook E-Reader

Microsoft Corp. filed legal actions against Barnes & Noble Inc. and two device manufacturers for alleged patent infringement by their Android-based e-reader and tablet devices that are marketed under the bookseller's brand. The patents at issue cover "a range of functionality embodied in Android devices that are essential to the user experience," according to Microsoft.

Goldman Sachs Programmer Sentenced for Stealing Code

A former Goldman Sachs Group computer programer was sentenced to eight years in prison for stealing secret code used in the Wall Street bank's valuable high-frequency trading system. Sergey Aleynikov, was arrested by the FBI and charged in July 2009 with copying and removing trading code from Goldman before taking a new job at Teza Technologies LLC, a high-frequency trading startup firm in Chicago.

Japanese Disaster Prompts Warning of Online Scams

Security researchers say that hackers are using the unfolding disaster in Japan by appealing to people’s sense of altruism -- or, in some cases, voyeurism -- by sending spam email that contain links laden with malicious code. Some of the links are supposed to be of footage of the earthquake or tsunami, some purport to be from relief organizations, while others claim that recipients have inherited $12 million from victims in Japan.

The GigaLaw Firm helps companies of all sizes protect their brands online, using domain name dispute policies – such as the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) – and other legal tools available to copyright and trademark owners on the Internet.