A coalition of technology companies large and small has created a sort of arms-control treaty to prevent future abuses of their intellectual property. Among Google, Canon, SAP, Newegg, Dropbox and Asana, there are nearly 300,000 patent assets on the line. But the companies aren’t licensing all of each others’ patents today. Instead, by agreeing to join the License on Transfer network, they promise to grant licenses to one another whenever one of those patents is sold.
The man accused of creating Silk Road, which U.S. authorities said was an online drug marketplace, lost his bid to dismiss a federal indictment accusing him of conspiring to deal illegal narcotics and launder money. Ross Ulbricht, who prosecutors said was known online as "Dread Pirate Roberts," had claimed he did not conspire with Silk Road users who might have broken the law by completing transactions on the now-defunct website, using the digital currency bitcoin.
Microsoft Corp has dropped a lawsuit against Vitalwerks Internet Solutions that alleged the privately held Web services firm failed to take proper steps to prevent its systems from being abused by cybercriminals. The two companies said they had settled the lawsuit,which was announced by Microsoft on June 30 as it launched an operation to wrest control over infected PCs from cybercriminals.
European Union antitrust officials have started questioning rival firms about Facebook Inc.'s proposed $19 billion acquisition of messaging service WhatsApp, ahead of a formal review that could be a test case for how to apply EU competition law to the new world of social media. Officials at the European Commission, the EU's central competition authority, have in recent weeks sent detailed questionnaires to several technology and online-messaging companies, asking about the merger's effect on competition in their markets, according to people familiar with the matter.
Apple has failed in its attempt to get a Chinese company's voice-recognition patent ruled invalid. The verdict threatens Apple's ability to offer its voice-controlled virtual assistant, Siri, in the country.
Apple leaped into action after the Federal Trade Commission cracked down on iPhone and iPad apps that let kids spend their parents’ money without permission. Not even a week after the news broke in January, the company’s top lawyer quietly took aim -- at a competitor.
The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee approved a bill to encourage companies to exchange information with the government on hacking attempts and cybersecurity threats, officials said. Despite concerns by some that the measure does not do enough to protect privacy, the committee voted 12-3 to advance the measure authored by its chairwoman, Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, and Vice Chairman Saxby Chambliss, a Georgia Republican, their offices said.
Uber Technologies Inc, a car service that allows users to summon a ride on their smartphone, has agreed to cap prices during emergencies and natural disasters in New York state to prevent price gouging, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced. The company also agreed to announce a national policy to limit pricing in emergencies, Schneiderman said in a news release.
Federal prosecutors are using mob-busting tactics to catch and disrupt online crooks, applying a law written to dismantle Mafia families to pursue loose affiliations of thieves scattered around the world. The capacity of hackers and thieves to steal millions of dollars -- in part through online marketplaces on which they can trade stolen credit-card numbers -- is prompting concern among prosecutors.
Middle East experts at major U.S. think tanks were hacked by Chinese cyberspies in recent weeks as events in Iraq began to escalate, according to a cybersecurity firm that works with the institutions. The group behind the breaches, called "DEEP PANDA" by security researchers, appears to be affiliated with the Chinese government, says Dmitri Alperovitch, chief technology officer of the firm CrowdStrike.
A sophisticated group of hackers believed to be associated with the Chinese government, who for years targeted U.S experts on Asian geopolitical matters, suddenly began breaching computers of experts on Iraq as the rebellion there escalated, a security firm said. CrowdStrike Inc said that the group is one of the most sophisticated of the 30 it tracks in China and that its operations are better hidden than many attributed to military and other government units.
The big data breaches make headlines -- such as the millions of consumers whose financial secrets were exposed by the Target hack and the Heartbleed software bug. But for every high-profile case, there are dozens of threats to confidential data held by everyday enterprises: wine shops, dentist offices, colleges, gay and lesbian community centers, makers of dog tags, defense electronics, sports gear.
It's been nearly seven weeks since Ann Arbor City Attorney Kristen Larcom sent cease and desist letters to the then-newly launched rideshare services Uber and Lyft, demanding that the companies immediately put an end to their Ann Arbor operations. However, both companies have stuck to their word and continued to provide their services in and around the city -- and officials are reaching out to both to learn more about the businesses as they consider an ordinance that would require the drivers to register with the city.
Microsoft Corp., the world’s biggest software maker, is among companies embroiled in a European Union inquiry into Luxembourg’s tax treatment of multinational firms, according to three people familiar with the EU’s review. The European Commission has quizzed Luxembourg about how it taxes Microsoft’s intellectual property, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.
U.S. authorities have arrested a Russian man accused of hacking into American retailers' computer systems to steal credit card data from 2009 to 2011, officials said. The Secret Service arrested Roman Valerevich Seleznev, 30, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
A leading privacy group filed a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission over a 2012 study in which Facebook manipulated the news feeds of nearly 700,000 users of the social network to see what effect the changes would have on their emotions. The group, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said Facebook had deceived its users and violated the terms of a 2012 consent decree with the FTC, which is the principal regulatory agency overseeing consumer privacy in the United States.
Europe should update its laws to reflect the rise of digital currencies, the head of a bitcoin start-up said, after a successful U.S. auction of bitcoins was seen as a sign of their broadening appeal. "One of the challenges is that without clear guidance from the EU, from the UK, it will limit industry development," said Jeremy Allaire, head of Circle, a bitcoin consumer finance company that allows people to use and store bitcoins online. Read the article: Reuters
Google Inc. reversed its decision to remove several links to stories in Britain's Guardian newspaper, underscoring the difficulty the search engine is having implementing Europe's "right to be forgotten" ruling. The Guardian protested the removal of its stories describing how a soccer referee lied about reversing a penalty decision.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc said a contractor emailed confidential client data to a stranger's Gmail account by mistake, and the bank has asked a U.S. judge to order Google Inc to delete the email to avert a "needless and massive" breach of privacy. The breach occurred on June 23 and included "highly confidential brokerage account information," Goldman said in a complaint filed in a New York state court in Manhattan.
Amazon.com Inc is fighting U.S. regulators' demands that it pay a penalty over its policies on purchases made by children on smartphone applications, according to documents seen by Reuters. Amazon, the largest U.S. online retailer, faces a potential lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission, which wants the company to enter into a settlement similar to the one reached with rival Apple Inc in January.
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