Google loses appeal of Microsoft case
WASHINGTON - Google’s Motorola Mobility unit lost an appeals-court bid to invalidate a Microsoft patent used to win a ban on U.S. imports on some mobile phones.
Motorola Mobility failed to prove the technology covered by Microsoft’s patent was previously used in Apple Inc.’s failed Newton personal digital assistant of the 1990s, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington said in an opinion posted on its website last week.
Motorola Mobility conceded it infringed the patent, pinning its arguments on claims the invention wasn’t new.
The patent, which covers a way mobile devices synchronize calendars with computers, is part of Microsoft’s ActiveSync software that Motorola Mobility licensed before the two companies started fighting. Microsoft has also sued U.S. officials, claiming the import ban isn’t being enforced.
The case is part of a broader argument by Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft that Google’s market-dominant Android mobile-phone operating system uses its technology. Motorola Mobility, which was acquired by Mountain View, Calif.-based Google in 2012, is one of the biggest holdouts from an Android licensing program that Microsoft started three years ago.
Google’s Android operating system is the most popular platform for smartphones, with 81 percent of the global market in the third quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Motorola Mobility’s handset sales don’t rank in the top 10. Microsoft’s operating system, used with Nokia Oyj’s Lumia phones, had 3.7 percent of the market.
Facebook grabs No. 2 spot in online ads
Facebook Inc. is now the No. 2 seller of online advertisements after Google Inc., researcher EMarketer Inc.
said.
The world’s largest social-networking service is on track to take in $3.17 billion, or 7.4 percent, of U.S. digital ad spending this year, while Google will account for $17 billion, or 40 percent, EMarketer said in a blog post Thursday. Facebook was fourth behind Google, Yahoo!
Inc. and Microsoft Corp. in 2012.
Facebook is stepping up its ad efforts, generating half its revenue from mobile and testing video promotions that play automatically in users’ news feeds. Instagram, which Facebook bought for more than $700 million last year, is also rolling out ads on its photo-sharing service.
Facebook and its rivals are battling for a share of a digitalad market that’s projected to grow 25 percent to $53.4 billion in the U.S. in 2015.
“Facebook and Google are both major drivers and recipients of this growing market, domestically and internationally,” EMarketer said. Both companies are also the top two ad publishers globally, the researcher said.
Mobile ad spending will account for 23 percent of digital-ad spending this year, up from 12 percent in 2012, New York-based EMarketer said.
Instagram’s first four ad campaigns are beginning to reach large audiences, the Facebook unit said in a blog post last week. Levi Strauss & Co. reached 7.4 million people in the U.S. in nine days, while Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc. reached 9.8 million people in eight days. Of the people who saw a promotion for the Scotchy Scotch Scotch-flavored ice cream, 17 percent became aware of the product and connected it with the company, according to Instagram.
- Bloomberg News
Samsung, LG to unveil bigger curved TVs
SEOUL, South Korea - Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. said their curved TVs will get bigger and sport four times the sharpness of regular HD television sets.
The world’s two largest TV makers will display ultra-HD TVs with curved screens that measure 105 inches diagonally in Las Vegas next month, they said in separate statements Thursday.
The South Korean TV makers began selling curved TV sets earlier this year made with advanced displays called OLED. The units measured 55 inches.
The premium TV sets will be made of LCD panels packing more than 11 million pixels, 5,120 pixels wide and 2,160 pixels high. But not much video content is available for the ultra-HD sets.
TV makers hope the launch of the new hardware technology will fuel content growth. Japan’s Sony Corp., among the industry players betting that the ultra-HD images will become the new standard, is working on both gadgets and movies in ultra-HD, also known in the industry as 4K.
Asian TV makers are trying to excite shoppers with new display technology. Samsung and LG didn’t reveal prices for the new TVs.
Business, Pages 22 on 12/23/2013