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The Morning Briefing: Patent politics

"The Morning Briefing" is SmartPlanet's daily roundup of must-reads from the web. This morning we're reading about patent sales and court cases.
Written by Charlie Osborne, Contributing Writer

"The Morning Briefing" is SmartPlanet's daily roundup of must-reads from the web. This morning we're reading about patent sales and court cases.

1.) Facebook buys AOL Patents from Microsoft for $550 million. Facebook Inc., awaiting a landmark initial public offering, is shelling out $550 million to shore up its patent arsenal amid escalating tensions in a legal dispute with Yahoo Inc. The social network struck a deal with Microsoft Corp. to buy 650 patents.

2.) Newly revived patent gives Oracle extra ammunition in Google trial. When Oracle sued Google for patent and copyright infringement in 2010, it accused the maker of Android of violating seven patents covering Java technology. Five of the seven patents were dropped from the case. Now, Oracle informed the court that the USPTO has granted Oracle's request to reverse the invalidation of patent #5,966,702.

3.) Apple sued in California over Touch patent. Apple products using touch technology infringe on a patent owned by the Pennsylvanian company FlatWorld Interactives, the company alleged in court documents filed on Friday. FlatWorld asked for a permanent injunction that Apple stop infringing, and for sufficient compensation for the infringements, the company's attorneys said.

4.) Nokia, Harley-Davidson, Disney, Apple: Intellectual property. An examination of the latest patent rulings and exchanges within major corporations.

5.) Sony wants MMO players to meet each other in real life. Sony has applied for a strange little patent that streamlines the process via which online friends in an MMO can meet up in the real world and become real friends.

Bonus: Regulus receives allowance from Japan and U.S. patent offices for HCV intellectual property

Bonus: Rosetta Genomics receives key U.S. patent allowance

Image credit: Zhao

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