Business Center Blogs

Toronto-based i4i LP has emerged victorious once again in its ongoing patent battle against Microsoft. An appeals court has upheld the earlier judgment and has imposed a deadline of January 11, 2010 for Microsoft to either modify Word to remove the patented technology or cease selling Microsoft Word.

The trio of judges on the appeals court panel stated "A small company was practicing its patent, only to suffer a loss of market share, brand recognition, and customer goodwill as the result of the defendant's infringing acts," adding "The district court found that Microsoft captured 80 percent of the custom XML market with its infringing Word products, forcing i4i to change its business strategy."

The rumors that Google might purchase Yelp for over half a billion dollars have been replaced by new rumors that the alleged deal is dead. If that is true, it is very unfortunate because the two complement each other in ways that no other acquisition or partnership can match.

The buzz all weekend was that Google was close to a deal to acquire Yelp--a site that allows users to review local businesses. As of today, the deal has unraveled with a sort of "he said, she said" scenario about which party broke things off, and with little explanation of why.

A University of Utah study tells us something we should already know: That texting while driving is six times more dangerous than talking on a handset while driving.This is a message that has eluded many, but we can help.

I keep seeing people who are texting while driving during the workday in vehicles with company names painted on them. So, it must be time for a safety reminder, one I hope our always safety-first PCW Business Center readers will share around the office.

Way, way, way too much is being made of the supposed impact Intel's new Atom N450 chip will have on the netbook and, by extension, laptop markets.

This chip, though 60 percent smaller and 20 percent lighter--like we'll notice--remains hampered by a slow 1.66 GHz. clock speed and all the other constraints implicit in the word "netbook."

HP did a good job responding to complaints by a black man that its computers "are racist" because the included PC facial recognition software did not follow his face properly.

The statement was made in a YouTube video posted on Dec. 10 that went viral over the weekend, attracting newly 100,000 views.

It is unhappy news that Google won't be purchasing Yelp. It was a natural in terms of things Google should be doing, especially in helping small local businesses promote themselves.

The $550 million deal, which lived and died over the weekend, would have also made Google more of a one-stop for local businesses, who often don't know where to invest their small promotion budgets. It also might have moved the reviews social network away from advertising sales that have challenged its credibility.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Apple could build its entire iPhone strategy on this one Arabian proverb. The combination of the rising smartphone stake held by the iPhone, and Microsoft's dominant position among enterprise communications and productivity applications could create a whole greater than the sum of its parts.

What can other businesses learn from the Nook's tale of woe, as Barnes & Noble says some unlucky e-reader customers won't get their units before Christmas as promised?

First, that screwing up--even if demand for a new product from a new player is hard to predict--is painful-to-humilating. Made worse because the Nook was supposed to be a hot holiday seller. Surely, B&N could have done a better job of predicting demand, but with no consumer electronics experience the Nook is new territory.

Businesses considering Android as a corporate handset standard should consider the decision carefully, because it may prove hard to justify later on.

Recent reports that Google's handset operating system is gaining momentum are a bit troubling, for there are still many reasons to recommend against it for businesses users.

Intel unveiled a trio of new Atom processors and a new chipset today. The new Intel chips will enable hardware vendors to create smaller, cooler, more power efficient netbooks and nettops (the desktop equivalent of a netbook).

The three Atom processors include Intel's integrated graphics functionality in the CPU, as well as the memory controller functionality, which eliminates the need for one of the two chips that make up the traditional motherboard chipset. The new Atom CPU's are 60 percent smaller than their predecessors, and consume 20 percent less power--50 percent for the nettops processors.