Patents | featured news

Yahoo returned legal fire against Facebook in the companies' ongoing patent dispute, calling Facebook's recent countersuit slapdash and asserting two new patents against its younger peer.

Facebook is paying $550 million to Microsoft for some of the patents the software giant recently bought from AOL, as the social network beefs up its patent defenses ahead of its IPO.

Faltering Internet icon AOL was able to squeeze out more than $1 billion from Microsoft for a trove of some 800 patents in an auction, the latest sign of just how valuable such portfolios can be for the world's biggest technology companies.

Facebook has purchased hundreds of IBM patents in a bid to bolster its intellectual-property standing as it squares off against Yahoo in a high-profile infringement lawsuit.

Yahoo Inc sued Facebook Inc on Monday over 10 patents that include methods and systems for advertising on the Web, according to a copy of the lawsuit.

Yahoo has demanded licensing fees from Facebook for use of its technology, the companies said on Monday, potentially engulfing social media in the patent battles and lawsuits raging across much of the tech sector.

Taiwanese handset maker HTC Corp narrowly lost a patent battle with Apple Inc on Wednesday, as the International Trade Commission found that HTC had infringed on one of Apple's patents.

Motorola Mobility can try to force Apple to remove its products from Germany's stores after winning a patent case against the iPhone-maker.

A German patent owner has ordered HTC to halt sales of its devices in Germany, but the mobile phone maker says the claim is "invalid".

Samsung filed a countersuit against Apple in Australia, alleging iPhone smartphones and the iPad 2 violate multiple wireless-technology patents it holds.