intellectual property

Now that the U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that abstract processes, or business methods, cannot be patented, it's important to look at how this could affect the tech industry.

The case in question was rejected because the patent at issue was a process not tied to a "machine," which is one standard for patentability.

Overall, it seems like a ruling that should favor companies that make hardware and software because while it narrows the types of patents that can be filed, in return should protect them from the frivolous patent suits that have flooded the … Read more

Intel said Tuesday that solid-state drives can extend battery life up to 30 minutes compared to hard disk drives.

Add the speed advantage of solid state drives and that's two strikes against hard disks. Price parity--strike three--is still a ways off, however. That--and the fact that hard drives offer much larger capacities--will keep hard drives competitive next year.

For now, Intel is evangelizing the benefits of speed and power efficiency.

Most independent benchmarks show that solid state drives perform better than hard disk drives. In some cases, a lot better. That's a given now. One area, however, that … Read more

Updated at 11:15 a.m. PDT to include new information.

Google will be paying authors and publishers $125 million as part of a settlement agreement that resolves a suit against its Google Book Search initiative, the Authors Guild and a group of publishers announced Tuesday.

The settlement enables authors and publishers to receive compensation for online access to their works.

Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild, called the settlement "the biggest book deal in U.S. publishing history."

Google is digitizing the works from many major libraries, including the New York Public Library and the … Read more

Until Monday, Sen. Ted Stevens was best known in technology circles for his "series of tubes" analogy. Now he'll be known for his jury conviction on corruption charges.

A federal jury in Washington, D.C., convicted the Alaska Republican of all seven charges of accepting gifts and home renovations from a wealthy oil contractor and then lying about them on official documents.

Stevens is running for re-election next week. Because it's too late for the Republican Party to remove his name from the ballot and because it's not terribly likely that Alaskans will vote for … Read more

Updated on October 24 at 10:20 a.m. with corrected image of Intel laminar jet technology.

Intel wants a laptop to live up to its name.

A computer that sits comfortably, coolly on your lap. The world's largest chipmaker expects a crush of ultrathin laptops from PC makers in 2009 and unveiled cooling technology this week to make sure these svelte air-flow constrained designs stay cool.

To date, cooling technology has focused on keeping the internal components from getting too hot but not the outside of the computer, according to Mooly Eden, general manager of Intel's Mobile … Read more

Updated at 11:40 p.m. with SanDisk response to Samsung letter.

Samsung on Tuesday withdrew its $5.85 billion bid for SanDisk, citing an increasing "risk profile."

This follows a new manufacturing agreement between SanDisk and Toshiba disclosed Monday and a stiff rejection by SanDisk last month of the Samsung offer.

"After nearly six months of efforts to pursue a transaction with no meaningful progress, we are withdrawing our proposal to acquire SanDisk," Yoon Woo Lee, vice chairman and CEO at Samsung Electronics, said in a letter that Samsung released Wednesday in Seoul.

"I … Read more

SanDisk said it is still "open" to a Samsung buyout offer and hinted at more restructuring to come, as the largest supplier of retail flash memory cards reported a third-quarter 2008 net loss of $155 million on Monday.

The loss was significantly worse than the net income of $85 million reported in the third quarter of 2007. SanDisk and other flash memory chip suppliers have been hit by a steep price decline in flash.

Operating loss, on a GAAP basis, was $250 million, compared to GAAP operating income of $109 million, in the third quarter of 2007.

The … Read more

Toshiba and SanDisk announced Monday that their joint flash memory-manufacturing ventures are being restructured. As a result, Toshiba will gain a larger ownership stake, while SanDisk will reduce costs.

SanDisk said it has entered a nonbinding memorandum of understanding with Toshiba to sell approximately 30 percent of the current manufacturing capacity of the parties' joint ventures to Toshiba. "The move will significantly reduce SanDisk's capital spending, further strengthen its balance sheet, and reduce NAND flash memory production commitments," the company said.

SanDisk said it expects to receive cash and reduce equipment lease obligations by approximately $1 billion … Read more

The magazine-sharing Web site Mygazines.com has shut down, just weeks after it was compelled by a lawsuit to remove the free digital copies of the popular copyrighted magazines it offered users.

The site, which was launched in July, provided users with free, uploadable copies of many popular magazines like People, Esquire, and Allure. Users of the site could comment on the magazines or articles, leave ratings, and use articles to create their own "custom" magazines.

Mygazines quickly drew the ire of publishers, and a group including Time Inc., Hearst, and Newsweek, filed suit in a New York … Read more