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High court to hear Microsoft-AT&T patent case

By TIMES WIRES
Published October 28, 2006

The Supreme Court said Friday it would intervene in a patent dispute between giants Microsoft Corp. and AT&T Corp. over Windows programs distributed overseas. An appeals court ruled that Microsoft had infringed on an AT&T patent for a type of speech-coding technology. The outcome could be worth more than $1-billion to Microsoft if the justices find that the lower court ruling improperly extended U.S. patent protections to overseas transactions, said Dennis Crouch, a visiting law professor at Boston University.

No tax refund on bogus properties

HealthSouth Corp. isn't due a refund on property taxes it paid on bogus assets during some years of a huge financial fraud, an Alabama court ruled Friday. The state's Court of Civil Appeals denied the company's request to overturn a decision by a probate judge.

Ticketmaster gets Beijing tickets gig

Ticketmaster said Friday it has entered into a joint venture with a Chinese firm to provide exclusive ticketing services for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, the first step toward expanding into the vast Chinese market. Financial terms of the joint venture, dubbed Beijing Gehua Ticketmaster Ticketing Co. Ltd., were not disclosed.

Absenteeism grows at U.S. companies

Unscheduled absenteeism at U.S. companies and organizations has climbed to its highest level since 1999, according to an annual nationwide survey of human resource executives in U.S. companies and organizations. The survey, conducted for CCH Inc. by the Harris Interactive consulting firm, put the U.S. absenteeism rate at 2.5 percent in 2006, up from 2.3 percent a year ago and the highest since seven years ago, when it was 2.7 percent.

Apple issues fix for troubled laptops

Apple Computer Inc. issued a significant software update it says will keep its newest laptops, the top-selling MacBook and MacBook Pro, from inexplicably shutting down, often resulting in corrupted files or lost work. Thousands of buyers of the machines, which cost $1,100 or more, have had to return them or get them repaired.

The force wasn't with this techie

Grant T. Stanley, 23, a network administrator for Elite Torrents, a peer-to-peer Internet file-sharing system, was sentenced to five months in prison for copyright infringement after Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith was available through Elite Torrents six hours before it debuted in theaters.

[Last modified October 27, 2006, 23:39:51]