John Blau

Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson and Sun Microsystems Inc. have agreed to extend their collaboration to the development of an integrated multitasking Java technology, the companies said. The multitasking technology will allow mobile phones to perform more than one application at a time, while opening the door to other new applications

Some top U.S. talent in the area of business software development is shifting to SAP AG as the German software company moves to lure senior executives away from key rivals.

Club Internet, the French subsidiary of Germany's T-Online International AG, has agreed to pilot IPTV (Internet Protocol television) services based on a software platform designed by Microsoft Corp., the companies announced Tuesday.

Germany has taken a big step in the battle against organized crime and terrorism by unveiling a new passport with a chip that contains biometric data. The country plans to be among the first in Europe to issue biometric passes, starting Nov. 1.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is suggesting some safeguards to stop cybersquatters from grabbing trademark-protected names under new generic Internet domain names.

Spam may be a global problem but it's hurting Net users in developing countries more than their counterparts in industrialized nations, according to a new report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. Numerous underdeveloped countries, especially in Africa and Asia, lack the knowledge, technology and money to effectively combat the growing flow of junk e-mail over their domestic communication networks.

German chip maker Infineon Technologies AG has spun off a design software unit into a new company that will be majority owned by an international investment group. The Circuit Verification Environment (CVE) unit, which is responsible for testing circuits and plays a role in the design of new chips, will form the basis of a new company called OneSpin Solutions GmbH. OneSpin will begin operations with a staff of 25 in Munich.

Several big-name companies, including Adobe Systems Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. and Intel Corp., have agreed to embrace SAP AG's new service-oriented architecture (SOA) platform, the German business applications vendor is expected to announce Wednesday at its Sapphire user event in Boston. The deals follow separate agreements reached last month with IBM Corp., Macromedia Inc. and Microsoft Corp.