Nancy Weil

Microsoft Corp. infringed an AT&T Corp. patent for speech-coding technology in its distribution of a master version of the Windows operating system outside of the U.S. for replication abroad, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled Wednesday, concluding the final issue remaining from a 2001 lawsuit.

Novell Inc. is opening code from NetMail as part of a project to create an open source collaboration server, company Chairman and CEO Jack Messman said Tuesday during a keynote at the LinuxWorld trade show. Novell also plans to expand its presence in the data center and release more Linux products for companies with a goal to "harden" the open source operating system for corporate use. "CIOs want to simplify and streamline IT," Messman said.

The U.S. should close tax loopholes that provide incentives to companies that want to ship jobs to other countries and provide its military with the most advanced technology, while also focusing on security and improving the health-care system, U.S. Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry said Thursday night in a wide-ranging speech accepting his party's nomination.

Oracle Corp. and Red Hat Inc. are opening a Linux Enterprise Applications Porting Center in Singapore as a regional hub to help ISVs (independent software vendors) and system integrators in Asia Pacific.

Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) plans to sample a wireless product built with its 65-nanometer semiconductor manufacturing process technology in the first quarter of next year, the Dallas-based company said Monday.

A female systems programmer has filed suit against Oracle Corp., alleging that she was repeatedly sexually assaulted, harassed and discriminated against by her former male supervisor and the company did nothing to help or protect her after she reported him.

Microsoft Corp. will pay AOL Time Warner Inc. (AOLTW) US$750 million to settle a private antitrust suit filed on behalf of Netscape Communications Corp. by America Online Inc. in January 2002, the companies announced Thursday.

Two new specifications related to message delivery for interoperable Web services applications were published Thursday, along with a high-level white paper produced by IBM Corp. and Microsoft Corp.