18 December – Five Stories You Need to Read

[a] patent feud between IBM and Amazon.com took a new twist this week as the e-commerce giant countersued Big Blue for infringement and blasted its earlier accusations as ‘meritless and misleading.’”

MSNBC writes that “[a]n Australian court ruled Monday that a concert promoter cannot block eBay users from selling scalped tickets.”

The Guardian observes that “[f[ashions change fast on the internet and the latest ‘new new’ thing – online social networks – has already become passé if the surprise cancellation of a conference early next year is any indication.”

eWeek.com reports that “[t]he (SFLC) Software Freedom Law Center, a nonprofit organization that provides pro-bono legal services to protect and advance open-source software, filed a brief Dec. 15 with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of Microsoft’s appeal of a software patent decision.”

According to the International Herald Tribune, “Google may dominate Internet search in most of the world, but a surging European market for Internet advertising, combined with demand for locally focused searches, is creating space at the table.”