Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Corp. co-founder Paul Allen is suing Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and nine other companies indirectly through his firm Interval (NSDQ: IILG) Licensing alleging that the technology giants are violating patents developed at a lab in Silicon Valley that he financed more than a decade ago,…

Some of the stories people are talking about this morning:»  Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) is warning Hollywood movie studios about something they likely expected all along: the company is preparing to file for bankruptcy in the middle of next month. [LATimes] »  Newsweek is losing another top editor: Mark Miller, who…

Some of the stories people are talking about this morning:»  Former US Weekly editor Janice Min is spicing up The Hollywood Reporter—but is the venerable trade mag getting too gossipy? [The Wrap] »  Ad prices for Conan O’Brien’s new TV talk show on Turner are pretty close to what a…

Digital Chocolate, the game company started by Electronic Arts (NSDQ: ERTS) founder Trip Hawkins, is suing Zynga over the title of Zynga’s hit Facebook game Mafia Wars. Digital Chocolate has its own mobile game called Mafia Wars and wants Zynga to stop using that tile.

Pink Floyd, which was fighting EMI in court to have only its full albums sold online, has now seen most of its material pulled offline anyway, after its EMI contract expired. Billboard says the contract expired on June 30.

A mid-level Apple employee has been arrested for selling information to iPhone and iPod suppliers in Asia that enabled them to negotiate more favorable contracts with Apple (NSDQ: AAPL). The San Jose Mercury News reports that Paul Shin Devine, a global supply manager, and Andrew Ang of Singapore, were named…

Back in June, it was reported that the FTC was reviewing allegations into Apple’s new policies that limited access to the iPhone’s the mobile-advertising market for rival platform providers. Now, the New York Post is reporting that European regulators have teamed with the FTC in its investigation.

A year after being awarded it by a Russian court, Forbes Media’s local online edition there has finally been handed the forbes.ru domain name by a company that had controlled it.

Some of the stories people are talking about this morning:»  Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has been doing some soul-searching about how deeply it can and should delve in to mining the data its collected over the years. [WSJ] »  Sidney Harman’s purchase of Newsweek has drawn eye-rolling, but David Carr says…

In an effort to put to rest reports in the NYTimes last week that they are collaborating on pay tiers for the internet, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) issued a manifesto today on ways to keep the internet open. The thorniest of the seven principles was the…

About that deal Facebook announced last month with MOL Global to have the Friendster parent distribute Facebook Credits through its own network ... Turns out it was part of a larger arrangement between the companies in which Facebook purchased all of Friendster’s patents, including its pending patent applications, GigaOm reports.…

Some of the stories people are talking about this morning:»  The Washington Post Co. (NYSE: WPO) is desperate to unload Newsweek magazine—but not desperate enough sell to Avenue Capital Group because of worries related to the hedge fund’s plans to partner with the publisher of the National Enquirer. [WSJ] » …

One of the more obscure government bodies has ruled today that unlocking iPhones is perfectly within a consumer’s right, even if it is to download unauthorized software or to roam on other carrier networks.

Nothing too surprising in Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s high-profile interview with ABC (NYSE: DIS) World News’ Diane Sawyer today. As CNET‘s Caroline McCarthy notes, Zuckerberg tends to get the same questions—on privacy, on an IPO ... etc.—over and over. However, Zuckerberg does say he’s “quite sure” that he didn’t sign…

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) just posted its response to proposals the FTC has said it is looking into in order to support the “reinvention of journalism.” In the document, embedded after the jump, Google argues that the challenges facing the news industry are business problems, not legal problems, and can therefore…

UK royalties collector PRS For Music has resurrected the idea ISPs should pay for copyrighted content that their networks transfer without authorisation. In a think paper, its chief economist Will Page writes: “With the introduction of the Digital Economy Act, the harm caused by the problem of piracy has to…

The Federal Communications Commission informed Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) and NBCU that on July 6 it had officially re-started the shot clock on its review of their proposed joint venture. That confirms a report in Multichannel News July 7. The FCC’s informal 180-day shot clock had been stopped for the second…

Well, this is surreal - the new UK prime minister David Cameron doing an old-buddies routine with Facebook’s CEO, part of a UK exercise using websites to hear citizens’ suggestions for financial austerity measures…

As part of its lobbying efforts to get approval—and acceptance—for its pending merger with NBC Universal (NYSE: GE), Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) promised U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush in writing today that it will establish a $20 million venture capital fund for minority entrepreneurs to develop “new media content and applications” when…