European regulators are set to accept a proposal by Rambus to cut royalties to settle antitrust charges, according to a person familiar with the situation.

The jury in the two-month-long TSMC vs. SMIC trade secrets trial has ruled in TSMC's favor after several days of deliberation. The jury found that SMIC has been misappropriating TSMC's trade secrets since a 2005 legal settlement was reached between the two foundries.

The trial against former Infineon CEO Ulrich Schumacher for alleged corruption has been closed after the prosecutor has dropped his charges. A formal acquittal is expected for later this week.

Nokia has sued Apple over claims that the iPhone infringes on 10 of its wireless technology patents. The suit appears to be an attempt to squeeze Apple for higher royalties than the iPhone maker is currently willing to pay.

Neelie Kroes, the European Commissioner in charge of antitrust issues, would undoubtedly be most satisfied to see the Microsoft dossier closed before she goes.

A court in August had sentenced Lee Kun-Hee to a suspended three-year prison term and a fine of 110 billion won (91.2 million dollars) for his role in a 1999 bond issue.

The trial of former Infineon CEO Ulrich Schumacher has started today (Sept. 14) in Munich. Schumacher is charged with corruption in connection with Infineon's motor sport sponsoring business.

TSMC and SMIC reached a US$175 million deal in 2005 to settle a claim by TSMC. But the Taiwan-based company now alleges SMIC reneged on the deal, and oral arguments began yesterday in Oakland.

Taiwan's former President Chen Shui-bian has been sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of corruption by a court in Taipei.

The antitrust trial between memory chip designer Rambus and several chip makers, including Micron Technology, has been postponed, according to reports.

Samsung Group's former chairman Lee Kun Hee was found guilty of breach-of-duty for his role in causing losses at Samsung SDS.

A US federal court has ordered Microsoft to pay over US$290m for wilfully infringing on a patent by Canadian firm i4i.

Apple, Microsoft, and 18 other companies are being sued for patent infringement by Texas-based Tsera which claims to have invented the touchpad.

The US and EU said China was giving its domestic industry access to cheap materials.

According to the complaint, LSI initially contacted SanDisk in 2007 to initiate patent license negotiations for several of SanDisk's digital media players. LSI eventually alleged that SanDisk's media players violate a total of eight patents held by LSI, according to the complaint.

The trademark dispute between Intel and Psion over the term "netbook" may be over following unconfirmed reports that the two companies have reached a settlement that lets other computer makers refer to their products as netbooks.

Tessera Technologies has said that it won a patent dispute over small-format semiconductor packaging products, with the International Trade Commission issuing a cease-and-desist order against rivals Motorola, Qualcomm, Freescale Semiconductor and Spansion.

Motorola's ex-CFO, Paul Liska, filed suit against the company late February in Cook Country Circuit Court, Illinois in which he claims Motorola's Mobile Devices executives were giving forecasts "based on inaccurate or unsupportable financial assumptions." But Motorola has responded saying Liska was a "treacherous officer" who concocted a "extortion-like scheme designed to portray himself as a whistle blower and demand millions in return for his silence."

Microsoft has said it settled a patent dispute over car navigation technology with TomTom NV for an undisclosed amount. Under the terms of the five-year settlement, TomTom will pay the software maker for use of eight patents.

Toyoda Gosei and Showa Denko have signed a patent cross-licensing agreement, while Cree and Honeywell have agreed to end their patent dispute. Cree settles lawsuit with Honeywell

Dutch navigation device maker TomTom filed a countersuit against Microsoft Corp, accusing the US company of violating its patents related to car navigational technology and other computing functionality.

A South Korean trade commission has taken what could be a first step toward regulating wireless chip vendor Qualcomm's business practices in the country.

Google has added its voice to the case against Microsoft as the European Commission probes antitrust charges related to the software giant's Internet Explorer browser. In January, European regulators brought formal charges against Microsoft for abusing its dominant market position by bundling its Internet Explorer Web browser with its Windows operating system, which is used in 95% of the world's personal computers.

Hynix is gratified that the court rejected Rambus' request for an injunction, but is disappointed by the district court's damages ruling and will file an appeal when the final judgment is entered. Hynix believes that Rambus's patents, as has been recently confirmed by certain rulings of the US Patent & Trademark Office, are invalid. In addition, Hynix maintains that Rambus' conduct in destroying evidence relevant to the litigation between Hynix and Rambus, and Rambus and the rest of the DRAM industry, bars Rambus from enforcing its patents.

Intel has announced that it has filed suit against Nvidia over whether or not the GPU and chipset designer has the rights to build solutions for Nehalem-based CPUs.

For the troubled memory maker Qimonda things may get even tougher as the company is facing a class-action lawsuit from the former employees of its plant based in Richmond, Virginia.

Rambus's case against Micron may be headed for dismissal if comments by federal judge Ronald Whyte are any indication. According to Whyte, a Delaware court's decision earlier this January to throw out Rambus' claims based on spoliation leave him no room for discretion.