Facebook is buying about 650 of the 925 patents and patent applications from Microsoft for $550 million. The patents, that Microsoft bought from AOL two weeks ago for more than $1 billion, raised three times what analysts had expected, but it seems that Microsoft has essentially gotten back half of what it paid.

“Today’s agreement with Microsoft represents an important acquisition for Facebook. This is another significant step in our ongoing process of building an intellectual property portfolio to protect Facebook’s interests over the long term,” said the dominant social network’s general counsel, Ted Ullyot, in a written statement.

Facebook will get a license to use the rest of the patents, while Microsoft will also get a license to use the patents that the social network is buying. Microsoft is a Facebook partner, having bought a 1.6% stake in the social networking giant in 2007 for $240 million.

“Facebook is just getting in the game. It goes to show that if you are a significant player in this landscape, you have to have patent protection,” BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis said adding that, “Facebook realizes it’s a target.”

The growing number of complaints regarding the working conditions for Chinese workers from companies like Apple and Foxconn seem to have finally made an impact as both companies announce improvements as far as safety and working time is concerned. It seems that the largest investigation for U.S. company’s operations outside of America conducted the independent Fair Labor Association, which found a series of violations to the labor laws will have reduced work time and improved safety protocols.

More specifically, Foxconn is aiming to reduce working hours to 49 per week, including overtime while maintaining the compensation at the current level. Furthermore, to keep up with the constant demand Foxconn will hire tens of thousands of additional workers and build canteens and housing. The new goals don’t automatically translate into increased prices for consumers either.

The newest is received differently among various groups. While some hope that the changes will prompt other big players to undergo a similar path and improve working conditions overall, others believe that it’s still only a minor step in the right direction: ”Until Apple shares a larger proportion of its profits with its supplier factories, workers will receive the same pittance for a salary while working around the clock,” Li Qiang, the director of China Labor Watch stated.

Reducing waste is a chief goal for ensuring a better futures and taking an active approach for preventing resource scarcity. A new generation of nuclear reactors could be part of the solution for the especially difficult to handle waste. Between 100 tons of plutonium and 35,000 tons of uranium have to be dealt with in UK alone and companies are jumping on board to offer alternatives for the stringent problem.

One company, DECC proposed dealing with the problem by combining plutonium with other types of materials, however the end result is less than satisfactory as only a tiny amount is actually actually converted into electricity. An alternative could come from the engineering firm GE Hitach which endorses the use of plutonium as fuel for energy.

These reactor would generate 311 MW of power each, similarly to a conventional plant and, at the current rates of consumption, could produce low carbon energy for 500 years if enough of them are built. The cost of these alternatives is still being weighted in and discussions with the leading companies continue. One idea is that the small size and the factory-made modular design.

The world of the internet is changing slowly but surely and new policies, not always regarded as being positive, are beginning to be implemented by some of the major companies of in the industry. After the announcement that Facebook timeline becomes mandatory and the changes in Google policies, Twitter also announced certain changes.

The company plans to be more attentive to the country specific regulations and plans to censor content that might not be seen as appropriate in a certain country. Rather than universally eliminating a post, inappropriate posts will only be unavailable in the region in question. The new changes were announced in a ‘The Tweets Still Must Flow’. “One of our core values as a company is to defend and respect each user’s voice,” Twitter wrote. “We try to keep content up wherever and whenever we can, and we will be transparent with users when we can’t. The tweets must continue to flow.”

Previous censorship practices applied globally regarded mostly child pornography links. It appears that the new policies are part of a plan to massively expand the global Twitter audience, from the current 100 million active users to a staggering 1 billion people.

Macy’s Inc. Has filled a lawsuit on Monday at the New York Supreme Court regarding the alleged violation of the contract with Martha Steward Living Omnimedia Inc. The recent J.C Penney acquisition of the 16.6 percent stake in Martha Steward’s company is the event that sparked the controversy as apparently Macy’s has signed an exclusive deal with the brand to sell its products.

While the J.C Penney agreement was planned to debut on 2013, Macy’s representatives such marketing deal would only be legitimate starting with 2018. Appearently, Macy’s “renewed its agreement to exclusively sell Martha Stewart-branded product in categories such as cookware, kitchen utensils, bed and bath for another five years”.

Martha Stewart did not elaborate on her view of the recent events yet the confirmed the fact that the company received a notification from Macy’s with regards to the extended commercial agreement. In addition, it appears that the J.C Penney agreement is still in effect, at least until the lawsuit is on the roll. Meanwhile, Martha Stewart Living shares fell by 3.5 %.

As the US Congress is debating the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act, the major internet players are taking a stand. Wikipedia has taken the most revealing stand agains the act by symbolically blackening out its English web pages in an attempt to raise awareness concerning the consequences of the law being approved and urging Wikipedians to take action. Wikipedia founder mentions the fact that the stand is not an attempt to defend piracy but a fight for internet freedom rights.

‘Proponents of the Stop Online Piracy Act have characterized the opposition as being people who want to enable piracy or defend piracy. But that’s not really the point. The point is the bill is so over broad and so badly written that it’s going to impact all kinds of things that don’t have anything to do with stopping piracy.’, stated Jimmy Walsh for BBC.

While Wikipedia is taking the most noticeable action, social websites such as Reddit which will also go down for 12 hours and other important players also support the ‘movement’ in more subtle yet not less important ways. For internet giant Google a whole day of ‘blacking out’ is out of the question, yet endorsement to raise voice against SOPA are still being made. Facebook has also expressed its disagreement with the act while Twitter CEO stated that single nation policy attempting to regulate world wide service was ‘foolish’.

Important changes are bound to occur at Yahoo as the company cofounder has announced his resignation. Mr Yang has been on the executive board since 1995 and began losing support in 2008 when he turned down a takeover offer from Microsoft. His resignation comes at an interesting time, just two weeks after the company hired Scott Thomson for the chief executive position.

“The time has come for me to pursue other interests outside of Yahoo! My time at Yahoo, from its founding to the present, has encompassed some of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of my life. However, the time has come for me to pursue other interests outside of Yahoo,” Yang stated in the press release in an attempt to motivate his decision.

Despite the interesting moment to announce his resignation Yang expressed his support for the company’s recent decision: “I am enthusiastic about the appointment of Scott Thompson as Chief Executive Officer and his ability, along with the entire Yahoo! leadership team, to guide Yahoo! into an exciting and successful future,” he continued. He is also giving up the ‘Chief Yahoo’ symbolic title he received for his ability to mingle with people.

Business experts see the news as highly encouraging given the company’s struggle to remain profitable and see it as the perfect time to make objective decisions to improve the company’s market position. Yahoo shares have risen by 3.4%.

After 11 months of negotiation concerning 593,468 unpaid overtime hours in the past two years accusations, Nike Inc and a trade union representing 4500 employees from PT Nikomas plant in Serang, Banten have finally reached an agreement. The company has agreed to pay 1 million in full by early February in addition to providing training programs.

The official statement made by the company reveals that: “Nike commends the factory on their action plan and efforts to correct inadequacies in current policies designed to protect the rights of workers. Nike will continue to monitor and support their efforts to remediate the situation.”

This case is seen as a significant potential precedent in helping workers whose work rights have been violated fight back.”This has the potential to send shock waves through the Indonesian labour movement. The leadership at SPN is gearing up to take on the fight for any workers who have been subjected to forced overtime without pay. We have only just begun,” Bambang Wirahyoso, the national chairman of the Serikat Pekerja National (SPN) trade union stated.

The event can also serve as a warning signals for other companies to improve the way they treat their workers. “The fact that Nike had opted to handover this million dollars and an apparent admission of some wrong doing at their Indonesia plant, may serve as a warning to other companies here be a bit more mindful of what happens at their Indonesia subsidiary,” BBC Jakarta correspondent, Karishma Vaswani noted.

British Telecom is suing Google over alleged patent infringement after using operating systems such as Google Maps, Android, Google Music, Google Plus, Google Books and eBooks. British Telecom is therefore joining other big names in the industry which have filed a lawsuit towards Google, names such as Apple, Microsoft and Oracle, lawsuits which target Google’s Android system.

Apparently BT seeks unspecified compensation and injunction to stop Google from using technology that BT says has a patent over. The giant company BT has over 5600 patents and six of them seem to have been ground for the lawsuit they’ve issued towards Google. According to DailyMail, a British Telecom spokesperson said that:

“This is about protecting BT’s investment in its intellectual property rights and innovation. It is a well-considered claim and we believe there is a strong case of infringement.”

The documents that have been subjected to the court to support BT claim that Google uses services and products that have been invented by BT prior to Google’s founding. This is announcing itself as a strong battle as the two giant companies will apparently not back down. A spokesperson from Google issued a statement saying that:
“We believe these claims are groundless and we will vigorously defend ourselves against them.”

This is not the first time BT issues a lawsuit over its patents as in 2002, BT has sued internet providers Prodigy and AOL for patent infringement concerning hyperlinks and requested the granting of a license fee. The lawsuit was however lost by BT.

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One of the biggest and most renowned car companies, Saab, has filed for bankruptcy on December 19, 2011, after struggling to stay-a-float for several months. The company owned by Swedish Automobile, first revealed its financial trouble in March when the company failed to pay suppliers. It’s been reported that the company also delayed the payment of wages to the employees several times already and is still behind schedule with the payments that were due at the end of November. The company has suspended its work at the main plant in Trollhattan, Sweden since April 2011.

Apparently any hope that the company had of securing rescue funding is now considered to be unrealistic as apparently General Motors, who used to own Saab, and who still retains part of the group, didn’t approve with Saab’s intentions to strike a deal with possible investors Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile and a Chinese bank.

Saab, who had moved on from aeronautical engineering to the automobile business, presented it’s first prototype, Ursaab, in 1947 and by 1989, 50% of the company’s shares were bought by General Motors. The rest of the shares were also purchased by GM in 2000. In January 2010, Swedish Automobile, then known as Spyker Cars, bought Saab and managed to hold the company, who was capable of producing 100,000 cars a year by operating on a two working shift program, afloat until early this year when the company ran out of money.

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