Microsoft filed patent infringement complaints against Motorola and its Android phones in the International Trade Commission and U.S. federal court Friday, indicating that the software giant may hope to use its strong patent position as one way to set its mobile software apart from the competition.

Oracle called Hewlett-Packard's lawsuit against its former CEO "vindictive" and said it threatened the companies' close relationship.

A firm owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has filed a lawsuit against Google, Apple, Facebook, and other companies alleging that they have violated patents related to search, multimedia, screen pop-ups and database management.

Oracle has filed a lawsuit against Google, charging that its Android phone software infringes Oracle patents and copyrights related to Java, Oracle said on Thursday.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a final confirmation of a patent awarded to i4i that is at the heart of a dispute with Microsoft and that once threatened the sale of Word software.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) has launched a formal investigation into four patent complaints filed against Apple by computer graphics hardware maker S3 Graphics, which asked the agency to block Apple from importing the iPhone, iPad and other products into the U.S.

HTC said it filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission charging Apple with infringing on five patents.

IBM will not use its open-source patents in any potential legal actions it may bring against TurboHercules, an IBM company executive seemingly asserted on Wednesday.

It could be confused with Integra Telecom's Nexus service, the patent and trademark office said.

A court in Texas has ordered Microsoft to pay communications software maker VirnetX US$105.75 million after a jury found it guilty of willful infringement of two patents belonging to the company.

Apple claims HTC infringes 20 of its patents.

A confidential agreement ends a multi-year legal battle.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has decided to investigate separate complaints made against Sharp and Research In Motion (RIM) that each allege the companies are infringing patents held by the complainants.

The Canadian developer that won a $290 million court judgment against Microsoft will be going over future Microsoft software "extremely carefully" to make sure its patent hasn't been infringed, the chairman of i4i said today.

An administrative law judge at the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that Samsung has infringed two camera patents developed by Kodak.

Apple and Nokia are getting into the holiday spirit this year by suing one another over a patent dispute.

Intel and Advanced Micro Devices Thursday announced that they have settled all antitrust litigation and patent cross-license disputes between the companies.

Nvidia has delayed the development of chipsets that work with Intel's microprocessors, citing "unfair business tactics" employed by Intel, the company said on Thursday.

Technology research company Eolas Technologies, which won a US$520.6 million patent infringement case against Microsoft in 2003, has filed a new patent lawsuit against 22 companies including Adobe Systems, Google, Yahoo, Apple, eBay and Amazon.com.

Imagine asking mobile operators to compete in an auction for the chance to offer you service and then switching from one operator to the next multiple times a day to get the best rate or more bandwidth.