Microsoft Corp. is paying $440 million to InterTrust Technologies Corp. to settle a 3-year-old patent lawsuit over technology for protecting music, movies and other digital content against piracy. The settlement resolves all legal issues and grants Microsoft a license to InterTrust’s patents on code designed to prevent the unauthorized copying of files.
The next generation of Intel Corp. microprocessors for cellphones and handheld computers will include hard-wired security features that can enforce copy protection and help prevent hackers from wreaking havoc on wireless networks. Intel’s PXA27x processors, announced Monday at a conference in Taiwan, contain a security “engine” that’s on the same piece of silicon.
A South Korean Internet portal filed an antitrust lawsuit Monday against Microsoft Corp., alleging the U.S. computer software giant violated trade regulations by tying instant messenger software to its Windows operating system. Daum Communications Corp. said it was seeking 10 billion won ($8.7 million) in damages it claimed resulted from Microsoft’s Windows XP, which includes the instant messaging system MSN Messenger.
Representatives from the Boeing Co. and the union representing 3,400 technical and professional workers in Kansas restarted on Monday. On March 22, members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace’s Wichita Technical and Professional Unit rejected a proposed Boeing contract by a 3-to-1 margin. Union officials said the proposal offered raises that were too small, while raising health insurance premiums. Since then, Boeing announced that it is exploring the sale of its Wichita commercial airplane operations, after months of denying that it planned to do so.
The Treasury Department sold three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.915 percent, down from 0.93 percent last week. Six-month bills sold at a rate of 1.025 percent, down from 1.03 percent. The discount rates understate the actual return to investors – 0.929 percent for three-month bills with a $10,000 bill selling for $9,976.90 and 1.044 percent for a six-month bill selling for $9,948.20. The Federal Reserve said Monday that the average yield for one-year constant maturity Treasury bills, a popular index for changing adjustable rate mortgages, rose to 1.32 percent last week from 1.23 percent the previous week.
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