The French are kicking Google (NSDQ: GOOG) again. This time, in a strange ruling, Paris’ commercial court has found the company is anti-competitive because it offers Google Maps for free. The case was brought by French online mapping firm Bottin Cartographes, which charges for its maps… Tweet This Post

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) in the last 24 hours has been dealt not one but two blows in court cases involving Motorola (NYSE: MMI) and patents in Germany, one involving IP licensing on older iPhone models (not the 4S) and one involving iCloud… Tweet This Post

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has accused Samsung of “slavishly copying” its hardware designs; but whether or not that is true, one area where Samsung is taking a note from Apple is in how it debuts its big products… Tweet This Post

It looks like Pirate Bay’s legal drama has finally come to a close in Sweden, where the Supreme Court today turned down the site’s final appeal. At the center of the case are the file sharing site’s founders — Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström — who have been battling Swedish prosecutors for quite [...]

The rising popularity of streaming video services is causing a knock-on effect for companies serving ads around that content. And here’s another example of that in action: today UK-based video ad platform Videoplaza is announcing a new $12 million round of funding… Tweet This Post

Some fallout from the various asset offloads we have seen from Nokia (NYSE: NOK) in the last year: Synchronica, which bought Nokia’s messaging business for $25 million in June 2011, has itself become a takeover target—apparently because it will not be able to make payments on money still owed to Nokia… Tweet This Post

paidContent understands Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is set to make some big first-anniversary upgrades to its OnePass paid content system in the next few weeks, designed to increase slow take-up among publishers… Tweet This Post

The ongoing, back-and-forth legal fight that is the Apple/Samsung patent dispute today took on a new dimension in one of its key battlegrounds, when the European Commission launched an antitrust inquiry into Samsung’s technology licensing practices… Tweet This Post

Samsung’s European legal woes don’t look to be abating anytime soon, as the EU today formally launched an investigation into the Korean manufacturers’ competitive practices. At issue are, not surprisingly, a collection of patents that Samsung has used to launch a series of lawsuits against rival companies… Tweet This Post

Napoleon once described the UK as a “nation of shopkeepers”, so it is somewhat fitting that this is where Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has gone to find its next retail supremo. On Tuesday, the company announced it had hired John Browett as its new retail SVP, poaching him from his current role as CEO of the [...]

Two separate reports published this weekend suggest that Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) is close to a partnership with UK bookstore chain Waterstones and, perhaps separately, will release a new Nook this spring… Tweet This Post

Has Europe gone mad? A trade agreement most Americans have never heard of has sparked outrage and protests across the pond. Twenty-two of the European Union’s 27 member states signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in Tokyo on January 26… Tweet This Post