Courts enforce roaming rate cut

Mobile operators in the EU have been dealt a blow, when the court upheld a Europe-wide law that forces mobile operators to cut the rates they charge for using roaming services, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The four operators, Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile and Orange have challenged the legality of the EU's roaming regulation, which was passed in 2007.

"The roaming regulation is valid," says the European Court of Justice. "The community had the right to impose caps on the prices charged by mobile-telephone operators for roaming calls in the interest of the internal market."

HTC has acquired Abaxia, a French company that makes software used by operators and phone makers, states Bloomsberg.

Should HTC acquire patents from the Abaxia purchase, it could use them to gain leverage in its ongoing legal battle with Apple, helping the manufacturer negotiate during the dispute.

Earlier in the year, Apple filed patent infringements with HTC, stating that HTC infringed on several of its patents relating to the iPhone user interface.

LimeWire is under fire from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) which is lobbying in US courts to shut down the service, writes V3.co.uk.

The RIAA has recently filed a request in the Southern New York US District Court seeking a permanent injunction against the service, with LimeWire given two weeks to appeal against the request before a decision is made.

The RIAA accuses LimeWire of enabling its users to illegally share copyrighted content.