Motorola targets Apple in lawsuit

Motorola has added to the stack of legal cases building up in the smartphone business, taking aim at Apple over alleged infringement of 18 of its patents, states Financial Times.

The lawsuit comes days after Motorola itself became the target of legal action by Microsoft, and adds to a morass of litigation that has also drawn in Google, Nokia, HTC and Oracle.

“After Apple's late entry into the telecommunications market, we engaged in lengthy negotiations, but Apple has refused to take a licence,” says Kirk Daily, in charge of intellectual property at Motorola's cellphone division. Apple declined to comment.

BT has invested £78.5 million in rolling out fibre broadband to Cornwall, potentially making the county one of the best-connected rural areas in Europe, reports Computing.co.uk.

The European Commission is adding up to a further £53.5 million from the European Regional Development Convergence Fund. The intention is to boost the local economy by attracting and retaining hi-tech, high-growth creative and low-carbon businesses which make use of high-bandwidth connectivity.

The roll-out of fibre broadband will create an estimated 4 000 new jobs and protect a further 2 000 under threat from recessionary pressures, said Alec Robertson, leader of Cornwall Council, at an announcement. “This gives businesses access to world-class communications which will dramatically increase their competitiveness,” he said.

The French telecoms equipment company Alcatel-Lucent said it plans to sell more products to Chinese broadcasters in the wake of recent efforts by China to encourage cable TV companies to provide telecom services, increasing demand for new equipment, according to CRIEnglish.com.

Rajeev Singh-Molares, Alcatel-Lucent's president for Asia-Pacific, told China Daily the company sees huge potential from Chinese cable TV players to buy telecoms equipment, creating a market opportunity that "may be bigger" than that provided by the launch of the 3G network in the country last year.

"In other markets the cable players do very well in competing with telecom operators," said Singh-Molares. "In a couple of years you will see money spent in that market."