Patent wars a $10bn business

The US patent office gets nearly 500 million applications every year and figuring out who owns what, typically in court, has morphed into a business worth $10 billion a year in the US, where the global patent war is mainly being waged, writes The Globe and Mail.

This summer's public feud between Research In Motion (RIM) and Ericsson over the carcass of Nortel Networks, Canada's debased networking giant, underscores a new reality in the technology business.

Like it or not, patents are the new gold and filing them, owning them, defending them and licensing them can be as important as what you do with them.

TiVo is suing AT&T and Verizon for illegally using the TV "time-warping" technology it has popularised in living rooms across the country, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The legal actions are the first since TiVo went after Dish Network and sister company EchoStar in a battle that is nearly five years old.

TiVo, pressured on the direct-to-consumer end, has largely opted to strike licensing deals for its technology, which allows viewers to pause and rewind live television.

A coalition of 10 US privacy and consumer groups has called for new federal privacy protections for Web users, says PC World.

This includes a requirement that Web sites and advertising networks get opt-in permission from individuals within 24 hours of collecting personal data and tracking online habits.

The groups, including the Centre for Digital Democracy, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the US Public Interest Research Group, want the US Congress to pass legislation that would bar Web sites and online advertising networks from collecting sensitive data such as information about health, finances, race and sexual orientation.