A federal jury found Qualcomm Inc. guilty of infringing three patents owned by smaller rival Broadcom Corp. and it awarded Broadcom $19.6 million in damages, the companies said. Wireless chip and technology license supplier Qualcomm said it would file post-trial motions to overturn the verdict, and, if unsuccessful, it would appeal the case. Broadcom said it planned to ask the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Santa Ana to issue a permanent injunction barring Qualcomm from further infringement of the wireless technology patents. Reuters

Novell is concerned that Microsoft could stop selling Suse Linux coupons if the third version of the General Public License remains in its current form. Its worries were aired in the delayed regulatory filing of its annual report for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2006. While much of what was officially released is known, Novell did express concerns that the final draft of GPL 3, which slipped its March 2007 deadline, could see Microsoft halting the distribution of Suse Linux, having a financial impact on Novell. Reuters

Nokia, the world's top mobile phone maker, said it has filed its first patent countersuit against Qualcomm, seeking damages and an injunction against the U.S. company's chipsets. Nokia said it also responded to the lawsuit filed by Qualcomm in Wisconsin on April 2. Nokia said it remains confident that its products do not infringe either of the two Qualcomm patents at issue and said that both patents are invalid. CNET News

Facing an outcry over imminent royalty fee increases for Internet radio operators, the music industry body that lobbied for the changes has attempted a peace offering. SoundExchange, the nonprofit group that collects the fees on behalf of hundreds of major and independent record companies said that it would give "small" Webcasters the option of paying "below market" royalty rates on the songs they play--that is, by keeping the required royalty rates essentially the same as they are under a 2002 law called the Small Webcaster Settlement Act. CNET News

Microsoft said it released the tally of 235 patents infringed by the open-source software industry--though not the specific patents--in an effort to bring open-source companies to the table to hammer out intellectual property licensing deals similar to the one struck by Linux seller Novell in 2006. But industry experts said the declaration's implicit demand--that companies with open-source software should figure out what Microsoft patents they're infringing and come to the negotiating table--is unrealistic at best. CNET News

Some of the staunchest advocates for stricter copyright laws have formed a new alliance designed to pressure Congress into preserving stronger intellectual property rights. The Copyright Alliance consists of 29 national organizations and companies that purport to represent 11 million workers in copyright-related industries. CNET News

The U.S. Congress took a small step toward revising what many large computer industry companies charge is a broken patent system. A House of Representatives subcommittee overseeing intellectual property law approved by voice vote the so-called Patent Reform Act. CNET News

A federal appeals court lifted a preliminary injunction against Google Inc. from showing thumbnail-size photos from sexually explicit sites, but said the company might be liable for allowing links to sites displaying unauthorized photos. The case is the latest in which courts are seeking to strike a balance between fostering the free flow of information on the Internet and protecting copyrighted content. Reuters

The online retailer Amazon.com and I.B.M. said that they had settled all their patent-infringement lawsuits and signed a long-term patent cross-license agreement. Under the deal, Amazon.com will pay the International Business Machines Corporation an undisclosed amount of money, and each company will share some of its technology. The New York Times

Corporate brands face multipronged assaults from fraudulent online attackers, according to a report published Monday that quantifies the scope of the most common threats. MarkMonitor, which supplies Internet brand protection services to companies, said its new "Brandjacking Index" found cybersquatting--in which illicit sites usurp popular trademarks--false association, phishing and click fraud as major threats. CNET News

Microsoft Corp. said Dell Inc. had joined a business collaboration it had with Novell Inc. to allow open-source Linux software to work with Windows. The move makes Dell the first major systems provider to join the Microsoft-Novell collaboration, which consists of a broad set of business and technological agreements to make their products work together better to serve corporate customers using both Linux and Windows computer servers. Reuters

Hollywood studios may find it impossible to squash a Web-based movement to facilitate the illegal copying of high-definition DVDs, even though the law is on their side, because the information has already been distributed so widely. In February, a hacker obtained a decryption key that enables copying of protected HD-DVD and Blu Ray movies and posted it on the Internet. Reuters

The U.S. Supreme Court sided with software and technology companies in two major patent rulings that could leave them less vulnerable to infringement lawsuits. The high court moved to curb the liability of firms for infringing products sold overseas and in another case loosened a key legal standard making it easier to invalidate some patents on the grounds they are obvious inventions. Reuters

The Supreme Court overturned a ruling that Microsoft Corp. should be held liable for patent infringement on copies of the Windows operating system sold overseas. By a 7-1 vote, the justices rejected arguments by AT&T Inc. that Microsoft software code that infringes on its patents could be deemed a "component" of a computer, making overseas sales of the Windows operating system an infringement under U.S. patent law. Reuters

Viacom Inc.'s copyright infringement suit against Google Inc. and its YouTube video-sharing unit strikes at the heart of how the Internet works, Google argued in a U.S. federal court filing. Responding in the filing to Viacom's more-than-$1 billion lawsuit, the Web search leader denied virtually all the claims, including that the popular video-watching site was engaged in "massive intentional copyright infringement." Reuters