Court Tosses Multimillion-dollar verdict against RIM

TORONTO — A U.S. judge has overturned a multimillion-dollar patent-infringement verdict against BlackBerry maker Research In Motion.

The judge determined that Mformation Technologies Inc., which makes software for managing mobile devices, failed to show that RIM infringed on a key patent in question.

A federal jury in San Francisco had awarded Mformation $147.2 million last month based on an infringement finding. The judge overseeing the case nullified the earlier decision Wednesday.

Mformation, of Edison, N.J., accused RIM in 2008 of infringing on its 1999 invention for remotely managing wireless devices. Mformation's software allows companies to remotely access employee cellphones to do software upgrades, change passwords or wipe data from phones that have been stolen.

FTC finalizes privacy settlement with Facebook

NEW YORK — The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted Friday to finalize its settlement with Facebook, resolving charges that the social network exposed details about users' lives without getting the required legal consent.

Facebook agreed to submit to government audits of its privacy practices every other year for the next two decades. The company also committed to getting explicit approval from users before changing the types of content it makes public.

The settlement, announced in November, is similar to agreements the FTC reached separately with Google and Myspace.

The FTC approved the settlement Friday after a public-comment period. It came a day after the FTC fined Google $22.5 million to resolve allegations that Google didn't comply with the earlier settlement. more

Netflix CEO buys $1 million in Facebook stock

Netflix stock is on the rise in recent days as Reed Hastings, it's  co-founder and a Facebook board member, recently bought $1 million worth of shares in the beleaguered social networking site, Facebook, according to a regulatory filing submitted Wednesday. Hastings purchased roughly 47,800 shares at an average purchase price of $21.03 each.  Other investors were eager to jump on the bandwagon loading up on Facebook shares, which rose about 3.79% on the news of Hasting's buy. Facebook went public in May at $38 per share, but its stock  shed much of it's value, closing Friday at $21.81.

Facebook granted Hastings 20,000 restricted stock units when he joined the company's board in June 2011.