"The ITC affirmed the validity of our asserted patents. We are disappointed, however, with the determinations regarding our infringement methodology and patent exhaustion," said Tessera CEO. "We will have an opportunity to appeal this ruling..."

Research in Motion, the Canadian company that makes the Blackberry smart phone, plans to open an operation in the Triangle next year

South Korea's antitrust agency on Dec. 30, 2009 said it has found no evidence to back allegations that makers of flash memory chips were engaged in international price fixing, after investigating the issue for nearly three years.

Major South Korean exporters all got a nice boost from the weakness of the country's currency in the past two years. But with the Korean won gaining strength, will Korean exporters begin to lose some of the market share they accumulated in the past year?

Toshiba has developed a trilingual translation system with voice recognition and synthesis that's compact and light enough to be installed in a cell phone.

The lawsuit, initiated by Infineon in November 2008, focus on 14 patents related to super-junction power transistors along with trench power MOSFETs and IGBT power transistors.

Lee Kun-hee is to be pardoned so he can return to the International Olympics Committee and help South Korea's bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics. The former chairman of Samsung was convicted of embezzlement and tax evasion.

Stock market insiders say Samsung Electronics will easily achieve an operating profit of more than two trillion won (US$1.71 billion) and Hynix of more than 600 billion won for the quarter.

"We have seen this in Japan in the 1980's. I certainly hope that China is not going to repeat the mistakes that Japan made 20-30 years ago," said Dong Tao, chief Asia economist of Credit Suisse.

The World Trade Organization has ruled that China's practice of funneling media imports to state-owned companies violates international trade laws. The ruling was a result of complaints filed by a number of US media companies, which contend that China's practices illegally restrict business opportunities.

China Mobile, the world's biggest phone company by subscribers, said Monday its deputy chairman is under investigation for unspecified offenses, adding to a string of scandals at major Chinese state-owned companies.

China streaked ahead of its western and Asian rivals at the weekend by unveiling the world's fastest long-distance passenger train service. The improvement illustrates how China's huge investment in infrastructure is dramatically shrinking the country.

Beijing's top negotiator for Taiwan and his Taiwanese counterpart have signed a series of business accords, and said agreements on free trade and IP rights would be negotiated in talks slated for the first half of 2010. Critics fear that the move will eventually lead to unification with the Chinese mainland.