MOBILE DEVICES

PATENT OFFICE DECISION IS A VICTORY FOR BLACKBERRY-MAKER

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a final rejection of one of two patents found to be infringed by Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry e-mail system, bolstering the company’s efforts to head off a service shutdown.

The patent office said the rejection was mailed yesterday, without giving details. Patent owner NTP Inc. can appeal to a patent office board, then to a court. The office earlier this month issued what amounted to a final rejection of the second patent, giving NTP time to submit a response.

Research In Motion is facing a court hearing on Friday in Richmond, Va., on whether BlackBerry sales and service should be shut down in America because the company infringed NTP’s patents. One of Research In Motion’s arguments against a shutdown order, called an injunction, is that there are questions about the patents’ validity.

– Bloomberg News

BROADCASTING

NEWS CORP. WILL CREATE NEW NETWORK

News Corporation said it will create a new television network for its stations that will lose affiliation with CBS Corporation’s UPN in August. My Network TV will air on 10 stations starting September 5, News Corporation President and Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin said at a press conference yesterday in New York.

– Bloomberg News

SEARCH ENGINES

JUDGE RULES GOOGLE IMAGE SEARCH INFRINGES ON COPYRIGHTS

LOS ANGELES – A federal court judge has concluded that an image search service run by Google infringes on the copyrights of adult entertainment company Perfect 10 by displaying small versions of its images in search results.

But U.S. District Court Judge Howard Matz said that based on evidence submitted at a preliminary injunction hearing, Google could not be held responsible when viewers click on the images and are directed to third-party sites that contain full-size images stolen from Perfect 10’s Web site.

Mr. Matz ordered both sides to craft a narrow preliminary injunction that would respect Perfect 10’s copyrights but not curtail Google’s broader right to catalog and display online images.The order was issued Friday and made public Tuesday. A trial in the case has not been scheduled. Mountain View, Calif.-based Google said it would appeal any injunction ordered by the court.

– Associated Press

IN BRIEF

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Roger Ferguson, the last governor who wasn’t placed on the board by President Bush, resigned less than a month after Ben Bernanke succeeded Alan Greenspan as chairman … The Federal Communications Commission plans sanctions against Fox, CBS, and NBC television stations or affiliates for violating decency standards … Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia posted its first quarterly profit in two years, helped by Martha Stewart’s syndicated daily television show and higher ad sales at the company’s flagship magazine. The shares rose 4.8%.

– Bloomberg News