Facebook and Yahoo end patent battle with advertising partnership deal

Yahoo and Facebook have ended their four-month patent battle and formed an advertising partnership.

In March, Yahoo sued Facebook for infringing 10 patents ahead of the social network's planned public listing.

The following month, Facebook counter-sued, claiming Yahoo had violated its patents covering photo tagging, advertising and online recommendations.

The former warring firms have now announced they will cross-license innovations from each other and collaborate on future projects.

Yahoo's interim chief executive Ross Levinsohn initiated moves to resolve the dispute immediately after taking over the role, reported the AllThingsD blog ahead of the official announcement.

In the resulting negotiations, Facebook's team was led by the social networking firm's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg.

In a statement, Ross Levinsohn said: "We are excited to develop a deeper partnership with Facebook, and I'm grateful to Sheryl and her team for working hard together with our team to develop this dynamic agreement. Combining the premium content and reach of Yahoo as the world's leading digital media company with Facebook provides branded advertisers with unmatched opportunity."

Sheryl Sandberg said: "Yahoo's new leaders are driven by a renewed focus on innovation and providing great products to users. 

"Together, we can provide users with engaging social experiences while creating value for marketers."

The move may help secure Yahoo's top job for Levinsohn, according to the BBC. Rival Jason Kilar, head of the Hulu video streaming service, withdrew after news of the patent agreement leaked.

Levinsohn took over the chief executive role in May after then Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson resigned under pressure from investors, after inaccuracies were discovered in his corporate biography.

Thompson's departure came just four months after taking over as chief executive from Tim Morse, who had held the role on an interim basis after Yahoo's board removed Carol Bartz as chief executive in September 2011 after only two and a half years.

Yahoo has been in a state of nearly constant turmoil since it rejected Microsoft's $44bn takeover offer in 2008. It is looking to re-establish itself as a leader in digital advertising in the face of strong competition from newcomers Facebook and Twitter.

Levinsohn, who is now spearheading that effort, is "a seasoned media veteran with deep ties to the major entertainment companies and to advertisers, and has articulated a vision for Yahoo as a digital media company," according to Bloomberg Businessweek.

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Judge rejects secrecy bids in Apple vs. Samsung battle

An employee of South Korean mobile carrier KT holds an Apple Inc's iPhone 4 (L) smartphone and a Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S II smartphone as he poses for photographs at a registration desk at KT's headquarters in Seoul, in this August 25, 2011 file photo.

Credit: Reuters/Jo Yong-Hak

By Dan Levine

SAN FRANCISCO | Wed Jul 18, 2012 9:57am IST

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. judge rejected several requests by Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) to keep portions of key documents out of public view in their high-stakes patent litigation battle set for trial later this month.

Apple and Samsung, the world's largest consumer electronics corporations, are waging legal war in several countries, accusing each other of patent violations as they vie for supremacy in a fast-growing market for mobile devices.

(A report says new Apple iPhone will have thinner screen. Read story here)

In an order issued late on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, wrote that "it appears that the parties have overdesignated confidential documents and are seeking to seal information that is not truly sealable."

Koh gave both companies one week to refile their sealing requests. Representatives for Apple and Samsung could not immediately be reached for comment.

Filing documents under seal has become almost standard procedure in intellectual-property cases as companies try to keep their trade secrets and other sensitive business information from coming out during litigation.

Apple sued Samsung last year in the United States and a highly anticipated trial is scheduled to begin July 30. If Apple wins, it could seek to permanently bar the sale of some Samsung phones in the crucial U.S. market.

Koh has already granted pretrial injunctions against Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 and its Galaxy Nexus phone. Samsung is appealing both of those orders. Samsung's phones and tablets run on the Android operating system, developed by Google (GOOG.O).

Apple and Samsung have filed legal arguments on a range of subjects in recent weeks, including briefs on how broadly some patent claims should be defined and what evidence should be kept out of the trial.

However, portions of those documents are blacked out from public view as both companies argued they contained sensitive information.

Koh's order on Tuesday came hours after Reuters filed a motion seeking to intervene in the case for the purposes of opposing Apple and Samsung's document redactions. The judge wrote that "only documents of exceptionally sensitive information that truly deserve protection will be allowed to be redacted or kept from the public."

The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, is Apple Inc v. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al, 11-1846.

(Reporting By Dan Levine; Editing by Martha Graybow and Matt Driskill)

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