In This Update:
• Supreme Court to Review ‘Business Method’ Patents
• Alibaba Plans To Spend At Least $200 Million on Acquisitions
• TiVo Prevails in Long-Running EchoStar Patent Case
• YouTube XL Tries Bringing Web Video to Your TV
• Google Hones In On Small, Local Advertisers with New Analytics Tool
• Federal Antitrust Probe Targets Tech Giants Recruiting Practices
• Nielsen: Time on Social Networks Almost Doubles in a Year
• Bing Gets A 411 Number, One Ups GOOG 411
• Verizon Offers Pay-As-You-Go Hosting Service
• Windows 7 to Launch October 22
• Canoe in Discussions on Providing Set-Top Data
• beeTV Raises $8 Million For Stunning Personal TV Recommendation System
• XCast Labs Raises $2.4 Million for VoIP Service
• RingRevenue Raises $3.5 Million to “Track Calls Like Clicks” For Affiliate Networks

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Supreme Court to Review ‘Business Method’ Patents
BUSINESS WEEK

The U.S. Supreme Court announced on Monday, June 1, that it would take up a major issue in intellectual-property law: whether patents should be granted for what are known as business methods. Many financial, accounting, and e-commerce firms have rushed to obtain patent protection for such things as ways to structure financial products, manage organizations, or transact business on the Internet. The court said it would consider a case involving a method for hedging risk in commodities trading. A claimed patent on this process, filed in 1997 by inventors Bernard Bilski and Rand Warsaw, was rejected by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office on the basis that it simply involved a mental process and did not need any technology to implement. That rejection has been upheld though various appeals.
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Alibaba Plans To Spend At Least $200 Million on Acquisitions
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group plans to spend at least $200 million on acquisitions and other investments in the next few years.The Hangzhou-based company, in which Yahoo Inc. has a 39% stake, has already invested $73 million to date in 10 companies, said Wei Zhang, who is heading Alibaba’s strategic investment unit, in an interview Tuesday. The company has committed an additional $200 million to $300 million to the unit over the next two to three years, she said.
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TiVo Prevails in Long-Running EchoStar Patent Case
REUTERS
A federal judge in Texas awarded set-top box maker TiVo Inc an additional $103 million in damages plus interest on Tuesday in a long-running patent infringement dispute with DISH Network Corp and EchoStar Corp. EchoStar has already paid TiVo a total of $104 million in damages and lost profits as the result of a 2006 jury award for infringing on patents for digital video recorder technology.
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YouTube XL Tries Bringing Web Video to Your TV
NEWTEEVEE
YouTube today is launching XL, a new interface for the site that is customized for televisions. Rather than a downloadable app for lean-back viewing, like Hulu just launched (though Hulu forbids use on anything other than a laptop), YouTube is choosing to go all browser, no plug-in required. The AJAX-powered UI expands to any size window and features full-screen mode. HD video looks pretty great. You can use your Android phone on the same Wi-Fi network as a remote, or a wireless keyboard. A continuous play feature automatically queues up playlists or search terms. It doesn’t yet feature any ads.
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Google Hones In On Small, Local Advertisers with New Analytics Tool
PAIDCONTENT
With more people using Google Maps for driving directions, glimpses of potential real estate (through Street View) and even restaurant reviews, it makes sense to try to drive as much revenue from that traffic as possible. So Google is launching a new analytics dashboard that gives small businesses a better read on their local search traffic details. For local businesses that are either managing a small AdWords account on their own (or not using paid search ads at all), the stats will offer great insight into where some of their in-store traffic is coming from, the kinds of searches shoppers are using to find them online (and possibly, the keywords they need to start running ads against).
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Federal Antitrust Probe Targets Tech Giants Recruiting Practices
WASINGTON POST
The Justice Department has launched an investigation into whether some of the nation’s largest technology companies violated antitrust laws by negotiating the recruiting and hiring of one another’s employees, according to two sources with knowledge of the review. The review, which is said to be in its preliminary stages, is focused on the search engine giant Google; its competitor Yahoo; Apple, Genentech, among others, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. The sources said the review includes other tech companies and is “industry-wide.” By agreeing not to hire away top talent, the companies could be stifling competition and trying to maintain their market power unfairly, antitrust experts said.
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Nielsen: Time on Social Networks Almost Doubles in a Year
REUTERS
Spending more time on social networks and blogs? You’re not alone, with the latest figures showing the number of minutes spent on social networking sites in the United States has almost doubled over the past year. Nielsen Online, which measures web traffic, said the number of minutes on social networks in the United States rose 83 percent in April from the same month a year ago, but found users were quick to move on and sites could quickly fall from favor.
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Bing Gets A 411 Number, One Ups GOOG 411
TECHCRUNCH
Lost in all the excitement around the public preview launch of Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine, was the subsequent launch of Bing 411. This is a direct swipe at another Google product, GOOG-411. Bing 411 gives you local business listings, as well as local traffic, weather, and movie listings. The voice is a little more obviously computer-generated than Google’s, but it also can get you a phone number, address, or directions. It also tells you how many stars the business has in average reviews.
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Verizon Offers Pay-As-You-Go Hosting Service
REUTERS
Verizon Communications Inc on Thursday unveiled a pay-as-you go hosting service for corporate customers looking to save money by buying only as much computing capacity as they need at any given time. Verizon is the latest U.S. telecom to jump on the bandwagon of so-called “cloud computing” services after AT&T Inc said last month that it would offer Web-based storage services for enterprises.
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Windows 7 to Launch October 22
CNET
Microsoft confirmed on Tuesday that it is planning for Windows 7 to hit retail shelves and start showing up on new PCs on October 22. To reach that milestone, Microsoft plans to wrap up development of the operating system by the middle or end of next month, Senior Vice President Bill Veghte said in an interview. “The feedback from the release candidate has been good,” Veghte said.
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Canoe in Discussions on Providing Set-Top Data
MULTICHANNEL
Canoe Ventures is currently in discussions with third-party data providers about the best way to provide metrics from millions of digital cable set-tops and has a road map targeting delivery of “supplemental” TV viewing data to the industry as early as next year, according to a presentation by two of the company’s senior executives. “We are working first and foremost on gathering data from our six MSOs,” said Mark Mitchell, Canoe’s senior vice president of network relations. “There is no easy infrastructure in place to do that.” Canoe was officially formed last summer by Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Charter Communications, Cablevision Systems and Bright House Networks.
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beeTV Raises $8 Million For Stunning Personal TV Recommendation System
ARS TECHNICA
BeeTV, a Milan, Italy-based startup founded in 2006 by an international team of experienced technology and media experts, has just raised $8 million in Series B funding from Italian VC firm Innogest, the largest investment this fund has ever made. BeeTV aims to use the capital to ‘change the way we watch TV’ by pioneering what it calls a Personal Content Channel (PPC), a personal TV suggestion engine that helps you find your way in the ocean of VOD titles and channels out there by surfacing the best choice for you based on your profile and even the mood you’re in.
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XCast Labs Raises $2.4 Million for VoIP Service
SOCALTECH
Los Angeles-based XCast Labs is announcing this morning that it has raised $2.4M in a Series A funding round, for the firm’s voice-over-IP services. According to XCast, the funding includes an investment by Siemer and Associates, as well as Frontera Capital and the Pasadena Angels. XCast said that its voice-over-IP services will be “fully interoperable” with the popular VoIP software Skype, and will also provide features such as enhanced voicemail, international calling, PBX support, and other services.
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RingRevenue Raises $3.5 Million to “Track Calls Like Clicks” For Affiliate Networks
TECHCRUNCH
RingRevenue, a pay-per-call platform designed for affiliate networks, has closed a $3.5 million funding round led by GRP Partners, Rincon Venture Partners, and Great Pacific Capital. The company is looking to tap into the huge volume of sales that occur via the telephone, helping affiliate networks and ad agencies track phone calls in much the same way online ad clicks are tracked. The platform allows affiliate networks to assign both unique local and toll free phone numbers to publishers running a given ad campaign. These unique numbers can then be used by the advertiser to track the performance of their publishers’ campaigns and compensate them accordingly.
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