Webwire: Google buys IBM patents; RIM willing to restrict UK services

Google has acquired another 1,023 patents from IBM to protect Android from patent violation claims. The transaction, the terms of which have not been disclosed, follows Google's purchase of 1,030 IBM patents in July.

Bloomberg 

RIM would shut down BlackBerry messenger services in the UK if ordered to by authorities during a state of civil unrest, an executive from the company told a parliamentary inquiry.

South Korea is still the world's most advanced broadband market by access, usage and skills, and high-speed services are still prohibitively expensive in a number of developing countries, according to the ITU.

Reuters 

 

US operator AT&T will launch LTE services in five markets on Sunday, and plans to debut an LTE handset around the end of the year.

Geek.com 

 

France Telecom, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Iliad have all bid for spectrum in what is now shaping up to be a €2.5 billion ($3.47 billion) 4G auction.

Australia's Optus, a SingTel subsidiary, plans to launch LTE in April 2012, which would make it the last of the nation's three major mobile operators to commence LTE services. 

Gizmodo 

 

The FBI is hunting down hackers who stole the e-mail addresses and passwords of a host of Hollywood A-listers, after a string of personal photographs were posted online.

BBC 

 

UK culture secretary Jeremy Hunt is calling on ISPs and search engines to block access to websites carrying pirated material, as part of the country’s plans to tackle piracy.

The Independent