Business

Have you ever considered whether you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? You might think that there aren't many objective ways by which you can assess your entrepreneurial ability. Actually, there are. One of the quickest ways by which you can get some idea of your innate talents for entrepren...

The Bilski v. Kappos Supreme Court case was the latest skirmish in the ongoing war over the scope of patents. On the one side are purists who want the patent statute open to new technologies, and on the other are those who wish to see the patent laws more curtailed -- and particularly that the paten...

A few months ago, the Globeandmail.com's Barry McKenna reported that "Canada has earned a dubious distinction as a world hub for illegitimate file-sharing websites and a leader in Internet piracy." In addition, Canada is in the "embarrassing position of harboring five of the top eight remaining unau...

In opening its new Mass Lab on June 16, IBM stated that the facility that will focus energy and attention on mobile computing technologies. For me, that point recalled Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?, Louis Gerstner's memoir of his time at IBM. Hired when the company was on the brink of collapse, Ge...

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a patent case that has held the software industry and patent attorneys in suspense for much of the last year. However, the decision, which came down on the last day of the court's term, was worth the wait for advocates in favor of the patentability of business pro...

U.S. President Barack Obama has signed a memorandum that proposes the government to provide 500 MHz worth of additional broadband spectrum for auction -- spectrum that is now controlled by the federal government and private companies. The goal of the proposal is to provide more wireless space for th...

Incorporating social media strategies into your marketing plan is no cut-and-paste job. You've got to know your clientele and what appeals to them, and you have to engage them in a conversation rather than simply spew offers at them. In fact, if you don't have the desire to commit yourself to social...

Twitter has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it deceived consumers and put their privacy at risk by failing to safeguard users' personal information, the FTC announced Thursday. In what was the agency's first such case against a social networking service, the FTC charged that s...

A judge has ruled in YouTube's favor regarding the video-sharing site's three-year battle with Viacom over alleged copyright infringement. On Wednesday, the U.S. District Court in New York ruled that YouTube had complied with the take-down provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in its ha...

The White House on Tuesday released its plan to fight intellectual property theft, including more than 30 recommendations designed to encourage all branches of government to take a more aggressive stand against piracy. The Joint Strategic Plan, which was required by the 2008 PRO-IP Act, creates a ju...

Barnes & Noble on Monday rolled out a new, low-cost Nook device and lowered the price on the existing 3G-compatible version of its e-reader. Available this week, the new Nook WiFi device is priced at just $149. The price on the existing Nook 3G, meanwhile, was slashed from $259 to $199, making ...

Social networking platforms can be powerful tools. Twitter strikes fear into the hearts of repressive regimes, and Facebook was nearly single-handedly responsible for the revival of Betty White's career. So how can something with that much influence be easy and unintimidating for a small-business ow...

The Federal Communications Commission has voted to forward what it calls a "third way" toward broadband regulation. Following a big legal loss in April, when a federal circuit court ruled that the FCC had no authority to regulate Internet traffic, the agency has been scrambling to find ways to stay...

AOL has found a buyer for its social networking site Bebo. Although the sale price is undisclosed, it is rumored that Los Angeles-based private equity fund Criterion Capital Partners snapped up the site for $10 million. If true, that price represents a steep drop from what AOL paid for it two years ...

What's the path to profit in the digital age? Publishing companies, particularly those in the newspaper and magazine business, have been wrestling with that question for at least the past decade. Rupert Murdoch, chairman of the media conglomerate News Corp., thinks getting readers to pay for online ...