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For years, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted patents covering e-commerce business methods, and companies have exploited such patents to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. In one famous example, Amazon.com sued Barnes & Noble just before the 1999 holiday season, alleg...

Yahoo has postponed its annual shareholders' meeting, which had been originally scheduled to take place on July 3. Now, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, that meeting will take place at the end of July in order to give regulators time to review paperwork related...

Broadcast, cablecast, simulcast, webcast, podcast, vodcast, mobilecast -- the melding of the realms of "lean back" and "lean in" technology can mean coming attractions for business-to-business marketing communications and video news generation -- if done straight-up, i.e., correctly and transparentl...

Michael Hollick isn't really a Balkan criminal -- he just plays one in a video game that happens to be one of the fastest-selling ever, generating at least $600 million in sales over the last three weeks. Yet while Rockstar Games' "Grand Theft Auto IV" has enjoyed its wild success, Hollick -- an act...

IBM has launched a software tool that will help companies analyze the impact of their supply chains on the environment. IBM's Carbon Tradeoff Modeler will enable companies to manage their carbon footprint by giving them insight into how different decisions along their supply chains affect the enviro...

In its most aggressive and creative effort yet to challenge Google in search and search advertising, Microsoft has unveiled a plan to give cash rebates to consumers who use its Live Search and end up making online purchases. Live Search cashback essentially shares advertising revenue with end users,...

SOA is replacing Web services, which took the spot of object-oriented programming, which usurped the client/server computer, which supplanted mainframe computing as the primary way that companies design their applications. As the latest transition takes place, SOA is encountering some of the problem...

Bidding to grab an early share of the rapidly growing mobile advertising market, Microsoft on Tuesday announced a broad initiative to drive both display and search ads on mobile devices. The software giant will immediately make available display advertising on its Windows Live for mobile platform an...

It all used to be so simple -- at least for retailers. Back in the day, it was enough to have your catalog online; then interactivity and rich media came along. Now, we're in an age of personalization, where buyer patterns are predicted and mapped to up-sell and cross-sell options. The Internet has...

In its most direct challenge yet to the dominance of Apple's iTunes Music Store, Napster on Tuesday launched what it says is the largest online MP3 download store, selling some six million tracks. All of the songs offered for download by Napster are free of digital rights management controls, meanin...

When an e-commerce startup talks about upending the business model on which Amazon and eBay and other e-tail giants have built billion-dollar businesses, it's clear it doesn't lack ambition. Still, the founders of Cartfly believe the new face of the Web will eventually create a new way to sell and b...

Law enforcement authorities in two countries on Monday charged 38 people in the U.S. and Romania with taking part in two different phishing-related fraud schemes that authorities say were tied to organized crime worldwide. The United States Department of Justice and the Prosecutor General of Romania...

The never-ending Microhoo saga has left many investors feeling downright whipsawed as they watched events careen from one extreme to the other -- and that was after the merger was supposedly dead in the water. Now, most likely due to activist investor Carl Icahn's very real threat to launch a proxy ...

AOL has closed its $850 million acquisition of Bebo, and the portal will use the social network as the basis for a new People Networks business unit. Bebo Chief Executive Officer Joanna Shields will serve as executive vice president of AOL and president of the People Networks division, which will co...

For decades, both manufacturers and retailers have practiced and refined the art of merchandising products. From simple steps like packaging, product shelf placement and signage to sales rep training days and the stopping power of endcap displays, retailers and their vendors have traditionally worke...