Panasonic Corp logos are seen at an electronics store in Tokyo November 15, 2012.

TOKYO | Fri Dec 21, 2012 2:31am EST

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Panasonic Corp said on Friday that it would appeal a decision by the European Commission to fine it 252 million euros ($327 million) on charges of fixing prices for TV and computer monitor cathode-ray tubes along with five other companies.

The European Commission fined six firms, including Philips, LG Electronics Toshiba Corp Samsung SDI and French company Technicolor a total of 1.47 billion euros, its biggest antitrust penalty in history.

The Commission on Dec 5 said executives from the European and Asian companies had met until six years ago to fix prices and divide up markets for TV and computer monitor cathode-ray tubes, a business that has since been replaced by flat panel displays.

Panasonic in a statement said it "will seek a fair judgment".

Until now, the Commission's biggest antitrust penalty had been a 1.38 billion euro fine imposed on participants in a car glass cartel in 2008.

(Reporting by Tokyo Newsroom; Editing by Ron Popeski)

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1 of 2. A woman walks past a Nokia advertisement board at a home appliances store in Shenyang, Liaoning province December 6, 2012.

HELSINKI | Fri Dec 21, 2012 4:18am EST

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Struggling Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia has settled its patent dispute with BlackBerry maker Research in Motion in return for payments, as it tries to exploit its trove of technology patents to boost its finances.

Terms of the agreement were confidential, but Nokia said on Friday it included a one-time payment to be booked in the fourth quarter, as well as ongoing fees, all to be paid by RIM.

Nokia is one of the industry's top patent holders, having invested 45 billion euros ($60 billion) in mobile research and development over the past two decades.

It has been trying to make use of that legacy to ensure its survival, amid a fall in sales as well as cash. The Finnish firm is battling to recover lost ground in the lucrative smartphone market to the likes of Apple and Samsung.

The agreement with RIM settles all existing patent litigation between the two companies, Nokia said, adding similar disputes with HTC Corp and ViewSonic still stood.

"This agreement demonstrates Nokia's industry leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market," said Paul Melin, Nokia's chief intellectual property officer.

Nokia has earned around 500 million euros a year from patent royalties in key areas of mobile telephony.

Some analysts have said it could earn hundreds of millions more if it can negotiate with more companies successfully.

Analysts estimated its June 2011 settlement with Apple was worth hundreds of millions of euros.

($1 = 0.7555 euros)

(Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Hans-Juergen Peters and Mark Potter)

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n">(Reuters) - Instagram, the popular photo-sharing service, has retreated from some but not all of the controversial changes in its terms of service that prompted a fierce backlash from users earlier this week.

In a blog post on Thursday, Instagram founder and CEO Kevin Systrom apologized for a failure to "communicate our intentions clearly." The terms of service changes pertaining to advertising have been reversed, Systrom said, and restored to what they had been before the changes announced on Monday.

Instagram, which allows people to add filters and effects to photos and share them easily on the Internet, was acquired by Facebook earlier this year for $715 million.

Some top users of Instagram, including National Geographic magazine, said they would stop using the service after the new rules were announced on Monday.

Language that had appeared to allow Instagram advertisers to display user photos without compensation have been removed from updated terms of service posted on Thursday.

The updated terms also do not appear to contain a controversial provision which had stated that if a child under the age of 18 used the service, it implied his or her parent had tacitly agreed to Instagram's terms.

However, the new terms still contain a mandatory arbitration clause, which is not included in terms of service for other leading social media companies like Twitter, Google, YouTube or even Facebook itself. That immunizes Instagram from many forms of liability, according to legal experts.

Internet experts said Instagram had been very aggressive in asserting its rights to user information and inviting anyone who did not agree to delete their accounts within a few weeks.

The updated terms still say that anyone who accesses Instagram agrees to be bound by the new terms which are slated to go into effect on January 19.

Also, Instagram kept language which gave it the ability to place ads in conjunction with user content, and "that we may not always identify paid services, sponsored content, or commercial communications as such."

Instagram representatives could not immediately be reached for comment.

Systrom stressed in the blog post that the company had no intention of selling the photos that users post on the service. Many users had read the new terms of service as an indication that the company was reserving the right to do that.

"Going forward, rather than obtain permission from you to introduce possible advertising products we have not yet developed, we are going to take the time to complete our plans, and then come back to our users and explain how we would like for our advertising business to work," Systrom said.

(Reporting by Jonathan Weber and Dan Levine; Editing by Paul Tait and Michael Perry)

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The Apple logo hangs in a glass enclosure above the 5th Ave Apple Store in New York, September 20, 2012. Apple's iPhone 5 goes on sale tomorrow.

WASHINGTON | Thu Dec 20, 2012 6:04pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tech giant Apple Inc, battling Samsung Electronics Co over patents in several countries, argued on Thursday that a U.S. appeals court should reconsider its decision to overturn a pretrial sales ban on Samsung for infringement.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in October overturned a pretrial sales ban ordered by a lower court in California. The order was to stop sales of Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone.

Apple argued that this was inappropriate and asked for an "en banc review," which means that a larger panel of judges would reconsider the decision made by the three-judge panel in October.

The fight is over a single patent - one that allows the smartphone to search multiple data storage locations at once. For example, the smartphone could search the device's memory as well as the Internet with a single query.

Apple argued that the sales ban should be reinstated because it uses the patent in question and competes with Samsung. The three-judge panel had said that consumers did not buy Samsung phones primarily because of the patent, and thus, a sales ban was inappropriate.

It has become increasingly difficult for companies to win sales bans related to patent infringement in recent years. Such sales injunctions have been a key for companies trying to increase their leverage in courtroom patent fights.

Apple, in a different patent lawsuit, scored a sweeping legal victory over Samsung in August when a U.S. jury found Samsung had copied critical features of the hugely popular iPhone and iPad and awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages.

The Nexus phone was not included in that trial, but is part of a tandem case Apple filed against Samsung earlier this year.

The case in the Federal Circuit is Apple Inc vs. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al., 12-1507.

Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh rejected Apple's request for a permanent sales ban against 26 mostly older Samsung phones, though any injunction could potentially have been extended to Samsung's newer Galaxy products. Koh cited the Federal Circuit's Nexus ruling as binding legal precedent in her order.

In a separate court filing on Thursday, Apple said it intended to appeal Koh's ruling.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)

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n">(Reuters) - Red Hat Inc, the world's largest distributor of Linux operating software, posted third-quarter revenue above analysts' estimates on strong growth in its subscription business, sending its shares up 6 percent in after-market trading.

The company also said it would buy privately held ManageIQ, which provides management and automation programs for cloud computing, for $104 million in cash.

The acquisition, its fourth since October last year, is not expected to have any material impact to Red Hat's revenue for the fiscal year ending February 28.

Red Hat expects to earn between 29 cents and 30 cents per share in the fourth quarter, on revenue of $347 million to $351 million, it said on a conference call with analysts.

Analysts were expecting earnings of 30 cents on revenue of $350.9 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Third-quarter net income fell to $34.8 million, or 18 cents per share, from $38.2 million, or 19 cents per share, a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, the company earned 29 cents per share, in line with expectations. Revenue rose 18 percent to $344 million, beating estimates of $338 million.

Red Hat's subscription revenue rose 19 percent to $294.2 million in the quarter ended November 30.

Shares of the Raleigh, North Carolina-based company were trading at $55.60 after the bell. The stock closed at $52.61 on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday.

(Reporting by Neha Alawadhi; Editing by Krishna N. Das)

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