Transcript

Tuesday March 18, 2008

eBay Brings Affiliate Programs In-House

eBay has announced that starting April 1st, it will no longer run affiliate partnerships through ValueClick’s Commission Junction, and has instead set up its own affiliate eBay Partner Network to encourage Web site owners to drive traffic to its eBay and Half.com Web sites. Affiliates currently enrolled in eBay and Half.com’s affiliate programs will have until May 1st to update their links to the new eBay Partner Network.

http://mashable.com/2008/03/17/ebay-partner-network/
http://affiliates.ebay.com/ns/Launch.htm
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN1763380720080317

Google Loses EU Trademark Protection On Gmail Name

Google has lost its attempt to acquire European Union-wide trademark protection for the name “Gmail”, used to identify its Web-based email service. The EU ruled the name is too similar to an existing trademark owned by German businessman Daniel Giersch who uses the name Gmail, which differs with an apostrophe, for a mail business that lets users send electronic files and messages through a central e- mail system. Google owns trademark rights to Gmail in 60 nations, but will continue to use the name Google Mail in Germany and the UK, pending a possible appeal.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=a7zrAPBAC5Lk

AT&T Forges Yellowpages.com Business Listings Deal with Microsoft

AT&T has signed a deal with Microsoft to supply its Yellowpages.com local business listings to Microsoft’s MSN Yellow Pages, MSN Live Search and Live Search Maps beginning in early April, replacing Superpages.com as Microsoft’s local advertising supplier. The deal could result in up to 35 million more views for Yellowpages.com business listings, putting AT&T closer to reaching its forecast that projects sales for Yellowpages.com and related businesses will grow to more than $1.5bn by 2010, from about $600m last year.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ffe7ff58-f48d-11dc-aaad-0000779fd2ac.html

Court Rules: Novell Antitrust Case Against Microsoft To Continue

Much to Microsoft’s dismay, The Supreme Court Monday ruled against halting an antitrust suit brought against Microsoft in 2004 which said in court papers that Microsoft had “deliberately targeted and destroyed” Novell’s WordPerfect and QuattroPro programs to protect its Windows operating system monopoly. The Supreme Court's decision allows Novell's lawsuit to continue. Microsoft, which settled with the federal government over accusations it was abusing its operating system monopoly to take market share in the Internet browser market, has court oversight of its business practices imposed until 2012.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/business/18soft.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120576629928841897.html
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206904292
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/17/supreme-court-clears-the-way-for-novell-to-seek-revenge-from-microsoft-for-crushing-wordperfect/
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080317-wordperfect-antitrust-case-greenlighted-by-the-supreme-court.html

[edited by: Vanessa_Zamora at 10:51 pm (utc) on Mar. 18, 2008]