Google India gets Income Tax notice

Google IndiaGoogle, the global search engine giant is facing the heat from the Indian Telecom Ministry and the Income-Tax Department at the same time. The Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal has come down with an iron hand on the regulation of content by Google and its services and in addition to this, the recent notice served by the Income –Tax Department towards giving final touches to a tax demand from Google India seems to have put the company in a tight spot.

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Apple And Google Controversy Over Android

appleRecently apple equipped its I phones with faster chips and better cameras seeking to set its hand set apart from the Googles android smart phones with weather predictions and voice recognition technology. There has also been problem regarding patents claims over the android technology. Google claims that Microsoft and apple have joined hands against it and but Android on fire. More than 550,000 Android devices are activated everyday through a network of 39 manufacturers and 231 carriers. Android and other platforms are competing hard against each other, and that’s yielding cool new devices and amazing mobile apps for consumers. But Android’s success has yielded something else: a hostile, organized campaign against Android by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies, waged through bogus patents. They’re doing this by banding together to acquire Novell’s old patents and Nortel’s old patents , to make sure Google didn’t get them; seeking $15 licensing fees for every Android device; making it more expensive for phone manufacturers to license Android than Windows Phone 7; Patents were meant to encourage innovation, but lately they are being used as a weapon to stop it. A smart phone might involve as many as 250,000 (largely questionable) patent claims, and the competitors want to impose a tax for these dubious patents that makes Android devices more expensive for consumers. They want to make it harder for manufacturers to sell Android devices. Instead of competing by building new features or devices, they are fighting through litigation.

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Oracle Vs Google Patent Infringement Trial

google_vs_oracleThe allegations put forth by Oracle against Google were expected to be put under trial before the Judge William Alsup of the US District Court for the Northern District of California from October 31st, 2011 onwards. Unfortunately due to the fact that the District Judge was entrusted with the trial of a high profile criminal case, the Oracle-Google trial has been postponed to a later date. However the Judge failed to mention the next start date of the trial. It has been hinted that the trial might start only in 2012. The Judge stated that the trial is expected to happen in three phases of which the first phases will be concerning the copyright and patent violations and the defenses thereto. He also hinted that owing to his busy schedule, the trial might even get entrusted to another Judge.

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