high-tech industry

Edward Dimmler dips a cotton swab in acetone and rubs it on the surface of a computer chip that was ostensibly manufactured by Samsung. The white tip turns black -- the first clue that the part may be fake. Dimmler, director of warehouse operations at electronics distributor PCX, then inspects the chip under a microscope and sees the word Samsung smeared across the top of the chip. Clearly, this memory chip is counterfeit, ineligible for resale.

With the technology industry looking on, the Supreme Court on Monday will explore what types of inventions should be eligible for a patent in a pivotal case that could undermine such legal protections for software.

A ruling that sides with the Patent Office could bar patents on processes and methods of doing business, such as online shopping techniques, medical diagnostic tests and procedures for executing trades on Wall Street. And it might even undercut patents on software.

Before the dust even settles on the news that Microsoft and Yahoo will partner on Internet searches and advertising, the U.S. government has announced plans to scrutinize the deal. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) said the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights will investigate. He is chairman of the subcommittee.

Oracle's $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems has major implications for the high-tech world that will unfold in the months ahead. There is already plenty of speculation about how the merger will position Oracle to compete and plenty of optimism about what this megamerger means for the high-tech industry in the midst of a global crisis.

A couple of things are certain:

China is starting a long-delayed introduction of third-generation mobile phone service, setting off a politically charged scramble by foreign and Chinese equipment makers for up to $41 billion in orders.

Chinese sales could be crucial for suppliers such as Motorola Inc., Alcatel-Lucent SA and Nokia-Siemens Networks as global demand slumps. State media say the largest Chinese carrier, China Mobile, expects to sign up 100 million 3G subscribers -- more than most nations' entire mobile markets -- in the next three years.

Dresden is one of the great success stories of German reunification. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the capital of the East German state of Saxony remade itself as the center of European semiconductor production, becoming home to major facilities operated by U.S. chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices as well as Munich-based Infineon Technologies. When a 1998 Time magazine article dubbed the region "Silicon Saxony," locals embraced the label and even founded an organization by that name to promote industry interests.

The United States filed a complaint Wednesday with the World Trade Organization over European tariffs on three categories of high-tech goods, including flat-panel computer monitors and some printers.

The duties, which are as high as 14 percent, make U.S. exports less competitive in the European Union, according to the Information Technology Industry Council, a trade association. The group's members include Hewlett-Packard Co., Apple Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc.

Faced with a difficulty finding skilled employees, one of India's leading outsourcing companies is going out to find prospective workers -- on a bus.

Firstsource Solutions Ltd.'s orange-and-white recruitment bus has been touring Mumbai, India's financial capital, over the last few days inviting potential workers to "Step in to step ahead."

While the bus may be a recruitment gimmick, it shows the lengths India's outsourcing companies -- which have been leading India's economic boom -- have to go as the industry grapples with a serious shortage of skilled labor.