Business news in brief

BlackBerry sues Facebook over patent

BlackBerry Ltd. is suing Facebook Inc. for patent infringement, claiming the social media giant uses technology invented by the former smartphone maker in Facebook's popular messaging applications.

Apps like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp use some messaging capabilities that were originally designed by BlackBerry, a spokesman for the company said in an email. "We have a strong claim that Facebook has infringed on our intellectual property, and after several years of dialogue, we also have an obligation to our shareholders to pursue appropriate legal remedies."

BlackBerry is asking that Facebook be ordered to stop providing its primary app as well as Facebook Messenger, Workplace Chat, WhatsApp Messenger and Instagram applications and websites.

Facebook and its companies "created mobile messaging applications that co-opt BlackBerry's innovations, using a number of the innovative security, user interface, and functionality enhancing features that made BlackBerry's products such a critical and commercial success in the first place," BlackBerry said in a complaint.

"BlackBerry's suit sadly reflects the current state of its messaging business," said Paul Grewal, Facebook's deputy general counsel. "Having abandoned its efforts to innovate, BlackBerry is now looking to tax the innovation of others. We intend to fight."

-- Bloomberg News

U.S. to pitch drone-downing authority

The White House is preparing to propose giving law enforcement and security agencies the authority to track and disable in flight civilian drones that present a threat.

The administration of President Donald Trump is working on the measure as part of its effort to both speed the introduction of rapidly expanding drone technology and to address growing security concerns, Michael Kratsios, an assistant to the president who is deputy U.S. technology officer, said Tuesday.

Technology exists that can track a drone by monitoring its radio-control signals. It is also possible to seize control of an errant drone, or to render it inoperable by jamming the signals. But laws prohibit using many of those technologies, hampering the ability of security agencies to respond to threats.

Kratsios offered few details of the plan in remarks to a Federal Aviation Administration-sponsored conference on civilian drones in Baltimore. The effort has been underway for months and involves multiple U.S. agencies, according to an official briefed on the talks.

-- Bloomberg News

Zinke favors Interior-oil partnership

HOUSTON -- Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke says his agency should be a partner with oil and gas companies that seek to drill on public land and that long regulatory reviews with an uncertain outcome are "un-American."

Speaking Tuesday to a major energy-industry conference, Zinke described the Trump administration's efforts to increase offshore drilling, reduce regulations, and streamline inspections of oil and gas operators.

"Interior should not be in the business of being an adversary. We should be in the business of being a partner," Zinke said to a receptive audience that included leaders of energy companies and oil-producing countries.

"If you ask an investor to continuously put money on a project that is uncertain because the permit process has too much uncertainty, ambiguity, [it] is, quite frankly, un-American," he said.

The Interior Department manages 500,000 million acres -- one-fifth of the U.S. landmass -- as well as the lease of offshore areas for oil drilling. One-fifth of U.S. oil production takes place on land or water that the Interior Department leases to private energy companies.

-- The Associated Press

Weinstein buyer sees books; deal off

Maria Contreras-Sweet said her group is pulling out of its deal to buy the troubled Weinstein Co. film and TV studio after an examination of its finances raised doubts about the company's viability.

The deal fell apart after Contreras-Sweet's group learned Weinstein's liabilities were higher than the $225 million previously thought, people with knowledge of the matter said. Contreras-Sweet said in a statement Tuesday that she would consider acquiring Weinstein assets if they become available in a bankruptcy.

The decision leaves the beleaguered film and TV producer with few options other than seeking protection from creditors in court. Various financiers and content partners have distanced themselves from projects with the studio since sexual-misconduct allegations drove co-founder and Oscar-winning producer Harvey Weinstein from his job in October. The company had no comment.

-- Bloomberg News

SEC fines NYSE $14M over trading halt

The New York Stock Exchange and its sister markets were fined $14 million by U.S. securities regulators for a series of infractions including missteps in dealing with a 3½ hour trading halt in July 2015 and a wild trading session that roiled exchange-traded funds a month later.

The exchanges didn't have proper rules in place, violated some they did have and in some cases broke the law, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in an order released Tuesday. The fine was as big as one imposed against another market in January 2015, a penalty the SEC said was the biggest ever against an exchange. The markets, all divisions of Intercontinental Exchange Inc., settled without admitting or denying the SEC's findings.

The July 2015 shutdown froze one of the world's biggest financial markets. In the 47 minutes before the halt began, NYSE and NYSE American "experienced escalating connectivity problems" between their trading systems and computers customers use to access the exchanges. NYSE broke the law because it kept marking those stocks as having "automated" price quotes even though it "had reason to believe otherwise," the SEC said.

-- Bloomberg News

Business on 03/07/2018

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