Internet shopping mall operator Rakuten has asked Japan's Fair Trade Commission to examine an Internet search deal between Yahoo Japan and Google, it said Wednesday.

So what if some iPhones lose reception when the hand covers the antenna? That's your problem, not Apple's. "Non issue," Apple chief executive Steve Jobs told a MacRumors forumgoer via e-mail. "Just avoid holding it in that way." Fair enough, but what about iPhone 4's other reported issues, including screen discoloration, reversed volume buttons, stubborn cameras and scratched glass? If Apple's going to pin the antenna problem on users, why stop there? Here's how the company should handle all those other pesky complaints:

Cisco Systems closed its acquisition of Tandberg on Monday, formally ending a tense struggle over the fair value of the Norwegian videoconferencing vendor.

A World?s Fair Use Day-en felszólaló alkotók úgy vélik, az amerikai szerzői jogi törvények mára idejétmúlttá váltak; szerintük a kortárs művészek szempontjait mérlegelve, újra kellene gondolni a hatályos törvényi szabályozást.

South Korea's Fair Trade Commission has closed an antitrust investigation of the flash memory industry, concluding that there is no evidence of a pricing cartel.

Ten privacy and consumer groups, including the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), filed a complaint Thursday with the U.S.Federal Trade Commission, saying that Facebook's newly revamped privacy settings are deceptive and unfair.

Nvidia has delayed the development of chipsets that work with Intel's microprocessors, citing "unfair business tactics" employed by Intel, the company said on Thursday.

With less than two weeks to go before the start of the H-1B visa rush, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) released rules Wednesday to prevent applicants from trying to unfairly boost their odds in the expected visa lottery.

Microsoft said its US$44.6 billion offer to purchase Yahoo is "fair" and hinted that it may pursue a hostile takeover of the Internet company, according to a statement Microsoft made Monday in response to Yahoo's formal rejection of its buyout offer.

A government audit of four U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) centers found US$6.4 million worth of missing or misplaced IT equipment, according to a report released Tuesday.

The European Union's antitrust regulator has fined telecommunications operator Telefónica SA ?152 million (US$207 million) for overcharging its competitors for wholesale access to broadband services in Spain. But competing operators say the fine is still not enough to ensure fair competition in Europe's telecommunications markets.

Oracle Corp. took its bitter rivalry with business applications vendor SAP AG up another notch, filing suit Thursday against SAP alleging violations of U.S. fraud legislation, unfair competition and civil conspiracy.

The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) is not concerned about reports from the U.K. that say RFID (radio frequency ID) chips in passports can be cracked in as little as 48 hours.

About 120 folks are gathering Friday at a town hall meeting to discuss the future of a fairly new initiative called the Global Environment for Networking Innovations (GENI).