SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 25, 2007 (AFP) - A US judge said Tuesday he wants Oracle's lawsuit against SAP to go to trial in early 2009 and that it appears the German firm overstepped legal bounds in downloading its rival's data.

California-based Oracle sued SAP in San Francisco federal court in March, charging the world-leading business software group with the online looting of its software libraries to gain a competitive advantage.

NEW YORK, Sept 25, 2007 (AFP) - Microsoft is mulling an investment of up to 5.0 percent in the social networking site Facebook, a move that could set the stage for confrontation with rival Google, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

The paper, citing people familiar with the matter, said Microsoft had been in contact with Facebook Incorporated over the past few weeks, adding that a 5.0 percent stake could be valued at between 300 and 500 million dollars (213-355 million euros).

WASHINGTON, Sept 24, 2007 (AFP) - Microsoft hopes the launch Tuesday of its much-anticipated 'Halo 3' game will turn into another blockbuster that will fend off challenges from Nintendo's Wii and Sony's Playstation 3.

With plenty of hype and talk of record-breaking sales, Microsoft was to release the game in the United States at 12:01 am Tuesday (0401 GMT) and in 37 countries by the end of the week with a series of high-profile events.

WASHINGTON, Sept 24, 2007 (AFP) - The gaming world braced Monday for the launch of 'Halo 3,' expected to help Microsoft and its XBox 360 console in its battle against Nintendo's Wii and Sony's Playstation 3.

Microsoft was to release the game in the United States at 12:01 am Tuesday (0401 GMT) and in 37 countries by the end of the week with a series of high-profile events.

WASHINGTON, Sept 18, 2007 (AFP) - An EU court ruling upholding antitrust sanctions against Microsoft drew a harsh response from the US government and interest groups, which said it may stifle the burgeoning technology sector.

Thomas Barnett, head of the Justice Deparment's Antitrust Division, said the European Court of First Instance (CFI) in the case against the US software giant may do more harm rather good for consumers.

WASHINGTON, Sept 17, 2007 (AFP) - The US government Monday criticized an EU antitrust ruling upholding sanctions and a record fine against software giant Microsoft, saying it may have 'unfortunate' consequences.

Thomas Barnett, head of the Justice Deparment's Antitrust Division, said the European Court of First Instance (CFI) may harm rather than help consumers who use technology.

LUXEMBOURG, Sept 17, 2007 (AFP) - A top European court on Monday handed Microsoft a surprise defeat in its epic antitrust battles, backing the European Commission's 2004 record fine of 497 million euros (690 million dollars) on the software giant.

Against expectations for a split judgement, the European Court of First Instance, the EU's second highest tribunal, upheld most of the European Commission's ruling against the US company.

BRUSSELS, Sept 17, 2007 (AFP) - Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith expressed disappointment Monday with an EU court ruling against the US software giant but ruled out any quick legal appeal.

'The decision is a disappointing one for Microsoft,' he said, after Europe's second-highest court upheld a record 497-million-euro (690-million-dollar) fine imposed by the European Commission in 2004, part of a landmark antitrust case.

LUXEMBOURG, Sept 17, 2007 (AFP) - The European Commission's victory over Microsoft on Monday could embolden it as Europe's top competition watchdog but legal experts do not expect a regulating 'rampage' against other corporate giants.

The Commission emerged from its court victory over Microsoft with its credibility as a strong competition regulator restored after recent setbacks.

BRUSSELS, Sept 17, 2007 (AFP) - EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes warned Microsoft Monday that she expected it to cut its dominant market share to comply with a 2004 European Commission anti-trust ruling.

'When we observe a situation where one producer has a share of 95 percent of the market, it's a monopoly. It's not just a monopoly-like situation,' she told reporters in Brussels.

'You can't say 50 percent would be right,' she said, but added that the Commission, the EU's top competition regulator, expects from Microsoft 'a significant drop in market share.'

LUXEMBOURG, Sept 17, 2007 (AFP) - Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith said Monday that the software giant would 'study' an EU court ruling against the company before deciding to appeal, and would take 'additional steps' to comply with decision.

'We'll study this decision carefully and if there are additional steps that we need to take to comply with it, we will take them,' he told reporters at the European Court of First Instance.

LUXEMBOURG, Sept 17, 2007 (AFP) - Microsoft lost on Monday a landmark EU antitrust case at Europe's second-highest court, which upheld a record 497-million-euro (690-million-dollar) fine imposed by the European Commission in 2004.

'The Court of First Instance essentially upholds the Commission's decision finding that Microsoft abused its dominant position,' it said in its ruling delivered in Luxembourg.

The verdict was a blow to the software giant, which had requested the European Court of First Instance (CFI) to annul the 2004 anti-trust ruling.

LUXEMBOURG, Sept 17, 2007 (AFP) - Microsoft faces on Monday a decisive chapter in its epic antitrust battles when Europe's second-highest court rules whether the software giant abused its market power to crush rivals.

Eager to close its epic struggles with competition regulators, the software giant has requested the European Court of First Instance to annul a landmark 2004 antitrust ruling by the European Commission.

BRUSSELS, Sept 16, 2007 (AFP) - Microsoft faces on Monday a decisive chapter in its epic battles with antitrust regulators when Europe's second-highest court rules whether the software giant is guilty of abusing its crushing market share.

In a bid to close the book on its struggles with competition authorities, Microsoft has asked the European Court of First Instance to annul a 2004 antitrust decision by the European Commission.

BRUSSELS, Sept 13, 2007 (AFP) - Microsoft's nine-year legal battle with EU antitrust regulators faces a crucial test on Monday when Europe's second-highest court rules in the company's appeal against a 2004 decision by the European Commission.

The following is a timeline of the main chapters in the saga between the US software giant and Europe's top competition regulator.

BRUSSELS, Sept 13, 2007 (AFP) - EU competition regulators took their biggest decision to date in March 2004 when the European Commission fined Microsoft nearly a half a billion euros for abusing its dominant market share.

After a five-year investigation, the Commission ruled in March 2004 that Microsoft had used its 95-percent share of the market for personal computer operating systems to crush rivals.

BRUSSELS, Sept 13, 2007 (AFP) - Microsoft's long-running reign over global software markets faces a crucial test on Monday when Europe's second-highest court rules whether an antitrust case by EU regulators against the company holds up.

In what has become one of Europe's biggest legal battles, Microsoft is challenging a March 2004 anti-competition decision by the European Commission and the record fine of nearly half a billion euros that went with it.

MANILA, Sept 11, 2007 (AFP) - The Philippines is making progress in its fight against computer software piracy with 76 people arrested this year, an anti-piracy group said Tuesday.

Tarun Shawney, the South Asian director of the Business Software Alliance, an anti-piracy watchdog body, said that while piracy rates in this country were still high, government agencies were now consistently enforcing intellectual property laws regarding copying of computer programmes.

TOKYO, Sept 7, 2007 (AFP) - Microsoft Friday announced a tie up with Japanese humanoid maker Tmsuk in a bid to set the standard in the development of cutting-edge robots.

Microsoft Corp. is the unquestioned leader in computer operating systems with Windows but the growing field of robotics relies on diverse programming platforms.

The Redmond, Washington-based software giant last year launched Microsoft Robotics Studio, eying robotics as a potential expanding market of the type PCs once were.

GENEVA, Sept 4, 2007 (AFP) - US software giant Microsoft has lost its bid to have its Office software package format registered as an international standard, the body charged with regulating such matters said on Tuesday.

The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) said in a statement that a vote of its national member bodies failed to reach the required threshold to approve Microsoft's bid.

Twenty-six percent of the national bodies voted against standardising Office, while ISO rules stipulate that no more than 25 percent can oppose any successful bid.

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 10, 2007 (AFP) - A team of Thai college students who wrote computer software to read for the illiterate took the top prize at Microsoft's 2007 Imagine Cup in Seoul on Friday.

Microsoft's fifth annual competition challenged university students to find ways to use computer technology to improve life on the planet.

The theme of the cup that culminated this week with in South Korea was education. Microsoft announced that protecting the environment will be the focus of the Imagine Cup to be held in Paris next year.

LAS VEGAS, Aug 5, 2007 (AFP) - By the time Rick Deacon was done Sunday showing hackers in Las Vegas how to commandeer MySpace profile pages, he was evicted from the social networking website and the weakness fixed.

The US college student uncovered a MySpace vulnerability months ago and shared his discovery at DefCon, the largest gathering of computer hackers in the world.

LAS VEGAS, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - An undercover television reporter Friday fled from outraged computer hackers that caught her spying on their Las Vegas gathering with a camera hidden in her handbag.

Dateline NBC associate producer Michelle Madigan was heckled and derided as she ran from DefCon, the world's largest computer hackers conference, and raced away in a car.

LAS VEGAS, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - Hackers and computer security specialists gathered in Las Vegas on Friday took aim at popular social networking websites, exposing ways to plunder data from software 'cookies' used to track users.

Revelations made at an international gathering of hackers dubbed DefCon come as Internet rivals Google, Microsoft, and Ask acquire firms that rely on cookies to better target money-making online ads.

'Websites could easily fix the problem by encrypting cookies,' Errata Security chief executive Robert Graham told AFP.

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - A Chinese immigrant working for a US computer firm has pleaded guilty to industrial spying on behalf of the Chinese navy, according to the US Justice Department.

Xiaodong Sheldon Meng, 42, was charged in December 2006 with violating the Foreign Economic Espionage and Arms Export Control acts by exporting industrial secrets pilfered from Quantum3D, a San Jose, California, firm he worked for.

LAS VEGAS, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - Satellite navigation systems in cars can be hijacked remotely with relative ease, allowing hackers to feed drivers bogus directions, two experts told a major security conference here.

Andrea Barisani and Daniele Bianco from the website Inverse Path demonstrated Thursday how antennas and a patchwork of commonly available electronics can be employed to replace the legitimate traffic information radioed to the systems with false instructions.

LAS VEGAS, Aug 2, 2007 (AFP) - The Internet is ripe for hacking chaos and rampant crime due to serious computer defense flaws, specialists told cyber security experts from around the world at a major conference here.

The experts who met at the Black Hat digital self-defense conference in Las Vegas also heard from US counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke, who blasted what he described as President George W. Bush's lack of interest in enhancing the nation's cyber security.

BEIJING, July 24, 2007 (AFP) - An 'unprecedented' China-US operation has seized a huge haul of Chinese-made counterfeit software and arrested 25 people for exporting the bogus goods, the FBI said Tuesday.

The joint investigation, codenamed 'Summer Solstice,' was carried out by China`s Ministry of Public Security and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, an FBI statement issued here said.

All the arrests and seizures -- of mainly counterfeit Microsoft and Symantec software that was to be shipped globally -- were made in China, it said.

FRANKFURT, July 23, 2007 (AFP) - The head of Taiwan-based personal computer maker Acer, Gianfranco Lanci, hit out at Microsoft`s Windows Vista operating system, saying that the 'entire industry' was disappointed by it.

'The entire industry is disappointed by Windows Vista,' the head of the world`s fourth-biggest PC maker told the Financial Times Deutschland in its online edition on Monday.

'I really don`t think that someone has bought a new PC specifically for Vista,' he added.