Sony, the Japanese electronics company has taken the plunge into the escalating mobile phone patent wars by suing South Korean rival LG for patent infringement, and claiming that LG's mobile phones violate seven Sony patents, according to court documents.

 

Sony has filed the patent suit with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) and with the US District Court in Los Angeles, which alleged that the LG phones violated its patents on band-width allocation, image capture, audio recording, network management and using photos as part of a caller ID system. In filing the lawsuit, Sony joins a growing list of companies which have filed patent violation complaints over technology used in increasingly sophisticated smartphones. These include Apple, Microsoft, HTC, and Nokia. Sony claimed that the patents allegedly infringed upon by LG had been licensed to other companies such as Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.

 

In the lawsuit, Sony asked the ITC to block imports to the US of LG phones that use the contested technology.

 

The legal action coincided with reports from Japan that Sony is to release a smartphone based on its PSP3 portable gaming console as it tries to make a late effort to thwart the threat posed by Apple's iPhone and phones powered by Google's Android operating system.

 

 

 

 

Since the “Hello Work” Job Service Offices opened in major city of Japan, which are aiming to help assist the unemployed and needy during the year-end and New Year holiday, about 3,700 people sought support in these offices.

 

In accordance with a request from the government, nineteen Hello Work offices in the cities, including Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Saitama, will be open to provide support services for extra days at the year-end.

 

According to labor and government officials of the city, a total of 583 people visited five Hello Work offices in Tokyo, including 60 who are without homes. Metropolitan government officials later in the day took the homeless people by bus to accommodation facilities prepared for them for free.

 

This situation reflects the country's severe employment conditions. And according to a report the jobless rate is still up to 5.1% in Nov.

 

Such support services are being provided after the government, unlike a year ago, decided not to open up shelters during the holidays to house the unemployed workers.

 

 

 

 

The Japanese arm of AIU Insurance Co is seeking 40 Japanese high school students—20 males and 20 females—for a free summer exchange program in the United States next year as a part of its social contribution program.

 

The students will visit Washington and New York while staying at Princeton University in New Jersey with U.S. students to deepen mutual understanding. Those wishing to take part in the program need to apply by Feb 14 and selection will be based on interviews in English and recommendations from high school principals, according to the company.

 

Since the exchange program started in 1987, the company has sent around 1,200 Japanese high school students to the United States.

 

 

 

 

Almost 4.9 million cases of the personal information of people who registered their data and signed up on Honda websites have been leaked in the United States, according to Honda Motor Co.

 

The names, email addresses and car information of people who registered their data on Honda or Acura websites in about 2.2 million cases were leaked, as well as the email addresses of people signed up to receive information about Acura cars in around 2.7 million cases.

 

The problem occurred as hackers gained access to the system of an online service company, which the Japanese automaker had contracted to manage the data. Honda has already sent emails to the people affected informing them about the situation and asking them to change their passwords, although the passwords were not among the data that were leaked.

 

 

 

 Maggie Zhang joined iTV-Asia in September 2010.  She is originally from Henan, China and is “Content Coordinator” for Japan.  She is focused on a number of industries including advertising, energy, entertainment, finance, food & beverage, media and real estate.  Maggie is new to Shanghai and is exploring and learning about this great city.  She can be reached at maggie.zhang@itv-asia.com.