Every day, the Fortune staff spends hours poring over tech stories, posts, and reviews from all over the Web to keep tabs on the companies that matter. We’ve assembled the day’s most newsworthy bits below.
- A federal court jury awarded Oracle $1.3 billion, the largest such sum in the books, deeming SAP guilty of copyright infringement. Filed in 2007, the lawsuit alleged that SAP illegally downloaded more than 8 million instances of Oracle’s customer-support software and hundreds of thousands of pages of supporting documentation from one of its web sites, then used those tools to lure 350 customers away from its rival. (eWeek)
- Remember that unfortunate Google employee fired recently for leaking information about company-wide raises and bonuses? Turns out it was Randy Wigginton, Apple’s sixth hire way back when, as well as a former PayPal and eBay employee. (Pulse2)
- Although Apple just released the iOS 4.2.1 update, rumors abound the company could unveil 4.3 as soon as December 13 to allow for recurring magazine and newspaper subscriptions. (Macstories)
- The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will award Facebook a trademark for the word “Face” so long as it applies to “telecommunication services, namely, providing online chat rooms and electronic bulletin boards for transmission of messages among computer users in the field of general interest and concerning social and entertainment subject matter.” (CNNMoney)
- Ever the perennial fave, The Beatles sold more than 450,000 albums and 2 million individual tracks during their first week on iTunes. (Fortune)
- Open-source Facebook alternative Diaspora, which focuses on user privacy, entered a private alpha, invite-only phase. (Digital Trends)
- Apple reportedly hired at least five key RIM enterprises sales staffers over the last year-and-a-half, including Geoff Perfect, former Head of Strategic Sales. (MacRumors)
- Skype is celebrating a new milestone: 25 million simultaneous users. (The Big Blog)
- Caught on Google Street View this week: a woman giving birth on the sidewalk and a naked guy escaping from a car trunk. (Fortune)
