US
Round two of handset battle
The latest legal battle between Apple and Samsung Electronics is getting under way in Silicon Valley. Lawyers were expected to begin picking a jury yesterday that will decide how much Samsung owes Apple for infringing its patents. Another jury awarded Apple slightly more than $1 billion (R10.4bn) earlier this year after finding Samsung infringed six patents in making two dozen devices. But the judge tossed out $400 million in damages and ordered a new jury to recalculate damages for 13 Samsung products found to have infringed Apple’s patents. The proceedings are a warm-up for a much larger trial between the two companies scheduled for March next year. That will focus on products still on the market, while the current trial is a battle over older products. – Sapa-AP
China
Singles spend 35 billion yuan
Chinese shoppers spent a record 35 billion yuan (R59bn) at the country’s two biggest online marketplaces on Singles Day, the market operator said yesterday, after the festival created by e-tailers to persuade the loveless to indulge in retail therapy. November 11 – or 11/11 – was proclaimed as Singles Day because of the number of ones in the date, with sellers promoting discounts to the nation’s singletons as well as to price-sensitive buyers, and it is now China’s busiest shopping day. Consumers spent 35 billion yuan on Tmall and Taobao, the two shopping platforms of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, up 83 percent on last year, the company said. That was more than 10 times the average daily turnover on the two virtual marketplaces last year, according to a research report cited by Chinese media. More than 402 million users visited the two sites on Monday, double last year’s number. – Sapa-AFP