Symantec's US$17m patent case; NICTA, CSIRO to merge?; Telstra's new CIO

Symantec has been ordered to pay US$17 million (AU$22.9 million) in damages after a federal jury in the US found the company had violated two patents owned by Intellectual Ventures, Reuters reported last week.

The Delaware jury cleared Symantec of violating a third patent.

While US$17 million may seem like quite a sum, it’s far less than the US$298 million that Intellectual Ventures had reportedly been seeking.

Symantec is considering options to reduce the damages even further, Reuters reported.

Intellectual Ventures was founded in 2000 and is described on its website as an “invention capital company”.

In a statement, Melissa Finocchio, chief litigation counsel for Intellectual Ventures, said: “We are grateful to the jury for their hard work and for confirming the validity of these patents.”

Intellectual Ventures filed the legal action in 2010 and asserted the same patents against McAfee, Check Point and Trend Micro.

The company has since reached settlements with McAfee and Check Point, while the Trend Micro trial is scheduled to start in May this year.

Intellectual Ventures filed another infringement action against Symantec in 2013, this time over Symantec’s server and storage management products. That case is still pending in Delaware’s District Court.

NICTA and CSIRO joining forces?

Research organisations NICTA and CSIRO are nutting out a plan that could see CSIRO’s digital unit and NICTA joining forces, according to The Age.

The paper reported the news under the headline ‘CSIRO and NICTA planning merger’, though the exact nature of the two organisations’ plans seems unclear.

The paper quoted a CSIRO spokesperson as saying “CSIRO and NICTA are discussing what potential models might enable Australia’s two key ICT research organisations to work together more closely”, while NICTA reportedly declined to comment on the organisations’ negotiations.

Former NICTA CEO Hugh Durrant-Whyte said the organisations had been talking for more than six months about a range of options, according to The Age.

Durrant-Whyte quit as NICTA CEO late last year.

NICTA ruled out a merger with CSIRO days after Durrant-Whyte resigned, The Australian reported last year.

Durrant-Whyte quit over a dispute with NICTA’s board about the organisation’s future. NICTA said at the time that Durrant-Whyte and the board had “differences of opinion regarding the strategies and governance structures required to secure the medium- and long-term future of the organisation” and that “these differences were unlikely to be resolved”.

Telstra’s new CIO

Telstra has appointed Erez Yarkoni as its new CIO, filling in the gap left by Patrick Eltridge, who left the position late last year.

Yarkoni has been head of cloud at Telstra since late 2013, according to ITnews. He previously spent five years as CIO at American telco T-Mobile.

He will reportedly continue on as head of cloud at Telstra, as well as taking on the role of CIO.

Yarkoni’s selection as CIO comes after the telco began a global search to replace Eltridge. The former CIO resigned late last year after four years in the role, leaving the telco for a job overseas.

Under Yarkoni’s leadership, Telstra’s cloud unit became the first global partner for the Cisco Evolved Services Platform, according to ZDnet.

As CIO, Yarkoni will reportedly split his time between Australia and the United States.

“In keeping with Telstra’s global aspirations, I am pleased to appoint a truly global and highly regarded IT executive,” ZDnet quoted Telstra’s chief operations officer, Kate McKenzie, as saying. “Erez will share his time between Sydney and the west coast of the United States, which will provide a unique opportunity for him to lead our team in Australia, while working even more closely with Telstra’s global teams and partners.”

Image courtesy of Martin McKeay under CC