THE NEWS WRAP: Tech companies band together to fight IP abuse

A group of technology companies large and small are pooling their patents together in an effort to prevent future abuses of their intellectual property.

Google, Canon, SAP, Newegg, Dropbox and Asana have agreed to join the License on Transfer network, which means they promise to grant licences to each other whenever one of their 300,000 combined patents are sold.

The move is an attempt to lessen the damage that can be done when patents get into the hands of patent trolls.

Silicon Valley recruitment begins before college

Recruiting the best and brightest is getting so difficult for technology companies in Silicon Valley they are hiring interns out of high school and boosting new recruits perks.

Facebook has just begun recruiting interns before their freshman year at college, while LinkedIn opened its summer program to high schoolers two years ago.

These aren’t your regular unpaid internships. It’s becoming standard for engineering interns to be offered free housing, transportation and salaries of more than $US6000 a month.

That compares to the average US monthly income of $4280.

Apple suffers patent defeat in China

Apple has failed in its attempt to get a Chinese company’s voice-recognition patent ruled invalid.

Shanghai-based Zhizhen Network Technology has sought to block Apple from selling products with Siri installed, saying it infringed its rights.

Overnight

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 78.99 to 16,985.61. The Australian dollar is currently trading at US94 cents.