The US International Trade Commission has ruled that certain Motorola Mobility products infringe on a Microsoft patent. Microsoft had said that several of its patents were affected, although the ITC said Motorola has only violated one of them.

This is an initial determination; a final decision is expected within the next six months.

Nokia is dropping the Symbian name for the latest release of its operating system.

In an announcement today, it said “The all new Nokia Belle (previously Symbian Belle) user interface will soon be available for download to some existing smartphones and begin shipping with a selection of smartphones that are already on the market.”

Online retailer Amazon.com was interested in acquiring BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion earlier this year, according to press reports.

The Reuters news agency is quoted as saying Amazon hired an investment bank in the summer to review a potential merger but did not make a formal offer.

The Advertising Standards Authority has not upheld complaints about a series of Phones 4U television ads that featured a ghost-like child.

A number of the advertisements were short two-second ads showing the ghostly girl, while the final ad in the sequence was a 30-second scene that took place in an underground car park. The tagline to the ads was “Missing our deals will haunt you”.

HM Revenue & Customs has released details of a £250 million VAT fraud that generated its money from the supposed import and export of mobile phones. A number of people were arrested in July 2003, with the first sentences being handed down in 2008, although reporting restrictions prevented details of the crimes being published at the time.

Fifteen people have now been sentenced in six separate trials.