NTP Incorporated – co-founded by the late Thomas J Campana, who invented many of the technologies used in wireless email – has filed lawsuits against Apple, Google, HTC, LG Electronics, Microsoft and Motorola in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The company says eight of its patents, which relate to the wireless delivery of electronic mail, have been infringed.

NTP is probably best-known for a lengthy legal case with Research in Motion that's now been settled. The US government was forced to intervene after RIM was ordered to stop infringing the patents, which would have shut down BlackBerry email in the United States.

Paul Antoniadis, CEO of Best Buy Branded Operations – seen as the man running the organisation's UK business - has left the company just three months after the first UK store opened.

Meanwhile Andrew Harrison, CEO of The Carphone Warehouse, has been appointed Best Buy Europe Chief Operating Officer in addition to his current retail role. He'll report to Best Buy Europe CEO Scott Wheway.

Satellite navigation company Garmin has warned mobile phone users about the 'hidden' costs of using smartphone sat-nav services that download maps over the mobile internet. They've calculated that users can end up with a phone bill more expensive than the cost of the fuel used for their journey.

Mark Bridge writes:

'Unboxing' is - or was - the new geek porn. We know this because The Register told us so in 2006, when the practice of video recording the unpacking of new consumer electronics products started to become popular. Just over two years later The Independent tried to tell us that unboxing was still the new geek porn but, by then, conventional porn had probably returned to... er... pole position.

Why do I mention this?  Well, Sony Ericsson has just published its own unboxing video featuring tennis player, model, charity worker and Sony Ericsson brand ambassador Maria Sharapova.