According to a report in Heise Online, Alcatel/Lucent is suing Microsoft in the US for patent infringements related to the mp3 audio codec. The total amount is mentioned as 2 bln EUR accumulated over many years.

The mp3 file format was developed by the German Fraunhofer Institut, AT&T Bell Labs and Thomson. Thomson is now licensing on behalf of the Fraunhofer Institut but - obviously - not for AT&T Bell Labs which is now owned by Alcatel/Lucent.

If this story is indeed true then I ask myself what the mp3 licenses were worth, if they did not cover all mp3-related licenses but only 2 out of 3 entities. Seems like a patent infringement trap to me. Still, this topic will now keep an army of lawyers busy and provide them a nice income. Others might look at this with some fun, too, and perhaps also with high expectations: all the non-mp3 codec vendors could enjoy a run on their wares! Just make sure then that you get the fully valid license package.

• STMicro has posted a 51% net increase in the fourth quarter but warns of weaker business in the coming months. Inventory is building up due to weaker demand in the wireless markets. Better business is expected for the second half of 2007, though.
• Nokia reported that it had been able to "solidify" its number one mobile phone vendor position in the fourth quarter, with 106 million handsets sold and revenues up 27% from a year earlier. This is quite a good result in light of falling average selling prices, which shows that they were prepared for that and could overcompensate. Net income increased to €1.27 billion.
• With the move into smaller structures, all chipset manufacturers are faced with higher leakages that force them to use different materials than silicon dioxide and polycrystalline silicon. Intel, IBM, TI and others will make the move to new materials with the 45nm process introduction. What everyone is using has not yet been disclosed since - at least at the beginning - this could mean a competitive advantage. Intel seems to have a time-to-market lead ready to produce chipsets already in 2007 wheras the others plan introduction in 2008.
• Siemens is buying the US software company UGS Corp. to bolster its factory-automation business unit. This shows Siemens' focus on automation, which is among the four areas (energy/environment, health, public and private infrastructure) they intend to focus on in the coming years. For its automotive supplier business, Siemens VDO, they plan to sell a minority stake in a public offering starting a (partial) spin-off.

Last night, one of our customers had the idea of changing all the headings in a 2-page brochure that we had created, thinking very hard how we could capture the immediate interest of readers and get them to read the rest of the copy text as well. What he did was shorten our benefits-loaded headings into a simple product name plus the word "Overview". He was sure that this would be a better approach since it would be very short. Needless to say, I had to take a deep breath and - diplomatically - explain to him why a longer heading is not bad at all and why his headings are - well - worthless. So what should be in a good heading? As the master himself, John Caples, wrote in his legendary book "Tested Advertising Methods" a good heading should possess four important qualities. They are:

• Self-interest
• News
• Curiosity
• Quick, easy way

Self-interest is the by far most important one and is basically the key Benefit that a customer should expect. As it further turned out doing extensive tests, the length of a heading has an influence on the reader. Longer ones are read more often than short ones - assuming of course that they contain a key benefit or one/many of the above qualities.

"A picture paints a thousand words" is flashing over Imagini's website, letting viewers know that they are doing something with pictures. Now the fact that they use a black background and white type (difficult to read reverse type) on their website should not make you lose interest right away. The idea is serious - as are their reference customers, who include Microsoft. It could be what our beloved bubble-burst timers call "interruptive technology". Now what they are doing is nicely summarized in a WSJ article (subscription required) that you should read there or below; it might be worth your time!

The value of brands is an important criteria for measuring the success of Marcom activities, in particular in the consumer markets. In Switzerland Logitech has made the biggest jump as Interbrand Zintzmeyer&Lux reports. That there is no news like bad news has probably also helped Phonak, whose racing team won the Tour de France for the first time, and who then - the winner having given a positive doping test - closed their team entirely.

The biggest increase in brand value is recorded by Logitech, which came in place 24 with a 17,1% gain, followed by Nespresso (place 17 with a 15,6% gain), Phonak (place 35 with a 14,1% gain), Rolex (13,4% gain) und Bally (13,3% gain).