Google's Plans to Leave China are 99.9% Certain

Google's plans to pull out of China are said to be nearly 100 percent certain.

Not too long ago, Google threatened to shut down Google.cn and walk out of China. The threat was a response to a mid-December hack originating from China as well as an anti-censorship protest. On Friday, the Chinese Minister of Industry and Information Technology, Li Yizhong, told reporters in no uncertain terms, "If you don't respect Chinese laws, you are unfriendly and irresponsible, and the consequences will be on you."

Today, the Financial Times reports that the Google's decision to leave China is all but made. Citing a source familiar with the situation. FT reports that censorship talks with the Chinese government have reached an apparent impasse. The source went on to say that while a decision could be made very soon, the company is likely to take some time to follow through with the plan as it seeks an orderly closure and takes steps to protect local employees from retaliation by the authorities.

However, Google may not leave China altogether. Though the company could be closing Google.cn, the search giant is looking at other solutions to the problem so it can maintain a presence in the country. Among these is the possibility of handing over a majority stake or even the entire business to a local player.

Microsoft Loses Second Word Appeal, Owes $240M

Microsoft has lost its second appeal against a ruling that called for the software giant to fork out nearly a quarter of a billion in damages for patent infringement.

Late last year, after a lengthy legal battle, Microsoft was ordered to alter word and pay Canadian-based company, i4i, $240 million in damages. Microsoft was found guilty of infringing upon XML-related patents owned by i4i but Redmond appealed the decision calling it a "miscarriage of justice." In December, this appeal was denied and Microsoft filed another.

The second appeal has now been denied and the BBC reports that this time, the judges spelled things out for Microsoft, detailing the decision was made in the first place. The judges say there's evidence to suggest that Microsoft knew about the i4i infringements before it turned up in Office. Indeed, court documents released after the initial verdict was announced echo their thoughts.

Soon after the verdict was made public in August, court documents revealed that not only did Microsoft know about the infringement, the company hoped to render i4i's product obsolete with newer versions of Office.

In an email to a colleague, Martin Sawicki, a member of Microsoft's XML for Word development team said they had met with the i4i team.

"We saw [i4i's products] some time ago and met its creators. Word 11 will make it obsolete," said Sawicki. "It looks great for XP though," he added.

According to the BBC, Microsoft is waiting on word from the other appeal court judges who will decide if Redmond has grounds for a wider review of the case. If they decide that Microsoft does not have grounds for a review, the company can take its appeal to the Supreme Court.