The US Court of Appeals in Chicago has "elected" to uphold Indiana’s voter ID law, albeit in a split decision.

The law that requires voters to show a photo ID at the polls was challenged as an undue burden on the right to vote.

While the court writes that the law can be improved, the justices ruled that the regulation to show a photo ID was reasonable.

One judge disagreed, writing in dissent, the law was called a thinly veiled attempt to discourage Election Day turnout.

The justice pointed out that voter fraud is already a crime and that no one in Indiana had ever been charged with that crime.

A Washington State research group claims three of the world's largest electronics makers are infringing on Bluetooth technology patents developed at the University of Washington.

In a lawsuit filed last month in the U.S. District Court in Seattle, the Washington Research Foundation (WRF), which licenses and manages patents developed by Washington State universities, claims Japan's Matsushita, Finland's Nokia and South Korea's Samsung are using unlicensed Bluetooth chipsets in their computers, cell phones and headsets.

The wireless Bluetooth technology was developed by Ericsson in the mid-1990s and made available at no cost to other companies to establish a wireless standard. But WRF claims in the lawsuit that University of Washington student Edwin Suominen developed technology for a "simplified high-frequency broadband tuner and tuning method" at the same time.

WRF holds four patents on the technology developed by Suominen. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages but asks the court to issue an injunction to stop Matsushita, Nokia and Samsung from selling their Bluetooth products.

The three companies buy their Bluetooth chipsets from CSR, a British chipmaker not named in the lawsuit. Nevertheless, CSR issued a statement that the lawsuit "is without merit in relation to CSR's Bluetooth chips and CSR will defend its products vigorously."

Nokia said it only recently received the complaint and is still evaluating WRF's claims. "Nokia intends to respond in the very near future," a company spokesman said.

Steven Lisa, the lawyer representing WRF, was unavailable for comment. Matsushita and Samsung did not return calls seeking comment on the lawsuit.

According to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), there are approximately 852 products from 358 different companies that use Bluetooth technology. The group claims more than 9.5 million Bluetooth products are shipping every week.

Bluetooth emerged in 1998 with the formation of the Bluetooth SIG and release of an initial specification the following year. Adoption of the technology was slow at first, but quickly picked up, as more vendors incorporated the low-power, short-range technology into small devices.

In one labor-related case, BCI Coca-Cola Co. of Los Angeles v. EEOC (06-341), the Court will determine whether an employer may be held liable for a subordinate worker's alleged bias where the worker did not make the employment decision at issue. In a second labor-related case, Long Island Care at Home v. Coke (06-593), the Court will decide whether home care workers employed by outside agencies, not directly by families, should receive overtime pay. In other cases, the Court will examine federal law liability for lost or damaged freight, whether private prep schools can talk to prospective student athletes despite their voluntary agreement to obey a no-recruiting rule, and whether courts may consider inferences of innocence when deciding whether someone sued for federal securities violations has a guilty state of mind.

North Carolina's oldest law firm, Raleigh-based Maupin Taylor, announced Friday that it plans to merge with a Richmond, Va., firm, Williams Mullen.

The combined company would be one of the largest in the Southeast with 300 lawyers, 700 employees and about a dozen offices in North Carolina; Virginia; Washington, D.C.; and London.

The name of the combined firm will be Williams Mullen, although North Carolina offices will operate under the name Williams Mullen Maupin Taylor for a transitional period. The firm's headquarters will be in Richmond.

"This will be good for North Carolina because it adds more depth in service that we can provide here," said Keith Kapp, Maupin Taylor's managing partner.

Although Raleigh will lose the cachet of having the firm's headquarters, Kapp said there will be no layoffs, closed offices or cutbacks as a result of the merger.

Maupin Taylor has about 130 employees and 30 partners, all of whom will become partners in Williams Mullen. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"This is a combination of two firms where nobody is buying or selling anything," Kapp said.

Maupin Taylor will gain Williams Mullen's Washington strategies group, which will be useful for clients with ties to federal government agencies, Kapp said. Williams Mullen gets a significant North Carolina client base.

In environmental law, Williams Mullen complements Maupin Taylor's strength in water quality issues with an expertise in air quality.

Joey Smith, chairman and CEO of Williams Mullen, Virginia's third-largest law firm, will become chairman and CEO of the merged company.

Such unions are common among law, accounting and medical practices, said Bill Wagner, an investment banker in Raleigh who helps execute mergers. "It comes down to being able to provide a fuller range of services as a combined firm rather than have to send business away," Wagner said.

Maupin Taylor has offices in Raleigh, Research Triangle Park and Wilmington. Williams Mullen has offices in Charlottesville, McLean, Newport News, Norfolk, Richmond, Tysons Corner, Virginia Beach and Portsmouth, Va.; Washington, D.C.; and London.

Maupin Taylor's Raleigh office will be the second-largest in the combined firm, with about 100 employees. The merger is expected to close March 1.

Maupin Taylor has had several names since its founding in 1870.

It was known as Maupin Taylor Ellis from the 1960s until 2003. That was when Thomas F. Ellis, a well-known supporter of former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms and the Republican Party, left the firm.

Ellis earned some fame for helping elect various high-level Republicans. He was credited with salvaging Ronald Reagan's political career by helping him win the 1976 presidential primary in North Carolina.

Today, Maupin Taylor concentrates on corporate law, litigation, and employment and labor law.

http://www.maupintaylor.com

China's domain name managers and Internet service providers refuted on Friday recent media reports about the loss of domestic domain names following the Taiwan earthquake that severed undersea cables last month.

The quake, which measured 7.2 on the Richter scale, off the southern tip of Taiwan on December 26 damaged fiber-optic cables that cross the ocean floor south of Taiwan, affecting telecommunications traffic between the mainland and Taiwan, Hong Kong, the United States, Southeast Asia and Europe.

Media reports said since the quake, the domain names of thousands of individuals and companies have become invalid or been looted because of access problems to domain name servers located abroad. The lack of access means the individuals and companies were unable to keep up with the domain leasing fees.

Chinese Internet users lost about 10,000 dotcom (.com) domain names due to disruption caused by the quake, the Beijing News reported on Friday, quoting sources from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), the country's authorized domain name registration manager and administrator.

But the CNNIC denied it made the remarks when contacted by China Daily on Friday.

Liu Ningbo from HiChina Web Solutions Ltd (www.net.cn), China's largest domain registration service provider, said the losses are only possible in "theory" but not in "reality".

Internet users are reminded at least a month before their leased domain expires and the domain names are frozen and kept for one or two months after the expiry date, he said.

Liu said the company suspended its registration service for international domains for two days after the quake, but by December 28 it had resumed.

A woman is suing Oprah Winfrey's studio, claiming she was injured in a rush for seats before a taping in Chicago.

The Chicago Tribune's Web site reports Tayna Milner is seeking more than 50-thousand dollars in damages.

Her lawsuit alleges Milner was pushed down the stairs between a waiting area and audience seating at Harpo Studios, causing her to fall and suffer unspecified injuries. Milner accuses the studio of failing to properly control the crowd.

No comment yet from Milner's lawyer or Harpo Studios.

A US college student imprisoned for three weeks for trying to take flour-filled condoms onto an airplane has settled her lawsuit against Philadelphia for $US180,000, a city spokesman said today.

Janet Lee, 21, a student at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, was arrested at Philadelphia International Airport in 2003 after police and security officials thought the flour was an illegal drug.

She was held in Philadelphia on drug-trafficking charges and released only when tests proved the substance in the three condoms was flour.

The condoms, which are sometimes used to smuggle drugs, were a joke among the students, and Lee was taking them home to Los Angeles.

Her civil rights case against Philadelphia, which had been set to go to trial on Thursday before it was settled, said Ted Qualli, spokesman for Philadelphia Mayor John Street.