Microsoft has continued its run of convincing Google's mobile hardware partners to agree to mutually beneficial patent licensing terms in its latest deal with ZTE. With more than 20 Android manufacturers now signing deals with Microsoft, some are wondering if the remaining few will be able to hold out much longer.

Grooveshark is one of many online music streaming services that enables users to upload and share song files. However, an infringement case filed against the company by UMG Recordings recently unveiled an important discrepancy between state and federal copyright law that could spell trouble for digital business models.

Microsoft signed a potentially pivotal patent licensing deal this week with Chinese manufacturing giant Hon Hai, parent company to Foxconn. Although the terms of the agreement will remain confidential, the move should help Microsoft bolster its already impressive royalty revenues as it looks to find its footing in the mobile marketplace.

Apple has once again pursued a strategy that would seem to counter the wisdom of its late co-founder Steve Jobs by agreeing to pay more than $10 million for intellectual assets he previously deemed inconsequential. Although the move comes as a surprise to some, others believe Apple's latest patent licensing deal may be a defensive maneuver against Microsoft.

Launched in late 2011, ReDigi is an online marketplace where customers can upload and share digital music. What set the company apart from standard online file sharing platforms, however, was its ability to verify that sellers had originally acquired the content through legitimate means prior to putting it up for auction. Unfortunately, this unique approach has not satisfied music industry opponents who insist that the business model should not be covered by the first-sale doctrine and thus constitutes pervasive copyright infringement.

The Associated Press (AP) filed suit against news aggregation agency Meltwater in early 2012, asserting that the firm's business model was based on the illicit redistribution of protected AP content. This week, a federal district judge ruled in the AP's favor with a verdict that could set important precedents for how digital media is collected and shared.

This week the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a geographically unlimited interpretation of the first-sale doctrine in a controversial case regarding college textbooks. This ruling has broad implications that extend well beyond the publishing industry, however, and could be a significant source of concern for copyright holders attempting to strategically monetize their works across international borders.

Online retail giant Amazon.com is among the biggest names to enter the fray for new web addresses being auctioned off through the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' (ICANN) generic top-level domain (gTLD) program. Commercial competitors and publishing industry associations are pushing back, however, suggesting that the company's digital copyrighting ambitions may be anticompetitive.

The Cascadia Cup was established in 2004 to cement an ongoing informal rivalry between three professional soccer teams from the Pacific Northwest cities of Portland, Seattle and Vancouver. Now that each squad has been officially incorporated into Major League Soccer, league organizers are struggling to decide what role they should adopt in trademark management and branding strategies.

As 3D printing continues to attract interest, investment and participation from a wide variety of stakeholders, attorneys are attempting to sort out the short- and long-term legal implications of this emerging technology's rapid growth. Although the current industry landscape remains a bit unsettled for innovators, it's clear to most that issues of copyright management will soon rise to the fore.