The Thomson Reuters news agency and financial information group will open a technology center in Toronto, adding 400 jobs over the next two years, the company announced Friday.

Its president Jim Smith and chief financial officer Stephane Bello will also move to the city from the United States in 2017, it said in a statement.

"Canada is not only our home, it is home to an emerging ecosystem of world-class technology talent," Smith said.

Canadian Thomson Corp bought the British financial information group Reuters in 2007 in deal that made it the sector's largest global force, ahead of rival Bloomberg. The deal also gave Thomson ownership of Reuter's non-financial news and photo agency.

Friday's announcement is widely viewed as the start of the company's consolidation of its head office operations in Canada. Its executives are currently spread out in Stamford, Connecticut, New York and in Europe.

The company said it hopes to tap into Toronto's young, diverse workforce and critical pool of technology talent in the region.

"The Toronto-Waterloo region corridor is one of the largest technology clusters in the world and offers a rich mix of emerging and mature technology talent and a robust pipeline of development graduates from local universities," Thomson Reuters said.

"Proximity to large and strategic customers will also enable rapid, customer-driven innovation, particularly in Toronto's fast growing fintech community."

Apple wins appeal, $120 mn award from Samsung restored
Washington (AFP) Oct 7, 2016 –

A US appeals court on Friday handed Apple a victory in one of its battles with rival Samsung, reinstating a $119.6 million verdict for the iPhone maker for patent infringement.

In the latest twist in a series of patent cases between the smartphone giants, the Federal Circuit Appeals judges ruled 8-3 in a rehearing of the case, reversing a panel of the same court in February.

Apple's lawsuit contends that Samsung infringed on patents for "slide to unlock" and autocorrection, among others.

Friday's ruling said Samsung failed to prove that some of the Apple innovations were "obvious" and thus not able to be patented.

The opinion also said the court must defer to the decision of the jury when in doubt.

"Even in cases in which a court concludes that a reasonable jury could have found some facts differently, the verdict must be sustained if it is supported by substantial evidence on the record that was before the jury," Judge Kimberly Moore wrote for the majority.

Apple asked for an "en banc" rehearing of the case — before all the appeals court judges — following February's decision to toss out the award.

Apple had sought some $2.2 billion at trial, only to have a jury award the California-based company $119.6 million.

In February, the panel of judges ruled that Samsung did not infringe on one of the Apple patents and that the remaining two, which involved auto-correct and slide-to-unlock features, were not valid.

Neither company responded to requests for comment.

The case is separate from another suit in which Samsung was ordered to pay $548 million for patent infringement to Apple and whose appeal is set for a hearing next week in the US Supreme Court

Samsung and Apple decided in 2014 to drop all patent disputes outside the United States, marking a partial ceasefire in a seemingly relentless legal war between the world's two largest smartphone makers.

The companies have battled in close to a dozen countries, with each accusing the other of infringing on various patents related to their flagship smartphone and tablet products.