On the Internet, the traffic cops are blind–they don’t look at the data they’re directing, and they don’t give preferential treatment. That’s something operators of the Internet highway, the major U.S. phone companies, want to change by effectively adding a toll lane: They want to be able to give priority treatment to those who pay to get through faster. Naturally, consumer advocates and the Web companies that would be paying the toll are calling it highway robbery. "Allowing broadband carriers to control what people see and do online would fundamentally undermine the principles that have made the Internet such a success," Vinton Cerf told a Senate committee recently. Cerf, who played a key role in building the Internet, is now the "Chief Internet Evangelist" at Google.

Cisco Systems has completed its acquisition of Scientific-Atlanta Inc., a US$7 billion deal that significantly bolsters Cisco’s effort to offer carriers a complete data, voice, video and mobility infrastructure lineup. Scientific-Atlanta, in Lawrenceville, Georgia, is one of the biggest providers of TV set-top boxes, video distribution networks and video systems integration. The acquisition, announced last Nov. 18, fits into Cisco’s plans to help consumers stream and download multimedia content and then share it around their homes.

It has become practically conventional wisdom on the subcontinent: India will do in IT what Japan has done in the auto industry–dominate it. But to make that happen, Indian companies will need to reinvent themselves: Call it India 2.0. Executives at India’s top technology services companies know their extraordinary ride of recent years won’t last forever, so they’re hard at work coming up with new ways to turn a profit without relying on the wage advantage that has allowed them to operate at a mere 30 percent of costs in developed countries such as the United States. What will India 2.0 look like? Customers can still look to India for high-quality code at low prices, the hallmark of India 1.0. But, increasingly, they’ll see Indian companies setting up shop down the street in the customers’ own countries in offices staffed with local employees.

In a hearing on Friday, U.S. District Judge James Spencer decided against issuing an immediate ruling on whether to impose an injunction that would shut down sales and service of the popular mobile email devices in the U.S. But what remains clear, he said, is that the jury verdict in NTP’s case against Research In Motion for patent infringement, nearly four years ago, "has not changed in any substantial or substantive way." After nearly four hours of arguments from each company and the U.S. Justice Department, Spencer said he would take the matter under advisement and reveal his decision "as soon as reasonably possible."

All patents remaining in dispute have been rejected. Research In Motion confirmed that it has received a copy of a Final Office Action issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in the ex parte reexamination of NTP, Patent #5,436,960. This Final Office Action maintains the outright and complete rejection of all claims in the patent. All of the 3 patents remaining in dispute in the NTP vs. RIM litigation have now been rejected based in part on prior art not considered in the 2002 trial in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Although NTP may appeal, the rejections reflect the final opinion of the Patent Office’s Central Reexamination Unit that the 3 patents at issue in this case are invalid.

The market for cheap laptops is increasing at an alarming rate. For a good reason, price. Refurbished laptops carry the same high quality of a new one, but can save 60% off the retail price. The best part is most refurbished laptops are less than six months old, so the technology is still at it’s best. Online Crazy Deals if offering refurbished laptops at discount prices.

Search giant Google’s latest feature, a personalized Web page creator, appeared to have stumbled on its first day, Feb. 23. However, Google says it planned the limited release to last for just a few hours’ worth of sign-ups. Capacity issues forced the company on Feb. 23 to temporarily stop letting people sign up for Page Creator. Google Reader and Google Analytics, two of Google’s other applications, also opened and closed on their first days. Google’s new service promises easy-to-create Web pages, stored on Google’s servers. Each page has a Web address that begins with the user’s Google account name followed by ".googlepages.com."

Web site attacks are increasing in frequency and ferocity, hammering DVD sales and disrupting online payment services. Called "distributed denial of service attacks," they bombard sites with so much data that legitimate traffic can’t get through. They’ve been around for years. But they’re now more powerful, and they’re taking down more than just intended targets. In recent incidents, companies providing Web-hosting services for victims–as well as hundreds of their customers–have been caught in the cross-hairs, creating a wave of collateral damage.

Nortel today announced that the company has completed the acquisition of Tasman Networks. Nortel paid US $99.5 million in cash for Tasman Networks. The acquisition was completed February 24, 2006. Tasman Networks, an established networking company with a portfolio of secure, high-performance enterprise routers, is now part of Nortel’s Enterprise Data Networks business unit. The products from the Tasman acquisition are marketed as part of Nortel’s Secure Router line.

Daniel Sabbah is general manger of IBM Rational Software, within the IBM Software Group. Prior to that, he was vice president of software development, strategy, and architecture for the group. InfoWorld Editor at Large Paul Krill met with Sabbah in San Francisco last week to discuss IBM’s application lifecycle management efforts and talk about other subjects such as open source.