A German court has ruled that US internet giant Microsoft can no longer sell its products locally because it infringes patents held by US communications firm Motorola Mobility.

German prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation over whether Google broke data protection regulations when it collected fragments of Wi-Fi data while shooting imagery for its mapping application.

Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is asking German authorities for a copy of the sentence a Munich court handed in the case of two former Siemens managers found guilty of bribery to obtain telecom contracts in Nigeria.

On the day Apple announced the availability of the iPad in some Western European countries, rival German company WeTab changed the name of its tablet computing product and company from WePad to WeTab.

Germany's federal computer security agency has recommended that users dump Mozilla's newest Firefox browser until the company patches a critical vulnerability later this month.

Germany's antitrust authority is awaiting a response from Google on three separate complaints filed recently, although the agency said no action is likely for some time.

Germany and Google remained at odds Wednesday over how the company holds certain data used for its Street View map imagery.

Intel on Tuesday said it was granting US$12 million over five years to Saarland University in Germany to research graphics technologies.

As German banks layer more security into their online banking procedures, security vendor Gemalto has launched a device it says makes completing transactions easier.