Mobile firms vs the patent trolls

24 October 2011 Last updated at 22:46 GMT By Leo Kelion Technology reporter A recent study claimed "patent trolls" cost industry billions of dollars a year Patent litigation among the world's leading mobile phone companies is on the rise.

Barely a week goes by without a development, whether it is Apple and Samsung trying to prevent each others' products from going on sale, or Microsoft forcing another handset maker to pay it a licence fee for the alleged use of its technologies in Google's Android software.

However the legal action is not limited to the big brand names.

Experts also point to a rise in activity of so-called patent trolls - a derogatory name given to organisations that aggressively defend patent libraries without releasing products of their own.

This, the second of two reports into the patent wars, starts by exploring their role.

Unsurprisingly, litigants try to avoid being associated with Scandinavian folkloric monsters wherever possible.

So the industry uses the term "non-practicing entity" to refer to organisations that own and license patents without producing goods of their own.

One of the best known is Intellectual Ventures, which has a library of more than 35,000 patents.

Set up by a former Microsoft executive, Nathan Myhrvold, it recently revealed it has earned over $2 billion through licensing its portfolio to others since 2000.

Like the phone makers it is willing to take legal action to protect its assets.

Earlier this month it sued Motorola Mobility, accusing the handset maker of using its technology to perform updates, file transfers and other functions on its Android phones.

Intellectual Ventures declined to contribute to this report, but previously referred to the case saying: "We will not tolerate ongoing infringement of our patents to the detriment of our current customers and our business."

Expensive Continue reading the main story

Some manufacturers hold back some patents so they have a weapon to deploy against competitors”

End Quote Jonathan Radcliffe Mayer Brown International A recent study, called "The private and social costs of patent trolls" by Boston University law professor, James Bessen, suggests such cases are not uncommon.

He found NPEs initiated more than 2,600 lawsuits against US companies in 2010, more than five times the number than were filed in 2004.

Based on the resulting damage to the defendants' stock prices, he estimates the actions cost them more than $83bn a year over the last four years.

You might think that would act as an incentive for the technology giants to license patents from their inventors, rather than risk court action.

However, Professor Bessen says the reverse is true because successful claims are often the result of "inadvertent" infringements.

Since companies are having to put aside money to cover these lawsuits, he claims they then have less cash to pay for third party innovations.

"The defendants in these lawsuits are firms that already invest a lot in innovation," Professor Bessen said.

"Their losses make it more expensive for them to continue to do so and it also makes them less willing to license new technologies from small inventors."

Fight back

The rise of the NPEs has led to creation of a new type of business, which describes itself a "defensive patent aggregator".

Apple used the FRAND defence to prevent Samsung from banning sales of its iPhone in the Netherlands

One of the first examples is a company called RPX. It was co-founded three years ago by John Amster, an ex-employee of Intellectual Ventures.

Like NPEs, RPX owns a patent library which it licenses out. But it markets its service to others as protection against legal disputes, vowing never to launch a patent lawsuit of its own.

For an annual fee its clients are offered use of RPX's portfolio to help them countersue or settle third party claims. The firm then reinvests part of its earnings to further extend its patent collection.

The service appears to be popular. The firm's prospectus says its clients include Sony, Sharp, Samsung, Nokia and Google.

"The high transaction costs associated with NPE litigation are a tax on the tech industry," Mr Amster told the BBC.

"Today, nearly 50 cents of every dollar spent does not make it to the patent owner."

RPX's fees may help save its clients money in the long run, but it all adds to the costs of the patent wars.

The FRAND defence

Another way companies can limit their costs is to claim the technology involved is essential to an industry standard.

When a new technology - such as JPEG format photographs, or the GSM telephone network - is created, industry player agree to license related patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.

Continue reading the main story

I worry about the overhead that large players will have to spend in defensive patent manoeuvres”

End Quote Kevin Werbach Pennsylvania University This means the patent owner's fee cannot be excessive and it is not allowed to discriminate who gets to use the innovation

The idea is to ensure different companies' products can communicate and share data formats with each other.

"Consumers benefit from this because standards promote interoperability of products and processes, as well as encouraging 'intra-standard' rivalry between multiple manufacturers who each want to be the best in that field, and beat the others," said Jonathan Radcliffe, a London-based partner at the law firm Mayer Brown.

Apple used the FRAND defence against Samsung in the Netherlands earlier this month when a Dutch court ruled that the South Korean firm's 3G patents were part of essential standards, and could not be used to ban iPhone sales.

However, enforcing FRAND standards opens the door to another set of potential abuses.

Companies may be tempted to over-declare their number of FRAND-type patents in order to attract extra fees. The more patents they declare as essential to a standard, the larger the number of license charges they can potentially claim.

Conversely, firms may prove coy at the declaration stage.

Mr Radcliffe said that in cases where the standard setting organisation fails to issue clear rules "some participants might be tempted to hold back some patents so they have a weapon to deploy against competitors to keep them off the market and/or to force a significantly higher payment".

Collateral damage

In September President Obama signed into law a bill reforming the US patent system. It is due to come into effect in March 2013.

The new rules allow businesses to examine newly granted patents and challenge the decision to grant them within a nine month window, potentially heading off the prospect of court action.

It also places new limits on NPEs, preventing them from launching infringement claims against multiple targets unless there is evidence of collusion. The new principle of "one defendant-one lawsuit" should mean they sue fewer firms.

However, other proposals to restrict the freedom to file lawsuits and limit damages awards were abandoned.

"It makes some useful technical changes, but does nothing to address the core problems," says Kevin Werbach, associate professor of legal studies and business ethics at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

"I worry about the overhead that large players will have to spend in defensive patent manoeuvres, and the innovative start-ups that will never get off the ground because of threats from patent holders."

It looks like the patent wars, and their fallout, are set to spread.

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Cloud control crucial for firms

26 October 2011 Last updated at 23:12 GMT Are storm clouds coming? Cloud computing is cost-effective in many ways, but its security needs must be taken seriously Each week we ask high-profile technology decision-makers three questions.

Mark Darvill sees the cloud as one of the biggest security threats facing businesses

AEP Networks specialise in providing high-end IT security for companies and organisations dealing with extremely sensitive and confidential data.

As more and more executives and employees around the world put greater demands on using their own preferred devices, providing watertight security has never before been such a vast undertaking.

AEP Networks' Chief Technology Officer Mark Darvill told the BBC about how his industry is evolving rapidly.

What's your biggest technology problem right now?

We're finding that it's very tricky to manage the balance of consumerisation of IT in the workplace, while still addressing high-profile attacks such as the DuQu attack and Stuxnet before that.

We're having to develop products that can secure mission critical networks for governments, defence and critical national infrastructure.

We can't forget that it's often the user within the company or organisation who dictates how they access data and on what device, often to the dismay of the IT director.

One of our biggest technology challenges I guess now is developing clients that sit on PCs or tablets that allow access to corporate data from any device, anywhere in the world - and to do that in a very secure way.

What it really means is devices such as home PCs, tablets are all secured in a similar way to allow users to access data and applications, but while still adhering very strictly to the company's security policy.

The users really dictate their own IT policies in terms of what they're using. It's quite common now for board directors to come in with tablet PCs or even use home PCs to connect in.

I guess that one of the issues is that from a corporate perspective you have to maintain security across all of those devices - even though the company probably doesn't own at a lot of the devices that are connecting to use the network.

It's trying to keep one step ahead of people's behaviours around their access requirements. It's permanently changing. As new devices come on the market, people see different ways to do things.

If you've got a tablet PC, for instance, we would allow a user to connect into a network securely, run applications that they're used to, ensuring that any data created is left in the security of the data centre or the cloud. Which means that if they lose that device there's nothing on that device for anybody to intercept or read.

What's the next big tech thing in your industry?

It's trying to secure organisations and secure the transmissions of data.

The cloud we see as a big developing set of technologies used by a lot of companies.

Initially it's viewed as a way to reduce IT spend by pushing data and applications into either private or public virtualised environments, but the big point about that is it means the security of the cloud itself becomes the issue.

It's creating a challenge. In terms of the operational nature of data centres, it looks as if it's the answer to all evils - but it does create its own security challenges.

If you think about government clouds, when they start to be developed, you're talking about confidential data sitting in government data centres. They absolutely need to know where that data is and who's touched it. Those are the types of technologies that we're developing.

We've got cloud technologies which are very much around putting applications and data into either private or public clouds, and then we've obviously got this continuing threat around secure transmission of data and encryption.

It's about developing technology to ramp up those security measures used by organisations to deal with the more persistent and sophisticated cyber threats that we're seeing from international cybercrime.

What's the biggest technology mistake you've ever made - either at work or in your own life?

I have to cast my mind back a little bit!

I used to work for a now non-existent US computer manufacturer. We decided, in our wisdom, that we would create a set of products that would allow our customers to build OSI networks - which was an open, standards-based networking protocol.

We believed, I think, that it would probably super cede the TCP/IP which was the protocol being built around the internet at the time, and obviously is part of the internet today.

We built a set of products and we assumed that the rest of the world would adopt that OSI technology. It started coming home when we had to start bridging our networks into the network, and in turn the internet across our OSI networks. It became quite a mess.

I think it's very good example of not being market led, but trying to lead the world through some sort of purist technological view.

You look back and shudder. Five or six years worth of effort and it was like the tide coming in.

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Ministers to be firms' 'buddies'

23 September 2011 Last updated at 10:32 GMT By Victoria King Political reporter, BBC News The Department for Business said firms had welcomed the idea of a hotline Plans are under way to give the heads of the UK's 50 top companies a hotline to individual government ministers.

The ministerial "buddies", including Business Secretary Vince Cable, will be just a phone call away for firms like BP, British Gas and GlaxoSmithKline.

The Department for Business said the idea - designed to boost investment - had been welcomed by the companies.

But Labour said it was an admission that big business had "lost confidence" in the government.

The scheme, first reported in the Times newspaper, is being set up by trade and investment minister Lord Green - the former chairman and chief executive of HSBC.

The Department for Business said it was at a "very, very early stage", but there was "a need for strategically important companies to have a single point of contact in the government".

It could be expanded in the future to include more firms.

Ministerial code

Six ministers are expected to take part in the scheme, including Mr Cable, who is said to be in line for a link-up with BP, British Gas and Shell. Before entering politics, Mr Cable worked as chief economist for Shell.

Continue reading the main story

Sorting out problems for individual companies is not a substitute for the government working with business to produce a clear vision and growth plan for the UK economy”

End Quote John Denham Shadow business secretary Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt is expected to be in touch with communications and information companies, while enterprise minister Mark Prisk is said to be planning to team up with automotive companies like Nissan and Honda, and aerospace firms.

Universities and science minister David Willetts is expected to "buddy up" with healthcare companies like GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis, while Lord Green himself is reportedly set to link up with General Electric.

Lord Sassoon, commercial secretary to the Treasury, is also expected to play a role in the programme.

A spokesman for Lord Green said the scheme would "fit with the ministerial code of conduct to avoid conflicts and potential conflicts of interest".

The Department for Energy and Climate Change said it would build on existing relationships between ministers and business.

"Departments will still talk with their stakeholders during the normal course of business," a spokesman said.

"It does not necessarily follow that the best minister to lead on a company would be the one who was most vulnerable to lobbying from that company."

For Labour, shadow business secretary John Denham said the scheme was "an admission that big companies have completely lost confidence in the ability of government to understand their concerns and priorities".

"But sorting out problems for individual companies is not a substitute for the government working with business to produce a clear vision and growth plan for the UK economy to enable us to compete in the world," he said.

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Japanese car firms defy tsunami paralysis

14 September 2011 Last updated at 23:02 GMT By Jorn Madslien Business reporter, BBC News, Frankfurt motor show The new Honda Civic was unveiled on the sidelines of the Frankfurt motor show as if the disaster in Japan had never happened The massive earthquake which hit Japan on 11 March this year set off a deadly tsunami that devastated large parts of the country and killed thousands of people.

It also crippled the nation's giant motor industry, largely because many all-important component manufacturers that were based in the devastated north-east of the country were destroyed.

Carmakers, both in Japan and around the world, had been expected to suffer parts shortages at least until the end of this year.

But such predictions underestimated the efficient determination of the country's people and companies.

"The resolve of the Japanese people is incredible," says Andy Palmer, executive vice-president of the Nissan Motor Company.

"The discipline has been tremendous. The whole incident just gelled the whole country, gelled the industry. The speed of the recovery speaks for itself."

'Fully recovered'

Six months on from the disaster, Japan's giant automotive groups are back in action, showing off their latest models at the Frankfurt motor show as if nothing had ever happened.

"If you were to ask me in April, I'd have said it'd be impossible," says Didier Leroy, chief executive of Toyota Motor Europe.

"Yet all our European operations returned to normal in June, and from July it was full speed ahead - and it was the same in Japan."

Nissan and Honda's recoveries have also been swift.

"We've fully recovered and we're now starting to fulfil back orders," says Nissan's Mr Palmer.

At Honda, its UK managing director David Hodgetts reports that his factory in Swindon in the UK "is back up and running now, literally from last week, for the first time since April".

"We're working four or five day shifts now and will go to six days soon," he adds.

Relationships

The carmakers were facing massive challenges, so they responded by joining forces.

Take the devastated chip maker Renesas, on which most carmakers around the world rely for various semi-conductors and other electronics components.

Toyota expects its international sales to rise this year in spite of the tsunami

"The reason why it recovered so well was because Japan's auto industry sent 2,000 engineers to rebuild its factory," observes Honda's Mr Hodgetts, "so they recovered much quicker than they had thought they would."

According to Nissan's Mr Palmer, the crisis "tested the robustness of the supply chains. It's tested the relationships with the suppliers."

And it proved that in times of crisis the only way is up.

"We compete with the likes of Toyota and Honda, but in times of trouble we co-operate," says Mr Palmer.

"We worked very closely with our competitors to make sure the component suppliers recovered as quickly as they could."

Spare capacity

But getting all the parts together was only the first challenge for Japan's carmakers, which by then were facing severe electricity shortages as a result of the destruction of the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

"The power shortages made it much more difficult," recalls Mr Palmer, though again the carmakers displayed tremendous ingenuity.

Toyota, for instance, moved its weekend to Thursday and Friday during July, August and September, so its factories could produce during the weekends when demand for power was less acute.

Besides, explains Toyota's Mr Leroy, "we were not using 100% of our production capacity around the world". Hence, some of the production was shifted to factories outside Japan.

While back in Japan, the scheduled summer factory shutdowns were split between the carmakers, so that at least one of them was out of action at any point in time.

Soaring sales

Customer loyalty also played a big part, with many choosing to wait until the Japanese carmakers could deliver rather than opt for models made by non-Japanese rivals.

Toyota's Didier Leroy, says Japan's industry pulled together to recover from the crisis

Consequently, says Nissan's Mr Palmer: "Our market share is growing and our volumes are increasing over last year, not decreasing.

"We expect to make 4.6 million cars this year, up from 4.2 million last year, in spite of the earthquake."

Toyota is also expecting to sell more cars this year than it did last year.

"Based on current flow of cars coming from Japan, we can say the lead time is coming back to levels seen before the earthquake," says Toyota's Mr Leroy.

"During the last financial year, we sold 808,000 cars in Europe and this year, even with the very difficult conditions in the economy and the disaster in Japan, we expect to sell 830,000."

And with the strong sales, there has been money to be made, bringing healthy profits to Japanese carmakers at a time when few could have predicted any success at all.

So as the Japanese manufacturers get ready to resume their uncompromising rivalry, both with each other and with carmakers across the world, it seems they have come out the other end stronger than ever.

And one thing is clear. None of their rivals will ever doubt their capabilities.

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White House 'rushed' firm's loan

15 September 2011 Last updated at 00:31 GMT President Barack Obama cited Solyndra as an example of how the stimulus bill would create jobs The White House could have rushed approval on a major government-backed loan to a failed solar panel firm for political reasons, say US Republicans.

Solyndra declared bankruptcy this month after laying off 1,100 workers, and was then raided by the FBI.

The company came to prominence when President Barack Obama visited it in May 2010 to promote green business.

The White House denied the loan had been rushed so that Vice-President Joe Biden could attend a groundbreak event.

Several US solar firms have been shuttered in recent weeks, amid a surge of cheaper technology from Chinese manufacturers, combined with falling demand for the energy panels from Europe.

Decison 'urgency'

Internal emails of the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) were subpoenaed by the investigations panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee several months ago.

The OMB was tasked with the final due-diligence review on the $535m (£340m) loan after it was approved by the Department of Energy.

House Republicans cited the emails during a subcommittee hearing on Wednesday to question whether the loan programme's selection process was sound.

"Our investigation raises several questions about whether the administration did everything it could to protect taxpayer dollars," said committee chairman Fred Upton.

US taxpayers are liable for the loan now that the company has declared bankruptcy.

The Republican lawmakers say the emails suggest that staff members felt pressured to sign off on the loan.

In one email, an unnamed OMB staff member wrote: "We would prefer to have sufficient time to do our due-diligence reviews and have the approval set the date for the announcement rather than the other way around."

The Republicans said a groundbreak event for the California-based firm, attended by Vice-President Biden via satellite link, was scheduled in September 2009 before the loan was even approved.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the emails had nothing to do with pressure to approve the loan, but instead with preparing Mr Biden's schedule.

"What the emails make clear is there was urgency to make a decision on a scheduling matter," Mr Carney told reporters. "People were simply looking for answers about whether or not people could move forward."

'No danger' of failure

The company was the first solar panel company to receive a loan from a federal programme to support innovative green technologies.

The government-guarenteed loan scheme was first created by the Bush administration in 2005, but was boosted after President Obama added stimulus money to the programme's funds.

As recently as two months ago, Solyndra's chief executive Brian Harrison told the committee that the company's finances were sound and there was no danger it would fail.

Solyndra cited the falling world price of solar panels as the reason for closing down the firm.

The FBI and the energy department's inspector-general office raided the company and the homes of several of its executives on 8 September.

Solyndra said the FBI was seeking records on its loans.

The company laid off 1,100 employees at the end of August.

Two of the company's executives were invited to Wednesday's hearing but did not attend, saying they were focusing on the firm's sale. They are expected to appear next week instead.

Energy department loans director Jonathan Silver said Solyndra's failure should not reflect on the loan programme as a whole.

"I can't imagine a scenario in which we would willingly as a country walk away from what would be undoubtedly one of the largest - if not the largest - industries in the world over the next several decades," Mr Silver said.

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Reports: China firms offered arms to Gadhafi

TRIPOLI — Chinese arms firms offered to sell weapons worth about $200 million to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's beleaguered forces in July, two newspapers reported, compounding pressure on Beijing's brittle ties with the rebels who have ousted him.

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Rebel forces control most of the oil-rich North African nation and are already setting up a new government, but Gadhafi and his staunchest allies remain on the run and enjoy support in several central and southern areas, including the desert town of Bani Walid and the fugitive leader's hometown of Sirte.

Forces of the National Transition Council (NTC) were poised for an assault on Bani Walid after negotiators failed to persuade Gadhafi loyalists to abandon the town.

Many have speculated that Gadhafi is hiding somewhere around Sirte, Bani Walid or the loyalist town of Sabha, deep in the Libyan desert. He and his son Seif al-Islam have tried to rally supporters in defiant audio recordings broadcast on the Syrian-based Al-Rai television station but no concrete information about their whereabouts has emerged.

Sense of normality in capital
In Tripoli, life has started returning to normal after last month's fighting and a Muslim holiday last week. Traffic has become heavy as fuel supplies improved. Cafes are busy and offices have begun opening.

Officials with the NTC have announced plans to bring their heavily armed fighters under control and try to integrate thousands of them into the police force and find jobs for others.

Officials said there would also be retraining and reintegration schemes for those who fought for Gadhafi.

The disintegration of Gadhafi's rule after a six-month war has left a security vacuum in Libya, with no state security forces. There are also large numbers former rebel fighters who are not part of any formal structure, and huge quantities of unsecured weapons.

Story: Foreigners complain of harassment by Libya rebels

Chinese link to Libyan arms sales?
Following an earlier report in Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper, the New York Times reported Monday that documents found abandoned in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, indicated that Chinese companies offered to sell rocket launchers, anti-tank missiles and other arms to Gadhafi's forces, despite bans on such sales.

"We have hard evidence of deals going on between China and Gadhafi, and we have all the documents to prove it," a rebel military spokesman, Abdulrahman Busin, told the Times.

But some officials told the Times that they were skeptical or uncertain.

A "senior NATO diplomat in Brussels discounted the report as highly unlikely," and members of a United Nations overseeing sanctions on Libya said "nothing about arms dealings with China had been brought to their attention," said the Times report.

China's Foreign Ministry said that members of Gadhafi's government had come to China and held talks with a "handful" of Chinese arms companies without the knowledge of the government.

"After the passing of resolution 1970 by the Security Council, we notified relevant government departments to strictly implement it," ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular news briefing in Beijing.

Video: Shifting political sands in Libya (on this page)

"The Chinese companies did not sign arms trade contacts and nor did they export military items to Libya," Jiang said. "I believe that the agencies in charge of the arms trade will certainly treat this seriously."

Even if the arms were not delivered, or the cited documents turn out to have no foundation, the controversy could intensify mistrust between Beijing and the rebels seeking to defeat Gadhafi's shrinking forces and claim control of all Libya.

Story: Libya rebels: Talks over Bani Walid have failed

Report: Western agencies colluded with Gadhafi
On Monday, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported that documents found in Tripoli since the rebels seized the city indicate that Gadhafi's security services collaborated with Western intelligence agencies in mounting "rendition" operations against terrorism suspects.

The Guardian report said that a CIA document discovered in an abandoned office building showed that British intelligence services worked with the Libyans to arrange for a terrorism suspect and his family to be taken from Hong Kong to Tripoli despite the possibility he would be tortured in Libya.

The newspaper reported that other documents found in the building suggested a closer working relationship between Western intelligence agencies and Gadhafi's regime than had been previously disclosed. Britain’s MI6, the Guardian said, was involved "in a number" of American-led operations that ended with Islamists sent to Gadhafi's prisons.

The documents were discovered by New York-based Human Rights Watch, the Guardian said.

Signs of division
After chasing out Gadhafi from his Tripoli compound last month, Libya's new rulers are trying to control the entire country and restore normality.

But in an early sign of divisions, Ismail al-Salabi, a Libyan Islamist military commander who fought Gadhafi's forces called on the interim cabinet to resign because they were "remnants of the old regime."

A spokesman for Gadhafi, who has been in hiding since his foes seized Tripoli on Aug. 23, has dismissed talk of surrender and said powerful tribal leaders were still loyal to him.

"He's in the country," Moussa Ibrahim told Reuters Friday in a call from an undisclosed location. "He's in a safe place surrounded by many people who are prepared to protect him.

Tribal elders from Bani Walid had come out to negotiate after NTC spokesmen said several times over the previous day that talks were over and they were about to attack.

There has been speculation from NTC officials that members of Gadhafi's family, perhaps even the former Libyan leader himself, may be hiding there.

No comment was available from the other side.

NATO, meanwhile, reported bombing a military barracks, a police camp and several other targets near the coastal stronghold of Sirte overnight, as well as targets near Hun, a possible staging ground in the desert halfway between Sirte and Sabha, in the south. It also reported bombing an ammunition storage facility near Bani Walid.

NATO has been bombing Gadhafi's forces since March under a United Nations mandate to protect Libyan civilians. But that mandate expires on Sept. 27, and the rebels may be anxious to end the fight before it runs out — since it may be politically difficult to get it renewed.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Oil firms hit by Libya disruption

29 July 2011 Last updated at 12:45 GMT The continuing conflict in Libya has greatly reduced Total and Eni's exports from the country Oil companies Total and Eni have both blamed profit falls on the conflict in Libya disrupting their production in the north African country.

France's Total saw its net profit decline 12% to 2.73bn euros ($3.89bn; £2.4bn) in the three months to 30 June.

Also affected by maintenance work reducing output at its oil rigs in the North Sea, this compares with a profit of 3.1bn euros a year earlier.

Profits at Italy's Eni for the same quarter were down 31% from a year ago.

Eni's net profit totalled 1.25bn euros, compared with 1.82bn euros.

The two companies have substantial investments in Libya.

'Volatility'

Total chief executive Christophe de Margerie said: "The combination of sustained global demand and geopolitical troubles increased tensions in the oil market during the second quarter."

Despite the company's latest results failing to meet market expectations, Total said it remained confident going forward, highlighting its successful exploration work in Bolivia and Angola.

Mr de Margerie added: "Total begins the second half of 2011 very confident in its outlook for profitable growth."

Eni said 2011 would continue to be "characterised by a certain degree of uncertainty and volatility".

Yet it said it was now benefiting from new fields coming into production in the US, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Italy.

Total and Eni's weak results come after rivals Exxon, Shell and BP all announced a big rise in profits.

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Telecoms firms leave some customers unhappy

Nearly a quarter of TalkTalk customers were unhappy with the firm's customer service The customer service departments of big landline and broadband firms are leaving a significant minority of their customers unhappy.

The telecoms regulator Ofcom discovered this after researching customers of the largest 10 telecoms firms.

Nearly a quarter of TalkTalk customers were unhappy at the way their broadband and landline problems were dealt with.

However Ofcom said people contacting mobile and pay TV firms were much more satisfied with their experience.

"Ofcom hopes publication of this research will act as an incentive to communications providers to improve their customer service levels," the regulator said.

"To ensure that consumers and Ofcom have an accurate picture of service levels, Ofcom intends to conduct this again in the next 12 months."

The industry has a new procedure for dealing with complaints, which comes into force on 22 July 2011.

Firms will have to resolve initial complaints within eight weeks, or disgruntled customers will be able to take them to either the communications ombudsman or to the Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme (CISAS).

Their decisions will be binding on telecoms firms.

Getting better

Ofcom's research into telecom customer service looked at the big firms which each had at least 4% of the relevant market.

Dissatisfaction was fairly low among customers who called the six mobile main phone networks, usually to discuss changes to deals or services and problems with bills.

Dissatisfaction with their responses ranged from 9% for T-Mobile to 14% with Vodafone.

The big pay TV firms, BSkyB and Virgin Media had similarly low rates of dissatisfaction among customers who contacted them.

Ofcom pointed out that BSkyB "appears to have improved on most aspects of its customer service."

Things were worse though with the big landline and broadband firms.

Dissatisfaction with the handling of landline problems ranged from 17% (BSkyB and BT) to 24% for TalkTalk.

Ofcom said the problem with the way TalkTalk dealt with customers' queries was "mainly due to customers being unable to get through to the right person, the speed of answering the phone and general dissatisfaction with the customer service advisor."

Meanwhile the level of unhappiness with the response of broadband customer service departments ranged from 11% with Orange to 23% of TalkTalk/Tiscali customers.

"Orange now tops the board with 76% satisfaction," said Ofcom.

"Both BT and Sky customers also reported improved satisfaction scores on at least six of the customer service aspects measured," the regulator added.

Michael Phillips, of the website Broadbandchoices.co.uk said: "It's encouraging to see that service providers are making strides to improve customer service satisfaction levels but it's a shame that the research excludes the smaller service providers."

"Smaller, niche providers are streets ahead of some of their larger counterparts," he said.

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