Google has lost a high-stakes lawsuit in Texas that is raising sharp concern that the Internet giant could face more such claims.

A federal jury last week awarded Linux patent-holder Bedrock Computer Technologies $5 million in the closely watched patent infringement case. It may be the first such award over the Linux kernel that is at the core of the open-source operating system.

The lawsuit centered on Google's use of Linux, which runs its servers and is included in its popular Android mobile software.

The award was small -- Bedrock had sought more than $180 million -- but the implications could be significant, spurring a flood of claims against other Linux users and spelling trouble for the open-source movement, according to intellectual property activist Florian Mueller. 

Bedrock is also suing Amazon, MySpace, PayPal, Yahoo and others. Red Hat, one of the largest distributors of Linux, is suing Bedrock, trying to invalidate its patent.

In a statement, Google said: "Google will continue to defend against attacks like this one on the open source community. The recent explosion in patent litigation is turning the world's information highway into a toll road, forcing companies to spend millions and millions of dollars defending old, questionable patent claims."

The case highlights a potential vulnerability for Android, which is growing quickly and threatening competitors in the booming smartphone market. Google has faced a rash of suits targeting Android.

"This doesn't bode well for the 41 Android-related patent infringement suits that are going on at this stage," Mueller said. 

Last week, Apple sued Samsung Electronics, alleging it copied the design of the iPad and iPhone. Samsung's Galaxy products use Android software. Samsung countersued Apple. See more on the dispute between Apple and Samsung here.

Google has often complained about what it calls frivolous patent lawsuits that stifle innovation. It also has advocated for patent litigation reform.

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As it faces rising scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators, Google spent more on lobbying in Washington so far this year than in any other quarter since the Internet giant opened a lobbying operation in Washington in 2005.

The Mountain View, Calif., company shelled out $1.48 million, according to documents it filed this week.

That was a 7% increase from the same quarter last year, when Google spent $1.38 million.

Google mostly lobbied Congress, but also focused its efforts on the Commerce Department, the executive office of the president, the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Trade Representative.

The increase in spending comes as Google deals with a number of headaches, including a government inquiry into its $700-million purchase of airline fare tracker ITA Software and the privacy uproar after the launch of social networking service Buzz.

Google got clearance for its purchase of ITA Software after making concessions. The Federal Trade Commission closed an investigation into Buzz after Google agreed to independent audits of its privacy protections.

Google still does not spend as much as Microsoft, which ponied up $1.72 million in the first quarter.

One technology player looking to ramp up its visibility and activity in the nation’s capital is Facebook, which hosted a town hall meeting with President Obama on Wednesday. It spent $230,000 on lobbying in the quarter, which is chump change compared with Google and Microsoft but is more than five times what Facebook spent the first quarter of 2010.

Want to check out the numbers? Here is the link to the U.S. Senate's lobbying database.

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/Public_Disclosure/LDA_reports.htm

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Photo: Google signage is displayed at the company's headquarters in Mountain View on April 14, 2011. Credit: Tony Avelar/Bloomberg

Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, who worked together in 1990s during the early days of the music-sharing application Napster, have teamed up again and are building a new video chat project called Yo.

A source close to Fanning and Parker told The Times that Parker has been devoting a lot of time to Yo. Parker was previously Facebook's president and was recently played by Justin Timberlake in "The Social Network," a movie about the start of the world's most popular social media site.

Fanning is also involved with Path, former Facebook executive Dave Morin's photo-centric social networking start-up. 

Parker, who is a managing partner at the Founders Fund venture capital firm, also works with Joe Green's Causes, a Facebook app that connects users with various causes and organizations so they can donate time or money.

The website TechCrunch reported Friday that its co-editor and founder, Michael Arrington, is one of Yo's investors.

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twitter.com/nateog

Photo: Napster founder Shawn Fanning, 20, attends a press conference in San Francisco on Feb. 12, 2001, a short time after a ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals which said that Napster, the on-line music down-loading service, must prevent subscribers from sharing copywritten material. Credit: Lou Dematteis/Reuters

T. Rowe Price invested $190.5 million in social-networking phenom Facebook during the first quarter, according to filings made public on financial firm's website.

T. Rowe Price made the investment through 19 mutual funds at $25 a share.

The figure made public in the filings does not include investments made by other T. Rowe Price vehicles, such as separate accounts, spokeswoman Heather McDonold said. She declined to comment further on the investment.

Facebook said in January that it raised $1.5 billion from investors led by investment bank Goldman Sachs, which made the Palo Alto-based firm worth $50 billion at the time. Since then, its shares have been hotly traded on secondary markets. Facebook is now valued at $55.2 billion on SharesPost.

Five T. Rowe Price mutual funds also bought preferred stock in San Francisco social games maker Zynga at $28.06 a share.

Three funds bought $22.2 million of preferred shares in online business review website Angie's List.

T. Rowe Price took a stake in information-sharing network Twitter in 2009 and in Groupon late last year.

T. Rowe Price had $482 billion in assets under management as of the end of 2010. It, like many mutual fund companies, is looking to get a piece of the action in social media. The investments carry additional risks because these companies are not yet publicly traded, yet investors are driving up their valuations.

The latest investment in Facebook comes as the world's most popular social-networking site siphons users and advertising dollars from other Internet giants.

Facebook surpassed Google last year to become the most visited website in the U.S., according to Experian Hitwise, an Internet-tracking company in New York.

In February, more than a third of all online-display ads in the U.S. appeared on Facebook, more than three times as many as its closest competitor, Yahoo, according to research firm ComScore Inc.

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Photo: Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, speaks during a news conference at the company's headquarters in Palo Alto on April 7, 2011.Credit: Tony Avelar/Bloomberg

Google's revenue rose during the first quarter, easily beating Wall Street estimates, as the Internet search giant continued to benefit from its search advertising gusher.

But, as spending rose sharply, the company's profit missed analysts' forecasts.

Google's revenue was $6.6 billion, up from $5 billion during the same period a year ago, excluding advertising sales that Google shares with its partners. Analysts had expected $6.3 billion.

Earnings per share rose to $8.08 from $6.76 during the first quarter of 2010, missing analyst estimates of $8.10.

Google hired nearly 2,000 staffers in the first quarter for a total of 26,316 as of March 31.

Google shares dropped nearly 5% to $548.90 in after-hours trading as the earnings miss fueled anxiety that Google co-founder Larry Page, who returned as chief executive two weeks ago, will not meet Wall Street expectations as consistently as his predecessor, longtime CEO Eric Schmidt. 

Investors fear Page will dramatically increase spending to invest in projects that could take a long time to make money. The stock has fallen about 9% since the surprise announcement in late January that Page would take over for Schmidt.

Investors are bound to be disappointed by the fact that Page only joined the quarterly conference call with analysts for a few minutes. He said he is "very optimistic" about Google's future. He mentioned the management changes he has made at the company, putting key Google executives in charge of seven divisions who report directly to him. He has said he plans to cut red tape and to goose innovation at the 13-year-old company.

"We hit the ground running," Page said.

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Photo: A Google sign is displayed as people arrive for work at the company's headquarters in Mountain View on April 4, 2011.Credit: Tony Avelar/Bloomberg

Paper isn't exactly cool in the digital world. So why is one of its accomplished young entrepreneurs betting his new company on pulp?

Matt Brezina, co-founder of email management service Xobni, is putting his own spin on the postcard, that rectangular piece of heavy paper that can transport memories and souvenirs into your mailbox (the real deal in the physical world, not the one on your desktop).

 The Postagram service, which is launching Tuesday, allows you to take a picture on the photo-sharing service Instagram and send it from your iPhone (or the Web) on a postcard for 99 cents. You can also include a 140-character message (so no longer than a Twitter update).

No more prepackaged photos of Roman arenas, African safaris or Hawaiian luaus. Now you can put your personal stamp on the postcards you send to family and friends (or yourself), and these are the kinds of keepsakes that may last longer on the refrigerator than the meatloaf inside. And, in a nifty trick, if they don't want to keep the card, they can pop out the photo.

Brezina says his new company Sincerely will roll out products for other photo-sharing services and mobile platforms.

Every user who signs up in the first 24 hours gets one free Postagram to send.

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Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who claimed Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea, cannot get out of the settlement they reached with Facebook, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday.

The Winklevoss twins, along with Divya Narendra, had agreed in 2008 to settle their claims, but had hoped a legal appeal would overturn the settlement, now worth in excess of $160 million because of the soaring value of the privately held company.

For the last six years, the Winklevosses have been brawling with Facebook over their contention that Zuckerberg ripped off his Harvard classmates to build the world's most popular social networking site.

A lower court had enforced the settlement.

In a statement Monday, Facebook's deputy general counsel, Colin Stretch, said: "We appreciate the 9th Circuit's careful consideration of this case and are pleased the court has ruled in Facebook's favor."

In the opinion from Chief Judge Alex Kozinski who wrote for the three-judge panel, he said: "The Winklevosses are not the first parties bested by a competitor who then seek to gain through litigation what they were unable to achieve in the marketplace. And the courts might have obliged, had the Winklevosses not settled their dispute and signed a release of all claims against Facebook."

He concluded: "At some point, litigation must come to an end. That point has now been reached."

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss could not be immediately reached for comment.

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Photo: Cameron Winkelvoss, left and his identical twin brother Tyler Winklevoss. Credit: Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times

Larry  Page, who returned as chief executive of Google on Monday, put his stamp on how he will run the Internet giant with a major reorganization of his management team on Thursday.

The move comes three days after top Google executive Jonathan Rosenberg resigned from the Internet giant as Page began to try to restore the sense of urgency and innovation that was once the company's calling card.

On Thursday, Page put key executives in charge of their individual product groups. They will report directly to him.

A Google spokesman confirmed that a reorganization had taken place but would not comment on the details.

He said that when Google announced Page would become CEO, the company was clear his top priority would be to create clear lines of accountability and responsibility across Google. After carefully examining how things were done at Google, Page decided to make management changes to streamline the product and engineering structures with essentially one lead managing each functional group, he said.

Those promotions include Andy Rubin who is now senior vice president of mobile; Vic Gundotra who is now senior vice president of social; Sundar Pichai who is now senior vice president of Chrome; Salar Kamangar who is now senior vice president of YouTube and video; Alan Eustace, who is now senior vice president of search; and Susan Wojcicki, who is now senior vice president of ads.

The executives will be able to act more autonomously and won't have to turn to Google's powerful operating committee on every decision.

"The idea is to empower people, let them take risks and give them more authority over decisions," said one person familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to maintain his relationship with Google.

Page has been thinking about how to reorganize the company to cut bureaucracy and politicking while speeding up innovation. He may have found his answer in the success of the company's Android mobile software unit and its video-sharing site YouTube, each of which have thrived as largely autonomous entities.  

The reorganization also puts Page firmly in charge of Google and its performance in much the same way Steve Jobs runs Apple.

So far, the leadership changes have been met with enthusiasm on Google's Mountain View, Calif., campus, where sources say energy is running high.

Page and fellow Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who is focused on major strategic initiatives, have offices next to each other in a recently renovated building on the campus. They are down the hall from executive chairman Eric Schmidt and surrounded by engineers working on key products for Google.

"Across the company, there are all kinds of new things being built right now," said one person who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the company.

-- Jessica Guynn

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Photo: Google CEO Larry Page. Credit: Chip East / Reuters

Facebook said it planned to increase the energy efficiency of its data centers around the globe with the launch of the Open Compute Project, an initiative to share the technology it developed for its data center in rural Oregon.

The popular social-networking site said the technology had delivered a 38% increase in energy efficiency while lowering costs 24%.

Facebook made the announcement at its Palo Alto, Calif., headquarters Wednesday.

"We have been working on this for at least a year, if not more,"  Facebook founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said.

The load on data centers has spiked as Web companies process more data in real time, he said.

Running energy-efficient data centers has become increasingly important for Internet companies. They are developing innovative technologies to save money and energy and to impress on the public the efforts they are making to minimize the harm these energy-hogging technologies cause to the environment.

But technology companies mostly keep the details of these technologies under wraps. Forrester Research analyst Richard Fichera said Facebook was reversing that trend by disclosing a "wealth of information" about the design of its data center in Oregon.

In a blog post, he said Facebook had created "one of the most efficient large data centers in the world."

Jonathan Heiliger, vice president of Facebook’s technical operations, said technology companies needed to "stop treating data centers like 'Fight Club.' " 

Facebook is banking that releasing the information so that other Web companies can use it and continue to innovate on it will lead to an ecosystem of equipment suppliers and ultimately lower energy use -- and costs -- for Facebook.

Greenpeace has been a longtime critic of Facebook's energy use. Greenpeace climate campaigner Casey Harrell commended Facebook for working to increase the energy efficiency of its business and data centers, which it says Facebook has neglected for years.

"But as the global warming footprint of the IT industry, and Facebook, specifically, continues to grow significantly, a focus on energy efficiency alone will only slow the speeding train of unsustainable emissions growth. Efficiency is simply not enough," Harrell said in a written statement. "If Facebook wants to be a truly green company, it needs to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. The way to do that is [to] decouple its growth from its emissions footprint by using clean, renewable energy to power its business instead of dirty coal and dangerous nuclear power."

Facebook's efforts to cut its energy use began two years ago before Greenpeace began targeting Facebook. It has singled out Facebook which is just one of a handful of Internet companies that are such heavy energy users. Greenpeace has challenged Facebook to commit to phase out its use of coal by April 22, which is Earth Day.

[Updated 12:22 pm: In a statement, a Facebook spokesman said: "We sent information on the Open Compute Project to Greenpeace earlier today and we've offered to answer their questions. We hope Greenpeace 'friends' the Open Compute Project and we encourage others to do the same."]

For the record, 12:48 p.m.: An earlier version of this post incorrectly called the project the Open Computer Project.

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Photos: Facebook's Prineville, Ore., data center. Credit: Facebook

Google is opening an office for its entertainment division in Beverly Hills.

The Internet search giant will occupy more than 13,000 square feet in a city-owned building. The Beverly Hills City Council approved the 11-year lease agreement valued at $6.3 million at a meeting on Tuesday.

Google will move into its new digs by year's end. A person familiar with the situation said the office will house employees from YouTube and Google.

"The location in our emerging entertainment business district is a perfect fit  both for Google and for the city," Beverly Hills Mayor Barry Brucker said in a written statement.

This is Google's second major real estate deal in Los Angeles this year. In January it signed a lease for more than 100,000 square feet in the Frank Gehry-designed Binoculars Building in Venice.

A Google spokesman declined to comment.

Google is looking to establish a greater presence in Los Angeles as people begin to watch more online video on their televisions. In October the company launched Google TV, which has raised concerns in Hollywood. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Google plans to spend as much as $100 million to create low-cost original content for channels on its popular video-sharing site YouTube, choosing to invest in content rather than license it. 

Other tenants in the Foothill Road building include film and TV production company Participant Media and Beverly Hills' cable station. Nearby neighbors include AOL and Netflix.

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Photo:  Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.  Credit: AP