The European Parliament overwhelmingly defeated an international anti-piracy trade agreement Wednesday after concern that it would limit Internet freedom sparked street protests in cities across Europe.

The vote — 39 in favor, 478 against, with 165 abstentions — appeared to deal the death blow to the European Union's participation in a treaty it helped negotiate, though other countries may still participate without the EU.

The warnings about the Internet problem have been splashed across Facebook and Google. Internet service providers have sent notices, and the FBI set up a special website.

But tens of thousands of Americans may still lose their Internet service Monday unless they do a quick check of their computers for malware that could have taken over their machines more than a year ago.

Taiwan's leading smartphone maker HTC Thursday hailed as a victory a British court ruling that it did not infringe on a patent owned by the U.S. technology giant Apple.

The high court in London Wednesday found HTC did not infringe on Apple Inc's photo management patent while deeming three other Apple patents -- for slide-to-unlock, multi-touch and multilingual keyboard capability -- invalid.

Apple is preparing to launch a smaller tablet computer in the coming months in a bid to maintain its edge in an increasingly crowded market, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

The Journal cited unnamed sources as saying that component parts manufacturers had been ordered to gear up for mass production of the tablets in September, indicating the launch may be drawing near.

Japanese electronics giant Toshiba said Tuesday a jury has ordered it to pay $87 million in a price-fixing case on LCD displays, but that it ultimately may not end up paying damages.

A company statement said the U.S. District Court jury in San Francisco ordered the fine "due to alleged antitrust practices in the LCD business."

Japanese authorities have ordered Olympus to pay about $63 million in back taxes and penalties, reports said Wednesday, as the disgraced firm tries to recover from a loss cover-up scandal.

The liability is tied to a 15 billion yen ($188 million) advisory fee that Olympus claimed to have paid during its 2008 acquisition of British medical equipment maker Gyrus Group, the Nikkei business daily and Jiji Press reported.

Google said Tuesday it was discontinuing its iGoogle page designed as Web "portal," saying it had become less relevant in the age of the mobile Internet.

The portal, which allowed users to personalize their start page, will be cut in November 2013 and was among a handful of products axed by the California tech giant.

The European parliament on Tuesday demanded all new cars be forced to be equipped by 2015 with an electronic emergency system known as eCall.

Because the auto industry appears reluctant to voluntarily install the satellite-based system, which automatically alerts emergency services in case of a serious accident, MEPS called for eCall to be mandatory in new cars.

Google chairman Eric Schmidt has submitted a proposal to European regulators in Brussels aimed at avoiding a showdown on the some of the Internet search leader's business practices.

The European Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia began investigating Google in 2010, and in May of this year warned the company it needed to quickly propose changes to several practices — notably including the way it promotes its own offerings in search results — or face possible fines.

Upscale headphone maker Beats Electronics is buying music subscription service MOG in an attempt to improve what goes into playback devices as much as what comes out of them.

Beats, founded by rapper Dr. Dre and recording executive Jimmy Iovine, has devoted its brand to high-quality sound. But headphones and speakers are limited in their ability to improve the sound of songs whose data is compressed to squeeze through narrow pipes like older cellular phone networks.