Business Highlights

BOSTON — IBM Corp. alleged in two lawsuits Monday that important components of Amazon.com Inc.’s massive retailing Web site were developed and patented many years earlier at IBM.

Amazon, which this year will sell $10 billion worth of everything from books and CDs to pet supplies and jewelry, is accused of infringing on five IBM patents. IBM says the technologies covered by the patents govern how the site recommends products to customers, serves up advertising and stores data.

Some of the patents were first filed in the 1980s, when IBM created back-end technology for Prodigy, an early online service that grew out of a joint venture between IBM and Sears, Roebuck & Co. One such patent is titled "Ordering Items Using an Electronic Catalog.”

"Given that time frame, these are very fundamental inventions for e-commerce and how to do it on the network,” said John E. Kelly III, IBM’s senior vice president for intellectual property. "Much, if not all, of Amazon’s business is built on top of this property.”

Hundreds of other companies have licensed the same patents, and IBM has tried to negotiate licensing deals with Amazon "over a dozen times since 2002,” Kelly said. Seattle-based Amazon has refused every time "while pretending to desire resolution,” the lawsuits state.

Amazon declined to comment.

Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM is not specifying the damages it seeks. It filed its lawsuits in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas, one in Tyler and one in Lufkin. Texas has become a frequent site for patent cases because districts there move quickly and are perceived as relatively responsive to intellectual-property claims.

Ford loses $5.8B in 3Q on sagging sales, restructuring

DEARBORN, Mich. — Ford Motor Co.’s blue oval continued to bleed red ink in the third quarter, with the company posting a $5.8 billion loss Monday due to sagging North American sales and huge costs associated with a massive restructuring plan.

It was the largest quarterly loss in more than 14 years for the nation’s second-biggest automaker, and company officials predicted things would get worse in the fourth quarter as market share drops and Ford pays for further plant closures to bring its manufacturing in line with lower demand for its products.

The July-September performance brings Ford’s losses to $7.24 billion for the first nine months of the year, compared with a $1.87 billion profit for the same period last year.

The loss had some analysts worried that Ford could face a cash squeeze before it begins to realize savings from job cuts, plant closures and other aspects of its restructuring plan.

Two accused in plot to steal Coke secrets plead guilty

ATLANTA — The two men accused of plotting with a secretary at Coca-Cola Co. to steal trade secrets from the world’s biggest soft drink maker and trying to sell them to archrival PepsiCo Inc. each pleaded guilty Monday to one count of conspiracy.

Ibrahim Dimson and Edmund Duhaney both could face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when they’re sentenced Jan. 29.

Former Coca-Cola secretary Joya Williams is still scheduled to stand trial starting the week of Nov. 13.

"She is absolutely not pleading,” Williams’ attorney, Janice Singer, said.

During the plea hearing in federal court, Duhaney told the judge that Williams, a longtime friend, contacted him first and wanted to "make things happen,” while Dimson testified that Duhaney then contacted him to try to broker a deal with Pepsi.

Duhaney entered his plea as part of a deal with prosecutors and will likely cooperate if the Williams case goes to trial, said assistant U.S. Attorney Bjay Pak. In the plea agreement, the government agrees to push for a lighter sentence in exchange for Duhaney’s assistance, though Pak pointed out that Duhaney could still get the maximum sentence.

Duhaney’s attorney, Don Samuel, called his client a "bit player who was very briefly involved as a go-between.”

Dimson’s attorney, Anna Blitz, did not comment on why her client decided to plead guilty.

Williams, Dimson and Duhaney were indicted July 11 on federal conspiracy charges. The three were accused of stealing new product samples and confidential documents from Atlanta-based Coca-Cola and trying to sell them to PepsiCo’s Pepsi unit, which is second in U.S. soft drink sales to Coca-Cola.

The alleged plans were foiled after Pepsi, based in Purchase, N.Y., warned Coca-Cola.