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bne Tech
March 15, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 25
Google fixes “technical mistake” in maps that presented Crimea to Russian users as Ukrainian territory
EWDN in Moscow
Five year after Russia took control of the peninsula, the sovereignty dispute between Russia and Ukraine over Crimea is still sensitive for online service pro- viders, reports East-West Digital News (EWDN).
Thus, in an effort to comply with local laws regarding the depiction of international borders, Google has just “corrected an error that caused a small num- ber of Russian iOS users” to see Crimea as part of Ukraine, as reported by online publication Meduza.
Members of the Russian parliament, including State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, had criticized Google over the past two months for what they saw as an “unconstitutional” inaccuracy.
In a meeting with Duma officials, Google’s
government relations director in Russia Marina Zhunich attributed the issue to a technical error without any political significance, as reported by the TASS news agency.
Russian lawmakers also complained that Apple Maps presented Sevastopol as being part of Ukrainian territory.
Since 2014, as Ukraine still claimed its sover- eignty over the peninsula, map publishers, search engines, and a range of other organisations have come under fire from both Ukraine and Russia depending on whether they attributed Crimea
to one or the other.
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European patent applications from CEE states rise
Clare Nuttall in Glasgow
Patent applications to the European Patent Office (EPO) from its members in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) rose strongly in 2018, though in absolute terms they still lag the number of applications from Western Europe, the US
and Far Eastern manufacturing hubs.
Countries from the region have become important manufacturing destinations for international firms, including in the automotive and components industry, thanks to their skilled workforces and relatively low costs. However, there are also a growing number of homegrown tech and manufacturing companies in the region.
The growth in applications from Poland (+19.7%) and the Czech Republic (+17.5%), the top two sources of patent applications from the CEE region, outstripped the overall growth of 4.6%, the EPO’s 2018 Annual Report shows.
Poland was, however, in 25th place overall in terms of the number of patent applications, just 354 compared to tens of thousands from the US, Germany and Japan, which topped the table. The Czech Republic was slightly lower on the table in 33rd place with 242 patents.
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