Stocks In News: Vringo Inc.(AMEX:VRNG), Nokia Corporation (NOK), AT&T Inc.(NYSE:T)

Court ruling sends Vringo shares flying

Shares of Vringo, Inc.(NYSEAMEX:VRNG), the company which buys and licenses patents, hit a new high on Thursday thanks to a favorable court denial of summary. The Norfolk federal district court judge, Raymond Jackson, refused to comply with Google's requested to quash the patent suit Vringo had filed against Google Inc., AOL Inc., IAC/InteractiveCorp, Target Corp. and Gannett Co.

The suit is mainly related to two patents describing basic search engine functions, that originally belonged to the search engine Lycos, and which Vringo acquired in July when it bought I/P Engine.

Google's contention is that earlier patents covered the same invention and Vringo's suit should therefore not be entertained.

Trial begins on October 16.

Shares of VRNG has soared 65% in the past two trading sessions and made an all time high of $5.55. However, the stock is down 14% in the pre-market session.

AT&T to sell Nokia's Windows 8 Lumia phones

AT&T Inc.(NYSE:T) announced on Thursday that it is going to sell Nokia Corporation (ADR)(NYSE:NOK) smartphones that run on Windows Phone 8. It will be the only U.S. carrier selling the high end Lumia 920 and the midrange Lumia 820. These phones will hit the market in November. AT&T has made no mention of the price at which they will sell.

The success of these phones is critical for Nokia which has drastically fallen from the top phone maker position it once enjoyed. AT&T and T-Mobile have been selling Nokia's earlier Windows phones in the U.S., a market where the Finnish company has hardly any presence.

The new Windows Phone 8 is a continuation of Microsoft's effort to get back into smartphones.

AT&T will also release HTC Corp's Windows Phone 8X which runs on the same software.

Shares of NOK are up 2% in the pre-open session.