Workers' wages bill waits for Patrick's signature

A bill that would impose triple damages on employers who fail to pay their workers or do not pay them in a timely manner has been sent to Governor Deval Patrick, who has 10 days to decide whether to sign it. Supporters say the law is needed to fully compensate workers who are not paid on time, and whose credit was damaged or who were unable to pay bills as a result. The law could also benefit employees who were not paid for overtime, or fired employees who did not receive final paychecks. Without the law, employers may have to reimburse workers only for back pay, plus interest. Opponents say mandatory treble damages could penalize companies that run into cash-flow problems and have to wait for new financing. An identical bill was vetoed in 2006 by Governor Mitt Romney. (Sacha Pfeiffer)

A US Court of Appeals judge in Boston reversed a district court decision to dismiss a lawsuit alleging the popular social network, Facebook Inc., was based on computer code stolen from a rival company. It is the latest step in a nasty legal battle over the origins of the popular social network. According to its company history, Facebook was launched from a Harvard dorm room in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes; according to complaints filed by its rival, ConnectU, Zuckerberg stole the idea and code to launch a competing site. ConnectU filed a second, similar lawsuit against Facebook in district court around the same time that it filed the appeal. Yesterday's decision referred the matter to district court and said it should consider consolidating the two cases. (Carolyn Y. Johnson)

The First Church of Christ, Scientist said it will offer almost 200,000 square feet of space in its Back Bay complex of buildings for lease. DTZ FHO Partners, a real estate firm, was chosen to handle the leasing of about 120,000 square feet at 177 Huntington Ave. and 70,000 square feet at 103 Belvidere St. on a short-term basis. The church is consolidating its operations in a renovated Publishing House building, at 210 Massachusetts Ave., over the next two months. A continuing master-planning effort will determine long-term uses of the church's buildings, a complex designed in the 1960s by an architect with the firm of I.M. Pei. (Thomas C. Palmer Jr.)

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. won approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to market its test for MRSA, the drug-resistant bacteria known as the superbug, the company said. Thermo Fisher, based in Waltham, said its test can simplify patient screenings for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which sickens 2 million Americans a year and costs about $20 billion to treat. (Bloomberg)

Indevus Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it signed licensing rights for is Vantas prostate cancer implant to European pharmaceutical company Orion Corp. for up to $21 million. Under the deal, Orion will pay Lexington-based Indevus $7 million up front with additional payments of as much as $14 million for rights to supply and distribute the drug in European nations and elsewhere. (AP)

AT&T Inc. said airwaves it won in this year's US government auction, combined with spectrum it bought from Aloha Partners LP, will let it offer faster mobile Web access to all customers in the nation's top 200 markets. The airwaves, located in the 700-megahertz band, will cover 87 percent of the US population, said Ralph de la Vega, chief executive of AT&T's wireless unit. The spectrum will become available when television broadcasters convert to digital signals next February. (Bloomberg)

Apple Inc. filed a federal challenge to New York's trademark application for a new "Big Apple" logo, saying it's too similar to the stylized emblem found on iPhones, iPods, and iMac computers. Apple says the symbol for New York's "GreeNYC" initiative promoting energy efficiency and recycling is confusingly similar to the logo used by the electronics maker since 1977. NYC & Company Inc., the city's nonprofit tourism and marketing office, filed the trademark application in May, seeking to play off of New York's "Big Apple" nickname. New York already has begun using the logo, which morphs the symbol for infinity (similar to a figure 8 on its side) with the outline of an apple, a stem, and a single leaf. (Bloomberg)