Google's billion dollar acquisition of navigation app Waze could be under threat, after reports this weekend claimed the FTC wants to take a closer look at the legality of the deal.

The Wall Street Journal said Google has been contacted by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States, in order to reveal its intends to probe the agreement on antitrust grounds.

Google snapped up the community-sourced app earlier this month to harness its real-time data, which brings up to the minute information on traffic, construction, accidents, petrol prices and police presence.

According to the report, the FTC has asked Google to put the breaks on integrating Waze within its own services until the deal has been fully reviewed.

Other potential suitors

Google's purchase of Waze ended a long period of speculation, which also pegged Apple and Facebook as potential suitors.

Google is thought to have paid $1.1 billion for the Israel-based application, which has 47 million users in 163 countries.

Samsung has once again been found guilty of infringing Apple's 'rubber band' patent in the latest round of the tech duo's never-ending patent war.

Reuters reports a Japanese court ruled that some of Samsung's earlier Android devices infringed on the 'bounce back' UI tool, which appears within iOS.

The software feature gives users a neat elasticity when they reach the bottom of a web page, email thread, photo album or messaging thread, for example, bouncing before it snaps back into place.

This patent continues to come in useful for Apple. The company used it in last year's blockbuster California trial, which ended up costing Samsung $1.1 billion (UK£713m, AUD$1.19bn) in damages.

Heavily disputed

In truth, the latest ruling against Samsung will not cause the company too much damage as it has replaced the bounce-back feature with a blue-line at the foot of documents in his newer handsets.

This particular patent does remain the topic of heavy discussion. Earlier this year the US patent office ruled it invalid, only to have another change of heart this week.

One this is for sure though, if Apple is able to use it to its advantage, it will