Feb
19
Scope of the Design Piracy Prohibition Act (S. 1957 H.R. 2033)
Posted by Irene Soto at 12:28 pm under Copyright, Patent.
Yesterday Dirk wrote about the testimony of Narcisco Rodriquez in support of the Design Piracy Prohibition Act.
Steve Maiman, co-owner of Stony Apparel Corp. testified on behalf of those in the industry who oppose the bill. Specifically, he argued that it is “impossible to determine the originality of a design because all designs are inspired by […]
Feb
19
Blu-ray wins: High def wars over
Posted by Dirk Avery at 9:54 am under Technology.
Sony may have lost the videotape format war when the Betamax case went down in flames, but has won the high definition video disc war. WSJ reports: Toshiba Exits HD DVD Business, Ceding Market to Sony’s Blu-ray
Feb
19
Patent updates: Motorola, RIM, Reform
Posted by Dirk Avery at 9:37 am under Litigation, Patent.
Motorola, RIM countersuits: infringement and reasonable licenses for essential technology
Research In Motion is suing Motorola over several patents used for wireless devices like its BlackBerry e-mail devices and Motorola’s Razr smartphones… [Canadian] Research In Motion… asked a United States District Court in Dallas to rule that Motorola was breaching commitments it had made to license […]
Feb
18
Google, Microsoft Sued and Patent Reform
Posted by Irene Soto at 10:29 pm under Litigation, Patent.
Google, Microsoft Sued Over Keyword Auction Patent
Paid Search Engine Tools LLC, a corporation based in Liberty Township, Ohio, filed a patent-infringement claim against Google and Microsoft in the Eastern District of Texas. The company claims that Google’s AdWords and Microsoft’s AdCenter advertising services violate its “Paid Search Engine Bid Management” patent.
The patent, U.S. Patent No. […]
Feb
18
2008 Inventors Hall of Fame Inductees
Posted by Irene Soto at 4:37 pm under Events, Patent.
Last week, Jon Dudas, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO and officials of the National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) announced the sixteen inductees of the 2008 Inventors Hall of Fame. The inventors will be formally inducted into the Hall of Fame on May 3rd in Akron, Ohio. The seven […]
Feb
18
Collaboration with geneticists yields faster fiber
Posted by Dirk Avery at 12:49 pm under Internet, Patent, Technology.
This is just plain cool. Researchers in Australia were working to produce faster fiber optics. When they ran into an issue they couldn’t solve, they collaborated with the geneticists in the neighboring lab to come up with new, patent-pending technology. (Hopefully it will help US Internet providers upgrade infrastructures that are falling […]
Feb
18
Copyright cites
Posted by Dirk Avery at 12:26 pm under Copyright.
Copyright protection in the Egyptian Pyramids
The Egyptian government, wanting both to protect the country’s cultural heritage and to profit from manufactured souvenirs of Sphinxes etc., is considering expanding its intellectual-property laws to cover replicas of antiquities and monuments.
Motion Picture Association (MPA) sues Chinese P2P company (Xunlei) supported by Google (Download MPA press release here)
Narciso Rodriguez, […]
Feb
18
Patent updates
Posted by Dirk Avery at 12:02 pm under Patent.
Worldwide patent applications increasing
Statistics published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) this week show that the number of patent applications filed worldwide has grown significantly in recent years… According to the WIPO Patent Report 2007, the number of worldwide patent filings increased by an average of 4.7 % per year between 1995 and 2005… […]
Feb
17
In memory of the mixtape
Posted by Irene Soto at 3:32 pm under Technology.
“The Mixtape is a fine art that is threatened by the loss of the medium. Two channel analog magnetic tape is disappearing in favor of MP3 files. A mixtape is a snapshot of your musical and social tastes during the brief period in which you created it. That summer in 1992, maybe your mixtape was […]
Feb
16
Patent registration exam (bar) MPEP revision
Posted by Dirk Avery at 10:58 am under Patent.
I am currently studying to take the patent registration exam (aka, the patent bar). With new revisions of the MPEP coming out all the time, how do you know what version will be tested and whether your test-prep materials are up-to-date? Have no fear. The answer is pretty simple. According to […]