Feb
16
EU members, read this book
Posted by Dirk Avery at 8:36 am under Copyright, Supreme Court.
Before the EU proposal to extend copyright, sound-recording protection from 50 to 95 years becomes law, it “would need approval by the European Parliament and a majority of the EU’s 27 governments, whose votes are weighted by population size.” Of course, whenever copyright extension comes up, Lessig comes to mind. EU citizens and […]
Feb
16
$501.3M for Boston Scientific
Posted by Dirk Avery at 7:49 am under Litigation, Patent.
Perhaps the company should consider becoming a 501(c)(3)…
A federal judge added $69.4 million in pre-judgment interest to the $431.9 million a jury ordered Boston Scientific Corp. (BSX) to pay for infringing on a radiologist’s patent on drug-eluting coronary stents…
Stents are tiny scaffolds used to prop open arteries clogged by heart disease. Sales of drug-coated stents […]
Feb
14
Copyright: Trojan horse to net neutrality?
Posted by Dirk Avery at 11:34 am under Copyright, Internet.
Craig Aaron sets the scene well:
[I]n The Matrix… Morpheus… offers Neo… a fateful choice.
He holds out two pills. Take the blue pill, he says, and you go back to a life of clock-punching drudgery where your every move is monitored. Take the red one, and you get spaceships, kung-fu and a leather-clad Carrie-Anne Moss.
Take away […]
Feb
14
Update: Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo!
Posted by Dirk Avery at 10:46 am under Internet.
Murdoch’s News Corp., a Web powerhouse thanks to its ownership of top social networking site MySpace.com, is said to be in talks to invest in Yahoo to help it fend off Microsoft’s overtures.
Feb
14
Patent updates
Posted by Dirk Avery at 10:05 am under Litigation, Patent.
Patent Reform update:
Negotiators looking to revamp America’s patent system say they have begun to find common purpose, but as a recent dust-up between two big players in the debate illustrates, a final agreement remains elusive.
Mid-litigation immunity?
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) has sponsored an unusual provision at the urging of the nation’s banks granting them immunity against […]
Feb
13
Patenting Patent Notices
Posted by Irene Soto at 2:41 pm under Internet, Patent.
I ran a title search for the term “patent” in the PTO database (some people play solitaire during class, I search for ridiculous patents) and stumbled upon U.S. Patent 7,130,830 titled “Providing notice of patent rights.”
This patent covers a method for notifying a user of a device that the device is covered by a patent. […]
Feb
13
Patent updates
Posted by Dirk Avery at 12:02 pm under Litigation, Patent.
A jury in Texas has ruled that Boston Scientific’s drug-coated stents infringe on a 1997 patent issued to a radiologist [represented by Dickstein Shapiro] and has awarded the inventor $431 million in damages, Boston Scientific said Tuesday.
The Patent Office Professional Association (POPA) and 13 other unions collectively sent letters… to legislators this week calling for […]
Feb
13
Three things I enjoy: Patent, copyright and photography
Posted by Dirk Avery at 11:34 am under Copyright, Internet, Patent.
(Name the movie: “Those are three names I enjoy: Marvin, Velma and Provo.”) Canon (to whose cameras I am partial) has submitted a patent application for a very cool new watermarking technology for protecting copyrights. The basic idea (more here) is that you put your eye up to the view finder, the camera […]
Feb
13
Green patents: dryer and nano-solar cells
Posted by Dirk Avery at 10:01 am under Patent, Technology.
EarthTimes reports:
At the 2008 International Builders’ Show (IBS)® Hydromatic Technologies Corporation will launch a new technology [Dryer Miser™] for clothes dryers that will reduce the appliance’s energy consumption up to 50 percent and cuts clothes-drying time by up to 41 percent.
And the Journal of New England Technology reports:
Solar cell equipment maker Spire Corp. has been […]
Feb
13
Goodbye Polaroid!
Posted by Irene Soto at 8:01 am under Technology.
Sad news. ”Polaroid Corp., the Massachusetts company that gave the world instant film photography, is shutting down its film manufacturing lines in the state and abandoning the technology that made the company famous.”
The company is closing two facilities, laying off 150 employees, and will begin to focus on flat-panel TVs and digital photography gear. According to […]