Jun
13
Red Hat settles JBoss Hibernate patent suit
Posted by Dirk Avery at 3:52 pm under Litigation, Patent.
Forget your worries about using JBoss Hibernate. Users worldwide now have a royalty-free, irrevocable license to use the technology. Apparently, some portions of the technology were covered by U.S. Patent No. 6,101,502. From InternetNews:
Legal eagles on staff with Red Hat are a busy group these days. The Linux distribution leader just announced […]
Jun
11
Quanta v. LG
Posted by Dirk Avery at 10:44 am under Patent, Supreme Court.
Patent exhaustion is alive and well, even for method patents. The key from the Supreme Court’s slip opinion:
Nothing in this Court’s approach to patent exhaustion supports LGE’s argument that method claims, as a category, are never exhaustible. A patented method may not be sold in the same way as an article or device, but […]
Apr
15
Google never ceases to amaze
Posted by Dirk Avery at 12:59 pm under Internet, Technology.
(Apologies for writing so little lately. The final finals season is heating up even though the weather is not - very much.)
Anyway, Google recently announced they will be employing software tools originally intended to filter out copyrighted material to track down missing and exploited children used in the pornography industry. It is tragic […]
Apr
4
Reid commited to get patent reform to floor
Posted by Dirk Avery at 7:55 am under Legislation, Patent.
Rick Merritt, from EE Times, writes,
A spokeswoman for Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the majority leader is committed to bring the Patent Reform Act (S-1145) to the Senate floor in the current working session which ends in late May. “It could come up as early as next week,” she said.
The Senate bill echoes many of […]
Apr
2
The new Acacia business model
Posted by Dirk Avery at 10:09 am under Litigation, Patent.
Back in 1993, Acacia began business as a venture capital firm. After the dot-com bust, it changed business models and began managing intellectual property for small entities without the resources to effectively capitalize IP assets. According to Forbes’s Maurna Desmond most of Acacia’s deals with patent owners involve a 50/50 revenue split.
Recently shares […]
Apr
2
Practitioners respond to rejection of new rules
Posted by Dirk Avery at 9:36 am under Litigation, Patent.
Yesterday Judge Cacheris rejected the PTO’s attempt to make substantive changes to its rules, as Irene noted. The Reporter’s Zusha Elinson writes today about the decision and responses from several patent practitioners.
“There’s a lot of good cheer going around,” said Hans Troesch, a veteran patent prosecutor with Fish & Richardson in Redwood City, […]
Mar
31
Dudas on the state of patent system
Posted by Dirk Avery at 10:51 am under Legislation, Patent.
Patent Commissioner Jon Dudas spoke with CNET about the patent system over the weekend at the Tech Policy Summit in Hollywood, California. Here are some interesting excerpts from Anne Broache’s report:
“Software, biotechnology, business methods–In the United States, the Supreme Court has consistently held that those are areas where there should be patents, and those […]
Mar
28
YouTube Japanese cover song deal
Posted by Dirk Avery at 8:01 am under Copyright, Technology.
Closet pop idols [in Japan] breathed a little easier Thursday after the announcement of a deal between video site YouTube and a large [Japanese] recording rights body, allowing punters to record and post their own versions of songs… without fear of legal reprisal.
Japan Rights Clearance Inc. (JRC) announced that it had made a comprehensive contract […]
Mar
28
Berman says PRO-IP Act is going to pass
Posted by Dirk Avery at 7:56 am under Copyright, Legislation.
“Hollywood” Berman (D-CA), new chairman of the House IP subcommittee, says of the PRO-IP Act, “‘I think this is going to pass’, this year,” according to Ars Technica’s Nate Anderson. Chairman Berman also gives lip service to copyright’s greater purpose, noting concerns about the new act’s effect on fair use and claiming a belief […]
Mar
27
Happy, uh, Spring? (Part 2)
Posted by Dirk Avery at 11:19 pm under Uncategorized.
As a follow-up on Irene’s prior post, current conditions in Ann Arbor, MI: