Mar
27
The messy Rambus affair
Posted by Dirk Avery at 9:55 am under Litigation, Patent, Technology.
While the Gibson/Guitar Hero/Rock Band war rages on, chip designer Rambus has won a major battle in its war against chip makers.
Rambus, which designs memory chips and chips for Sony’s Playstation, won a jury verdict in the Northern District of California in a suit brought by Hynix, the world’s second largest chip maker, Micron and […]
Mar
26
Patently new: MSFT, Apple and ADI
Posted by Dirk Avery at 10:06 am under Litigation, Patent.
Microsoft changes its tone relative to Open Source
Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith spoke at the Open Source Business Conference attempting to reconcile differences between the software giant and the open source community. CNET’s Charles Cooper reports:
“We believe in the importance of building a bridge that makes it possible for different parts of the industry […]
Mar
26
Blu-ray, Razr under ITC investigation
Posted by Dirk Avery at 9:51 am under Litigation, Patent, Technology.
Thirty companies, including Hitachi, LG, Motorola, Pioneer, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba, have been targeted by an ITC investigation. The investigation is the result of a complaint by Professor Emeritus at Columbia University, Gertrude Rothschild, which alleges her patent is infringed by such popular products as Sony Blu-ray players, Motorola Razr phones and Hitachi […]
Mar
25
Patents news: Guitar Hero and Rock Band
Posted by Dirk Avery at 2:35 pm under Litigation, Patent, Video games.
Gibson goes on suing spree
Hoping, perhaps, to dip into lucrative video game revenue, Gibson Guitar, maker of “real” guitars, is on a serious lawsuit binge. There are cease and desist letters, cross suits, failed negotiations, acquisitions and declaratory judgment actions.
Sometimes, maybe, moderate success is better than wild popularity. Activision’s Guitar Hero has […]
Mar
25
The looming broadband war
Posted by Dirk Avery at 9:59 am under Internet.
Google’s recent FCC filing brings to mind our US broadband shortcomings. The basic problem US Internet users face is in the “last mile.” Our Internet access is far slower than many first world countries because of this last mile bottleneck. Rumor has it (though little information is available) that the Internet backbone is relatively clear […]
Mar
21
Multilingual websites now easier
Posted by Dirk Avery at 1:41 pm under Innovation, Internet, Wikinomics.
Google has announced a new AJAX Language API which allows for translation and language detection. Like its other AJAX APIs, Google aims to provide website developers access to its substantial software resources enabling a new generation of web applications.
The number of languages included is impressive with such common languages as English, Spanish and German, […]
Mar
20
Easier software patents in the UK
Posted by Dirk Avery at 10:21 pm under Patent.
While the US is considering abandoning software patents, the UK High Court has ruled for the first time that computer programs, per se, can be patented. Symbian appealed a UK-IPO rejection of its patent application, which was based on the invention being software based. The decision brings the UK in line with the European Patent […]
Mar
19
Why isn’t .xxx a good idea?
Posted by Dirk Avery at 11:21 am under Internet, Legislation, Litigation.
A new top-level domain dedicated to… um… pornography is a great idea. A new domain would allow segregation of content in a manner much like content is segregated in the “real” world. This would provide neat and easy control for those who wanted it. Schools and employers could simply not provide access […]
Mar
17
Japan, bellwether of net bias?
Posted by Dirk Avery at 8:55 am under Copyright, Internet.
A thousand of Japan’s ISPs have come to an agreement to ban P2P users. Users would get one strike before they were out. Once a user is out, they’ll be tough pressed to find a provider.
The popular P2P application in Japan, Winny, encrypts its traffic. The ISPs, though, are not going to do […]
Mar
14
First amendment in the digital age
Posted by Dirk Avery at 7:42 am under Internet, Litigation, Technology.
Can an employee mouth off to his friends about something unrelated to work? Of course? What if his “friends” happen to be the worldwide readers of his blog? A couple of days ago, outed Patent Troll Tracker Richard Frenkel was sued for defamation based on comments he made on his blog. His employer, Cisco, was […]