Intellectual Property Law Internet Law IT Law Computer Law

I got this story from the post available at www.adkuchni.blox.pl website which is devoted to marketing stories in comic shorts.

I found a country without advertisments! It’s Cuba. Only billboards, posters I saw during my trip were governmental expression of revolutionary ideas: Fidel in exchange with Che Guevara and Chavez.

And how should I explain to a Cuban guy I met (my Spanish is fading): ¿donde trabajo? – where do I work?

It went like that:

Cuban guy: ¿Donde trabajas? / Where do you work?

I: En la agencia de publicidad / In advertising agency

C: ¿Donde? / where?

I: Agencia de publicidad / In advertising agency

C: ¿Que es eso? / What is this?

After short explaination I heard from him:

C: Si! Es como la agencia de propaganda comercial! / I get it! It’s like: propaganda agency but for commercial.

You’ll also find a link to www.flickr.com website in comments. It presents many pictures of São Paulo City without any advertising.

I browsed through specific or peculiar artworks of Rob Nance that are available at his website - www.artforrobots.com. I started to think more when I saw “Poseable Paper Pope”. Parody. Bad taste? De gustibus non disputandum est. Publicity right? It is quite relaxing situation for Mr Nance that Vatican does not sue so eagerly as it usually happens in the US. Just check such case as White v. Samsung, 971 F. 2d 1395 (9th Cir. 1992). Ms Vanna White (I have to add that Magda Masny was her counterpart in Poland) has sued Samsung for using her “image” in Samsung’s ads. I really really recommend you to read this judgment. Below, on the left, you’ll find a black and white image of Ms White and on the right, her “likeness” that was used in Samsung advertising campaign.

Judge Alex Kozinski wrote opinion for Vanna White v. Samsung, 989 F.2d 1512, 26 U.S.P.Q.2d 1362, 21 Media L. Rep. 1330 (9th Cir. 1993), which was the petition for rehearing in the above mentioned case. You may already know that I like his style and I often cite his profound deliberations as I did it in the post titled “Oh, those Internet’s contracts“.

In re Bilski, No. 08/833,892 (Fed. Cir. 2008) will be heard en banc by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Dennis Crouch wrote more detailed post regarding this issue and problems with business models’ patents. Yesterday, Red Hat has issued an official press statemement on www.redhat.com website regarding the mentioned case.

esp@cenet provides users with information on the latest technology, in the form of the most recently published patent documents. Similarly, we try to use the latest developments to ensure that esp@cenet delivers its results reliably and accurately via intelligent database design and a user-friendly GUI and search engine.

esp@cenet should not only provide users with the information they are looking for, but also offer a relaxing and rewarding search experience – which is why we will be investing in usability and navigation studies later this year.

In the meantime, as from today we have implemented a biometric application which runs in the background. You may not be aware of this application initially but, put simply, it senses the speed and force of the keystrokes you make on your PC keyboard. If you are tired, anxious or stressed, these will tend to be faster and more forceful; if you are relaxed, then they are likely to be slower and less powerful. So by measuring the speed and force of your keystrokes, the application detects whether you are tense or relaxed. If you appear to be tense, the search you are doing will be temporarily halted – a new browser window will open and display slow, randomly changing shades of muted blues and greens, and if you have a sound card you will hear whalesong (later versions will offer user-selectable images – such as restful landscapes – and a choice of mood music).

After a few minutes, depending on the level of tension detected, your computer will be unlocked and you will be able to resume your search in a more relaxed state. By reinforcing this stress-detection/calming system response in a positive feedback loop, we hope to ensure that esp@cenet users are always calm and relaxed when searching.

We would greatly appreciate your views on the effectiveness of this biometric application, and on whether it really does have positive effects on your relaxation levels whilst using esp@cenet.

More details at www.ep.espacenet.com website.

The successful strategy of Chicago plaintiffs firm Niro, Scavone, Haller & Niro of representing patent-holding companies with strong infringement claims on a contingency basis has spawned many imitators.

The term “patent troll” was famously coined in reference to firm co-founder Ray Niro. But in the past few months the firm has been involved in such controversial situations that a question arises: Is this how a patent plaintiffs firm acts in middle age?
(…)
By that time Niro was involved in a growing spat with an anonymous blogger called the “Troll Tracker”. Niro doesn’t like to be called a “troll,” but Troll Tracker started referring to Niro that way. So Niro pulled out an old weapon. He e-mailed the blogger, informing him that he may be infringing on patent number 5,253,341.
(…)
For the moment, Niro and the Troll Tracker are at a standoff because the blogger refuses to reveal his identity. But Niro is willing to use his unorthodox tactics to surmount that obstacle. “I’ll offer $5,000 to anyone that can provide information that leads me to the identity of Troll Tracker,” Niro says, announcing the bounty publicly for the first time here in IP Law & Business. “I view these people [anonymous bloggers] as know-nothings,” he says, “afraid to reveal their identity.”

Those are parts from the article available at www.law.com website. And now is clear. Troll Tracker is a blog owned by Rick Frenkel, currently working for Cisco.

On March 14, 2008, The Polish Patent Office together with The WIPO, The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, The Polish Agency for Enterprise Development, The National chamber of Commerce and The Polish Confederation of Private Employers LEWIATAN organize a conference “IP protection as a condition for women’ success in science and business” which will be located in Warsaw at The Polish National Library. During the above mentioned conference there will be also held an official ending of the 3rd edition of “The Woman-Inventor” competition-plebiscite.

US patent application no 20070288886.

Abstract
A digital rights management system permits an application owner to cause code to be injected into the application’s run-time instruction stream so as to restrict execution of that application to specific hardware platforms. In a first phase, an authorizing entity (e.g., an application owner or platform manufacturer) authorizes one or more applications to execute on a given hardware platform. Later, during application run-time, code is injected that performs periodic checks are made to determine if the application continues to run on the previously authorized hardware platform. If a periodic check fails, at least part of the application’s execution string is terminated–effectively rendering the application non-usable. The periodic check is transparent to the user and difficult to circumvent.

Abstract
A method of swing on a swing is disclosed, in which a user positioned on a standard swing suspended by two chains from a substantially horizontal tree branch induces side to side motion by pulling alternately on one chain and then the other.

Patent number: 6368227
Filing date: Nov 17, 2000
Issue date: Apr 9, 2002
Inventor: Steven Olson
Primary Examiner: Kien T. Nguyen
Attorney: Peter Lowell Olson

US patent no 6,368,227.

I invite all of you to my lecture which is scheduled on October 2007 r., at 11 AM at the Main Library of University of Gdansk, Wita Stwosza street 53, Gdańsk-Przymorze, at the OIN main training room (no 054). During the meeting hosted by Three-City Linux User Group I am going to give a short lecture which is titled, “Linux and so-called IP rights”.

Innovators Network has invited me to chair a workshop focusing on SMEs from the IT sector. I’ll teach them how to define intellectual assets and protect it, as well as, to raise capital, develop partnerships, and create new streams of revenue. This workshop is titled “Discover a New Source of Income for Your Company through Usage of Intellectual Property. Turning Your Innovation into a Successful Business”. It will take place on December 6, 2007, in beautiful Kraków. If you are around during this time and you’d like to meet then let me know.

U.S. Patent No. 6,769,793. Can you use a patent to scare people during Halloween?

Lana Knedlik is a patent attorney from Kansas City and a very talented singer. She created and recorded “Bar Date” song and its clip.

Dennis Crouch wrote really nice post about that performance.

There is a very interesting article available at www.iusmentis.com website about searching for prior art in comic books. Why do I have this feeling that such situation could only happen in the US?

The US legislative proces should be a subject of a hudge scientific research. I must admit I was really happy and suprised when I read that Larry Lessig will work on it. Meanwhile, I found an insteresting movie clip at Dennis Crouch website as a comment about pending legislation, reform of the US patent law.

Couple of hours ago US Congress has voted Patent Reform Act (H.R. 1908, 110th Congress, 1st Session, (2007)). The biggest reform is the change from first to invent to first to file system. It will harmonize the US patent law with other countries’ legal regimes.

Check claims from the U.S. patent no 7,247,782 and comments about it in the article available at www.genome-technology.com website.