Category Archives: IP

Intellectual Property issues and news

One in Six Active U.S. Patents Pertain to the Smartphone

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If anything illustrates the absurdity of the current state of affairs in the patent system, it is that the smartphone handset market — although booming — accounts for less than 1% of the U.S. annual GDP (by U.S. sales) but encompasses 16% of all active U.S. patents.***

via One in Six Active U.S. Patents Pertain to the Smartphone.

To put the absurdity of the current system into perspective, scholars Christina Mulligan and Timothy B. Lee estimated that it would take roughly 2,000,000 patent attorneys working full-time to compare every software-producing firm’s products with every software patent issued in a given year.

Xbox team’s ‘consumer detector’ would dis-Kinect freeloading TV viewers

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The patent application, filed under the heading “Content Distribution Regulation by Viewing User,” proposes to use cameras and sensors like those in the Xbox 360 Kinect controller to monitor, count and in some cases identify the people in a room watching television, movies and other content. The filing refers to the technology as a “consumer detector.”

via Xbox team’s ‘consumer detector’ would dis-Kinect freeloading TV viewers – GeekWire.

Apple’s Samsung statement reprimanded by court of appeal

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At a hearing in the court in London on Thursday morning, the judge told Apple that it had to change the wording of the statement within 48 hours, carry it on its home page, and use at least 11-point font.

via Apple’s Samsung statement reprimanded by court of appeal | Technology | guardian.co.uk.

Bloomberg quoted Jacob as saying Apple’s statement was “a plain breach of the order”.

DRM be damned: how to protect your Amazon e-books from being deleted

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If you buy e-books from Amazon, and want to engage in a bit of digital civil disobedience—by stripping the files’ DRM and making sure that Amazon can’t deny you access—we’re about to show you how. Yes, many parts of the Internet have known about this technique for some time now, but we feel that it bears mentioning again here..

via DRM be damned: how to protect your Amazon e-books from being deleted | Ars Technica.

Now, as West himself noted, these files are for your personal use only—they’re not meant to be distributed anywhere. Enjoy!

Trolls filed 40% of patent infringement lawsuits in 2011

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A new study helps to fill the gap by providing systematic data on the growth of patent troll litigation. Robin Feldman, a professor at UC Hastings College of Law, teamed up with Lex Machina, a Stanford Law spinoff that collects data on patent litigation, to compile a systematic survey of patent litigation. Their results are striking: the fraction of lawsuits filed by troll-like entities grew from 22 percent in 2007 to 40 percent in 2011.

via Trolls filed 40% of patent infringement lawsuits in 2011 | Ars Technica.

Twitter: It’s time for patent trolls to bear the costs of frivolous lawsuits

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According to the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA)’s 2011 survey, an average patent lawsuit costs between $900,000 to $6,000,000 to defend. In the last month and a half alone, Twitter has received three new patent troll lawsuits.

via Twitter: It’s time for patent trolls to bear the costs of frivolous lawsuits — Tech News and Analysis.

Microsoft DMCA Notice ‘Mistakenly’ Targets BBC, Techcrunch, Wikipedia and U.S. Govt

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Claiming to prevent the unauthorized distribution of Windows 8 Beta the software company listed 65 “infringing” web pages. However, nearly half of the URLs that Google was asked to remove from its search results have nothing to do with Windows 8.

via Microsoft DMCA Notice ‘Mistakenly’ Targets BBC, Techcrunch, Wikipedia and U.S. Govt | TorrentFreak.

Judging from the page titles and content the websites in question were targeted because they reference the number “45″.

Samsung’s Claims of Juror Misconduct Revealed in Unredacted Filings

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Were you wondering how Samsung found out about the lawsuit that Hogan failed to mention in voir dire, the litigation between Seagate and Hogan that Samsung dug up? Apple was, as I’ll show you. You wouldn’t believe it if it was in a movie script. The lawyer who sued Mr. Hogan on behalf of Seagate back in 1993 is now married to a partner at Quinn Emanuel, the lawyers for Samsung.

What are the odds?

via Groklaw – Samsung’s Claims of Juror Misconduct Revealed in Unredacted Filings ~pj Updated.

The issue, then, is juror misconduct, not that they just didn’t know what they were doing during deliberations. Hogan did not mention the case brought against him by Seagate in voir dire, significantly enough, even though he was specifically asked by the judge, as were all the prospective jurors, to list all cases any of them was ever involved in as a witness or a party. Hogan told Reuters (see 2012 [PDF]) that he wasn’t asked about all cases. But he was, as you can see for yourself in the transcript [PDF] of the voir dire.