Applications Developers Alliance + the FTC = progress on rooting out patent trolls
Recently, the Application Developers Alliance held a Google+ Hangout session with FTC Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen. Abusive patent demand letters was a hot issue during the discussion. Some of the app developers conveyed their unsettling experiences with receiving threatening, bogus patent demand letters and asked that the FTC get more involved in the issue. Commissioner Ohlhausen […]
Read more >Global Antitrust Enforcement Symposium
Last week Georgetown University Law School in Washington, D.C., hosted its annual Global Antitrust Enforcement Symposium. Despite its name, this is largely a trans-Atlantic event, bringing together lawyers and key government officials from North America and Europe. The conference opened with remarks by Bill Baer, the U.S. Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division, who […]
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Patents are not Top Secret
Once you know something about a subject, you can’t help noticing how the popular media gets basic facts wrong. Police officers have a hard time keeping a straight face when watching police dramas on TV and real computer programmers laugh when hackers take 30 seconds to break into a system on the big screen. I […]
Read more >Showcasing the start-ups driving the Internet of Things
Innovation and start-ups go hand in hand. So it’s not surprise that the Internet of Things (IoT) ‘Start-up Showcase’ was a highlight at Semicon West 2014. This session featured five start-ups whose technology demonstrated not only the exciting products that are driving the IoT wave, but also the importance of R&D and patent-protected inventions. Pellucid GPS: […]
Read more >What’s the Internet of Things, anyway?
There are a host of reasons to love San Francisco. Great food, picturesque vistas – and inspirational technology. That’s why for so many engineers, Semicon West is a like a hot-spot tourist destination. And at this year’s show, the sun was shining on the Internet of Things (IoT). Mark Adams, President of Micron Technology, kicked […]
Read more >Semicon West – Buzzing about the Internet of Things
Jeff Robertson – July 22, Final – 735 words. Posted Aug 6-7/14. Communication theory gave us the concept of the signal to noise ratio as a measure of the useful information in a message. I propose a new metric: buzzwords per square meter. The highest values seem to be found at trade shows and industry […]
Read more >What’s that whooshing sound? Xerox’s deadline rushing by
Xerox has announced a delay in its auction of 239 patents, planned for July 24-29, citing “numerous requests” from potential bidders for additional time. The company also increased the number of patents to 546. While a skeptic may claim the delay is really due to a lack of interest, I think it’s more likely that […]
Read more >SPOTTING A PATENT TROLL – A SEVEN-POINT GUIDE
We’ve all heard of the apocryphal art gallery visitor who confidently asserted, “I don’t know if it’s art, but I know what I like.” When it comes to patent licensing, the prevailing mood seems to be, “I don’t know what a patent troll is, but I know what I hate.” The Congress, several dozen state […]
Read more >Patent trolls go to Washington, or how U.S. politicians are rallying against extortionist demand letters
Adam Carolla, one of the most popular podcasters in the U.S., is sued by a patent troll. The story goes viral. Across the country, state Attorneys General are using consumer protection laws to guard their small businesses from the predacious patent trolls. And here’s something previously unthinkable: the President of the United States, in the […]
Read more >Stand Up To The Demand: Patent Trolls Beware
The greatest long-term threat to the U.S. patent system does not come from its professional opponents – those large businesses and their political allies who stand to profit from enfeebled patent rights. A deeper harm is caused by unscrupulous patent trolls who use extortionist “demand letters” to victimize small businesses. This practice, we believe, is […]
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