The Empiricist - Slashdot User

Submission + - In re Bilski: Over 40 briefs filed

Submitted by The Empiricist on Sunday April 13, 2008 @05:52PM

The Empiricist writes: Over 40 briefs have been filed as part of In re Bilski, the appeal being heard in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on whether a method of hedging commodities risks constitutes patentable subject matter. Most of the briefs are available either at Patently-O or at The Webb Law Firm (the law firm representing the patent applicants). The opinions expressed in the briefs are as varied as the groups and individuals who submitted them. They show how controversial questions of patentable subject matter are. The big question for the Federal Circuit is how can it decide this case without being reversed by the Supreme Court?

Submission + - Google Applies for Patent on UPS System (datacenterknowledge.com)

Submitted by

1sockchuck

on Friday February 15, 2008 @02:35PM

1sockchuck writes: "A group of engineers from Google have applied for a patent on a highly efficient server power supply that integrates a battery, allowing it to function as an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). The design effectively shifts the UPS and battery backup functions from the data center room into the server cabinet. Its primary benefit is that it uses a single AC-to-DC conversion, providing better efficiency than traditional UPS systems that perform AC/DC conversions to charge banks of batteries. The server-level UPS described in the patent submission includes a fault detection system and a battery, and will switch to battery backup if it detects an interruption in grid power. Interestingly, the concept of including a UPS in a PC power supply was discussed on Slashdot in 2001."

Journal Journal: Lose a patent lawsuit? Write a new law!

Journal by Presto Vivace on Friday February 15, 2008 @12:28PM

Lawmakers Move to Grant Banks Immunity Against Patent Lawsuit

Feed Newsforge: Trend Micro patent claim provokes FOSS community, leads to boycott (linux.com)

From feed by nffeed on Wednesday February 13, 2008 @11:33AM

Submission + - Legality of font use?

Submitted by

Mctittles

on Wednesday February 13, 2008 @03:10AM

Mctittles writes: "I have come up with a use for fonts on a website that falls in the gray area of whether I can legally do this within the rights for font owners.
I am creating a web site community where people have a page that they can customize. Included in the customization options will be an option to upload custom fonts for their design. Once you have your page designed, you can share it with others as a template they can use in their own page. The only way the template would look correct is if the font they uploaded is connected to the template. People can choose to use all or just parts of a shared template on their page. So if they choose to use your template and you have uploaded a custom font then they can create or modify text with the font. The font cannot be downloaded back to a computer and can only be used on the web site. I do however see this leading to people creating pages that are not real content but only full of fonts so other people can grab their template and have new fonts to use. So, would this be legal to do as long as they cannot download the fonts to use elsewhere?
Oh and since this is in the beginning stages I'd rather not get into the technology behind how this works, I'm only concerned with the legal issues I might have to worry about."

Feed Techdirt: My Life. My Card. My Intellectual Property Battle. (techdirt.com)

From feed by techdirtfeed on Wednesday February 13, 2008 @01:52AM

Barely a day goes by when we don't hear of yet another story about some sort of intellectual property claim being asserted where it doesn't belong. It's a function of a current culture where people are being incorrectly taught that every idea, every concept, every word and every sound should be protected and "owned" despite the fact that these things, by their very nature, are infinite and can be freely shared at no cost to anyone. The latest such case involves a guy who apparently pitched the slogan "My Card. My Life" to American Express a while back. Soon afterwards, entirely independently, AmEx's own ad agency pitched the same slogan, which is now being used. After discovering that the other guy was trying to trademark (we assume, even though the article claims "patent") the phrase, AmEx sued to get a declaratory judgment that its use of the phrase did not infringe. Thankfully, a judge has agreed that no infringement occurred. Yet, in this age, where we're being incorrectly bombarded with the message that ideas can be owned and protected, it's no surprise that American Express would worry about such a thing.

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Submission + - Why does Slashdot use the DMCA?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 10, 2008 @05:29PM

An anonymous reader writes: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act contains a controversial provision. Website owners can protect themselves from monetary damages for the copyright infringement of users by registering a service provider agent and taking down materials when a copyright holder notifies the that agent. Website owners can boycott this controversial provision of the DMCA very easily by not registering an agent. Surprisingly, Slashdot is not a boycotter. Browsing through the U.S. Copyright Offices Directory of Service Provider Agents for Notification of Claims of Infringement reveals that Slashdot.org has had a registered agent since 2000. Why doesn't Slashdot.org take a stand and boycott this hated provision of the DMCA?

Submission + - IBM files DVD SPAM patent application 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 25, 2007 @02:25PM

An anonymous reader writes: Mark Wilson of Gizmodo.com reports that IBM is applying for a patent for DVDs that contain or download "on demand" commercials that cannot be skipped. Consumers would be able to purchase these DVDs at a lower price than regular DVDs and pay extra to enjoy their purchase ad-free without having to buy a second DVD. Perhaps this is part of the massive shift in advertising that IBM predicts.

Submission + - How do you get moderator feedback? 2

Submitted by on Friday November 09, 2007 @05:47PM

An anonymous reader writes: I just read the following message for the umpteenth time: "Thanks for meta-moderating some of Slashdot's many moderations. This gives our moderators feedback and helps the whole system work!" For the umpteenth time, I have wondered why I never receive any feedback even though I have moderated on many occasions. I cannot tell whether my moderations are getting positive or negative feedback from meta-moderators — whether I am considered a good moderator or a bad moderator. What tools does /. provide for obtaining feedback as a moderator?

Submission + - Microsoft Demands Patent for Saying 'Goodbye' 7

Submitted by

theodp

on Thursday November 01, 2007 @05:16AM

theodp writes: "Demonstrating its commitment to high-quality U.S. patents, Microsoft has submitted a just-published patent application to the USPTO for Automatic Goodbye Messages. By automatically sending messages like 'Have a great afternoon!', 'Sorry, I have got to go!', 'Have a terrific day!', 'Ciao, Harry!', or even a simple 'Bye!' at the end of an IM session, Microsoft explains, one avoids insulting a converser with whom a conversation is ended. Hopefully the USPTO will give this one the quick buh-bye it deserves."

Submission + - Judge Blocks Patent Rules; Patent Trolls Rejoice 2

Submitted by The Empiricist on Wednesday October 31, 2007 @05:48PM

The Empiricist writes: "Judge James Cacheris of the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Virginia blocked, for now at least, the patent office from implementing" new rules that were "intended to speed patent reviews by the chronically understaffed USPTO." One blocked reform was a limitation on the number of "continuating patent applications" that could be filed. This raises the concern that a few patent owners may continue using continuation applications to obtain patent claims that specifically cover new products as they come on the market," thus contributing to "an incorrect public perception of a widespread problem and [that has] created a backlash against the [patent] system as a whole."

Submission + - Linux not covered by Microsoft's EU patent pledge (vnunet.com)

Submitted by

pete314

on Monday October 29, 2007 @01:46PM

pete314 writes: "Linux users will not profit from the EU-mandated patent licensing program that Microsoft will offer. Microsoft will license its interoperability patents at a discounted rate, but the EU in an FAQ cautions that "some [open source] licenses are incompatible with the patent license offered by Microsoft".

The GPL is one of the licenses that won't work with Microsoft patent pledge, Mark Webbink says on vnunet.com. Webbink is a director with the Software Freedom Law Center and former deputy general counsel for Red Hat. The license is limited to the software vendor and its clients, but doesn't cover downstream users. The GPL explicitly prohibits such discriminatory licenses."

Submission + - Easy Patent Pool Licensing Patent App. Filed

Submitted by The Empiricist on Saturday September 22, 2007 @10:08PM

The Empiricist writes: Patent pools have existed for over 150 years, helping to keep competitors from destroying their own industries. Suggestions have been made to use patent pools cut through patent thickets in today's high-tech industries. Many have suggested using patent pools to ensure the future of open source software. Open source patent pools have started to become a reality, but skeptics question the effectiveness of such efforts because funding is short and many donated patents are already licensed to companies that might wish to attack open source projects. Perhaps what open source patent pools need are donations directly from open source developers. A March 29th patent application for a "system and method of licensing intellectual property assets" discusses an automated system for licensing patents from a patent pool and automatically allocating collective revenues to patent holders based on various criteria, such as allocations based on patent star-ratings. A system such as this could provide a means for pragmatic open source developers to cover these costs of obtaining patents for open source patent pools, giving open source patent pools a greater chance of long-term success.

Submission + - USDOJ Celebrates 50th Piracy Crackdown Guilty Plea

Submitted by The Empiricist on Tuesday May 15, 2007 @02:13PM

The Empiricist writes: The United States Department of Justice recently announced its 50th guilty plea as part of Operation Fastlink, the Department of Justice initiative that was "expected to dismantle...international warez syndicates and significantly impact the illicit operations of others."

The 50th person to plea guilty was "Christopher E. Eaves, 31, of Iowa Park, Texas, [who] pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement for his involvement in the pre-release music group, known as the Apocalypse Crew...He faces up to five years of in prison, a fine of $250,000, and three years of supervised release."

Assistant Director James E. Finch of the FBI's Cyber Division succinctly offered the supporting rational for the initiative by stating that "intellectual property theft strikes at the heart of America's economy."

Submission + - Is the US Suffering an Innovation 'Brain Drain'?

Submitted by

eldavojohn

on Wednesday April 25, 2007 @08:51AM

eldavojohn writes: "A recent article I read was looking for answers in the United States' drop in broadband rankings and proposed an 'innovation brain drain' as one of the reasons. Being an ego-centric American, I initially dismissed the idea but thought more about it and now am more curious as to what everyone else thinks. Do you think that the US is suffering from lack of innovation? If so, what's causing it? What's so different today from a period renowned for innovation? Poor schooling or grade inflation? Governing laws, regulations or patents? Economy? Growing difference in pay? A sense that everything is 'good enough' or lack of necessity? Political & military problems? I know I've read posters warning that the US is falling behind in several fields but I'd like to hear ideas why that is."

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