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Patents

Oprah Sued For Infringing "Touch and Feel" Patent 249

Posted by kdawson from the where-the-money-is dept.
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Oprah Winfrey, or to be more precise, Oprah's Book Club, is being sued by the inventor/patent attorney Scott C. Harris for infringing upon his patent for 'Enhancing Touch and Feel on the Internet.' So Oprah's Book Club is now one of many people and entities being sued over this patent because they allow people to view part, but not all, of a book online before purchasing it. Mr. Harris also sued Google Books for infringing upon this patent. He actually was fired from his position as partner at Fish & Richardson for that, because Google is a client of that law firm and they had conflict of interest rules to uphold." It would be entertaining to see Oprah give very wide and mainstream publicity to the abuses enabled by our current patent system.

Update: 01/07 22:03 GMT by KD : The blog author Joe Mullin wrote to point out that the lawsuit was not filed by the inventor, Scott C. Harris, but rather by the shell company Illinois Computer Research, which seems to exist for the purpose of filing lawsuits based on this particular patent.
Biotech

Submission + - Parasite makes us dumber or sexier

Submitted by odie_q
odie_q writes: It has long been known that the Toxoplasma gondii parasite alters its host's behaviour, but now it seems the way it alters it depends on the sex of the host. From the article, "A common parasite can increase a women's attractiveness to the opposite sex but also make men more stupid, an Australian researcher says.", and further, "Infected men have lower IQs, achieve a lower level of education and have shorter attention spans. They are also more likely to break rules and take risks, be more independent, more anti-social, suspicious, jealous and morose, and are deemed less attractive to women. On the other hand, infected women tend to be more outgoing, friendly, more promiscuous, and are considered more attractive to men compared with non-infected controls."

So, next time you want to score with a chick, slip some... eh.. cat feces in her drink.
Enlightenment

Submission + - Ancient ice shelf breaks off from island

Submitted by
CDMA_Demo
CDMA_Demo writes: "Several new websites are reporting that The Ayles, an ancient ice shelf the size of 11,000 football fields has broken off from Ellesmere Island. FOX News says: "The collapse was so powerful that earthquake monitors 155 miles away picked up tremors from it." Climate change is being blamed by scientists for the first such event in 30 years. (Amazing that Slashdot doesn't have a subsection on environment)."
Data Storage

Submission + - Hans Reiser to sell his company

Submitted by DVega
DVega writes: Due to increasing legal costs, murder suspect Hans Reiser, is seeking to sell his company. His lawyer William DuBois said he is running out of money to pay for his defense. And added "This is a unique opportunity for someone to buy the company for pennies on the dollar. We welcome all vultures." This is a good opportunity to own a filesystem and rename after your own.

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