Organized crime has come a long way: Next step in pirating: Faking a company. After two years and thousands of hours of investigation in conjunction with law enforcement agencies in China, Taiwan and Japan, the company said it had uncovered something far more ambitious than clandestine workshops turning out inferior copies of NEC products. The [...]
How to Encourage Piracy
Nov 30, 2005 By Leave a Comment
After the whole Sony BMG root kit fiasco, I think the consumer fallout will go much more than just legal action against Sony (see Spitzer Gets on Sony BMG's Case). BUYER, BEWARE. Spitzer's office dispatched investigators who, disguised as customers, were able to purchase affected CDs in New York music retail outlets — and to [...]
Hey, You Owe Scientigo Money for No Good Reason
Oct 26, 2005 By Leave a Comment
Yet another company, who apparently can't hack it in the market place, decides to sue to make some quick bucks. Charlotte, N.C.-based Scientigo owns two patents (No. 5,842,213 and No. 6,393,426)covering the transfer of "data in neutral forms." These patents, one of which was applied for in 1997, are infringed upon by the data-formatting standard [...]
It's Like Candy at a Birthday Party
Aug 25, 2005 By Leave a Comment
So Vioxx isn't all it was conceived to be. And I'm sitting here reading how Merck is projected to pay out a mind-boggling amount of money. Merck & Co.'s legal liability for the withdrawn pain pill Vioxx may be twice as high as previously estimated after the drug company lost the first of thousands of [...]
The Domain Name Gamble
Aug 25, 2005 By Leave a Comment
Intellectual property gets more complicated: Falwell critic can keep domain name. In this case, "it was so clear that his Web site did not create any likelihood of confusion about whether Falwell sponsored it," Levy said in an e-mail. The court agreed. "Lamparello's Web site looks nothing like Reverend Falwell's; indeed, Lamparello has made no [...]
Yet Another Reason We Need Lawyers
Aug 11, 2005 By Leave a Comment
Because of my busy week last week, I didn't get a chance to comment on this story: Sony settles suit over fake critic. The suit, filed in 2001, accused Sony of unfair business practices, including the "intentional and systematic deception of consumers," by using fabricated quotes attributed to Manning. Manning was identified as a critic [...]
Stupid Rules
Jun 29, 2005 By Leave a Comment
I Need to Update My Contract Template
Mar 5, 2005 By Leave a Comment
Patent Problems
Feb 3, 2005 By Leave a Comment
An excellent blog posting at Tech Blogs related to the current state of patents: Rage against the patent machine, but is anybody listening?. Out of my discussions with thought leaders Ravicher and long-time OSI general counsel Larry Rosen, there is little doubt that the patent system is broken. But those same thought leaders are also [...]
There Ought to Be a Law (Part 3)
Jan 24, 2005 By Leave a Comment
Russell Shaw over at ZDNet Blogs has an excellent posting about a new proposed law that's supposed to target P2P file sharing. The bill puts the onus on "any person or entity that sells, offers for sale, advertises, distributes, disseminates, provides, or otherwise makes available peer-to-per file sharing software that enables its user to electronically [...]
Unrest by Parkway Drive