- “One-Sided Loser Pays Is the Worst of Both Worlds” [Mark Pulliam at his new blog Misrule of Law, and thanks for mention]
- My first piece for Quillette debunks claims of jump in rate at which gay men are being murdered in U.S.;
- Welcome news: Department of Justice memo advises DoJ attorneys to seek dismissal of meritless False Claims Act suits [Reuters, Federalist Society teleforum with Brandon Moss, Greg Herbers/WLF, Michael Granston memo]
- Empirical evidence on factors that lead to approval of low-quality patents [Timothy Lee, ArsTechnica, noting ideas for improving patent review process: (1) eliminate issuance fees, (2) limit re-applications, (3) give senior examiners more time per patent]
- “Will we see tort reform in the midterms?” [Joseph Cotto interview with me for San Francisco Review of Books, YouTube audio, 33:51]
- FSMA will drive many smaller farmers/foodmakers out of business, only question is how many [Baylen Linnekin, our earlier]
Posts Tagged ‘patent quality’
“Infamous ‘podcasting patent’ knocked out”
“A year-and-a-half after the Electronic Frontier Foundation created a crowd-funded challenge to a patent being used to threaten podcasters, the patent has been invalidated. …Personal Audio gave up on getting royalties from podcasters in 2014 after a lawsuit against comedian Adam Carolla almost went to trial.” [Joe Mullin, ArsTechnica, earlier on Carolla’s efforts]
Patent: “Method for Filming a Yoga Class”
Or should that be “method for using nastygrams to assert what isn’t really a valid patent?” [Lowering the Bar]
“1. Turn back lights on. 2. Turn front lights on. 3. Position thing on platform. 4. Take picture.”
“US Patent Office Grants ‘Photography Against A White Background’ Patent To Amazon” [Tim Cushing, TechDirt] Critics suspect there is prior art.
New legal post at EFF
The Electronic Frontier Foundation announces, “Thanks to a generous donation, EFF attorney Julie P. Samuels is now ‘The Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents‘.”
In a less jocular vein, Dan Burk on patent reform [Cato Regulation magazine, PDF]
Intellectual property roundup
- This is getting serious: “Patent troll targets Minecraft” [Rob Beschizza, BoingBoing] Are mainstream tech companies joining the patent-troll brigade? [WSJ Law Blog] Bessen-Meurer have another study of patent trolls out, this one suggests their direct costs to economy $29 billion a year [Joe Mullin, Ars Technica]
- London Olympics games: you may link to our site only if not in a “derogatory or otherwise objectionable manner” [Popehat]
- “Fan Fiction vs. Copyright – Q&A with Rebecca Tushnet” [Reason.tv]
- Are the logos similar? Apparel maker Under Armour sues maker of “Body Armor” sports drink [Baltimore Sun]
- “U.S. Patent System is Broken, Declares Judge in Android v. Apple Cases” [Posner; DailyTech] Posner “on Why he thinks There Are Too Many Patents in America” [Atlantic]
- Startups: “Why do investors want founders to spend money and time on bogus patents?” [Cory Doctorow]
Intellectual property law roundup
- Deborah Gerhardt on the ruling in favor of an artist who paints Crimson Tide sports highlights without University of Alabama say-so [Deborah Gerhardt/Eric Goldman, earlier here, etc.]
- Posner throws out Apple/Motorola case [Tabarrok, more]
- Joinder of defendants allegedly violating same patent: “D.C. Court Ruling Makes Life Tougher For Patent Trolls” [Daniel Fisher, Forbes]
- “Google, AOL Face Patent Suit Over ‘Snippet’ Search Results, Ads” [Justia]
- “Absurd patent of the day, Apple re: wedge-shaped computers” [Tabarrok]
- “Defensive Patent License: judo for patent-trolls” [Doctorow/BB]
- Why are copyright terms so long? One theory [Julian Sanchez]
May 3 roundup
- Salute to Bill Childs, who blogged with distinction at TortsProf, on departing academia for private practice [Sheila Scheuerman and Chris Robinette]
- North Carolina voters who know that Amendment One would ban civil unions oppose the measure by 22 points; unfortunately, most don’t know that [Greg Sargent, WaPo; earlier] Patrick at Popehat proposes 5 things Tar Heels can do to help defeat it;
- Cellphone app to hail nearby taxi? DC government searches for a way to keep that illegal [Julian Sanchez, Cato at Liberty]
- Can’t the left-wing Alliance for Justice be at least minimally consistent on Supreme Court ethics? [Freedman, Legal Ethics Forum]
- On lawyer jokes [David Conway and commenters, Law and Liberty]
- “2,000 patents have been granted for shaped pasta” [Doctorow; see also Martin Weiss (“It pays to noodle around in the lab”)]
- Texas barratry law trips up state rep [Southeast Texas Record, ABA Journal]
January 11 roundup
- California’s Prop 65 and the numbness of overwarning [Tung Yin via Bainbridge]
- Time to kill off medical-method patents [Alex Tabarrok, Medical Progress Today]
- Spite decoration: “Gretna fence squabble continues in bitter fashion” [NOLA.com, Louisiana]
- “The Problem With Immigration Lawyers and How to Fix It” [Dzubow/Asylumist via Legal Ethics Forum]
- “Are NYC transit bus drivers prevented from calling police?” [Turkewitz]
- “Circumvention tourism” is travel intended to sidestep medical regulation [Glenn Cohen, Prawfs]
- Abolition of wasteful, arrogant California redevelopment agencies has Tim Cavanaugh ready to kiss a nurse in Times Square [Reason, similarly Gideon Kanner and Steven Greenhut]
August 29 roundup
- Even before federal raid on Gibson, Lacey Act scared owners of vintage instruments: “I don’t go out of the country with a wooden guitar.” [Eric Felten/WSJ, AW, PoL, Trevor Burrus/Cato]
- Dear NYT contributor Bakan: getting your kids’ attention may not require overthrowing world corporate economy [Nancy French, NR “Home Front”] More: Sullum.
- “West Memphis Three” freed [Damon Root, Greenfield]
- Forest Labs case: after outcry, feds drop effort to force firing of drug company CEO not charged with wrongdoing [WSJ, WLF] Background: Charles Hooper & David Henderson, Hoover (“The FDA’s War on Drugs”), The Economist (“The government seeks to sack an innocent boss”, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Steve McConnell/Drug and Device Law, Josh Wright/Truth on the Market]
- Google paid dearly in smartphone deal for our dysfunctional patent system [Gordon Crovitz] “Google Should Publicly Oppose Software Patents” [Timothy Lee, Forbes]
- Lawyer’s suit: Kasowitz firm ignored his “superior legal mind” [Lowering the Bar, Above the Law]
- “In Chicago, You Need a License To Help Others Get a License” [Mark Perry]