- Lawsuit by pilot against landowner who shot down his drone is dismissed for lack of federal jurisdiction [Cyrus Farivar, ArsTechnica; earlier here and (criminal case) here]
- Super-broad readings of Emoluments Clause intended to trip up President Trump might have unwelcome consequences for over 2 million military retirees and 2.8 million federal employees also affected by the Clause’s interpretation [Chuck Blanchard via Andy Grewal; earlier on Emoluments Clause]
- “Appeals court throws out six Intellectual Ventures ‘do it on a computer’ patents” [Joe Mullin, ArsTechnica]
- David Meyer-Lindenberg interviews Cato Institute chairman and legal scholar Bob Levy on topics that include Heller v. D.C., his taking up of law as a second career after business success, and Cato’s mission [Simple Justice]
- Judicial deference to the administrative state: Evan Bernick reviews “Law’s Abnegation: From Law’s Empire to the Administrative State,” by Adrian Vermeule [Federalist Society Review]
- An economist visits India’s great onion market [Alex Tabarrok]
Posts Tagged ‘patent trolls’
March 8 roundup
- Does the current civil service system violate the constitutional mandate that the executive power be vested in the President? [Philip K. Howard/The American Interest, Mark Hemingway, Weekly Standard]
- “Utah Supreme Court Affirms a Woman’s Right to Sue Herself” [Lowering the Bar]
- Museums’ rule against scaling back holdings is costly and irrational. Can’t NYT figure that out? [Michael O’Hare, SameFacts]
- “Patent troll that sued over Apple Watch and 80 other fitness products meets its match” [ArsTechnica]
- Wisconsin John Doe: “Prosecutor John Chisholm Sued for Retaliatory Investigation” [Andrew King/Fault Lines, earlier]
- Criminally tainted politicians retain voter support when and because “they provide services the state does not.” [Alex Tabarrok]
November 16 roundup
- With U.S. international adoption already down 75 percent, proposed State Department regulations could choke off much of remainder [SaveAdoptions.org, Jayme Metzgar/Federalist, National Council for Adoption]
- Baltimore police surveillance, redistricting, teacher’s union holidays: after a hiatus I’ve resumed Maryland policy roundups at Free State Notes;
- Facebook potluck group was being monitored: “Single Mother Facing Prison for Selling Homemade Mexican Dish to Undercover Cop” [Robby Soave]
- Brad Avakian, tormentor of small businesspeople under Oregon discrimination law, loses Secretary of State bid [Victoria Taft, IJR]
- Shipping & Transit LLC: “America’s Biggest Filer of Patent Suits Wants You to Know It Invented Shipping Notification” [Ruth Simon and Loretta Chao, WSJ] “Stupid Patent of the Month: Changing the Channel” [Daniel Nazer, EFF]
“Notorious patent troll” vs. red-light camera company
A legal battle between a “notorious patent troll” and a red-light camera company is not likely to end in a sympathy verdict either way [The Newspaper]
Intellectual property roundup
- “Copyright Trolls Now Threatening College Students With Loss of Scholarship, Deportation” [Timothy Geigner, TechDirt]
- Use the phrase “Law Firm 2.0”? Better cease and desist [Carolyn Elefant, MyShingle]
- “How A Supreme Court Case On Cheerleader Costumes and Copyright Could Impact Prosthetic Hands” [Mike Masnick, TechDirt]
- Have you violated your competitor’s legal rights when you buy search engine advertising with its name as keyword? [Eric Goldman on Edible Arrangements case]
- Trader Joe’s keeps battling the Canadian knockoff/reseller Pirate or Irate Joe’s [Lowering the Bar]
- “Unified Patents files legal challenges against top three patent trolls of 2016” [Joe Mullin, ArsTechnica]
April 20 roundup
- HBO back with “Confirmation” docudrama on the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill episode and Stuart Taylor, Jr. not greatly impressed [Mollie Hemingway, The Federalist]
- Another rogue Eastern District of Texas patent outcome falls, this time it’s Google for $85 million [Joe Mullin, ArsTechnica] “New Bill Designed To Stop Egregious Venue Shopping By Patent Trolls” [Nathan Leamer and Zach Graves, TechDirt]
- “Life in California — A Tax on a Tax” [Coyote]
- Washington Post looks at jury nullification in multi-part series;
- Michael Greve recommends this article on unorthodox methods of lawmaking and administrative law, and his recommendation is good enough for me [Abbe Gluck, Anne Joseph O’Connell, and Rosa Po, SSRN]
- Are public bureaucracies really a fount of innovation? Not really, despite vogue for new Marianna Mazzucato book The Entrepreneurial State [Alberto Mingardi, EconLog]
April 13 roundup
- Women-only ride-hailing service (“Chariot”) set to launch in Boston. But is it actually legal under prevailing discrimination law? [Story Hinckley, Christian Science Monitor]
- Troll it with flowers: “Intellectual Ventures Hits Florist With Do-It-On-A-Computer Scheduling Patent” [Daniel Nazer, TechDirt]
- Pirate smugglers of Lake Champlain! Hillary Clinton’s tales of Vermont gun-running are silly beyond belief [Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Washington Post “Fact Checker”; Three Pinocchios]
- “Does Anyone Get Arrested For Breaking Those Weird Old Laws? This Man Did” [Mental Floss on Michigan swearing law]
- Harassment in Harrisburg: “Retaliation and Intimidation Persist in AG [Kathleen] Kane’s Office” [Lizzy McLellan and Ben Seal, The Legal Intelligencer, earlier]
- “Congress should privatize the USPS, repeal its legal monopolies, and give the company the flexibility it needs to innovate and reduce costs.” [Chris Edwards, Cato]
Patent holder persecutes Pennsylvania photographer
Outfit that sued Pennsylvania photographer over a patent allegedly covering online photo contests must pay attorney fees after a pro bono defense by lawyers for the Electronic Frontier Foundation [ArsTechnica]
“Company wrests $100k payment from patent troll…”
“… but has no idea who paid.” Graphiq’s convincing victory against Lumen View shows how even with some recent pro-defendant shifts in the legal playing field, the economics of fighting off a patent troll are punishing. “Graphiq won its fight about as thoroughly and as quickly as possible — and forced the other side to pay up. Its total victory took advantage of both the Octane Fitness and Alice Corp. decisions, two Supreme Court decisions that tilted the playing field in favor of defendants. Yet even with those advantages, it still cost around a quarter-million dollars to win. Finally, the win shows the incredible lack of transparency in the murky world of patents. Even while Graphiq was paid $100,000, no one knows who paid the money.” [Joe Mullin, ArsTechnica]
Intellectual property roundup
- “At least for the moment, Defendants have shaken off this lawsuit” — court dismisses handwritten challenge to originality of Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” [Lowering the Bar]
- After nastygram from George Orwell estate, seller withdraws t-shirts bearing slogan “1984 is already here” [The Guardian] But see comment below from reader Gitarcarver (episode attributed more to CafePress over-reaction than to estate’s letter);
- “Anne Frank’s Diary Now Has Co-Author, Extended Copyright” [Christopher Klein, History.com]
- “What the history of Eskimo Pies tells us about software patents today” [Charles Duan, Slate]
- University of California, Santa Barbara, has put online a gold mine of 10,000 early recordings from the cylinder era, which ended in the 1920s [Hyperallergic] But could there be a copyright snag even on material this old? [Brian Frye, Prawfsblawg]
- Judge says company must pay $684K for pursuing “exceptionally weak” patent case [Joe Mullin, ArsTechnica]
- More: “That Irell & Manella would let itself get played by PETA for a stupid publicity stunt that serves no purpose other than to waste the court’s time…” [Mike Masnick, TechDirt; earlier on monkey-selfie case]