Creative Commons. Piracy. Larry Lessig on laws that choke creativity. Kirby Ferguson: Embracing the remix. Will we need fair use in the 21st century? Will we need fair use in the 21st century?
Georgia Harper, 1994 1. Introduction Over the last two years I have observed numerous developments, listened to many conversations and queries, and reviewed countless licenses that, individually, usually evoked the same response from me: "But that's fair use! " or "What about fair use? " For example, two summers ago when I first read the Texaco2 case, which I will discuss in more detail later, I was very critical of the holding because it seemed to use circular reasoning and was results-oriented.
I was similarly alarmed as I read database license agreements that contained no acknowledgement of the fair use rights of users but appeared to assume that all uses are "chargeable events. " The Green Paper,4 which I will also discuss in more detail later, implicitly and explicitly assumes that fair use will not be necessary in the electronic environment. As you may guess, the answer to that question is not a simple yes or no. 2. 3. A. B. C. When Patents Attack! Supreme Court Says Patent Abuse Can Violate Antitrust Laws. We've been writing about the crazy world of pay for delay agreements by big pharmaceutical companies for years now.
The short version of it is that big pharmaceutical companies pay off small generic pharma companies to prevent them from offering generic drugs. History Will Remember Obama as the Great Slayer of Patent Trolls. Pete Souza/Official White House Photo One of President Barack Obama’s biggest legacies will be his healthcare plan.
Another, thanks to the Edward Snowden leaks, is domestic spying. But Obama will leave another gift to posterity, one not so obvious, one that won’t be felt until years after his term ends: The history ebooks will remember the 44th president for setting off a chain of reforms that made predatory patent lawsuits a virtual memory. Obama is the patent troll slayer. Even now, a perfect storm of patent reform is brewing in all three branches of government. “If these reforms go into effect, they will be felt only minimally during the Obama administration,” says Joe Gratz, a San Francisco-based patent lawyer who is representing Twitter in a patent dispute. “The president is a strong leader on these issues. A patent troll is generally understood to be a corporation that exists to stockpile patents for litigation purposes, instead of to build products.
The Case Against Patents. In A Way I Do Sort Of Envy The US Its Patent System. Patent Monopolies – Christian Engström I most certainly don’t envy the US its patent system as such, but as a European politician, I am concerned that the US seems to be ahead of us on the road towards a patent system collapse.
An Excerpt From “Killing the Competition: How the New Monopolies Are Destroying Open Markets”—By Barry C. Lynn. Barry C.
Lynn is the author of Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction. The Time to Fight Patent Trolls is Now. Since 2008, IDrive has had patent trolls breathing down its neck, seeking settlements for patents they say the young company has infringed on.
IDrive, which produces an online-backup service, has spent more than $2 million on legal and settlement fees, as well as a year's worth of employee time defending itself, all for charges it says are entirely without merit. The company joins thousands of other small businesses caught up in lawsuits claiming patent infringement from non-practicing entities (NPEs), often called patent trolls. For small businesses, it's generally easier and less expensive to make a settlement than to engage in an extended legal battle.
The High Court That may all change by this coming summer, when the U.S. Patent trolls usually acquire rights to unused or soon-to-expire patents with no motive of using the patent, other than to frighten business owners into settling out of court, rather than fighting a hopeless patent case. In Technology Wars, Using the Patent as a Sword. For three decades, Mr.
Phillips had focused on writing software to allow computers to understand human speech. In 2006, he had co-founded a voice recognition company, and eventually executives at Apple, Google and elsewhere proposed partnerships. Mark Stadnyk Challenges a Sweeping Revision in Patent Law. Brian Blanco for The New York Times Mark Stadnyk with a patented adjustable motorcycle windshield.
Mr. Stadnyk, who holds a patent on a motorcycle windshield, is suing the United States government, aiming to head off a patent law that he says will favor big companies and hurt lone inventors like himself. Represented by a prominent Washington lawyer, Mr. Stadnyk filed a suit last month that challenges the constitutionality of legislation that Congress passed last fall, the America Invents Act.
The present system, one of the nation’s oldest patent principles and called “first to invent,” relies on lab notebooks, e-mails and early prototypes to establish the date of invention. Mr. Mr. Richard Prince Lawsuit Focuses on Limits of Appropriation.