Archive for March 2006
Settlement Past, Blackberry Maker Seeks Patent Reform
“Research In Motion took out a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post and several other newspapers earlier this week, thanking those who supported the company in its dispute with NTP and also urging patent reforms. In the letter attributed to RIM’s co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, RIM said it was “pleased to put this matter behind us and remove any uncertainty from our customers’ minds.”
“Eleven days ago RIM paid NTP $612.5 million to end the long-running dispute over whether the popular BlackBerry wireless e-mail system infringed on patents held by NTP. Prior to the settlement, Judge James Spencer appeared set to impose an injunction on the sales and support of BlackBerry devices and software in the U.S. after RIM failed to overturn a 2002 jury verdict that it infringed on NTP’s patents.
“RIM settled with NTP even though — after the jury verdict and appeals process — the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had has rejected the claims in NTP’s five patents at issue in the case.”
Tom Krazit. RIM Calls for Patent Reform In Newspaper Ad. News.com. March 14, 2006.
See also:
Research In Motion. A Message To All BlackBerry Supporters. No date.
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Net Neutrality Debate Heats Up
Addressing attendees at the Voice on the Net conference at the San Jose Convention Center on Wednesday, Richard Notebaert, CEO of Qwest Communications, also said that he opposes blocking traffic on his company’s network. But for the first time publicly he said he believes that network operators should have the option to charge content providers, such as Google or Amazon, higher rates for providing premium service over the Qwest network.
Speculation over phone companies developing a tiered Internet system that would require content companies to pay more for their access has become a hot-button issue in the tech industry, pitting companies such as Google, Yahoo and Amazon against the big phone companies and equipment makers.
Marguerite Reardon. Qwest CEO Supports Tiered Internet. News.com. March 15, 2006.
See also:
Marguerite Reardon. Debate Heats Up Over Net Neutrality. News.com. March 15, 2006.
Declan McCullagh & Anne Broache. Senator: Net Neutrality May Not Happen. News.com. March 14, 2006.
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Google Faces Increased Legal Challenges
“A federal judge hearing arguments in the Department of Justice’s records fight with Google said Tuesday that he would grant federal prosecutors at least part of their request for excerpts from the search giant’s massive database.
“U.S. District Judge James Ware said he intends to release his decision ‘very quickly,’ and that he might give the Justice Department access to a portion of Google’s index of Web sites, but not to its users’ search terms.
“Ware said he was reluctant to give the Justice Department everything it wanted because of the “perception by the public that this is subject to government scrutiny” when they type search terms into Google.com.”
Declan McCullagh. Judge to Help Feds Against Google. News.com. March 14, 2006.
See also:
David H. Holtzman. Guarding Google’s Data Banks. BusinessWeek Online. March 14, 2006. (“The more successful Google is, the more unwelcome legal attention it will draw. As data continues to flood into Google, the comprehensiveness of its databases makes it a juicier target for government fishing expeditions.”)
Updates:
Anne Broache. Judge: Google Must Give Feds Limited Access to Records. News.com. March 17, 2006.
U.S. District Court, Northern District of California. Alberto R. Gonzales v. Google, Inc.: Order Granting In Part and Denying In Part Motion to Compel Compliance with Subpoena Duces Tecum. (.pdf) March 17, 2006.
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Struggling for Relevance, GPO Goes Digital
“Distributing the budget plan — a total of 8,500 copies of it — is one of the biggest events of the year for the printing office, but it is also becoming something of an anachronism for the 192-year-old organization.
“For most of U.S. history, any government agency that needed to print many copies of a document went to the U.S. Government Printing Office. Now, about half of government documents go straight online, forcing the printing agency to find new ways to make itself relevant in an increasingly paperless world. But questions of security, privacy and authenticity have confronted the GPO leadership as it has sought to get up to date in the digital age.”
Zachary A. Goldfarb. Confronting Digital Age Head-On. WashingtonPost.com. March 13, 2006.
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
China to Revise Copyright Laws
“The Chinese government is planning a major revamp of laws and regulations that protect intellectual property rights (IPR), according to a plan outlined this week by China’s National IPR Protection Working Group Office.
“Under the government’s plan, 17 laws and regulations governing IPR protection will be drafted or revised during the coming year. These measures will address IPR issues related to trademarks, copyrights, patents, and customs protection, according to the plan.”
Sumner Lemon. China to Draft New Copyright Laws This Year. InfoWorld. March 10, 2006.
See also:
Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China. Information on China’s Action Plan on IPR Protection 2006. (Unofficial English translation) March 9, 2006.
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Federal Government Argues Against EBay In Patent Case
“The federal government took a position against eBay Inc. in a patent dispute that threatens to shut down one of the online auction site’s popular shopping features.
“The Office of the Solicitor General said in a brief filed with the Supreme Court that eBay willfully infringed on patents held by Great Falls-based MercExchange LLC and should be enjoined from using its “Buy It Now” feature, which allows users to buy goods at fixed prices rather than compete in auctions. Goods sold using that system account for about a third of eBay’s business.
“EBay has been found guilty of willfully infringing two patents held by MercExchange but has not been barred from using the systems, because of a district court decision to deny an injunction. An appellate court reversed that decision.”
Yuki Noguchi. Government Sides Against EBay in Patent Dispute. WashingtonPost.com. March 11, 2006.
See also:
Patently-O. Ebay v. MercExchange: The Law of Patent Injunctions. March 14, 2006.
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Comparing YouTube & Napster
“It would be easy to call the venture-backed, San Mateo-based YouTube the Napster of video, an outlaw startup rocketing onto dotcom radar screens on the backs of rights-holders. But that’s a designation that the year-old company desperately wants to avoid. YouTube is far friendlier to copyright owners than the peer-to-peer sharing pioneer, and offers to take any material off its servers when a rights-holder complains (as NBC did earlier this month, asking the company to remove the popular Saturday Night Live “Lazy Sunday” clip from its site.)
“YouTube execs point out that, unlike Napster, they control what’s on their site and can boot users who are breaking the law. Hollywood execs aren’t reaching for the emergency telephones that connect them to their lawyers — at least not yet.”
Brad Stone. Video Napster? Newsweek. March 7, 2006.
See also:
Jim Kerstetter, Greg Sandoval, et al. Does Video Have a Napster Problem? News.com. March 13, 2006.
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
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