J. Carl Cooper and Technology Licensing Corporation
,----[ Quote ]
| Now I have. In numerous court filings, Technology Licensing Corp. (not to be
| confused with the totally separate California patent licensing shop,
| Technology Licensing Company -- more on them another day) admits it is a
| shell for J. Carl Cooper. TLC first started working with TechSearch back in
| the day, and now Acacia since the big Acacia-TechSearch transaction.
|
| Who is J. Carl Cooper, anyway? For one, he is a registered patent agent. He
| also sometimes testifies as an expert in patent litigation. He used to be
| affiliated with the Los Gatos, California company Pixel Instruments Corp.,
| but now has moved to the Lake Tahoe area. Similarly, Technology Licensing,
| once located at the home offices of Pixel in Los Gatos, has moved to Carson
| City, Nevada.
|
| This article on Ray Niro (titled, by someone else, "Meet the Original Patent
| Troll") states that Cooper came to Niro through an introduction made by
| Anthony O. Brown of TechSearch. The article claims that Niro has netted over
| $50 million for Cooper.
`----
http://trolltracker.blogspot.com/2008/01/j-carl-cooper-and-technology-licensing.html
BoingBoing: a more acquiescent Parliament
,----[ Quote ]
| I am proud to have been the proposer of an amendment in July 2005 which
| scrapped the proposal for an EU software patent. What worried me then, and
| still does, was the response from an EU Commission official at the time. I
| quote, "Colleagues, we are disappointed, WE will just have to bring this back
| before a more acquiescent Parliament"
`----
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/01/22/proposal-to-extend-e.html#comment-109598
Other patent BS (intellectual monopolies):
FTC bars company from higher royalties
,----[ Quote ]
| The Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday that it has blocked a company
| from seeking higher royalties on a patented technology that is included in a
| widely used computer networking standard.
|
| [...]
|
| Ethernet enables computers and other devices to connect over networks and is
| used in "nearly every computer sold" in the United States, the FTC said in a
| release. N-Data's efforts could have led to higher prices for consumers, the
| FTC said, though it didn't specify the amount at stake.
|
| The technology, known as Nway, was originally developed by National
| Semiconductor Corp. and was accepted as part of the ethernet standard in the
| 1990s by a technology standards group. Technology standards allow different
| high-tech equipment makers to develop compatible products.
`----
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080123/ap_on_hi_te/ftc_patents
U.S. panel to investigate Samsung-Sharp dispute
,----[ Quote ]
| Samsung had accused Sharp of infringing four patents on LCDs, which are often
| used in computer monitors.
`----
http://news.zdnet.com/2110-9595_22-6227179.html
IPhone Visual Voicemail Co-Defendant Settles Lawsuit with Klausner Technologies
,----[ Quote ]
| SimulScribe, a co-defendant with Apple in the patent infringement lawsuit
| recently filed by Klausner Technologies, has settled the litigation and has
| licensed the Klausner Technologies visual voicemail patents. Other defendants
| in the case include AT&T, Comcast and Cablevision Systems.
`----
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/28773.php
Quote for the day:
"Strangely, after the court of appeals decision [denying public access to the
depositions], [Mr. Gates] suddenly became available for tomorrow morning."
--David Boies, Special trial counsel for the DOJ
Related:
Re: patents on Frets on Fire, Pydance, StepMania and such games
,----[ Quote ]
| Software patents continue to chill adoption of innovations. Fight the
| corresponding legislation at every opportunity.
`----
http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2008/01/msg00157.html
Big businesses boast of patent benefits, for small businesses
,----[ Quote ]
| A report published by an EU task force on intellectual property claims
| that small businesses benefit from a patent system, despite lacking
| almost any participation by the small business community.
|
| Instead, the report, titled IPR (intellectual property rights) for
| competitiveness and innovation, was written up almost entirely by
| large corporations and the patent industry.
|
| [...]
|
| The report does note objections from the likes of patentfrei.de and
| Sun Microsystems, which were recorded at some length in the report.
| But this does not appear to have impacted the conclusion of the
| report in any way
|
| [...]
|
| Jean-Pierre Laisne, of ObjectWeb, an open source software community,
| said that he found the report useless: participants were told that
| all their contributions would be recorded but at the end only
| those of Business Software Alliance and Microsoft were used.
`----
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/99155/big-businesses-boast-of-patent-benefits-for-small-businesses.html
A Patent Lie
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft sang a very different tune in 1991. In a memo to his
| senior executives, Bill Gates wrote, "If people had understood how
| patents would be granted when most of today's ideas were invented,
| and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete
| standstill today." Mr. Gates worried that "some large company will
| patent some obvious thing" and use the patent to "take as much of
| our profits as they want."
`----
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/09/opinion/09lee.html
Who is the world's biggest patent troll?
,----[ Quote ]
| In two consecutive days, The Wall Street Journal presented two different
| answers. The first is not surprising: Intellectual Ventures, the brainchild
| of ex-Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold. It's now out "to raise as much as
| $1 billion to help develop and patent inventions, many of them from
| universities in Asia."
`----
http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9816163-16.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Playing Microsoft Patent Poker
,----[ Quote ]
| This time though, while Ballmer slinks away to try to con … convince people
| that Microsoft Unified Communications somehow offers people more than what
| Cisco's VOIP (voice over IP) been offering customers for years, a patent
| attack finally launches at Linux. Specifically, IP Innovation, a subsidiary
| of Acacia Technologies Group, has filed a patent infringement claim against
| Linux distributors Novell and Red Hat.
|
| So was it just timing, or was it something more? Let's take a look at the
| players.
`----
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2201579,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03129TX1K0000616
|
|
