Lindon couple claims Apple and Starbucks are violating patent
,----[ Quote ]
| A Utah County couple is alleging that Starbucks and Apple violated a patent
| for shopping cards that allow a consumer to purchase items such as music
| albums or movies at a store then download them at home.
`----
http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_8484255
The Designer's Notebook: Damn All Gameplay Patents!
,----[ Quote ]
| Back in 2005 I wrote a Designer's Notebook column called "The End of
| Copyright," warning that copyright, as a property concept, is probably on its
| way out. It's a "right" that was invented out of nowhere after the invention
| of the printing press, and it will probably fade away some time in the next
| hundred years or so.
|
| [...]
|
| For example, the Namco patent on load-time mini-games (US Patent Number
| 5,718,632), as originally used in the PlayStation 1 version of Ridge Racer,
| contains 16 claims, many of which are almost identical to one another. Each
| claim is a description of what was invented. The terms in this description
| are called the limitations of the claim -- that is, the boundaries of what is
| claimed.
`----
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3562/the_designers_notebook_damn_all_.php
Last week:
Patent police raid booths at CeBit trade show
,----[ Quote ]
| The police didn't name which people or companies were targeted, but they did
| say the alleged patent violations deal with devices that have MP3, MP4, or
| digital video broadcast functions; DVD players; and blank CDs and DVDs. They
| managed to fill 68 boxes with gadgets, documents, and advertising material
| and took down the identities of nine people, most of whom were reportedly
| cooperative.
|
| The raid was a response to a rising number of "criminal complaints by the
| holders of patent rights in the run-up to CeBit," and the patent holders had
| warned the accused companies in "good time" about their lack of licenses,
| police said, according to the AP.
`----
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9887955-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
CeBIT 2008: Alleged patent troll Sisvel throws wrench in works of several
smartphone and digital media player makers over MP3 licensing
,----[ Quote ]
| Italy-based Sisvel S.p.a., holder of a somewhat controversial MP3 patent, has
| had the CeBIT 2008 booths of several Windows Mobile smartphone and digital
| media player makers shut down over allegations that the devices of the makers
| infringe on its patents.
`----
http://www.digitimes.com/telecom/a20080306VL202.html
|
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