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Displaying items by tag: Copyright

17In another installment of our “and that is why you fail” byline we come to the small dispute between Google and Oracle. On the table is not if Google use Java APIs or not, but the basic question of “are Java APIs free to use for development?” This issue is a huge one as a Google loss could set precedent for Oracle to go after ANYONE that is using the Java API without paying royalties to Oracle for their use.

Published in Editorials

animal_farm-pigsToday’s copyright, patent and intellectual property laws are something to read. If you have an extra couple of days that you do not mind losing you should read through some of them. They are astonishing in their complexity and how they take are working not to help foster invention, but to make sure that competition is limited. In fact, many Americans might be interested to know that our own National Anthem would be considered in violation of Copyright.

Published in Editorials

introWe warned of this happening back when we first read about the fight between Apple and the Shenzhen China base Proview. It seems that a government official in China is stating that they are backing Proview in this case. A senior official in the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) stated that the trademark does currently belong to Proview. This comes as a shock to many especially after Tim Cook’s visit to China recently where it was thought he was trying to win support for Apple in this case.

Published in News

73In what has to be an upset for Google’s YouTube video service German courts found that YouTube was indeed responsible for the copyrighted material posted by users. The findings of the court are frightening in more ways than just the big check that Google will be writing to pay for the Copyright infringement that happened due to users of the popular video service.

Published in News

73Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the patent waters Samsung and Apple are back at it again. This is only days after the two company’s CEOs have agreed to sit down to try and work things out. We would love to be present for that meeting though. Still it does not look like these two mobile giants will be getting along anytime soon. What makes the situation even more interesting is that Samsung is a major supplier of parts for many of Apple’s products (and helped to make the SoC that is inside Apple’s iDevices).

Published in News
Thursday, 12 April 2012 12:17

Judge Says; You Cannot Steal Code...

73A recent decision in an appeals court could have disastrous effects on Intellectual Property rights holders in the US and possibly around the globe. Not all that long ago a software developer grabbed a chunk of code from Goldman Sachs as he was on his way out of the door. The code related to a high=speed trading application that Goldman Sachs uses for business. The firm immediately went after the programmer (Sergey Aleynikov) and he was convicted under the National Stolen Property Act.

Published in News

bill-of-rightsA couple of days ago, while researching information for another article, I stumbled across an article on patents and how they have evolved since their beginning. I will not go into a full blown history lesson, but I do want to cover something that was very interesting. The first true patent laws were enacted in the US back in the 1790s. This simple law established the patent system to “promote the Progress of Useful Arts” under the original laws a patent could only be granted for up to 14 years and then only if the device was “sufficiently useful and important” and in many cases a working model of the device had to be submitted.

Published in Editorials

73Although this is not “News” any longer we thought that we would touch on something that has been happening in the Apple/Motorola Mobility/Google legal war. As we mentioned a while ago Apple had demanded that Google (the soon to be owner of Motorola Mobility) had over all documentation on Android Development as part of the patent lawsuit that they have with Motorola Mobility. The law suit pre-dates Google’s bid for the company and seemed out of place with the current fight.

Published in News

17We have always been a supporter of certain Internet freedoms as well as individual privacy (no surprise there huh). Bills like PIPA and SOPA showed us a glaring issue with the existing level of knowledge currently held by the people that make our laws (and not just in the US). This is not a big shocker to most people either. It is fairly common knowledge that our law makers get into office based on little more than a popularity contest that is held every few years. Once in office they are like the gullible kid in school that gets talked into things, by the “cool kids”, but in this case the cool kids are lobbyists and are not looking for a laugh they are looking to improve their control and profit.

Published in Editorials
Wednesday, 15 February 2012 07:56

Apple's iPad could be banned from Export in China

animal_farm-pigsApple has been playing a dangerous game for some time now. They have been filing ambiguous patents and copyrights in the hopes that they can protect their mobile devices. For the most part this strategy was working just fine for Apple until a few Judges began to notice a pattern of suppression in their efforts. That was a turning point in Apple legal battles against companies like Samsung, HTC and others in the Android family. Now, however, Apple is facing something they never expected; a smaller corporation is fighting for the copyright they already have on the iPad.

Published in News
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