While not coming as part of the new 5.16 cycle, one of the exciting patch series to come about this year has been Google's work on the Multigenerational LRU (MGLRU) Framework for improving performance around the kernel's page reclaim handling.
This low-level feature work for the Linux kernel aims to address the kernel's page reclaim implementation being too expensive on the CPU and sometimes making poor choices over what to evict. Earlier versions of the multigen least-recently-used code from Google has shown fewer low-memory kills on Android and reducing cold starts up ~16%. On Chrome OS they also found this code to be very beneficial with upwards of 59% fewer OOM kills and 96% fewer low-memory tab discards within the browser. Their testing from mobile to servers found lower CPU usage and better system handling under memory pressure.
Mesa's open-source "Turnip" driver that provides Vulkan support for Qualcomm Adreno graphics hardware and complementary to the Freedreno Gallium3D driver can now handle Vulkan 1.2.
The last piece of the puzzle was recently merged for supporting VK_KHR_separate_depth_stencil_layouts in Turnip. With that landed, the path was cleared for advertizing Vulkan 1.2 API support instead of Vulkan 1.1.
PeaZip 8.3 is packed with lots of goodies for Linux users who want to use a powerful archive manager, starting with the ability to customize the maximum length of command scripts generated by the application from 32KB to 2MB from Options > Settings > General, Performances.
It also improves compliance with Open Desktop specifications by saving config files in the $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/peazip directory if the $XDG_CONFIG_HOME variable is defined (if not, the configuration is saved to $HOME/.config/peazip). Users can import configurations by copying the content of the $HOME/.PeaZip directory to the new location.
Thunderbird 91 is being back-ported to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.
A security vulnerability affecting the Thunderbird 78.x series both builds offer is being actively exploited in the wild. But as upstream support for Thunderbird 78.x has ended the flaw is unlikely be ever be patched.
A new version of Scrcpy is available to download.
Scrcpy is a free, open source tool that lets you view and interact with your Android device on a Windows, macOS, or Linux PC, wirelessly or wired.
This week marked the release of QEMU 6.2-rc0 as the first test candidate for this upcoming update that plays an important role in the open-source Linux virtualization stack.
The rc0 milestone marks the hard feature freeze on QEMU 6.2. There will now be weekly release candidates until QEMU 6.2.0 is ready to ship as stable, which should be around mid-December.
pipe-viewer is a lightweight, but yet feature packed application for browsing and watching videos from YouTube.
Smartctl is a command line utility or a tool in UNIX like operating system that perform SMART tasks such as printing the SMART self-test and error logs, enabling and disabling SMART automatic testing, and initiating device self-tests.
S.M.A.R.T. is a system in modern hard drives designed to report conditions that may indicate impending failure. smartmontools is a free software package that can monitor S.M.A.R.T. attributes and run hard drive self-tests. Although smartmontools runs on a number of platforms, I will only cover installing and configuring it on Linux.
Smartctl Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology is designed to perform smart operations from the command line such as initiating device self-tests and printing smart self-test etc. Using smartctl a user can read the smart information from the hard disk and can perform tests on the SSD or hard drive to detect any problems with the hard drive or SSD.
If you are a system administrator managing a Linux server, you want a simple tool that helps to monitor your server.
Darkstat is a cross-platform, lightweight, simple, real-time network statistics tool that captures network traffic, computes statistics concerning usage, and serves the reports over HTTP.
Linux kernel 5.15 is out with many new features, support, and security. The Linux 5.15 kernel release further improves the support for AMD CPUs and GPUs, Intel’s 12th Gen CPUs, and brings new features like NTFS3, KSMBD (CIFS/SMB3), and further Apple M1 support, amongst many other changes and additions.
In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install the latest 5.15 Linux Kernel on Linux Mint 20.xx.
With the rise of social media platforms such as Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, and online chat platforms such as discord, we have seen online bulletin forum communities dwindle. Personally, as I just mentioned, they are slowly making a comeback in specific niche communities over the newer additions. phpBB is one of the most extended open-source forum bulletin software on the market.
phpBB isn’t the only option. Others such as VBulletin, Nodebb, Xenforo, and so on, but most of these are paid with mixed reviews. VBulletin used to be a powerhouse, but now it’s a shadow of its former self. Xenforo is one of the best-paid bulletin pieces of software. However, that is just my personal opinion, but I will always choose phpBB first as it’s free, open-source, and has some great 3rd party open-source developers, both new devs and ones that have been around since the start.
MariaDB is an open-source one of the most popular relational database management system (RDBMS) that is a highly compatible drop-in replacement of MySQL. It is built upon the values of performance, stability, and openness, and MariaDB Foundation ensures contributions will be accepted on technical merit.
MariaDB was developed as a software fork of MySQL in 2009 in response to Oracle’s acquisition of MySQL. MariaDB intends to remain free and open-source software under the GNU General Public License. It is part of most cloud offerings and the default in most Linux distributions.
In this guide we will learn how to install and configure MariaDB in Debian 11.
In this article, we will learn how to install and configure freeipa client on Ubuntu 20.04.
FreeIPA is an open source Identity management system sponsored by Red Hat. It aims to provide an easily managed Identity, Policy, and Audit.
This integrations allow a System Administrator to conveniently configure the server centrally, on the FreeIPA server. When a management command is executed on the Client machine, the FreeIPA client sends it to the server where it is executed.
Nmap, also known as Network Mapper, is a free, open-source tool used by network administrators to scan for vulnerabilities within their network and network discovery.
Nmap allows to find devices running on their network and discover open ports and services that, if not secure or hardened, can lead to potential hackers exploiting known vulnerabilities security risks.
In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install and basic use Nmap on Debian 11 Bullseye.
Xfce is a lightweight free, open-source desktop environment for UNIX-like operating systems. It is designed to be fast and light on system resources while visually appealing than the default desktop environments that ship with most operating systems. Xfce is very popular with older systems with hardware as a key feature in its design is to conserve both memory and CPU cycles.
In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Xfce on your Rocky Linux desktop.
FreeRADIUS is the most widely-deployed, open-source, and free RADIUS implementation. It works as a daemon (operates in the background) in Unix and Unix-like servers. FreeRADIUS is used mainly for
The RADIUS protocol allows you to authenticate users over a network, authorize them for various actions, and monitor their usage of the network. This framework is referred to as AAA (Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting).
According to a survey result, FreeRADIUS is used to authenticate over one-thirds of the users on the internet.
By default, FreeRADIUS has a command line interface, and any changes are made by editing the configuration files that are highly customizable. Since it’s open-source, you can even make changes in the code of the software.
In this article, we will discuss how to install FreeRADIUS and daloRADIUS on Debian 10.
But following my review of Zidoo M6 with Android 11, I’ve now got a Linux image for the Rockchip RK3566 mini PC, so let’s revisit the firmware flashing methods in 2021. Zidoo sent me instructions for Windows, but since I’m a Ubuntu user, I flashed the firmware with the Linux tools used by Firefly. The same methods should work for the older processors such as RK3066, RK3288, and RK3399, besides the more recent Rockchip RK3566 and RK3568 processors.
When ever I write new console based code from scratch, I start with “Hello World.” Then I make one small change at a time, test it, and commit. Then I move on. While this slow process might seem tedious, it is based on years of wasting time debugging my own poorly written code in interim changes.
Once I had “Hello, World!” working in assembly, I want to make a single character change to message and see it in the console. Here’s my steps.
Let’s start with “Hello, World.” I got this out of Programming with 64-Bit ARM Assembly Language. The team there gets extra Kudos for using Git to put the book together in a public fashion.
In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Squid Proxy on AlmaLinux 8. For those of you who didn’t know, Squid Proxy is an open source caching proxy for the web. It supports many protocols such as HTTP, HTTPS, FTP and more. By caching and reusing frequently-requested web pages, squid saves bandwidth and improves response time making accessing web pages very fast.
This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step-by-step installation of the Squid Proxy server on an AlmaLinux 8. You can follow the same instructions for CentOS and Rocky Linux.
There are two basic ways to inspect a running program: print out a bunch of debug statements or run it through a debugger. Since I don’t yet know how to print out my own statements in ARM64 debugging (I’ll get there soon) I want to use the debugger to see my code in action.
First, a little tweak to the Makefile rule to build the code. I hard code in the -g flag to include debugging symbols in the executables. This is learning code, and I am not going to be running it in stripped mode, so no need for Makefile variables.
In order for a program to run successfully, it needs two things: an entry symbol, and a return code that represents that success. The following program provides those two things.
I want to automatically build assembly files into executable binaries. The following Makefile seems to be sufficient. I am sure I will add to it over time.
It seems like most narrative games have some kind of drudgery built in. You know, some tedious and repetitious task that you absolutely must do if you want to succeed. In Stardew Valley, that thing is gift giving, which earns you friendship points just like in real life. More important than the giving itself is that each villager has preferences — things they love, like, and hate to receive as gifts. It’s a lot to remember, and most people don’t bother trying and just look it up in the wiki. Well, except for Abigail, who seems to like certain gemstones so much that she must be eating them. She’s hard to forget.
Remember I said “kdesrc-build manages dependencies for you”? Only part of that is true, kdesrc-build manages dependencies for you, but only for KDE dependencies. For Third Party dependencies, it can’t figure them out. On Ubuntu it may be called libnl-3-dev, while on Arch it is called libnl. Everytime kdesrc-build fails, I have to look at the error log and try to figure out which package is missing, install it manaully and resume the build. To make matters worse, I’m building plasma-workspace. Which contains half the configuration modules, plasmoids, and other miscellaneous stuff. That means I had to build pretty much the entire KDE libraries. In fact, I had to build 93 dependencies to get to plasma-workspace. Imagine checking the error log for every dependency, using apt search DEP_NAME, apt-file find MISSING_FILE_NAME and apt-rdepends --build-depends --print-state --follow=DEPENDS PROJECT_NAME | grep Not to install the third-party packages. Only to find out that kdesrc-build fails on the next dependency build. The fact that I live in China makes things worse, because the connection to KDE invent is very slow here, sometimes dropping to 30kb/s for no reason. I had to use my server to git clone the repository, and download it back through proxy, then copy it to the virtual machine. Especially for https://invent.kde.org/plasma/breeze, 670MB+ repository. It took me an hour to transfer it to the VM.
Red Hat has rolled out version 8.5 of its main-line branch of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), which upgrades its support for containerisation, predictive analytics, and multi-cloud.
Red Hat Insight, the company’s predictive-analytics service -- available through most RHEL subscriptions -- now has more robust abilities in the areas of vulnerability identification, compliance, and remediation, the company said.
Containerisation is upgraded with RHEL 8.5 to make containerised applications easier to deploy and manage, according to Red Hat. The vendor also introduced the ability to create containerised images faster through rootless use of the OverlayFS filesystem. OverlayFS is “union file system,” which allows users to overlay one file system over another, enabling multiple users or applications to access it at the same time.
Continuing my adventures in FreeCAD, I now had to design a top to my Raspberry Pi enclosure. The FreeCAD people were friendly and told me to checkout spreadsheets.
There’s something about the large imposing wooden box of an arcade machine that lends a confident presence to a room. The problem with a tall and heavy box is that it takes up quite a bit of space and readily draws the eye. So [Alexandre Chappel] set out to avoid that and build an arcade machine that could hide in plain sight.
[...]
With the help of a 3D printer, he quickly fabricated a locking mechanism to keep the front panel attached when it folds up. The hinge is also 3D printed. The typical Raspberry Pi 4 powers this particular machine. Two french cleats hold the box onto the wall, and once the system is on the wall, we have to say it looks incredible.
GarageBand is a fully equipped music creation studio inside your Mac — with a complete sound library that includes instruments, presets for guitar and voice, and an incredible selection of session drummers and percussionists.
Unfortunately the program is proprietary and not available for Linux. What are the best free and open source alternatives?
Technology and innovation have long been known to be key drivers of growth allowing companies and countries to better compete. The recent U.S. infrastructure bill aims to foster such growth by providing for investments in digital infrastructure. However, these investments are nearly exclusively focused on better and more accessible broadband. Complementary to broadband, open technologies—those for which the underlying intellectual property, whether it is source code or hardware design, is publicly available—are playing an increasingly important role in the modern economy and companies’ and countries’ ability to innovate. In particular, open source software (OSS) and open source hardware (OSH) have become critical building blocks for both everyday products (cell phones, cars, household appliances, etc.) and cutting-edge emerging technologies (artificial intelligence, big data analytics, etc.). However, since most OSS and OSH is available for free and created through distributed efforts rather than by one particular company, it can be difficult to understand the full economic impact of these critical technologies.
Some sites claim they aren’t compatible with a browser’s reader mode to prevent users from clicking on it and bypassing Admiral, paywalls, and other junk.
Tip: putting ephy-reader: in the front of the URL in GNOME Web and hitting enter forces it into Reader Mode anyway, regardless of what the site wants.
As 3.1.10 has Firefox builtin, if you are going to do an update of an existing installation, get rid of any existing Firefox beforehand. It should be enough just to delete /mnt/wkg/sfs/esyos/oe/dunfell/firefox-*.sfs. At bootup of 3.1.10, the initrd will see that the SFS is no longer there, and will do a "cleanup" -- so there shouldn't be any "firefox" on the desktop after bootup.
Firefox updating and hardware acceleration both caused trouble, so they have been permanently disabled in file /usr/lib/firefox/distribution/policies.json. To re-enable those features, delete the appropriate lines in that file. I was disappointed how slow FF was to startup on the Compaq Presario. SeaMonkey starts much faster. It was also a concern to see the Internet data activity lights continually green in the systray -- FF was only looking at a static page, so why is it transferring so much? Muted sound is easy to fix. Right-click on the audio systray icon, choose "Preferences" will run pavucontrol (Pulseaudio Volume Control) which has a mute/unmute button.
MSCW, I need to work on that. It is functional, but the code is still very ALSA-oriented.
This morning I got an error from Apt in Debian.
It turned out that Vivaldi had misconfigured their Debian repo, and it was stopping the i386 multiarch repository from updating.
So I got punchy and removed Vivaldi, its .config and .cache subfolders, their repos, and their two GPG keys.
Is that an extreme reaction? No. If you can’t manage your Apt configuration responsibly, I remove you. You can mess up and create a hassle for a lot of people, so you should watch what you are doing.
Mozilla’s subreddit shows the general state of the Firefox world.
I got this error. “PR_END_OF_FILE_ERROR” instead of loading sites. It happened on Amazon and a few other sites. First, I thought it was something wrong with my connection, or the site. Nope. Another Firefox bug.
GNOME Web has a few bugs, but nothing nearly so annoying as the degenerate state Firefox is in. So I’m just going to go full time GNOME Web 41 Flatpak…. and maybe keep Ungoogled Chromium or something around in case I have to log in to T-Mobile, in which case “We have our wires crossed. Ooops.” no matter how your Firefox is configured, when you try to log in. LibreWolf too, why not?
Since Flatpak apps are self-contained, this will also hopefully prevent disaster from spilling over into my system all for want of a web browser.
LibreWolf doesn’t just compile and patch out obnoxious junk that Firefox adds. It also removes minimally useful web platform crap that is a major attack surface through hardening of the user.js and prefs.js.
The open source community hardly noticed this week when Microsoft opened its arms to its once arch rival in browser space, Firefox, the open source daughter of Netscape and for many years the only serious competition Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser faced, by making the open source browser available in the Microsoft Store.
A dozen or so years ago Microsoft would never consider putting open source software of any kind in an online store it managed, even if it had had one back then, which it didn’t. This would’ve been doubly true of a browser, because of its fear that losing the browser market meant losing its lucrative operating system market, which was largely bankrolling its operations. Remember, this was at the height of Ballmer administration, which proclaimed Linux and open source to be a communist cancer, or something like that.
It’s just as unlikely that Firefox would have accepted any offer from Microsoft to make it easy for Windows users to find and install Firefox through a Microsoft platform. At that time, a decade or more of dirty tricks and FUD originating from Redmond had made the open source community wary and openly belligerent when it came to Microsoft, and Mozilla was dependent on the open source community.
Microsoft claims Skype for the Web doesn’t work in Firefox, however setting your user agent to a current Edge or Chrome on Windows UA removes the limitation and makes voice and video chat work.
I previously reported Facebook doing something like this, but Mozilla left it unfixed for three years, and the only reason it got better was because Facebook backed out their fake error message, which suggested Chrome.
I’d report this issue to Mozilla, except I wouldn’t want to be “unhelpful spam”. So they can keep letting Microsoft sabotage their browser, I guess.
Intel, Amazon AWS, IBM, Qualcomm, and UIUC researchers have been collaborating over a proposed "Tensor LLVM Extensions" (TLX) to make this open-source compiler infrastructure more suitable for targeting AI accelerators and other emerging classes of hardware.
The proposed Tensor LLVM Extensions would make the widely-used LLVM compiler stack able to better deal with tensor cores and similar hardware for today's increasing AI/ML workloads and related fields. LLVM is already the dominant player when it comes to supporting CPUs and often GPUs while Tensor LLVM Extensions would help them on the new frontier of being able to deal with hardware around Intel Advanced Matrix Extensions (AMX), NVIDIA tensor cores, AMD matrix cores, Qualcomm HVX, Amazon Infferentia/Trainium, and other accelerators. Right now most of the compiler stacks for such accelerators are closed-source and not having any universal solution for sharing optimizations and other compiler features as LLVM could provide.
How was this accomplished? First of all, Winston and his team researched the correct “look” for the splash impacts by firing projectiles into mud and painstakingly working to duplicate the resulting shapes. These realistic-looking crater sculpts were then cast in some mixture of foam rubber, and given a chromed look by way of vacuum metallizing (also known as vacuum deposition) which is a way of depositing a thin layer of metal onto a surface. Vacuum deposition is similar to electroplating, but the process does not require the object being coated to have a conductive surface.
These foam rubber splash patterns — which look like metal but aren’t — were deployed using a simple mechanical system. A variety of splashes in different sizes get individually compressed into receptacles in a fiberglass chest plate. Covering each is a kind of trapdoor, each held closed by a single pin on a cable.
The authorization could come before Thanksgiving, and more than 181 million adults who have been fully inoculated with a Covid vaccine would become eligible for a Pfizer booster shot. In late September, an F.D.A. committee recommended boosters on an emergency basis for certain categories of adults. Canada approved booster shots of the Pfizer vaccine for all adults today.
Separately, Moderna and the U.S. are in a patent dispute over the company’s Covid vaccine, which grew out of a collaboration with the N.I.H. The company’s patent application names several employees as the sole inventors of a crucial component, but it excluded three government scientists.
As the coronavirus continues to spread out of control in Russia, the federal government has submitted draft legislation to the State Duma that would require people to present QR codes documenting either vaccination against COVID-19 or a past diagnosis in order to enter public places or access certain forms of transportation.
The first bill drafted by the government cabinet would impose the QR-code prerequisite on access to mass public events, cultural institutions, eateries, and all retailers. If the legislation were adopted, entry to one of these spaces would require proof of vaccination, evidence of a previous COVID-19 diagnosis, or a certificate of medical exemption from vaccination. The draft law would permit people without these records to continue visiting the listed places by presenting negative PCR test results for COVID-19, but only until February 1, 2022. After this date, negative test results would grant entry to public places only for people with medical exemptions from vaccination.
I have a friend who is a keen model car collector. Recently he spotted one he liked the look of on a well-known online auction site, put a bid on it, and won.
See I told ya so. Under the Epic v. Apple injunction as it stands, Apple still does not have to tolerate alternatives to its own In-App Purchasing (IAP) system. What some others told you--which was the opposite--did not age well. I don't even blame The Verge's Nilay Patel and others as much for having been wrong initially as I criticize them now for not having recognized their error after I pointed it out. The original problem was that they just didn't care to read the relevant parts of the underlying judgment, which is amateurish but can happen, and that they failed to see the implausibility of their interpretation, as Epic's "hotfix" that gave rise to last year's court filings would have been allowed under that reading of the injunction. We all make mistakes, but there's what I find irresponsible: by refusing to backtrack and apologize, they were being bull-headed at best and cynical at worst--cynical in the sense of reiterating a clear legal error that could lead others to make costly mistakes (developing program code that Apple was sure to reject), only to avoid that a wider audience would become aware of some people's failure to digest a court order.
I wouldn't have thought that after yesterday's post (FOSS Patents was right while others were wrong on scope of Epic Games v. Apple injunction as court order denying stay clarifies: NO IAP ALTERNATIVES ALLOWED, period) it would be necessary to do a follow-up to debunk the "button bull" that just doesn't go away because of one man who just keeps digging himself an ever bigger hole.
Tech news website The Verge prides itself on setting a high journalistic standard with respect to "background" conversations with tech companies. I do credit them for mostly very good and in-depth coverage of app store antitrust matters. However, there comes a point when someone who claims to stand on higher moral ground just has to acknowledge he made a mistake, even at the risk of some people potentially considering it an unforgivably stupid mistake that might have led app developers to waste hours and hours of development time on code that Apple won't have to approve. The Verge's Nilay Patel prefers to raise false hopes in iOS app developers over the only honest way to deal with the situation he alone created: a mea culpa admission.
It's a funny coincidence that 2021 is the year of the anti-antisuit injunctions (they've been around for a few years, especially since the 2019 Nokia v. Continental ruling in Munich, but are now very much en vogue) as well as the year of the Epic v. Apple anti-anti-steering injunction: an injunction against an anti-steering provision in Apple's App Store guidelines.
Dreamers will be dreamers, but there are overwhelmingly strong reasons for the appeals court to stay Epic's injunction.
During 2017 to 19 nearly 18 percent of the total published patent applications from Indians were on pharmaceuticals, a report by World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) indicates.
Given the vast potential size of the EV market it is perhaps unsurprising that recent years have seen greatly increased numbers of patent filings directed towards batteries. An analysis carried out by the European Patent Office last year shows that much of this growth (measured in terms of the number of International Patent Families, IPFs) has been dominated by automotive applications, with no signs that this trend is levelling off. Specialised uses of battery cells in battery packs in particular continues to be a strong area of innovation, something that has been supported by Li-ion battery cells becoming an increasingly mature technology. This growth in patent activity seems sure to continue as countries continue to upgrade their charging infrastructure and incentivise the take-up of EVs.
Most companies would like to invent a way to reduce their corporation tax liability. The UK Patent Box scheme provides a way to do just that by offering a reduced corporation tax rate of 10% for profits arising from patented inventions. This tax saving through innovation is actively encouraged by the UK government, so it makes sense to try to benefit.
For innovative companies that earn substantial profits from patented products and services (or patent licensing), the currently available Patent Box tax reductions can make an enormous contribution to offsetting R&D costs (and the savings often dwarf the cost of obtaining the patents that qualify them for this tax reduction).
The Government Accountability Office has launched a review of the decision-making processes at the PTAB, it confirmed to Managing IP
There are several requirements stated in the Indian Patents Act and the Patent Rules which an applicant has to comply with. One such requirement is that of filing a statement as per the provisions of Section 8(1) of the Patent Act and Rules 12(1) and 12(1A) of the Patent Rules setting out detailed particulars of corresponding application(s) in Form 3.
Counsel say they're immensely pleased the former Delaware chief judge has been picked, partly because he’ll bring trial court experience to the appeals venue
On 4 November, EPO President António Campinos spoke online at the conference "IP and Sustainability: Innovation for a brighter future," a hybrid event organised by the Icelandic Intellectual Property Office (ISIPO) to coincide with its 30th anniversary. Prime Minister of Iceland Katrín Jakobsdóttir and ISIPO Director General Borghildur Erlingsdóttir opened the conference, which was held onsite at Harpa Conference Centre in Reykjavík and streamed to participants around the world.
The EPO welcomed more than 2 100 participants from 91 countries to Patent Knowledge Week, which took place online from 2 to 5 November 2021. This digital event is the successor to the traditional Patent Information Conference, which around 250 people used to attend in person each day. The new interactive format allows the EPO to include more stakeholders, from more diverse backgrounds, while enabling audiences to explore in greater depth the topics of most importance to them. By opening up new opportunities for the focussed discussion of patent knowledge, the four-day event contributes to a new normal in which the patent system is becoming more accessible.
Counsel say rights owners will face many unique issues in the metaverse on top of existing problems with online IP enforcement, and must ramp up protection
Apple’s settlement agreement with Qualcomm bars further challenges to certain PTAB decisions validating the latter’s patents, the court ruled
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner LLP will be expanding its presence in Europe in 2022 with an office in Munich, Germany, that will be led by a new partner hire from Baker McKenzie, the firm announced.
Dr. Jochen Herr, an intellectual property litigation partner from Baker McKenzie, will be joining as a partner and lead a team of seven attorneys and legal professionals in the Munich office when it opens in January, Finnegan said Tuesday.
Washington DC-based IP boutique Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner has added a team from Baker McKenzie to launch in Munich, marking its entrance into the German market.
We recently reported on the provisional referral of three questions to the Enlarged Board of Appeal by the Board of Appeal presiding over case T 116/18, an appeal from the decision of the Opposition Division rejecting Syngenta’s opposition against Sumitomo’s European Patent 2484209. The European Patent Office (EPO) has now officially confirmed that these three questions will be considered by the Enlarged Board of Appeal under case G 2/21.
Though global public health governance has taken strides against smoking in recent years, the epidemic persists, and nearly 8 million people globally die from smoking-related diseases every year. The economic toll of tobacco is equally striking. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that, globally, smoking causes over US$500 billion in economic damage each year.
Worst still, smoking is not spread equally, with over 85% of all smokers residing in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). From a business perspective, this situation also cannot be maintained. No corporation can build a sustainable future on the basis of such circumstances. Given the choice to perish or innovate, the tobacco industry must continue to innovate.
The way forward appears to be technologies that aim to reduce the adverse effects of smoking. Three different technologies have emerged as an alternative to traditional cigarettes. The oldest are smokeless forms of tobacco such as snus. Second are heated tobacco products that heat tobacco sticks in a device, emitting nicotine but not tar.
Deal is one of the Chinese company’s biggest recent disposals to an NPE buyer
Chemicals firm BASF will only receive limited damages after its lawyers “negligently failed to lodge appeal” when one of its emission control patents was revoked, the High Court has ruled.
The patent concerned the combination of a copper chabazite zeolite catalyst, used for the selective catalytic reduction of nitrogen oxides, with a particulate filter. The technology was developed by predecessor firm Engelhard and patented in 2003, for use in cleaning up the exhaust from diesel-fuelled cars and vans.
For years, Apple has resisted taking a license to Optis' standard-essential patent portfolio covering Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology. However, it is now being reported that Apple committed to enter a global FRAND license with Optis so as to avoid being enjoined from, or voluntarily exiting, the UK market. Once effectuated, this agreement should end the global dispute between the two parties.
A patent is only enforceable against an infringer if it is valid, and it is usual for an alleged infringer to counter-claim for invalidity when sued for infringement. By this stage, the parties are involved in an expensive court action and the alleged infringer will gather evidence to try to convince a court that the patent is invalid.
To avoid the costs of court action, an opposition against a European patent is typically filed by someone with an interest in having the patent revoked so that they can sell their own product. However, as the opposition procedure, including appeal, can take several years before reaching a final decision, there is still the risk that an infringement action could be filed by the patent owner before the opposition proceedings are completed.
Managing IP can reveal that counsel in charge of the DABUS patent applications have asked for permission to appeal their AI inventorship case
China's intellectual property (IP) office led the world in 2020 by reporting 1.5 million patent applications, 2.5 times more than the United States, which ranked second, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said on Monday.
According to the 2021 edition of the WIPO's "World Intellectual Property Indicators," despite the COVID-19 pandemic, international patent applications increased again in 2020 after the first drop in a decade in 2019.
Driven by long-term growth in China as well as increased IP activity in other Asian countries, Asia accounted for two-thirds of all applications filed worldwide in 2020. This was a considerable increase from the 51.5 percent registered in 2010.
Counsel at Salesforce, Bitmovin and two NPEs disagree on whether Tillis and Leahy were right to take aim at the Western District of Texas
In a report released last month, the European Patent Office (EPO) found that advanced and chemical recycling generated almost double the number of patents than mechanical recycling, with the majority of this activity based in Europe and the USA – suggesting this is an expanding industry.
A recent report from the European Patent Office claims that chemical recycling methods generated twice as many patent applications as mechanical recycling between 2010-2019. What do you think has caused this disparity, and why is mechanical recycling still more prevalent?
Counsel explain how circuit splits, jury selection and experience drive litigants to one venue over another
In the past 50 years, the Supreme Court has decided about 70 patent cases (depending upon how you count). One of the least cited is the 1976 case of Dann v. Johnston, 425 U.S. 219, 225 (1976). The case was set-up as a showdown on questions of patent eligibility in the “highly esoteric field of computer technology.” Id. But, in the end, the court focused on the more mundane question of obviousness — a doctrine it continued to refer to as “invention.”
Johnston was seeking to patent a “record-keeping machine system for financial accounts.” Basically, this was software installed on a bank-owned IBM 1400 that allowed its customers to categorize their income and expenses for better reporting.
Ocular Therapeutix, Inc. (NASDAQ:OCUL), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the formulation, development, and commercialization of innovative therapies for diseases and conditions of the eye, today announced that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., invalidated a patent held by Mati Therapeutics, Inc. (Mati) relating to a drug delivery system containing dexamethasone. This decision affirms the judgment made in June 2020 by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office after an inter partes review that determined Ocular Therapeutix had proven that all 23 claims of U.S. Patent 9,849,082 B2 (the ‘082 patent), owned by Mati are invalid due to “obviousness”. Mati had previously claimed that Ocular Therapeutix’s first commercial drug product, DEXTENZA€®, and its hydrogel platform, had infringed the ‘082 patent.
The introduction of a new jurisdiction is rare enough, but the advent of a new court system that allows for litigation concerning valuable property assets across a multi-national market of over 450 million people and over 20 separate nations is a big event. That is what the Unified Patents Court system in Europe amounts to – it is the biggest change in the world of patents for over 40 years.
It is no surprise then that the planners of the new system have built into the rules the option for current patent owners, and people/businesses looking to commence new patents in the medium term, to “opt out” of the system, and to take a look to see how it works, before deciding whether it is something with which they want to engage.
Context Directions, a Jeffrey M. Gross-controlled NPE who had asserted two patents in the Western District of Texas ostensibly related to detecting the context in which a mobile device is used, recently had the USPTO enter a substantially narrow construction of one of those patents, likely rendering it (and its family members) useless for future litigation. The office found the claims were means-plus-function claims, and the patent owner effectively conceded the claims were abstract and lacked algorithmic support—in other words, Context Directions conceded that the claims are indefinite.
On March 29, 2021, Unified Patents filed an ex parte reexamination against certain claims of U.S. Patent 10,142,791, assigned to Context Directions, LLC, a Jeffrey M. Gross NPE. A month later, the office granted reexamination and later entered a non-final office action rejecting all of the challenged claims, including a finding that the claims contained means-plus-function limitations subject to 35 U.S.C. ۤ 112 ۦ 6. App. No. 90//014,712, Non-Final Office Action, 10- (June 11, 2021).
First, the examiner found that limitations referencing a “classifier” performing the function of “evaluat[ing] one or more contexts of the mobile device” lacked sufficient structure on their own to perform the claimed function and, therefore, were subject to €§ 112 €¶ 6. Id., 11-13; see also 24. The examiner also confirmed that the claimed classifier was software, and that the corresponding three disclosures in the specification as the corresponding disclosure:
The term artificial intelligence (AI) is used to describe a machine’s ability to ‘think’ or carry out tasks that were once said to require human intelligence. Tasks such as learning, logic, reasoning, perception, and, yes, creativity are now being performed by machines used in every industry.
A constant danger in writing posts is resorting to over-used buzzwords. But, in the new fields of engineering that are sprouting up, the word "multidisciplinary" is so appropriate. Even in a field such as EV charging, which the casual observer would naturally assume is primarily led by electricity distribution technology, the critical technical problems lie in connectivity - for monitoring, control and, of course, billing. Engineers constantly have to be able to see beyond the confines of their specialism to provide optimal customer solutions. Equally, for patent strategy, it's vital to work with experts who can not only understand the underlying technical solution, but also the use case in which it is to be implemented.
Thanks to technological advancements and innovation driving change at an increasing rate, business owners are realising that intangible assets and registered rights such as intellectual property (IP) contribute significantly to overall business value. This has therefore sparked the need to understand the value of IP, but - as with all intangible assets - can often be challenging. Mathys & Squire Consulting provides clients with insights into the IP valuation process and a clear understanding of the components of value, as outlined below. Although the valuing of IP can be complex, it is an essential stage to prioritise before engaging in any IP transactions.
In the course of obtaining regulatory approval for a drug product in the United States, a pharmaceutical company will make numerous representations about its product in submissions to the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”). If these representations contradict arguments made during prosecution of a patent at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”), they may serve as the basis for an inequitable conduct finding. In Belcher Pharms., LLC v. Hospira, Inc.,[1]Belcher Pharms., LLC v. Hospira, Inc., No. 2020-1799 (Fed. Cir. Sep. 1, 2021). the Federal Circuit held Belcher’s patent unenforceable due to inequitable conduct based on representations made during prosecution that were inconsistent with statements made to the FDA.
In case SIP-461/2020, the Presidium of the Intellectual Property Court [sic] has introduced a new remedy for patent term extension disputes.
[...]
In its reasoning, the Presidium of the Intellectual Property Court identified a gap in the legislation in terms of PTE and SPC invalidation. It rectified it with general references to the Constitution (the right to fait trial under art. 46) and international law (the Eurasian Patent Convention).
As part of this case, the procedure for challenging a PTE and SPC was also reviewed by the Constitutional Court, under a special court request.
Such court practice opens up new opportunities in patent disputes and may indicate that patent battles in the pharmaceutical market have entered a new round.
In early October, the Regional Court Düsseldorf dismissed a claim concerning EP 16 10 593 for lack of infringement. Signify has appealed the decision. In a second case, the Regional Court Düsseldorf stayed the infringement dispute pending a decision from the Federal Patent Court. The case concerns EP 12 34 140.
This patent is considered strong, with the owner already successfully defending it at the EPO up to the appeal stage.
Industry giants such as Osram and Philips had attacked the patent. Later, Philips bought LED manufacturer Color Kinetics and set up the licensing program.
Both patents revolve around the adjustability of white tones in lamps, achieved via different controls. The technology is used in indoor ceiling lights. Both patents belong to the same patent family and have now expired.
In addition, two further infringement proceedings by Signify against Eglo are pending in Düsseldorf (4c O 2/21 and 4c O 15/21). These involve EP 18 69 365. In March, Signify extended the suit to include EP 34 28 506. The court has scheduled the main hearing in both cases for 5 April 2022.
On RTL yesterday (8th November), the RTL Nieuws programme showed footage of the EPO's New Main building in Rijswijk, during a report on the conversion of commercial premises into residential apartments. This was a poor choice of footage and a poor visual representation of the subject matter.
On 8 November, EPO President António Campinos met online with Mr Daren Tang, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The organisations renewed their commitment to further improving the international patent system's support for innovation and signed a new Memorandum of Understanding on bilateral co-operation.
The agreement aims at improving the procedural framework of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) with a view to increasing its attractiveness and efficiency for applicants. Further focus areas for co-operation between the EPO and WIPO include classification, data exchange and the dissemination of patent information.
With respect to patent licensing firm IPCom, Deutsche Telekom has a propensity to do things that make observers shake their heads in disbelief.
I still remember overhearing a conversation at the Mannheim courthouse on June 21, 2013. That Friday, the court held a Motorola v. Apple FRAND rate-setting trial that drew huge interest from the German patent litigation community. During a break, lawyers involved with Nokia's and HTC's defenses against IPCom just couldn't fathom the WHY and the WHEN of the Deutsche Telekom-IPCom settlement that was announced earlier that week. At that juncture, there was no injunction looming large--there wasn't even one on the horizon. By settling for sheer convenience, Deutsche Telekom unnecessarily complicated things for Nokia and HTC by giving IPCom substantial new resources and a comparable license agreement with a view to the ND in FRAND.
The amount was described by Reuters sources as being in the "low to medium triple-digit" million euro range. What I heard at the time was roughly 200 million euros. Later there was speculation that Deutsche Telekom's then-outgoing CEO had simply instructed the patent department to settle the dispute, period, just so he wouldn't have to negotiate a hold-harmless clause for that case as part of his exit package.
The intertwined concepts of plausibility and post-published evidence in relation to sufficiency and inventive step have become embedded in European patent practice over the years. The concept originates with the 2005 Board of Appeal decision T1329/04, which held that, firstly, for inventive step to be recognised, the patent application must at least make plausible that the problem addressed by the invention is solved; and secondly that post-published data confirming that the problem has been solved can be used in evidence, but if the initial plausibility threshold is not met, then this data should not be taken into account. For a recent example where these concepts are applied, see our article on T2015/20, concerning the treatment of asthma.
In 2014, Hara and his team became the first Japanese nationals to win the European Inventor Award presented annually by the European Patent Office. Even now, Hara works as general manager of Engineering Department 2 at Denso Wave to improve the QR code.
On September 30, 2021, Unified filed an opposition proceeding against EP 3151566 B1, currently owned by GE Video Compression, LLC. The EP ’566 patent is part of a family purportedly essential to HEVC and part of the Access Advance patent pool. This filing is a part of Unified’s ongoing efforts in its SEP Video Codec Zone.
On November 9, 2021, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a final written decision in Unified Patents, LLC v. Longhorn HD LLC holding all challenged claims of U.S. Patent 7,260,846 invalid. Longhorn HD LLC, an NPE, is an affiliate of Alpha Alpha Intellectual Partners, LLC. The ’846 patent was previously owned by Intellectual Ventures and is directed to cybersecurity techniques including detecting malicious network behavior. It had been asserted against Fortinet, Juniper Networks, and Check Point, but new assertions include NetScout Systems, Mitel Software, and Trend Micro.
On November 11, 2021, the China National Intellectual Property Administration declared claims 1-4, 6-7, and 12 of CN1663258, owned by Dolby International AB, invalid. CN1663258 has been designated essential to the HEVC Advance pool and SISVEL’s AV1 pool. It is also related to patents that have been designated in those pools.
This is a new case of applying to register a sound mark which gained notoriety in the news media and, once again, was rejected owing to the absence of a distinctive character – sound marks are eligible for registration, though not all.
Albeit under different arguments, the General Court of the European Union confirmed the decision by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), which rejected the application by the company Ardagh Metal Beverage Holdings GmbH & Co. KG.
Energy drink giant Red Bull recently received some negative press for issuing a cease and desist letter to Norwich-based gin maker Bullards for the use of the word 'bull' in its brand name. The case is a useful reminder that brand owners should make sure that their brand protection strategy reflects the organisation's wider brand values.
Birkenstock is the proprietor of a national German mark (see below). Birkenstock tried to extend this mark (via an IR) as a EUTM for several classes of goods, including in Class 25 (shoes and clothing). This attempt failed over several instances (respectively the Examination Division of EUIPO, the First Board of Appeal, and the General Court), on the ground that the mark was deemed to be devoid of any distinctive character (within the meaning of article 4.1(b) TMD). Birkenstock then appealed to the CJEU, which rejected the appeal.
French and Italian publishers claim they are winning the battle on neighbouring rights after Italy transposes the DSM Copyright Directive
While some countries have already adopted the DSM Directive into their own laws (last week it was the turn of Spain and Italy: see here and here), many are still working full force on implementing it, despite that the deadline has already passed.
As to Sweden, a government inquiry was initiated last year and completed earlier this autumn. Only last month did the relevant Committee complete the inquiry; a memorandum has now been sent for consultation to relevant governmental agencies, organizations, and stakeholders. Once the memorandum is scrutinized it will be sent back to the Government and the Council on Legislation.
Let’s look at the proposed Chapter 6(b) in the memorandum [unofficial translation by myself] and find out how it compares to its EU counterpart: Article 17 of the DSM Directive.
The first interesting feature of the Swedish proposal is that it does not use the exact same wording of the Directive insofar as safe harbour availability is concerned: the bill seems to provide for the inapplicability of Article 14 of the Ecommerce Directive to the activities within the scope of Art 17 of the DSM Directive … and beyond. It provides that (my own translation) “The provisions of Section 18 of the Swedish Law on e-commerce and other information society services (2002:562) (available only in Swedish) [which implements Article 14 of the Ecommerce Directive] shall not be applied when a service provider transfers works to the public in accordance with the first paragraph”. The Swedish draft wording seems to suggest that the hosting safe harbour shall not apply to online content-sharing service providers (OCSSPs) altogether.
