Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 16/1/2022: Tsunami and Patents



  • GNU/Linux

    • Kernel Space

      • Graphics Stack

        • DRM updated

          Johathan Gray (jsg@) has updated DRM to Linux 5.15.14 (with support for several additional chips): [...]

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • There is no such thing as a static website

        A common distinction in technology for building websites is a separation between "static" and "dynamic" websites. The idea is that a "static" website always returns the same HTML/CSS/etc, whereas a "dynamic" website changes the content that the server returns depending on the request.

        This seems, at first glance, to be a pretty sharp and useful distinction, letting us easily distinguish between static and dynamic. However, I don't think it holds up to real scrutiny, and I believe that this distinction is holding us back from building better types of software that exist in the blurry space between static and dynamic.

        First off, we should look at why people care about this distinction in the first place. When looking at any sort of taxonomy, a good first question to ask is "who is this useful to, and why?"

      • Pi-hole Installation Guide

        You probably know already the concept of the Pi-hole. If not, it’s a (forwarding) DNS server that you can install on your private network at home. All your clients, including every single smartphone, tablet, laptop, and IoT devices such as smart TVs or light bulb bridges, can use this Pi-hole service as their DNS server. Now here’s the point: it not only caches DNS entries, but blocks certain queries for hostnames that are used for ads, tracking, or even malware. That is: you don’t have to use an ad- or track-blocker on your devices (which is not feasible on smart TVs or smartphone apps, etc.), but you’re blocking this kind of sites entirely. Nice approach!

        Yes, there are already some setup tutorials for the Pi-hole out there. However, it’s not only about installing the mere Pi-hole, but setting it up with your own recursive DNS server (since the default installation forwards to public DNS servers), using DNSSEC, and adding some more adlists. That’s why I am listing my installation procedure here as well. However, it’s not a complete beginners guide. You’ll need some basic Linux know-how.

        I am using a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Rev 1.3 with Raspberry Pi OS for this setup. (While in the meantime I’m running Pi-hole on my Intel NUC with Ubuntu server.)

      • How To Add, Remove and Update Software in Linux Using Apt

        Linux has many ways to install software. We can build our own executables or use AppImage to run containerized applications. But at the heart of many Linux distros is a package management system, which for Debian based systems, such as the Raspberry Pi and Ubuntu, is Apt.

        Apt, the Advanced Packaging Tool is a command line application which handles the installation, categorization and removal of applications and their dependencies from the software repositories. Apt is the heart of Debian systems and the lessons learnt are applicable from the $35 Raspberry Pi to million dollar super computers. Apt is available via the Terminal and we can even administrate systems remotely using a remote connection such as SSH.

        A command line tool may seem daunting but here we detail the most common commands that you will use to keep your system updated with the latest software.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • Lots of Video News!

          I’ve been incredibly happy with the very early success and interest with the videos produced the past couple weeks… Both of them. While I think the attention received may have been oddly disproportionate to the quality of the content, I feel I can do far better and will be stepping up my video game!

          First, I’m going to be breaking up my current YouTube account into 3 distinct channels outside of my personal videos; “Kver Create!”, “Kver Play!” and “Kver Workshop!”. I’m furiously trying to get everything ready, but here’s what everyone can expect:

          Kver Create!

          Will focus on work, and will be mostly livestreams. This is where I’ll be doing things like wallpapers, icons, other art, development, and even personal projects. It’s also where I’ll publish excerpts of the previously recorded livestreams when there’s interesting segments. In the future it might be neat to feature other artists and developers as well. Expect regular KDE content here.

          Kver Play!

          May or may not have a future, but if my first livestreams taught me anything it’s that I’m not yet comfortable with the mic, so what’s a better teacher than a more casual and fun environment while I rehabilitate my voicebox? This will probably have the most livestreams out-of-gate, but I imagine it will slow down in favour of other channels as time goes on.

    • Distributions

    • Devices/Embedded

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • Best Free and Open Source Alternative to IBM Rational DOORS

        International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is an American multinational technology corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York. They sell computer hardware, middleware and software employing over 370,000 people.

        IBM acquired Red Hat in 2019. But you can trace IBM’s history of open source far further back. They were one of the earliest champions of open source, backing influential communities like Linux, Apache, and Eclipse, advocating open licenses, open governance, and open standards.

      • Best Free and Open Source JavaScript Engines

        JavaScript is an interpreted programming language. It means that source code isn’t compiled into binary code prior to execution. The role of the JavaScript engine is to turn plain text script into executable code. In other words, the engine is a container in which you run your program.

        JavaScript engines are often developed by web browser vendors, and every major browser has one. In a browser, the JavaScript engine runs in concert with the rendering engine via the Document Object Model. JavaScript engines implement specification of the language provide by ECMAScript. Standardization enables the development of independent engines and ensures scripts give the same results no matter wherever they run.

      • Programming/Development

        • Comparing Static Site Hosts; Which Is The Best Host For A Static Site?

          I have compared a number of static site hosts to see which is the best for me in terms of performance, build times and pricing. This post contains the results of that research.

        • Opencv compiled in OpenEmbedded

          Opencv is an optional dependency for mlt, lives, flowblade and other video editor packages. I have compiled it in OE, and it brings in these new dependencies:

          ade       0.1.1f
          gflags    2.2.2
          glog      0.3.5
          libeigen  3.3.7
          libunwind 1.3.1
          opencv    4.5.2
          tbb       1_2020.2
          

        • Perl/Raku

          • Eagle's Path: DocKnot 6.01 (2022-01-15)

            This release of my static site generator and software release manager finishes incorporating the last piece of my old release script that I was still using: copying a new software release into a software distribution archive tree, updating symlinks, updating the version database used to generate my web pages, and archiving the old version.

  • Leftovers

    • Tsunami Triggered by Huge Volcanic Eruption Hits Tonga

      This is a developing news story... Check back for possible updates...

      A major volcanic eruption near Tonga triggered tsunami waves that hit the shores of the Pacific island nation on Saturday, forcing people to flee the streets and their homes in search of higher ground.

    • Education

      • Schneier: Upcoming Speaking Engagements

        This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak: [...]

      • The Developers Conference 2022 has been postponed

        The Developers Conference (DevCon) was due to happen on the 17áµ—Ê°, 18áµ—Ê° and 19áµ—Ê° of February 2022 at the Caudan Arts Centre. We were hoping that restrictions would be eased before the DevCon day. Unfortunately, that did not happen. No new dates have not been announced as that would be pending negotiation with the conference venue owner and several other stakeholders.

    • Hardware

      • New leak claims the Galaxy S22 series will use the Exynos 2200 in Europe after all - NotebookCheck.net News

        Recent reports excited Samsung fans in Europe with the idea of the Galaxy S22 Ultra being shipped with the Snapdragon Gen 1 across all regions. New information might just have put paid to those thoughts, however, as it now appears that the Galaxy S22 series will ship with the Exynos 2200 in Europe.

      • SSD Endurance €« etbe - Russell Coker

        I previously wrote about the issue of swap potentially breaking SSD [1]. My conclusion was that swap wouldn’t be a problem as no normally operating systems that I run had swap using any significant fraction of total disk writes. In that post the most writes I could see was 128GB written per day on a 120G Intel SSD (writing the entire device once a day).

        My post about swap and SSD was based on the assumption that you could get many thousands of writes to the entire device which was incorrect. Here’s a background on the terminology from WD [2]. So in the case of the 120G Intel SSD I was doing over 1 DWPD (Drive Writes Per Day) which is in the middle of the range of SSD capability, Intel doesn’t specify the DWPD or TBW (Tera Bytes Written) for that device.

        The most expensive and high end NVMe device sold by my local computer store is the Samsung 980 Pro which has a warranty of 150TBW for the 250G device and 600TBW for the 1TB device [3]. That means that the system which used to have an Intel SSD would have exceeded the warranty in 3 years if it had a 250G device.

        My current workstation has been up for just over 7 days and has averaged 110GB written per day. It has some light VM use and the occasional kernel compile, a fairly typical developer workstation. It’s storage is 2*Crucial 1TB NVMe devices in a BTRFS RAID-1, the NVMe devices are the old series of Crucial ones and are rated for 200TBW which means that they can be expected to last for 5 years under the current load. This isn’t a real problem for me as the performance of those devices is lower than I hoped for so I will buy faster ones before they are 5yo anyway.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

    • Integrity/Availability

      • Proprietary

        • [Crackers] disrupt payroll for thousands of employers — including hospitals [iophk: Windows TCO]

          A month-old ransomware attack is still causing administrative chaos for millions of people, including 20,000 public transit workers in the New York City metro area, public service workers in Cleveland, employees of FedEx and Whole Foods, and medical workers across the country who were already dealing with an omicron surge that has filled hospitals and exacerbated worker shortages.

        • Ransomware attack on New Mexico prison knocks systems offline, forces lockdown

          A prison in New Mexico was forced to go into lockdown last week after a ransomware attack knocked its systems offline.

          The ransomware attack hit the Metropolitan Detention Center in Bernalillo County on Jan. 5. Systems affected by the attack included the jail’s internet, most of its data systems and its security cameras.

        • Security

          • Privacy/Surveillance

            • Good News for GDPR Enforcement against Cookie Walls, but Also a Dangerous Legal Challenge from WhatsApp

              In 2019, the EU’s top court, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), ruled that pre-ticked checkboxes, used to encourage people to consent to the storage of and access to cookies, weren’t valid under the GDPR. Despite that, research the following year showed that many websites were still using “dark patterns” — online tricks to nudge visitors to accept privacy-hostile cookies.

            • Meta faces billion-pound class-action case

              Facebook "abused its market dominance to impose unfair terms and conditions on ordinary Britons, giving it the power to exploit their personal data", Dr Lovdahl Gormsen says.

              And this data, harvested between 2015 and 2019, provided a highly detailed picture of their internet use, helping the company make "excessive profits".

            • TikTok isn’t silly. It’s serious

              TikTok derives its magic from its algorithm and the data on which it is trained. Unlike Facebook’s rolling feed, TikTok’s simple, one-video interface means that the app always knows exactly what a user is watching. Clips are short, so viewers see a lot of them, generating plenty of information. This, combined with few friends and family clogging up the feed, allows the algorithm to match users with content creators that actually entertain them. And because videos are mostly shot on a smartphone, anyone can make them. Barriers to entry are low. Virality is high.

    • Defence/Aggression

      • Opinion | 10 Reasons the OAS Secretary-General Must Go

        The Organization of American States (OAS) has never been a friend to the peoples of the Americas. This institution, ostensibly a space for multilateralism, has instead always been a tool for the U.S. Department of State. As Fidel Castro said in 1962, it is nothing but the U.S. Ministry of Colonies. That is truer now more than ever under the leadership of Secretary General Luis Almagro, who has been at the helm since March 2015. He is quite possibly the worst leader since the OAS was founded in 1948.

      • Hawkish Pundits Downplay Threat of War, Ukraine’s Nazi Ties

        With the United States and Russia in a standoff over NATO expansion and Russian troop deployments along the Ukrainian border, US corporate media outlets are demanding that Washington escalate the risk of a broader war while misleading their audiences about important aspects of the conflict.

      • Opinion | Untangling Ourselves From the Dark Side of War

        Guess what? I direct the following insight to, among others, the U.S. Congress, which annually and without comment, with only a few objectors, passes a trillion-dollar (and growing) military budget, by far the largest such budget on Planet Earth.

      • How the states have become "Laboratories of Autocracy" — and why it's worse than you think

        Pepper's book provides a detailed, nitty-gritty explanation of how the general conditions Mika describes have been created in Ohio and many other states across America. And when Pepper writes about how to fight back, it's about fighting back against the conditions that made Trump possible, if not inevitable. Of course Trump himself remains a danger, but Pepper's book provides a roadmap for action that addresses the roots of the problem. This conversation with David Pepper has been edited for clarity and length.

      • Small bands of mercenaries extend Russia’s reach in Africa

        Yet Russia’s mercenaries will probably find it no easier to battle jihadists than do the Western forces they hope to supplant. Their record is certainly uninspiring. In 2019 Wagner sent men to fight jihadists in northern Mozambique. It pulled out after about ten of them were killed, including some who were beheaded. In Libya roughly 1,200 Wagner men fought on the side of a rebel general, Khalifa Haftar, against the UN-recognised government. Yet the rebel push to topple the government failed and Wagner’s troops were accused of war crimes, including murdering prisoners and civilians.

      • Drones Over Ethiopia

        Less than two months ago, the Ethiopian government was on the brink of defeat as Tigrayan forces closed in on the capital. Now the Tigrayan troops have turned about and withdrawn north back into Tigray. The government’s use of foreign-supplied unarmed aerial vehicles (UAVs) and armed drones appears to have played a significant role in reversing those spectacular gains made by the Tigrayan forces that had Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed calling on citizens to arms themselves and be ready to defend the capital, Addis Ababa.

    • Environment

    • Finance

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • State Legislatures Are Silencing Native Voices Through Redistricting
      • Opinion | Eight New Year's Resolutions for NPR to Consider Now

        The reasons Congress created NPR (National Public Radio) under the Nixon Administration was to fill the yawning gaps of commercial radio in local, national, and international news coverage and to give voice to the people, without ads. It was to be publicly funded by taxpayers. Almost 51 years later, NPR is now funded heavily by national corporations, with its local affiliates soliciting local business advertisements.

      • Sanders Says Manchin and Sinema Are Undermining US Democracy
      • Sanders Says Manchin and Sinema Are Imperiling US Democracy

        Sen. Bernie Sanders said Friday that by vowing to uphold the archaic Senate rule standing in the way of voting rights legislation, his colleagues Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are putting "the future of American democracy" at risk.

        "It is a sad day when two members of the Democratic caucus are prepared to allow the Freedom to Vote Act to fail," the Vermont senator tweeted. "I hope very much they will reconsider their positions."

      • China Seen Backing ‘Digital Authoritarianism’ in Latin America

        Chinese technology and expertise is making it possible for Venezuela and Cuba to exercise suffocating control over digital communications in the two countries, according to insider accounts and several international investigations.

        Venezuela and Cuba do more to block internet access than any other governments in Latin America, according to the U.S.-based advocacy group Freedom House, which has documented what it describes as "digital authoritarianism" in the region since 2018.

      • China, Iran Begin Implementation of Sweeping Strategic Agreement

        Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian announced the start of the partnership's implementation at a meeting in east China's Wuxi on Friday, Beijing's foreign ministry said in a statement.

        Few details of the secretive deal have been published, but the New York Times reported in 2020 that it would secure a regular supply of oil for China, citing a draft of the agreement leaked to the paper.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • Disney Censors ‘The Simpsons’ Episode From Hong Kong Site

        If an episode of “South Park” that satirizes the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was conspicuously excluded from an American streamer’s Hong Kong site, Trey Parker and Matt Stone would skewer them for it. However, Disney+ did exactly that when it censored for its HK customers the episode of “The Simpsons” wherein Homer Simpson visits Beijing.

        If you live in Hong Kong, you can’t watch “Goo Goo Gai Pan” (S16 E12), but the rest of us still can—for now. According to Google, there has been no response from Matt Groening yet.

      • This is messed up: a Swedish village decides to rename itself.

        The earliest records of Fucke date back to 1547, when it was described as being “by a lake, situated very high up on a hillside with very steep fields,” according to the Institute for Language and Folklore.

        Despite its historic roots, residents of Fucke are fed up, particularly with Facebook’s censorship of their posts when they try to write about their village on social media or sell items online.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • DirecTV to Drop Rabidly Pro-Trump One America News

        Facing a wave of grassroots pressure, one of the largest television providers in the U.S. reportedly plans to drop the far-right, rabidly pro-Trump One America News Network, an outlet that has come under fire for disseminating falsehoods about the 2020 election results, the coronavirus pandemic, and other major issues.

        Bloomberg reported late Friday that DirecTV has informed OANN's owner, Herring Networks Inc., that it intends to "stop carrying the company's two channels when their contract expires" in early April.

    • Digital Restrictions (DRM)

      • 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Will Come With One Year No-Sale Provision

        When the second-generation Ford GT was released a few years ago, it came with a big asterisk for buyers – they weren’t allowed to sell the car for two years. This was the very first time Ford had imposed such a restriction, and it was serious about it. In fact, more than one person tried to circumvent the requirement and sell their cars early, including professional wrestler/actor John Cena, who wound up getting sued by The Blue Oval and eventually settled the case out of court. Now, it appears that the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning will also come with the same sort of no-sale provision, albeit for one year, according to a dealer memo seen by Ford Authority.

    • Monopolies

      • Zuckerberg, Pichai signed 'big deal' to carve up ad market: Report

        San Francisco, A serious anti-trust complaint in the US has reportedly revealed that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai were allegedly involved in an ad collusion plot, a charge that both tech giants denied.

        Attorneys for Texas and other states alleged in newly unsealed court filings that Zuckerberg and Pichai "personally approved a secret deal that gave the social network a leg up in the search giant's online advertising auctions", reports Politico.

      • Tokenization of intellectual property for IP rights management [Ed: There is no such thing as "intellectual property" (a misnomer and lie) and they're not rights, either; this is just a bunch of charlatans stroking their egos as they help plutocrats ban their competition]

        Interest in blockchain technology, tokens, and IP, continues apace. Consider the recent WIPO webinar, "Blockchain Whitepaper for IP Ecosystems", at which the view was expressed that the future of IP management rights could include a solution that utilizes tokens, and, in particular, non-fungible tokens. While the tokenization of IP, namely for anti-counterfeiting purposes, was already outlined by the European Intellectual Property Office several years ago, WIPO sees potential applications of blockchain technology in IP ecosystems for "[a]ll types of IP assets: Registered and Unregistered Rights".

      • Counterfeits study raises questions over social media influencers [Ed: Max Walters uncritically passes on self-serving UKIPO propaganda in "study" clothing]

        A new UKIPO study prompts counsel to ponder the power of influencers in promoting counterfeits and what should be done about it

      • Patents

        • Philip Morris and Hoyng ROKH Monegier strike back against BAT’s Glo products [Ed: EPO has granted patent monopolies to company that killed millions of humans, including some family members of mine, using cancer (smoking)]

          The Düsseldorf Regional Court has found that BAT infringes Philip Morris’ European patent EP 32 66 323. As a result, according to a court spokesperson, the court has prohibited the cigarette manufacturer from marketing its Glo products in Germany (case ID: 4b 105/20).

          However, JUVE Patent is not yet aware if Philip Morris will enforce the injunction against BAT.

          [...]

          Furthermore, Dreiss partner Andreas Pfund is handling the patent-in-suit from the Düsseldorf proceedings at the EPO. Powell Gilbert is conducting the UK proceedings for Philip Morris.

        • France to push design, GI, UPC, and safe harbours reform as president of the Council of the EU [Ed: IP Kat is again repeating lies from the UPC’s Preparatory Committee]

          In the area of patents, France plans to support the establishment of the Unified Patent Court (UPC), which has been delayed, first by the Brexit, and then by the German Constitutional challenge. As GuestKat Frantzeska Papadopoulou reported last November, the UPC’s Preparatory Committee has set out a timeline for the UPC to commence its activities. According to this timeline, the UPC will become operational by mid-2022.

        • User survey on future Ombuds services [Ed: The criminals who have taken over the EPO want you to think they will regulate themselves; they're above the law and they made corruption the norm; perhaps more amusingly, if one attempts to answer the EPO's survey there's a notice at the bottom ("Data protection and privacy") suggesting that they're lying about anonymity and will likely outsource all this data to Microsoft/NSA/USA]

          The EPO plans to launch a new informal, confidential and neutral Ombuds service in mid-2022 as part of its commitment to continuously improve its products and services. The Ombuds Office will assist stakeholders who have exhausted the existing mechanisms for resolving problems that may have been encountered when using EPO services.

        • Gowling and Kirkland go head-to-head in UK’s next major FRAND trial [Ed: EPO-granted patents weaponised by patent trolls euphemised as "NPEs" here]

          InterDigital initially alleged that Lenovo infringed five SEPs in the UK. The NPE claimed that all patent were essential to the 3G and 4G UMTS and LTE standards. The patents, EP 2 485 558, EP 23 63 008, EP 2 557 714, EP 24 21 318 and EP 33 55 537 are part of InterDigital’s portfolio and are regulated by the European Telecommunications Standard Institute (ETSI). The portfolio also contains patents granted in the US and China.

          [...]

          Since 2009, the parties have discussed licensing EP 558, with InterDigital claiming it made global licensing offers to Lenovo on FRAND terms under the ETSI declaration. InterDigital also offered a licence on alternative terms. InterDigital claimed that Lenovo was an unwilling FRAND licensee and would not accept the offered FRAND licence, while Lenovo rejected claims that InterDigital’s offer was FRAND.

        • Egetis Therapeutics gets Notice of Intent to Grant for a new European patent for a combination therapy with Aladote [Ed: Egetis Therapeutics seems unaware that European Patents are nowadays suspect, with many not in compliance with the law]

          Egetis Therapeutics AB (publ) (ticker: EGTX) today announced that the European Patent Office (EPO) has issued a Notice of Intent to Grant for a new patent covering a combination treatment with the company’s clinical candidate drug Aladote€® (calmangafodipir) and N-acetylcysteine ​​(NAC). The new patent further improves the unique value proposition of the Aladote franchise and provides patent protection until year 2037 in Europe, before a potential extension.

        • Patent: Suspension of Infringement Proceedings in the Case of (Future) Nullity Suit [Ed: When fake patents get granted by the deeply corrupt EPO and these patents do a lot of damage regardless]

          Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf, order of 22 September 2021, Case No. I-2 W 17/21 – Suspension standard

          After the Technical Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) upheld the patent in suit and a subsequent nullity suit based on prior art not yet taken into account in the opposition proceedings, the parallel infringement dispute was initially suspended by the Regional Court of Düsseldorf by order of 3 September 2020.

          Inresponse to the admissible and valid immediate appeal of the infringement plaintiff, the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf repealed the order of the Regional Court to stay the proceedings and referred the case back to the Regional Court for a new decision. For the reasons set out below, the Higher Regional Court concludes that the Regional Court had applied an incorrect standard for a stay of proceedings.

        • Mazda 3 2-door hatchback patent hints at sporty coupe

          First spotted by CarBuzz, patent documents filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and European Patent Office show a car with the same basic silhouette as the current Mazda 3 hatchback, but with two doors.

        • Mazda three-rotor hybrid engine plans appear in patent filings [Ed: Judging companies by patents instead of actual products]
        • Motorola patents a crazy phone that’s all screen [Ed: As if getting a patent is indicative of real success]

          While some companies are moving away from curved screen smartphone design, others seem to be taking things to new extremes. Our good friends at LetsGoDigital have unearthed yet another patent application, this time depicting something truly peculiar.

        • Motorola may be serious about making a phone with a wrap-around display

          Motorola appears to be actively working on a smartphone with a wrap-around display, with the company publishing repeated patents for such a device.

        • [Older] UK: Essential Information On Confidentiality [Ed: EPO is now flagrantly in breach of confidentiality principles]

          Anybody to whom you disclose your invention must agree in advance that it is confidential and that the information will not be used by them or passed on. Outside an immediate circle of family and possibly friends, you should have a written confidentiality agreement signed. The safest thing is to limit disclosures strictly until a patent application has been filed.

          If there have already been disclosures of your invention, you should give us details of those. In many cases they may be treated as confidential in any event but we need to assess the situation. Even if patent protection cannot be obtained in the UK or elsewhere in Europe, there will be other countries where it may be possible. One of those is the United States, where a patent application can be filed up to a year after your own disclosures.

        • [Older] UK: COP26 & New Materials For The Green Industrial Revolution [Ed: More greenwashing of patents, monopolies, and basically oligarchy]
        • [Older] UK: IP At Sea [Ed: Marks & Clerk, convicted corrupt firm, repeatedly calling patents "rights"; this is a lie, they're repeating a falsehood. It's a falsehood they look to profit from.]

          A patent is an Intellectual Property (IP) right. As a legal right, patents have geographical limitations that set the area in which the patent owner can exercise their rights. Understanding the geographical extent of a patent right is especially important for inventions used at sea where potentially infringing products may transit between may different territories.

        • Taliens hires senior partner from Gide in Paris [Ed: This is an excellent new example of JUVE posting marketing spam and pretending that the mere hiring of one person is some kind of important news; once upon a time JUVE was a new source, not spamfarm]

          IP disputes partner Grégoire Triet (67), who has joined Taliens as a partner, previously worked for Gide Loyrette Nouel for 32 years. Over the past 20 years, he was instrumental in building the current patent litigation team. Following his departure, three partners and eleven associates remain at Gide.

        • The successful development of the Eurasian community [Ed: Conveniently mistaking patent cartels for a "community"]

          Since the Eurasian Patent Convention was signed in 1994 it has been shaping the global IP landscape. In the 25 years 22.700 Eurasian patents were granted at the Eurasian Patent Organization (EAPO). Recently Eurasia expanded the activities to include the applications of industrial designs and although it is not yet possible to file Eurasian trademarks, there is a relevant agreement. IP experts Vladimir Biriulin and Nikolay Bogdanov, both partners in the Russian Law Firm Gorodissky & Partners, expect some interesting development in the future.

          [...]

          The Eurasian Patent Office has been accepting patent application since then. A Eurasian patent, unlike European patent is a unitary patent and does not require translation into national languages. A Eurasian patent application is filed and examined in the in the Russian language, the patent is issued in Russian and is valid in all those countries.

        • $22,000 for III Holdings prior art [Ed: You can make a living by helping to squash fake patents]

          On January 13, 2022, Unified added 11 new PATROLL contests, with a $2,000 cash prize for each, seeking prior art on at least claim 1 of the list below. The patents are owned by III Holdings, LLC. The contests will all end on April 15, 2022. Please visit PATROLL for more information or click on each link below.

        • Software Patents

          • Sound View '860 patent successfully challenged

            On January 11, 2022, less than 10 months after Unified filed the request for ex parte reexamination, the USPTO issued a final office action rejecting claims 1-3, 5, 7, 8, 10, and 18 of U.S. Patent 8,135,860, owned by Sound View Innovations, LLC. The ‘860 patent relates to data processing that transforms web content into a format suitable for display by a client device and was previously asserted against Facebook.

          • $2,000 for Setala Juha prior art [Ed: This looks like abstract stuff again, leveraged by patent trolls]

            On January 4, 2022, Unified Patents added a new PATROLL contest, with a $2,000 cash prize, seeking prior art on at least claim 1 of U.S. Patent 8,495,167. The patent is owned by Setala Juha, an NPE. The '167 patent generally relates to data communication networks and has been asserted against Apple, Google, Sony, Microsoft, Netflix, Cisco, Amazon, and Akamai Technologies.

      • Trademarks

        • Perfume N€°5 v N€°9: Chanel won an unfair competition case in China

          In 2019, after spotting a perfume product in China’s market highly similar to its classic N€°5 perfume, Chanel took a ‘notarization-throughout purchase’ online and located the alleged infringing product shown below on the right. The side-by-side comparison captures several common features. The obvious difference lies in the text: whilst Chanel has ‘N€°5, CHANEL’, the alleged infringing product uses ‘N€°9, FLOWER OF STORY’ (hereinafter ‘the N€°9 perfume’).

        • Written Description: Jessica Litman: Who Cares What Edward Rogers Thought About Trademark Law?

          Professor Jessica Litman has a fascinating forthcoming book chapter on the history of the Lanham Act and the influence of Edward S. Rogers, "Edward S. Rogers, the Lanham Act, and the Common Law. " Litman tells the history of the drafting of the Lanham Act of 1946 through the lens of Edward S. Rogers, detailing how his advocacy and drafting work influenced the final statutory text.

          Readers may be surprised to learn that Litman started research on the topic as a law student in the 1980s, while writing a student note on trade dress infringement. She went into the stacks of the Columbia Law Library and started reading bound copies of legislative history. She noticed it seemed like Rogers was everywhere, from 1932 all that way up to 1946, and that the chairs of the committees were deferring to him. That was really interesting, she thought. But after the note was done, she kind of forgot about it.

          Now, forty years later, Litman is a professor at the very institution Rogers attended, the University of Michigan. She was surprised to find no one seemed to remember Rogers had been at Michigan, even though he "earned three law degrees and was a member of the adjunct faculty for 18 years" (3). In this book chapter, Litman is making up for that, returning to the topic of Rogers and his legacy. She's found her notes from 1981. She's read everything he wrote, and all his cases, starting in 1895 all the way until his death in 1949.

        • Precedential No. 2: TTAB Rejects Summary Judgment Motion Filed Three Days Too Late

          The Board denied Opposer Lumber Liquidator's request for reconsideration of the denial of its summary judgment motion because the motion was untimely. A summary judgment motion must be filed before the deadline date for pre-trial disclosures, but Lumber Liquidator filed its motion three days after the deadline date. Lumber incorrectly applied Rule 2.196 in adding three days to the deadline. Lumber Liquidators Services, LLC v. Columbia Insurance Co., 2022 USPQ2d 31 (TTAB 2022) [precedential] (Order by Interlocutory Attorney Jennifer Krisp).

          [...]

          The Board faced a similar issue in Asustek Comput. Inc. v. Chengdu Westhouse Interactive Entm’t. Co., 128 USPQ2d 1470 (TTAB 2018), involving a motion to compel discovery. Pursuant to Rule 2.120(f)(1), such a motion must be filed "before the day of the deadline for pretrial disclosures for the first testimony period as set or re-set." The Board rejected Austek's position that, because the day before the deadline day was a Sunday, it could timely file its motion on the following day. Not so said the Board. The motion to compel had to be filed before the deadline day.

          In Asustek, the Board pointed out that Rule 2.196 "does not apply to the relevant provision of Trademark Rule 2.120(f)(1), which does not fix a particular day by which a motion to compel must be filed, but instead ensures that the motion be filed before the day of another event (pretrial disclosures) occurs." The Board, anticipating that similar timeliness issues might arise with respect to a motion for summary judgment, stated that "[m]otions for summary judgment, just as motions relating to discovery, must be filed before the proceeding enters the trial phase."

          In the case at hand, the Board observed that "[t]he overriding interest in assuring that all matters relating to the discovery phase are closed and resolved prior to trial is evident in and achieved from a proper application of Trademark Rule 2.196 to motions for summary judgment as well as motions to compel discovery.

      • Copyrights

        • Copyright of Software API

          This week, the Federal Circuit is hearing oral arguments in an important software copyright case, SAS Institute, Inc. v. World Programming Ltd., Docket No. 21-1542. The SAS is an important follow-on to the Supreme Court’s 2021 decision in Google v. Oracle, 141 S. Ct. 1183 (2021). In Google, the Supreme Court sided with the accused infringer on fair use grounds, but did not decide the broader issue of whether Oracle’s API naming convention was copyrightable.

          WPL created a clone version of SAS that allows users to use SAS-style inputs and receive SAS-style outputs. SAS argues that those input and output formats are protected by copyright. However, the district court (E.D.Tex. Judge Gilstrap) sided with the accused infringer — holding that WPL presented unrebutted evidence that these elements were not protectable by copyright.

        • Manga Artist Maki Murakami Targets Large Pirate Site NyaHentai.com

          Japanese manga artist Maki Murakami has gone to court in the United States after several pirate sites published her work without permission. Among the platforms is NyaHentai, a large pirate service with an estimated 24 million visits per month, making it Japan's 75th most visited site overall. Murakami's legal team is attempting to find out who runs this platform and several more.



Recent Techrights' Posts

Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
 
Comparing U.E.F.I. to B.I.O.S. (Bloat and Insecurity to K.I.S.S.)
By Sami Tikkanen
New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
"In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
Links for the day
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
Examples of boasting about the association
Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
"I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
[Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
fake elections
Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
Windows TCO?
Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
Links for the day
Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
[Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
Catspaw With Attitude
The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
Gemini Links 18/03/2024: LLM Inference and Can We Survive Technology?
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 17, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, March 17, 2024
Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
Links for the day
Molly Russell suicide & Debian Frans Pop, Lucy Wayland, social media deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Our Plans for Spring
Later this year we turn 18 and a few months from now our IRC community turns 16
Open Invention Network (OIN) Fails to Explain If Linux is Safe From Microsoft's Software Patent Royalties (Charges)
Keith Bergelt has not replied to queries on this very important matter
RedHat.com, Brought to You by Microsoft Staff
This is totally normal, right?
USPTO Corruption: People Who Don't Use Microsoft Will Be Penalised ~$400 for Each Patent Filing
Not joking!
The Hobbyists of Mozilla, Where the CEO is a Bigger Liability Than All Liabilities Combined
the hobbyist in chief earns much more than colleagues, to say the least; the number quadrupled in a matter of years
Jim Zemlin Says Linux Foundation Should Combat Fraud Together With the Gates Foundation. Maybe They Should Start With Jim's Wife.
There's a class action lawsuit for securities fraud
Not About Linux at All!
nobody bothers with the site anymore; it's marketing, and now even Linux
Links 17/03/2024: Abuses Against Human Rights, Tesla Settlement (and Crash)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 16, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
Under Taliban, GNU/Linux Share Nearly Doubled in Afghanistan, Windows Sank From About 90% to 68.5%
Suffice to say, we're not meaning to imply Taliban is "good"
Debian aggression: woman asked about her profession
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/03/2024: Winter Can't Hurt Us Anymore and Playstation Plus
Links for the day