Leftovers

• The Straits Times ☛ Deepening Malaysian football scandal resurfaces debate in S-E Asia over naturalised players

  The naturalisation “arms race” in South-east Asia potentially hinders youth football development.

• Hackaday ☛ Channel Surfing Nostalgia Machine

  As any generation of people get older, they tend to look back fondly on their formative years when there was less responsibility and more wonder. Even if things have objectively improved, we often have a fondness for the past. Such is the case for cable television, where even though ads were everywhere and nothing was on-demand, we can see that something was lost from this era in the modern streaming ecosystem. [Ricardo] brought back the good parts of this golden era of cable TV with this small channel surfing television.

• Science

  • New York Times ☛ An Army of Robot Telescopes in Texas Makes the Stars Feel Closer Than Ever

    Starfront Observatories allows amateur astronomers to rent a spot for their telescopes and photograph the cosmos over a high-speed data connection.

• Career/Education

  • Chronicle Of Higher Education ☛ This Year’s Drop in International Students Portends Worse. Here’s What That Would Cost.

  • New Yorker ☛ How the Convicted Felon Administration Made Higher Education a Target

    The staff writer Emma Green reports on how the MAGA movement aims to implement fundamental change in both private and public colleges, and in how Americans think about education.

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ F/0.38 Camera Lens Made With Oil Immersion Microscope Objective

    Over on YouTube [Applied Science] shows us how to make an f/0.38 camera lens using an oil immersion microscope objective.

  • Tom's Hardware ☛ Micron is preparing to exit China’s data center memory market completely, report claims — Beijing banned company's chips from 'critical information infrastructure' in 2023

    Micron is reportedly preparing to halt sales of server memory chips to data centers in mainland China, after its business there failed to recover from a 2023 cybersecurity ban.

  • Hackaday ☛ DIY Telescope Uses Maker Tools

    You’ve got a laser cutter. You’ve got a 3D printer. What do you make? [Ayushmaan45] suggests a telescope. The modest instrument isn’t going to do serious astronomy with only 8X worth of optics, but it would make a fine spyglass for a youngster.

  • Hackaday ☛ A New Way To Make (Almost) Holograms With Lasers

    The spectrum of laser technologies available to hackers has gradually widened from basic gas lasers through CO2 tubes, diode lasers, and now fiber lasers. One of the newer entries is the MOPA laser, which combines a laser diode with a fiber-based light amplifier. The diode’s pulse length and repetition rate are easy to control, while the fiber amplifier gives it enough power to do interesting things – including, as [Ben Krasnow] found, etch hologram-like diffraction gratings onto stainless steel.

  • Hackaday ☛ Radio Astronomy In The Palm Of Your Hand

    When you think of a radio telescope, you usually think of a giant dish antenna pointing skyward. But [vhuvanmakes] built Wavy-Scope, a handheld radio telescope that can find the Sun and the Moon, among other things.

• Proprietary

  • Qt ☛ Commercial LTS Qt 6.8.5 Released

    We have released Qt 6.8.5 LTS for commercial license holders today. As a patch release, Qt 6.8.5 does not add any new functionality but provides bug fixes and other improvements.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Futurism ☛ Scam Altman Pushes Back on OpenAI’s Foray Into Smut

      "We are not the elected moral police of the world."

    • Futurism ☛ OpenAI Bans MLK Deepfakes After Disaster

      It took his estate filing a complaint for Proprietary Chaffbot Company to do anything.

    • New York Times ☛ California Regulates Hey Hi (AI) Companions + Proprietary Chaffbot Company Investigates Its Critics + The Hard Fork Review of Slop

      Could this be a blueprint for the nation?

    • Futurism ☛ ChatGPT Is Already Stalling Out on New Subscribers

      "The poster child for the Hey Hi (AI) boom may be struggling to recruit new subscribers to pay for it."

    • EDRI ☛ A blueprint for success: How Danes je nov dan’s advocacy led to a commitment for a Public Hey Hi (AI) Registry in Slovenia

      In Slovenia, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by the public sector has been expanding without significant public oversight, creating the potential for harmful or even dangerous uses of Hey Hi (AI) systems. To close this gap, EDRi affiliate Danes je nov dan launched an advocacy campaign calling for a national Hey Hi (AI) registry to ensure transparency and accountability. Their efforts led the Ministry of Digital Transformation to commit to establishing such a registry, a model that can inspire Hey Hi (AI) transparency initiatives across Europe.

    • EDRI ☛ The Commission must uphold the Hey Hi (AI) Act and fundamental freedoms in Hungary

      ECNL, Liberties and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union called on the EU to protect Pecs Pride participants from Hey Hi (AI) surveillance.

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • The Straits Times ☛ 60 South Koreans to return home after Cambodia detention

      63 South Koreans had been detained by authorities, including voluntary and involuntary participants in scam operations.

    • The Straits Times ☛ 64 South Koreans held in Cambodia return home on chartered flight: Police

      South Korea also banned its nationals on Oct 15 from travelling to parts of Cambodia.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Myanmar scam cities booming despite crackdown – using MElon’s Starlink

      By Isabel Kua with Matthew Walsh in Lincang, China; Nalini Lepetit-Chella in Paris; and AFP teams in Mae Sot, Thailand They said they had smashed them.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Not everyone in Cambodia scam centres is an angel, South Korean missionary says

      The death of a South Korean student lured into working in a scam centre in Cambodia with the promise of a good wage prompted Seoul this week to send officials to Phnom Penh to seek the release of people held against their will.

    • Digital Music News ☛ Temu Fires Back Against MF Doom Estate, Moves to Dismiss Legal Action Over Counterfeit Merch

      Temu moves to dismiss MF Doom’s estate’s lawsuit over counterfeit merch, claiming it isn’t responsible for independent sellers on its platform. E-commerce giant Temu is trying to toss a lawsuit filed by the estate of the late rapper and producer MF Doom over counterfeit merchandise.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • LRT ☛ EU shelves child protection proposal over fears of mass surveillance

      European Union member states have failed to reach an agreement on a proposed regulation that would have allowed monitoring of private online messages to detect child sexual abuse, prompting officials to postpone the measure indefinitely.

    • EDRI ☛ Judge in the Bits of Freedom vs. Meta lawsuit: Meta must respect users’ choice

      On 2 October 2025, the Dutch court made clear that users should be in control of content they see on Meta’s apps. In a landmark victory for digital rights, the judge sided with Bits of Freedom against Meta, ruling that the company is violating the law and it has to adjust its app to respect users’ choices.

    • ACLU ☛ Many States Regulate the Scanning of ID Barcodes; Why Don’t They Offer Similar Protections for Digital Driver’s Licenses?

      Digital driver’s licenses — now being built in many states — have a big problem that almost nobody is addressing: the likelihood that once they make it very frictionless to share our ID, we are likely to be bombarded by requests from all quarters to prove who we are. That’s a huge threat to our privacy. There is, however, a set of existing laws in the states that point to a solution for this problem: regulations governing who may scan the bar codes on physical IDs.

    • EDRI ☛ EDRi-gram, 16 October 2025

      What has the EDRi network been up to over the summer? Find out the latest digital rights news in our bi-weekly newsletter. In this edition: Digital protection at stakes – and how we are fighting back.

  • Confidentiality

    • Bruce Schneier ☛ A Surprising Amount of Satellite Traffic Is Unencrypted

      Here’s the summary:

      We pointed a commercial-off-the-shelf satellite dish at the sky and carried out the most comprehensive public study to date of geostationary satellite communication. A shockingly large amount of sensitive traffic is being broadcast unencrypted, including critical infrastructure, internal corporate and government communications, private citizens’ voice calls and SMS, and consumer Internet traffic from in-flight wifi and mobile networks. This data can be passively observed by anyone with a few hundred dollars of consumer-grade hardware.

• Defence/Aggression

  • New York Times ☛ China Ousts Senior General on Corruption Charges

    With the fall of He Weidong, the No. 3 figure in China’s military hierarchy, Pooh-tin Jinping’s purges have reached the top of the People’s Liberation Army.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China expels two top military leaders from Communist Party in anti-corruption purge

    He Weidong and Miao Hua are the most senior military officials to be purged as part of an anti-corruption campaign.

  • New York Times ☛ How a U.K. Spy Case Against China Abruptly Fell Apart

    Evidence prepared for a collapsed espionage trial was published by an under-pressure government in Britain, offering a window into Western countries’ struggle to define Beijing as friend or foe.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Taiwan bans officials attending Chinese events to mark island’s ‘retrocession’

    The retrocession refers to Japan's handover of Taiwan to the Republic of China government in 1945.

  • New York Times ☛ Tennessee Officials Sue Over National Guard Presence in Memphis

    Backed by a liberal-leaning legal nonprofit, seven Tennessee officials filed a lawsuit on Friday challenging the deployment of troops in Memphis.

  • France24 ☛ ‘I ended up losing my mind’: Six days in solitary confinement at an ICE facility

    As the Convicted Felon administration sends unprecedented numbers of people into detention facilities, researchers and NGOs are raising alarms over an increase in the use of solitary confinement. Our Observer, who spent six days in solitary confinement at an ICE detention centre in Texas, describes the psychological toll of that isolation.

  • France24 ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man adviser Bolton surrenders to authorities on charges in classified information case

    John Bolton, the national security hawk and former adviser to The Insurrectionist who has become one of the U.S. president's biggest critics, arrived at a federal courthouse to surrender on Friday morning on charges of mishandling classified information. Story by Rachel Griffiths.

  • France24 ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man foe John Bolton pleads not guilty to sharing government secrets

    John Bolton, former national security advisor to The Insurrectionist before becoming an outspoken critic of the US president, pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of mishandling classified information, becoming the third prominent Convicted Felon critic indicted in recent weeks.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ John Bolton indictment says suspected Iranian hackers accessed his emails, issued threats

    The indictment of the former national security adviser is the latest against President The Insurrectionist’s political enemies.

  • New York Times ☛ U.S. Detains 2 Survivors of Latest Military Strike in Caribbean

    The capture of prisoners presents a major new set of legal and policy problems for the Convicted Felon administration in its escalating campaign.

  • New York Times ☛ Senators Move to Force Vote to Bar Ground Strikes in Venezuela

    The bid comes after the Senate rejected a similar measure to curb Hell Toupée’s attacks against alleged drug runners in the Caribbean Sea.

  • New York Times ☛ Despite Gaza Cease-Fire, Aid Deliveries Struggle

    A single photograph of Palestinians besieging an aid convoy after the new cease-fire took hold in Gaza makes clear how much work lies ahead in the enclave.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Pakistan, Afghanistan extend ceasefire as Doha talks set to begin, sources say

    Word of the truce extension emerged just hours after a suicide attack killed seven Pakistani soldiers near the border.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia govt proposes banning smartphones for under-16s to tackle school violence

    Malaysian PM Anwar said other recommendations include the development of ethical educational content.

  • NYPost ☛ TikTok comedian Steve Bridges dies suddenly at age 41

    The Peoria, Ill., Police Department confirmed to TMZ that officers responded to a report of a natural death at a private residence on Wednesday.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man’s Fentanylware (CheeTok) USA Deal Still Isn’t Over The Finish Line — And Congress Is Asking Questions

    Dihydroxyacetone Man’s Fentanylware (CheeTok) USA deal still isn’t over the finish line after the US/China trade war flare-up—but the deal as stated may raise serious issues. The Chair of the House Select Committee on China said that the licensing agreement raises “serious concerns” about the planned deal.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • LRT ☛ EPP’s Weber says France and Portugal should also pay for drone wall on EU’s east border

      European People’s Party (EPP) President Manfred Weber said Thursday that while Europe’s commitment to NATO remains unquestionable, the European Union can only achieve true independence and security by acting in unity, including through the creation of a joint “drone wall” along its eastern border.

    • LRT ☛ ‘We need to be on the same side,’ says defence minister after fallout over military budget

      Defence Minister Dovilė Šakalienė said Friday that Lithuania’s leaders must stand united in discussions over the defence budget, emphasising that any reduction in funding would directly cost the country precious time in strengthening its security.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuania designates 26 restricted airspace zones to strengthen security

      Lithuania’s transport minister announced Friday the creation of 26 restricted zones across the country’s airspace, a move aimed at improving the military’s ability to respond to aerial threats amid heightened regional tensions.

    • Meduza ☛ Plans vs. flight bans Hungary is eager to host Putin despite the ICC’s arrest warrant. But will E.U. sanctions block Trump’s summit? — Meduza

    • New York Times ☛ After ‘Productive’ Call, Convicted Felon Plans Another Meeting With Putin

      Hell Toupée has come close to imposing penalties on Russia several times, only to backtrack after talking with President Vladimir Putin and raising hopes for a diplomatic solution to the war.

    • New York Times ☛ Putin Plays to Convicted Felon’s Ego as U.S. Wavers on Ukraine Aid

      After Thursday’s phone call with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, Hell Toupée appeared to express doubts about supplying Ukraine with more powerful weapons.

    • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Backs Off Suggestion to Give Tomahawks to Ukraine, Again Deferring to Putin

      At the White House, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine made the case for why a weapons sale would help end the war. Mr. Convicted Felon at first seemed receptive, then expressed reservations.

    • New York Times ☛ Live Updates: Convicted Felon Backs Off Tomahawk Suggestion After Zelensky Meeting

      Zelensky did not secure the long-range missiles that he seeks and Putin opposes. After meeting with Zelensky, Convicted Felon said he told both the Ukrainian and Russian leaders that it was “time to stop the killing.”

    • RFERL ☛ Russian Drones, Missiles 'Still Terrorizing Ukraine,' Zelenskyy Says Ahead Of Meeting With Convicted Felon

      Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a swarm of Russian drones attacked his hometown in Ukraine on the eve of his meeting with US President The Insurrectionist at the White House.

    • RFERL ☛ Putin, Convicted Felon Plan Possible Budapest Summit As Zelenskyy Visits Washington

      Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with Hungary’s prime minister, the Kremlin said, as officials began laying the groundwork for a possible Budapest summit meeting between Putin and US President The Insurrectionist.

    • RFERL ☛ Ukraine's Bid To Get Tomahawk Appears To Falter As Convicted Felon Tells Two Sides To 'Make A Deal'

      US President The Insurrectionist gave no indication that the United States would provide Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles, saying after a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House that the warring sides should “stop where they are” on the battlefield.

    • France24 ☛ 'Illusions of a dictator: Putin hasn't given Convicted Felon anything and is making him look bad & look weak'

      US President The Insurrectionist admitted that Vladimir Putin may be playing for time by agreeing to a new summit, but said he believed his Russian counterpart wanted a deal to end the Ukraine war. Meanwhile, Convicted Felon suggested to Volodymyr Zelensky it would be premature to give Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, saying he hoped to secure peace with Russia. The US and Russian presidents agreed to a new summit in the Hungarian capital which would be their first since an August meeting in Alaska that failed to produce any kind of peace deal. For in-depth analysis, Gavin Lee is joined by fellow journalist Fraser Jackson and Ukrainian MP Kira Rudik, Leader of the Golos party.

    • France24 ☛ Ukraine talks: Convicted Felon admits Putin may be playing for time

      🇺🇸🇺🇦🇷🇺At a White House press conference on Friday, Hell Toupée warned that supplying Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine could escalate the war, noting that Vladimir Putin may be playing for time by agreeing to a new summit. Convicted Felon added he believes the Russian leader ultimately “wants to end the war.”

    • France24 ☛ 'Cruel irony': Convicted Felon-Putin meeting in Budapest, 'where Ukraine’s security was once guaranteed'

      Peter Zalmayev, Director of the Eurasia Democracy Initiative, calls the US decision to potentially provide Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine a welcome “escalation”, one that has clearly unsettled Vladimir Putin, even if it may not decisively alter the battlefield. While the symbolism and strategic leverage of such weapons are significant: they could enable Ukraine to carry out asymmetrical warfare, targeting Russia’s oil production and refining capacity, deepening its economic strain. All the while, Putin is biding for time and "being rewarded, unjustly" by Convicted Felon, with a meeting in a very symbolic European capital: Budapest, where, "in a cruel twist of irony", 1994 the US, UK, and Russia guaranteed Ukraine’s security in exchange for nuclear disarmament.

    • NYPost ☛ Body language expert breaks down ‘absolute shift’ in Convicted Felon & Zelensky meetings

      Hell Toupée met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday.

• Environment

  • France24 ☛ China pledges to cut greenhouse emissions for the first time

    Beijing has for the first time ever unveiled pledges to cut, not just limit, greenhouse emissions. A significant step from the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, experts nonetheless suggest the country could do more to counter the impacts of the climate crisis. But for local communities in China’s coal mining regions, long dependent on fossil fuels, the changes are also set to impact their way of life.

  • New York Times ☛ Devastating Floods in Mexico Test President Claudia Sheinbaum

    Torrential rains last week brought death and widespread damage. President Claudia Sheinbaum has visited affected areas, facing some angry residents.

  • Energy/Transportation

    • France24 ☛ Renewable energy output overtakes coal, with China leading the way

      This week, we take a look at the renewable energy sector, specifically in China at a time when solar and wind power have surpassed coal in global electricity generation, according to a report by climate think tank Ember. Charles Pellegrin speaks to Malgorzata Wiatros-Motyka, the report's author and senior electricity analyst.

    • JURIST ☛ 24 US states sue Convicted Felon administration for termination of solar energy grant worth $7B

      24 states on Thursday commenced a lawsuit against the Convicted Felon administration for cancelling a $7 billion solar grant which would have brought solar energy to more than 900,000 low-income families across the country.

    • Hackaday ☛ 2025 Component Abuse Challenge: Boosting Voltage With Just A Wire

      Switching power supplies are familiar to Hackaday readers, whether they have a fairly conventional transformer, are a buck, a boost, or a flyback design. There’s nearly always an inductor involved, whose rapid change in magnetic flux is harnessed to do voltage magic. [Craig D] has made a switching voltage booster that doesn’t use an inductor, instead it’s using a length of conductor, and no, it’s not using the inductance of that conductor as a store of magnetic flux.

• Finance

  • BIA Net ☛ Report highlights worsening child poverty, abuse

    The İstanbul Medical Chamber outlines growing challenges facing children in Turkey, including poverty, malnutrition, abuse, inadequate housing, and limited access to healthcare and education.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Seoul declares end to 20-month medical crisis after doctors end walkout

    The crisis began after thousands of medical residents collectively resigned in February 2024.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Canada and China discuss disputes over canola and EVs, says Ottawa

    Senior Canadian and Chinese officials discussed bilateral trade disputes involving canola and electric vehicles on Friday, Ottawa said, but gave no indication of any immediate breakthrough.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Japan has boundless supply of rare earths that can blunt China’s dominance but are costly to mine

    Deposits could be an answer to China's dominance if they can be made commercially viable for mining.

  • New York Times ☛ Bessent Stakes Credibility and Taxpayer Money on Argentina Bet

    Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s multibillion-dollar bailout of a serial defaulter raises the specter of losses for the United States.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Federal News Network ☛ DHS keeps paying 70,000 law enforcement officials amid shutdown using reconciliation funds

    Even with these extraordinary measures in place, many employees at national security and law enforcement agencies will apparently keep working without pay.

  • Pro Publica ☛ How Russell Vought Became Trump’s Shadow President

    On the afternoon of Feb. 12, Russell Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, summoned a small group of career staffers to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building for a meeting about foreign aid. A storm had dumped nearly 6 inches of snow on Washington, D.C. The rest of the federal government was running on a two-hour delay, but Vought had offered his team no such reprieve. As they filed into a second-floor conference room decorated with photos of past OMB directors, Vought took his seat at the center of a worn wooden table and laid his briefing materials out before him.

    Vought, a bookish technocrat with an encyclopedic knowledge of the inner workings of the U.S. government, cuts an unusual figure in Trump’s inner circle of Fox News hosts and right-­wing influencers. He speaks in a flat, nasally monotone and, with his tortoiseshell glasses, standard-issue blue suits and corona of close-cropped hair, most resembles what he claims to despise: a federal bureaucrat. The Office of Management and Budget, like Vought himself, is little known outside the Beltway and poorly understood even among political insiders. What it lacks in cachet, however, it makes up for in the vast influence it wields across the government. Samuel Bagenstos, an OMB general counsel during the Biden administration, told me, “Every goddam thing in the executive branch goes through OMB.”

  • Pro Publica ☛ Video: Who Is Russell Vought?

    Days into the 2025 shutdown that brought the federal government to a halt, President Donald Trump reposted an AI-generated music video set to the tune of Blue Öyster Cult’s “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.” Trump plays the cowbell. Vice President J.D. Vance mans the drums. Trump’s budget director, Russell Vought, wields the scythe. “Russ Vought is the reaper,” goes one lyric.

    For most of Vought’s nearly three decades in Washington, D.C., he operated largely behind the scenes. He spent a dozen years as a congressional staffer before going to Heritage Action, the advocacy arm of the Heritage Foundation, the influential conservative think tank. In 2017, he returned to government, bringing his exhaustive knowledge of the budgetary process to the first Trump administration and becoming one of the president’s most loyal functionaries.

  • Pro Publica ☛ House Rep Demands Answers About Delayed EPA Report on PFNA

    What Happened: The ranking member of a key House subcommittee demanded answers this week from the Environmental Protection Agency about why it has yet to make public a report documenting the health risks posed by a forever chemical found in the water of millions of Americans.

    In a letter sent to the EPA on Thursday, Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, cited a ProPublica story from last week that quoted government scientists saying the report had been ready for publishing in April but had yet to be released. Pingree — the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies — asked EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin for “clear answers” about why the report had not been made public, who directed its delay and when Zeldin would commit to releasing it.

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Sweden demands China free jailed bookseller Gui Minhai

    Sweden’s foreign minister said Friday during a trip to China that she had urged Beijing to release Chinese-Swedish bookseller Gui Minhai, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2020 on espionage charges.

  • New York Times ☛ Iran Extends Internet Clampdown Beyond Wartime

    Since its brief June war with Israel, Iran has throttled internet traffic and jammed GPS, making day-to-day tasks online a struggle and prompting Iranians’ fears of greater surveillance.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong Telecom ‘carefully reviewing’ order seeking to bar firm from operating in US

    Hong Kong Telecom (HKT) is “carefully reviewing” an order issued by the US telecom regulator, which has taken the initial step barring the company from operating in the country, citing national security concerns.

  • APNIC ☛ Bridging the Gap: Technical voices in global Internet policy

    At APNIC 60, the Cooperation SIG session “Bridging the Gap: Technical Voices in Global Internet Policy” brought together stakeholders from across the Asia Pacific to explore how technical expertise can more effectively inform global policy discussions.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Patents

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ All Quiet on the PTAB Front: USPTO Proposes More Major Restrictions to Inter Partes Review Institution

    The USPTO has published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that would dramatically restrict access to inter partes review proceedings. Revision to Rules of Practice before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, 90 Fed. Reg. [TBD] (Oct. 17, 2025).  The proposed amendments to 37 CFR Part 42 would create mandatory bars to IPR institution in three categories: [...]

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Prosecution Disclaimer Across Time: Later Continuation Statements Limit Already-Issued Patents

    In Barrette Outdoor Living, Inc. v. Fortress Iron, LP, No. 2024-1231 (Fed. Cir. Oct. 17, 2025), the FedCir affirmed a non-infringement judgment based on prosecution disclaimer, holding that statements made during prosecution of a later-filed continuation application limited the scope of already-issued patents from the same family.  This reinforces a similar holding in Teva Pharms. USA, Inc. v. Sandoz, Inc., 789 F.3d 1335 (Fed. Cir. 2015) (statements in prosecution files of related patents are relevant to claim construction "regardless of whether the statement pre- or post-dates the issuance of the particular patent monopoly at issue."). 

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ Unexplained and Unreviewable: The New Normal for IPR Institution

    by Dennis Crouch

    The USPTO continues to move quickly with sweeping changes to its "popular" inter partes review (IPR) process.  On October 17, 2025, the agency announced that Director John Squires  is reclaiming personal authority over all IPR and PGR institution decisions. In an "Open Letter" titled "Bringing the USPTO Back to the Future," Director Squires announced that effective October 20, 2025, he will personally determine whether to institute trial proceedings rather than delegating this function to PTAB panels.

  • JUVE ☛ First success for Chint in solar tech case as EPO revokes JingAo Solar patent

    The dispute between Chint and JingAo Solar concerns the latter’s EP 2 787 541 and EP 4 092 759. The patents relate to TOPCon technology, a new generation of solar cell innovation. TOPCon (Tunnel Oxide Passivated Contact) describes a specific solar cell structure.

• Trademarks

  • TTAB Blog ☛ TTAB Deems Bottle Trade Dress a Mere Refinement of Existing Designs and so Not Inherently Distinctive

    Although the USPTO had accepted its claim of acquired distinctiveness under Section 2(f) for its bottle trade dress for "bitters," Applicant Fee Brothers, Inc. appealed from the rejection of its claim of inherent distinctiveness. The Board applied the Seabrook test in finding that the proposed mark was "a mere refinement of or variation on existing trade dress within the relevant field of use." In re Fee Brothers, Inc., Serial No. 90666517 (October 14, 2025) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Lawrence T. Stanley, Jr.).

• Copyrights

  • Digital Music News ☛ Lil Wayne Wins Major Court Victory Involving a $20 Million Contractual Claim — Decision Ends a Multi-Year Battle With His Former Attorney

    Lil Wayne wins a major victory in a $20 million legal battle with his former attorney over money allegedly owed in legal fees. Lil Wayne and his ex-lawyer Ron Sweeney have been embroiled in a long-running legal battle over whether the rapper owed the attorney millions in legal fees.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Lawsuit Seeks to Halt Pyramids Concerts Following Anyma Performance — Cairo Organization Criticizes ‘High-Frequency Vibrations’ and More

    Are loud, high-attendance concerts damaging the Pyramids? A Cairo-based NGO believes so, and it’s filed a lawsuit in an effort to prevent future shows from taking place at the Great Pyramids of Giza.

  • Digital Music News ☛ Appeals Court Upholds French Montana Win in “Ain’t Worried About Nothin'” Suit — While Denying His Request for Nearly $300,000 in Attorneys’ Fees

    Perhaps French Montana should have settled his “Ain’t Worried About Nothin'” infringement suit, as an appeals court has affirmed his victory while also opting against awarding nearly $300,000 in sought attorneys’ fees. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit just recently handed down the decision, thereby addressing appeals from both sides.