Patents Roundup: Developing Countries Versus Patents, Qualcomm Antitrust Probe for Patent Abuse, Massive Lawsuits
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2010-06-18 20:16:46 UTC
- Modified: 2010-06-18 20:21:24 UTC
Summary: Latest news about intellectual monopolies that affect software for the most part; abuse facilitated by the patent system is shown too
●
Should governments encourage open source?
As mentioned in earlier posts, Yours Truly presented at a conference in Rwanda a couple of weeks ago. The conference was attended by African IP office officials, and dealt mostly with software protection topics such as software patents, open source software and standards. However, I was surprised to find that one of the topics that interested the attendees the most was not software protection as such, but government software procurement guidelines.
This may seem like an incredibly dry subject (I can already hear mouse buttons busily changing page), but government software procurement has become the latest battlefront between proprietary and non-proprietary software. For example, some of you may remember the big keruffle when the International Intellectual Property Alliance submitted a paper to the U.S. Trade Representative accusing countries that favoured open source software in their legislation, and asking that they should be placed in Special 301 Watchlist, which is usually reserved to countries rife with piracy.
●
Qualcomm faces fresh EU inquiry
The new complaint, being looked at by the European Commission, comes from Icera, a UK rival, which claims that Qualcomm is using patent-related incentives to discourage customers from doing business with Icera.
Also covered in:
●
MobileFrame Issued Patents for Its 100% Code Free Smart Database
●
Patent Office Seeks Input on Three-Track Examination Proposal
For years now, experts and observers have claimed the U.S. patent system is broken. They all have different ideas about why and how to fix it. Congress floats some kind of reform legislation every year, it seems, but nothing that requires significant change has made it all the way through the process. (Maybe this is the year?)
●
Nvidia, Xerox, Motorola others get writ over remote access
The same day, and yet another patent action, this time involving another clutch of IT companies being sued over software patents.
A case was launched in the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division alleging that Xerox, Activision, Ademero, Cakewalk, Check Point Software, Coffeecup Software, Cvision, Document Imaging Solutions, Geo-Plus, Lenovo, Manedge Software, Motorola, Nvidia, Office Gemini, Polycom, Portable Tech Solutions, Silicon Graphics International, Synchronica and Treeno Software breached patents.
●
Apple, IBM, Adobe, Citrix others sued over software patent
This time Apple, Activision, Adobe, Autodesk, Capcom, Citrix, Corel, Dassault, Delcam, Square Enix, Electronic Arts, Frontrange Solutions, IBM, Intuit, Konami, Digital Entertainment, Maximizer Software, Nuance, Parametric Technology, Sage Software, Sega, Skype, SPSS, Teradata, THQ and Legacy Interactive are the numbers that have come up on the patent roulette wheel.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Microsoft: Our "Goodwill" Gained Over 51 Billion Dollars in the Past Nine Months Alone, Now "Worth" as Much as All Our Physical Assets (Property and Equipment)
- The makeup of a Ponzi scheme where the balance sheet has immaterial nonsense
-
- Lawyer won't lie for Molly de Blanc & Chris Lamb (mollamby)
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 27, 2024
- IRC logs for Saturday, April 27, 2024
- Links 27/04/2024: Spying Under Fire, Intel in Trouble Again
- Links for the day
- Lucas Kanashiro & Debian/Canonical/Ubuntu female GSoC intern relationship
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Pranav Jain & Debian, DebConf, unfair rent boy rumors
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Links 27/04/2024: Kaiser Gave Patients' Data to Microsoft, "Microsoft Lost ‘Dream Job’ Status"
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 27/04/2024: Sunrise Photos and Slow Productivity
- Links for the day
- Almost 2,700 New Posts Since Upgrading to Static Site 7 Months Ago, Still Getting More Productive Over Time
- We've come a long way since last autumn
- FSFE (Ja, Das Gulag Deutschland) Has Lost Its Tongue
- Articles/month
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 26, 2024
- IRC logs for Friday, April 26, 2024
- Overpaid lawyer & Debian miss WIPO deadline
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Brian Gupta & Debian: WIPO claim botched, suspended
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Microsoft's XBox is Dying (For Second Year in a Row Over 30% Drop in Hardware Sales)
- they boast about fake numbers or very deliberately misleading numbers that represent two companies, not one
- Ian Jackson & Debian reject mediation
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- [Meme] Granting a Million Monopolies in Europe (to Non-European Companies) at Europe's Expense
- Financialization of the EPO
- Salary Adjustment Procedure at the EPO Challenged
- the EPO must properly compensate staff in order to attract and retain suitably skilled examiners
- How to get selected for Outreachy internships
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Links 26/04/2024: Surveillance Abundant, Restoring Net Neutrality Rules (US)
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 26/04/2024: uConsole and EXWM and stdu 1.0.0
- Links for the day
- Red Hat Corporate Communications is "Red" Now
- Also notice they offer just two options: MICROSOFT or... MICROSOFT!
- Links 26/04/2024: XBox Sales Have Collapsed, Facebook's Shares Collapse Too
- Links for the day
- Albanian women, Brazilian women & Debian Outreachy racism under Chris Lamb
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Microsoft-Funded 'News' Site: XBox Hardware Revenue Declined by 31%
- Ignore the ludicrous media spin
- Mark Shuttleworth, Elio Qoshi & Debian/Ubuntu underage girls
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Karen Sandler, Outreachy & Debian Money in Albania
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 25, 2024
- IRC logs for Thursday, April 25, 2024
- Links 26/04/2024: Facebook Collapses, Kangaroo Courts for Patents, BlizzCon Canceled Under Microsoft
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 26/04/2024: Music, Philosophy, and Socialising
- Links for the day