I hope you are doing well!
We had another wonderful week in the world of Linux releases with Fedora 35, Voyager Live 21.10, Freespire 8.0 Beta 1, and PCLinuxOS 2021.11.
This week has been great for fans of the Fedora Linux distribution (yes, that includes me) and the GNOME desktop environment (that also includes me) as we saw the release of Fedora Linux 35 with the latest GNOME 41.1 desktop environment, and GNOME 40 folks were also updated to the 40.5 point release.
But there were many awesome Linux news this week, starting with the release of the LXQt 1.0 desktop environment and Mozilla Firefox 94 web browser, and continuing with the GNU Linux-libre 5.15 kernel, LibreOffice 7.1.7 office suite, and HPLIP 3.21.10 printer/scanner drivers.
In other comments Murphy clarified that essentially the gist of it would be an independent/distro-agnostic desktop environment, and that they'd be "using tooling that already exists (mutter, kwin, wlroots), but implementing the surrounding shell in Rust from scratch..." And he added later that "We already do our best to follow freedesktop specifications with our software. So there's no reason to think we'd do otherwise."
Significant changes at GitHub, Ubuntu starts work on a new desktop tool, why WirePlumber is a big deal, and we bust some Red Hat FUD.
Josh and Kurt talk about the new Trojan Source bug. We don’t always agree on if this is a vulnerability (it’s not), but by the end we come to an agreement that ASCII is out, Unicode is in. We don’t live in a world where you can make a realistic suggestion to return to using only ASCII. There are a lot of weird moving parts with this one.
While it was initially communicated by Intel that Alder Lake's Golden Cove P-Cores has AVX-512 "fused off", that has turned out not to be the case at least with the initial batch of processors and current BIOS/firmware configurations. If disabling the power-efficient Gracemont E-Cores, it's possible to enable AVX-512 and make use of it. Here are some initial AVX-512 benchmarks in such a configuration under Linux with the Core i9 12900K.
ODROID-N2+ was launched in July 2020, but I only got the Amlogic S922X Rev C SBC recently with Hardkernel wanting me to test their latest Ubuntu 21.10 image with the Panfrost open-source GPU driver.
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In summary, ODROID-N2+ is fast for an Arm platform. For perfectly smooth video playback in YouTube better use 720p at this time. Firefox uses H.264 video decoding limited to 1080p, while Chromium supports up to 4K using VP9, but it’s unwatchable. The WebGL aquarium demo renders at 16-17 fps in Firefox with 500 fish, but only 3 fps in Chromium, probably because GPU acceleration is not supported/enabled? SuperTuxKart plays OK in full-screen mode, but it’s not as smooth as I would like. I tried Super Mario Sunshine in the Dolphin emulator, and it worked very well.
I had an issue with white text on white background in the Dolphin emulator, and the workaround was to switch to the dark theme in Ubuntu’s Appearance Settings.
We live in a world where almost everything we have generates data. Data, which can be analyzed and visualized thanks to tools that create graphs showing the relation between variables.
These tools are famously called “plotting apps”. They can be used for basic maths task in school to professional scientific projects. They can also be used for adding stats and data to presentations.
There are plenty of free and open source plotting apps available for Linux. But in this article, I am listing some of the best plotting apps I have come across.
Hello Techies, as you know Openshift provides container platform and can installed on onprem or in public cloud using different methods like IPI (Installer Provisioned Installer), UPI (User Provisioned Infrastructure) and Assisted Bare Metal installer.
In this post, we will demonstrate how to install Openshift 4.9 on bare metal nodes with UPI approach.
For the demonstration purpose, I am using KVM virtual machines. Following are my lab setup details,
Total Virtual Machines: 7
Jenkins is an open-source tool automation tool to set up the entire software delivery pipeline -continuous delivery. This enables developers to manage and control software delivery processes throughout the entire lifecycle such as to reliably build, test, and deploy their software.
Jenkins has an extensible and vibrant, active community. It is written in Java. Generally, Jenkins runs as a standalone built-in Java servlet application. It is also possible to run in Java servlet containers such as Apache Tomcat or GlassFish.
In this tutorial, we learn how to configure Jenkins with SSL behind Nginx on Ubuntu 20.04.
OwnCloud is a self-hosted file sync and share server. It provides access to your data through a web interface, sync clients or WebDAV while providing a platform to view, sync and share across devices easily—all under your control. OwnCloud’s open architecture is extensible via a simple but powerful API for applications and plugins and it works with any storage.
ClamAV is an open-source Antivirus tool available for Linux distributions. It integrates Mail servers to scan attachments received. In addition to scanning mail attachments, it provides protection to corporate networks. Other functions also include web scanning. In this article, we would discuss how to install ClamAV Antivirus in Debian 11 Bullseye and Ubuntu 20.04.
After installing Rocky Linux 8/ AlmaLinux 8 / RHEL / CentOS 7 minimal, You may not able to connect network in that machine. This will happen because Ethernet interfaces are not enabled by default. This guide explain you to setup network on Rocky Linux 8 / AlmaLinux 8 / RHEL/CentOS 7.
You may face some problem on your Rocky Linux 8 and CentOS 8 machine when running cloud server inside it. Like the issues we have found recently, where my Rocky Linux 8 / CentOS 8 machine facing missing Linux kernel-headers issue. Well, on this today guide I will show you on how to solve that issues. This very easy to solve the issue, so simply take your time for moments to fix the issue.
Some time ago I tried OwnCloud, it wasn’t a positive experience for me. Since that time I’ve got a server with a much faster CPU, a faster Internet connection, and the NextCloud code is newer and running on a newer version of PHP, I didn’t make good notes so I’m not sure which factors were most responsible for having a better experience this time. According to the NextCloud Wikipedia page [1] the fork of NextCloud from the OpenCloud base happened in 2016 so it’s obviously been a while since I tried it, it was probably long before 2016.
Sometimes processes running on Linux will lock down files and today we're going to look at a program that'll help you identify which programs are doing that and which files are locked, this is lsof
Today we are looking at how to enable Function Keys on a Chromebook Please follow the video/audio guide as a tutorial where we explain the process step by step and use the commands below.
In this video, we are looking at how to install the Opera Browser on Elementary OS 6.0.
In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Blue Recorder on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Blue Recorder is a simple desktop recorder for Linux systems. It is released under open-source GNU General Public License version 3 and built using Rust, GTK+ 3, and FFmpeg. You can record video in Mkv, Avi, mp4, WMV, gif, and nut file formats.
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 the step-by-step installation of the Blue Recorder screen recorder on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.
There is no reason why MX Linux 21, the newest version of yet another of Linux's seemingly infinite number of community-based operating systems, should be this well done. This is, after all, a mostly volunteer operation, just like all the other of Linux's seemingly infinite number of community-based operating systems.
But it is that well done.
That MX 21, codenamed Wildflower, is such a joy to use speaks volumes about Linux and its potential on the desktop, the dedication of its users, and why so many of us never want to boot a Big Tech operating system ever again. It's not so much that MX 21 just works, but that its developers have made a serious effort to identify what would make it work even better.
The following kernels are available for PCLinuxOS. Kernel LTS 5.4.158. Kernel LTS 5.10.78 and Kernel 5.14.17.
I have been working on a draft GR to modify the process used by the Technical Committee and for General Resolutions to prepare a ballot for vote, with a goal of fixing several issues that were uncovered by recent votes. My plan is to propose this formally as a GR on November 13th.
For those reading my journal who are Debian Developers or who are interested in Debian process, you may want to read the draft resolution and the previous discussion. Constitutional changes require a 3:1 majority, so my goal is to reach as broad of a consensus in the project on these changes as possible. All feedback welcome, and also let me know if there is a reason to postpone making this a formal GR and thus starting the discussion period clock.
Rather than take the electronics-only route, which would undoubtedly include a few 555 timers and some other classics, [Conor] elected to stick with higher-level embedded boards, including fan-favorites such as an ESP32 and a Raspberry Pi, while still trying to keep code to a minimum. Thanks to the visual languages Espruino Blockly and NODE-RED, he only needed to write a couple lines of “traditional code,” as he calls it: a simple JavaScript HTTP request. The project itself consisted of an ultrasonic sensor hooked up to an ESP32, which would detect when children approached the door. The ESP32 used Espruino visual scripting to notify a Raspberry Pi when it sensed motion. The Raspberry Pi would play some spooky sounds, and coordinate with some old conference badges to turn on some lights and trigger a fog machine. The Pi also used a service called Tines to send a door notification via Telegram.
The LibreWolf 94 web browser is available , which is a rebuild of Firefox 94 with changes to improve security and privacy. The project is being developed by a community of enthusiasts. Changes are published under the MPL 2.0 license (Mozilla Public License). Builds are generated for Linux (Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, Ubuntu, Arch, Flatpak, AppImage), macOS and Windows.
This is a maintenance release, which allows Guile-CV to work with Guile 3.0 (>= 3.0.7 to be specific). In addition, im-transpose performance has been improved.
The documentation has been restructured and follows the model we adopted for GNU G-Golf. The Configuring Guile's raised exception system section has been updated. Make sure you carefully read and apply the proposed changes.
Cape Horn stands at the mouth of the Columbia Gorge, the last large cliff on the north side of the 100-mile-long chasm the great river of the Northwest carved through the Cascade Range, as it barreled its way toward Cape Disappointment, the Desdemona Straits, and the Pacific Ocean another 120 river miles to the West. Cape Horn is made of basalt, laid down by successive floods of lava pouring out of volcanic fissures in the earth on the Idaho/Oregon border more than five million years ago.
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Progressives concerned about workplace safety and public health responded with dismay after a federal appeals court on Saturday temporarily blocked the Biden administration's attempt to require workers at companies with 100 or more employees to be vaccinated against Covid-19 or tested weekly.
"The judges evidently sympathize with Greg Abbott's let-people-die stance."
Toxic Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (Q–GA) has racked up $48,000 in fines since May 18th for not wearing a mask at the Capitol. All in the name of protecting her freedoms to spread deadly germs to others.
The water service line was one of more than 20,000 made with the toxic metal the city began replacing in 2019 amid public outrage over revelations about high lead levels in the tap water in schools and homes across the city.
Less than three years after the work began, the replacement project, initially projected to take up to 10 years, is nearly complete.
Tenable has released Nessus 10 and extended supported platforms to include Raspberry Pi, allowing penetration testers, consultants, security teams and students to deploy the power of Nessus anywhere.
Welcome to the October 2021 report from the Reproducible Builds project!
This month Samanta Navarro posted to the oss-security security mailing on a novel category of exploit in the .tar archive format, where a single .tar file contains different contents depending on the tar utility being used.
Microsoft says OneDrive users on Windows, 7, 8, or 8.1 will be unable to sync their content to the cloud starting on March 1st, 2022, according to a blog post on its Tech Community forum. OneDrive will also no longer receive updates if it’s running on a system that doesn’t have Windows 10 or Windows 11 installed.
Iraqi President Barham Salih condemned on Sunday the failed assassination attempt against Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.
To help reduce light pollution — obtrusive artificial light that obscures views of the stars and planets — the group suggests simple changes, such as angling exterior lights downward to limit the disturbance to nocturnal wildlife.
“Each dark-sky place acts as an important vehicle to bring messages about the importance of dark skies and quality outdoor lighting to a wider audience, most notably people who live in cities,” Ms. Wilson said in an email.
All protected public lands as well as private ones that provide nighttime access are eligible for the certification.
How do you tell people that they must leave their community or drown? This was the gut-wrenching decision I faced five years ago, as president of Liberia, when thousands of families in the capital’s largest township saw their homes swept out to sea.
Bolivia's highlands city of La Paz has been hit by an unusual heatwave, with levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation soaring off the charts, exacerbated by unusually low levels of cloud cover some experts link to climate change.
Levels of UV radiation have at times in recent weeks hit 21 on a scale that normally only goes up as far as 20. According to the World Health Organization, a UV index of 11 is regarded as "extreme," with people cautioned to avoid exposure to the sun.
"The sun is burning. This sun isn't normal," said La Paz resident Segundina Mamani, as people in the city at 3,600 meters (11,800 feet) above sea level tried to keep cool by eating shaved ice and keeping to the shadows.
A new report from the Center For Countering Digital Hate analyzed nearly 7,000 top-performing climate denial Facebook posts from the last year, and found that 69% of them came from the same 10 pages...
This column is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration cofounded by Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation to strengthen coverage of the climate story.
In some respects, preventing climate breakdown is highly complicated. But in another, it's really simple: we need to leave fossil fuels in the ground. All the bluster and grandstanding, the extravagant promises and detailed mechanisms discussed in Glasgow this week amount to nothing if this simple and obvious thing doesn't happen.
Zinke had already made it clear that Alaska was central to the administration’s “energy dominance” agenda. One of his first trips as Interior Secretary was to Denali and then Anchorage where he delivered a speech at the Alaska Oil and Gas Association’s annual conference, assuring industry executives that the path to energy dominance would run through the great state of Alaska and the North Slope in particular. He formed a fast friendship with Alaska’s senior senator, Lisa Murkowski. Her former campaign chairman, Steve Wackowski, a brash 39-year-old with no experience in public lands management, was appointed senior advisor for Alaska Affairs. Former staffers for Rep. Don Young and Senator Dan Sullivan would also get plum positions at DOI. David Bernhardt, who had once defended the state of Alaska against the FWS in an effort to open the refuge to seismic exploration, would eventually take over as Secretary.
Sweden’s financial supervisory authority, Finansinspektionen, has called for a ban on crypto mining, calling cryptocurrencies a threat to the climate.
Cryptocurrency mining requires immense amounts of electricity, and as a result, some crypto miners have pivoted to renewable energy sources amid growing criticism. Crucially, however, that poses an additional problem for Sweden.
Elon Musk's wealth has surpassed $200 billion. It would take the median U.S. worker over 4 million years to make that much.
Following the Trump years, the new Biden administration says it is trying to establish a better relationship with Mexico, through “cooperation.” Early in October, the US and Mexico began discussing a new joint security plan. "After 13 years of the Merida Initiative, it's time for a comprehensive new approach to our security cooperation, one that will see us as equal partners in defining our shared priorities," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
The joint statement on the security dialogue was also pretentious spin; “As two nations with an enduring partnership based on sovereignty, mutual respect, and the extraordinary bond of family and friendship … we each recognize our shared responsibility and pledge to move forward as partners to find solutions that are backed by justice...”
With the climate crisis emerging as the next great challenge, many progressive leaders in advanced economies have advocated for a Green New Deal, which would shift economic policy and redistribute wealth. In the Global South, however, the centrality of a green transformation is still contested. Some argue that these countries should focus on pressing social issues such as poverty, housing or healthcare before facing the climate crisis, while others believe that the climate movement can simply be appeased with limited policy commitments.
The Democratic Party's legislation in Congress is being whittled away to small-bore spending here and there, totaling far less than one percent of America's GDP.
The corporate lobbies have been waging a relentless and largely successful battle against higher taxes on the corporations and the rich, even though the public supports increasing taxation on the wealthy to expand public spending on higher education, health care, families and the environment.
The University of Florida on Friday announced that it will now allow three professors to testify as paid experts in a voting rights lawsuit, reversing its previous decision.
In an email sent to the campus community on Friday, university President Kent Fuchs explained that he is asking the University's Conflicts of Interest Office to reverse the decisions on recent requests by UF employees to serve as expert witnesses in litigation in which the state of Florida is a party and to approve the requests regardless of personal compensation.
200 people from across the Capital District joined a demonstration for climate justice today in Albany. The march and rally were part of a global day of action coinciding with the COP26 UN global climate summit taking place in Glasgow. World leaders are meeting in Glasgow through November 12 to negotiate stronger climate actions than agreed to in the Paris Climate Accords in 2015.
Speakers highlighted the urgent need for a fast and fair global transition to a climate friendly economy. (Some photos )
The global day of action has been organized by the COP26 Coalition which said:
“Global problems need global solutions. The decisions made at COP26 will shape how governments respond (or not) to the climate crisis. So far, governments have done too little too late, proposing steps that fail to match the scale of the problem. COP26 is happening at a crucial moment in history. Across the world and across movements, we are seeing a new wave of people standing up and making their voices heard through global solidarity and grassroots organizing. We have a unique opportunity to rewire our system as we recover from the global pandemic.”
On Tuesday, J.D. Vance, author of the bestselling Hillbilly Elegy and now candidate for the U.S. Senate from Ohio,€ gave a keynote speech€ at the National Conservatism Conference titled "The Universities Are the Enemy."
Singapore has banned a book on censorship over “offensive images” including controversial cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed, authorities said. The city-state is majority ethnic Chinese but has a sizeable Muslim minority, and has strict laws to curb hate speech and actions promoting ill-will between religious or racial groups.
The book, “Red Lines: Political Cartoons and the Struggle Against Censorship” is banned from distribution in Singapore, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) said on Monday.
It’s as if the last 400 years did not occur.
But in many instances, local police officers, state troopers and sheriff’s deputies put themselves at risk by jumping in front of moving cars, then aiming their guns at the drivers as if in a Hollywood movie, according to body-camera footage. Or they reached into cars and became entangled with motorists, then opened fire.
Often, the drivers were trying to get away from officers, edging around them, not toward them, the footage shows, and the officers weren’t in the path of the vehicle when they fired.
“You see many where bullets are in the back of the car, in the side of the car,” said Geoffrey Alpert, a criminologist at the University of South Carolina who has researched high-risk police activities for more than 30 years. “In the high 90 percentile of cases I’ve seen, the person’s just trying to get away.”
Attorneys are still trying to reach the parents of 270 migrant children who were separated at the US-Mexico border under the Trump administration, down from 303 in September, according to a federal court filing Wednesday.
The filing from the Justice Department and the American Civil Liberties Union is part of an effort to identify and reunite families three years after the so-called zero-tolerance policy was created.
Tom’s Hardware spotted the update, which states that DirectX 12 support will end for the affected CPU/GPU combos starting with Intel graphics driver version 15.40.44.5107. The affected processor lines and their integrated graphics pairings debuted in 2013, generally coming off the market the following year, though desktops and laptops with those CPUs may have been sold for several more. For a sense of perspective, most of these machines would have been sold running Windows 8, like the Lenovo G50-45 above.
Starting from Intel's graphics driver version 15.40.44.5107, applications that run exclusively on DirectX 12 API no longer work with GPUs integrated into Intel's 4th Generation Core processors as well as Celeron and Pentium chips powered by the Haswell architecture. The GPUs in question are based on Intel's Gen7 architecture.
Brand owners have put forward a compromise on online platform obligations, but deny they have blinked first
Counsel at four companies including Lam Research and Heraeus weigh in on employee mobility, the rise of software and remote working
Counsel discuss divergent design examination practices at Rospatent and say they cause applicants to seek more costly routes to achieve registration
In the introduction, Gervais explains that the approach to discussing IP law reform taken in this edited collection is considering both primary and secondary level reform. He defines primary IP rights as those that have been part of law for more than 50 years. Whereas, adding new rights to the primary rights, instead of changing them, creates secondary rights. As such, the book looks at both the need to, and the consequences of, changing primary rights, as well as whether adding secondary rights is a good idea, and if so, how and when. The book is then presented in four parts, which reflect the four key themes: reforming the fundamental aspects of IP; the impact of artificial intelligence on IP, particularly considering data; specific reforms of copyright and trade mark; and geographical names and indications.
We’ve been writing a lot about venue and mandamus petitions at the Federal Circuit. The cases continue to flow to the court, and will continue so long as appellate panels continue to entertain them.
HGF Limited and Knobbe Martens will be offering a webinar entitled "Challenging Granted Patents: A Comparison between Europe and the US" on November 3, 2021 at 11:00 am (ET). Adam Hines of HGF and Christy Lea and Sabing Lee of Knobbe Martens will compare and contrast mechanisms for challenging patents in both Europe and the U.S., and in particular, will focus on opposition proceedings before the European Patent Office (EPO) along with proceedings at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in the U.S. The panel will also provide practical tips on how to maximize the chance of success in each jurisdiction.
Recent developments indicate that the UK is a favorable jurisdiction that owners of standard essential patents ("SEP") can leverage to obtain appropriate SEP rates from what would otherwise be unwilling licensees. Demonstrating the point, a recent order from Justice Meade of the High Court in the sprawling Pan Optis/Unwired Planet SEP dispute with Apple provides an outline to the UK's approach to handling SEP implementers who are unwilling to commit to court-determined FRAND licenses. In a lengthy decision, issued September 27, 2021, Justice Meade essentially gave Apple two choices: (1) commit, now, to taking a FRAND license with terms to be decided at a subsequent trial taking place in 2022; or (2) be enjoined from the UK market until resolution of the FRAND trial and acceptance of the terms that issue. Importantly, Justice Meade issued this ultimatum even though Apple has threatened to abandon the UK market rather than agree to any global FRAND rate set by the UK courts.
Heath Hoglund, chief patent counsel at Dolby in San Francisco, sits down with Managing IP to talk about licensing, FRAND and more
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has recently published annual statistics relating to the UK’s Patent Box tax relief scheme. The update covers the tax year from 2018 to 2019 and indicates that 1,405 companies claimed relief under the Patent Box, with the total value of relief claimed being €£1,129 million. This shows an ever increasing value of relief claimed - the value of relief claimed has increased year on year from its introduction in tax year 2013 to 2014. However, it appears that the rate of increase has slowed. There is a time lag for reporting the statistics as companies must notify HMRC within two years after the end of the accounting period in which the relevant profits and income arise.
It has been almost two years since the world changed forever — when the outbreak of COVID-19 exploded into a pandemic, and numerous aspects of society as we had known it shut down, went on hold or transformed. Understanding the full repercussions will be a near-Herculean task for future historians, but there are some things we can say now with reasonable certainty.
The UK's Patents Court has recently handed down judgment in Royalty Pharma Collection Trust v Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH1. As this case concerns German Law, we will not go into the details but it is clear that interesting points on patent licensing and substantive patent law feature extensively.
Royalty Pharma sued Boehringer for about €23 million in outstanding royalties on linagliptin containing products for diabetes treatment. The claim arises from an amended agreement negotiated in 2015. Boehringer counterclaimed for an unquantified overpayment relating to the original agreement.
The demise of Germany’s automatic injunction may have been greatly exaggerated, but the proportionality test could still have a real impact
Only a week after the judgment that a party who has been held to infringe a valid and essential patent must provide an irrevocable commitment to take whatever FRAND licence the court determines or accept an injunction, the UK Court sat again to hear Apple's request for permission to appeal.
The Court showed little hesitation in giving Apple permission to appeal its decision on three of the four grounds sought by Apple. The Court had already indicated in its judgment that it was minded to allow Apple to appeal, which is unsurprising given that this is a novel and important decision that could have implications for SEP licensing negotiations across the globe. Read our previous article to find out more on the original decision.
The court judgement for the UK Supreme Court landmark Standard Essential Patent (SEP) and global FRAND (Fair, Reasonable And Non-Discriminatory) licensing case Unwired Planet v Huawei was handed down in the Autumn of 2020 (see here for additional discussion of this decision). In the decision, the UK Supreme Court confirmed the ability of the UK courts to set terms for global FRAND licenses; at the time, the UK courts were the only courts that had determined this ability.
An EPO Board of Appeal is seeking clarity on the crucial but complicated question of plausibility and has referred a case to the Enlarged Board of Appeal that may – or may not – provide the answers
Arecor Therapeutics plc (AIM: AREC), the biopharmaceutical group advancing today’s therapies to enable healthier lives, continues to build a strong patent portfolio protecting its proprietary Arestatâ⢠technology. Arecor is pleased to announce that its European patent EP2457590 on polysaccharide vaccines has been successfully upheld following opposition appeal proceedings filed by GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals SA (GSK) at the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office.
Understanding the regulatory framework, potential adaptation of competition law and the impact of the Unified Patent Court will be vital to biosimilar manufacturers as they develop innovative strategies to overcome barriers to market entry, which must also reflect complex patent landscapes and include commercial strategies, to take advantage of growth opportunities.
President Joe Biden announced his intention to nominate former Delaware chief judge Leonard Stark to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Wednesday, November 3.
If he is confirmed by the Senate, Stark will replace Kathleen O’Malley, who plans to retire in March 2022.
O’Malley told Managing IP that she couldn’t be more pleased with the announcement.
“He will bring a wealth of knowledge regarding how trial records are developed in patent cases and the challenges district courts face in those complex and contentious matters,” she said.
In this edition we bring you news of the landmark ruling denying AI machines the right to be named as a patent inventor, the DTI’s plan to make the UK to make a global leader in digital trade and the outcome of the CJEU’s ruling that software can constitute goods for the purposes of the Commercial Agents Directive, amongst other tech and sourcing news.
Litigation analytics can be considered a roadmap of sorts — an important guide to ensure the legal professional arrives at the correct litigation strategy or business plan. However, like roadmaps, litigation analytics will only be useful if it’s based on data that is complete and accurate.
Hunting petitioned for inter partes review (“IPR”) of U.S. Patent No. 9,581,422, alleging the challenged claims were invalid as both anticipated and obvious. Following institution, DynaEnergetics filed a motion to amend the ’422 patent contingent on the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“Board”) finding the original claims unpatentable. Hunting opposed, arguing the amended claims were obvious (but not anticipated). In its Final Written Decision, the Board found both the original and amended claims to be anticipated.
DynaEnergetics sought review of the Board’s decision by the Precedential Opinion Panel (“POP”), arguing the Board improperly raised sua sponte anticipation of the amended claims. The POP granted review and agreed with DynaEnergetics. Citing Nike Inc. v. Adidas AG, the POP held that while “the Board may, in certain rare circumstances, raise a ground of unpatentability that a petitioner did not advance, or insufficiently developed, against substitute claims proposed in a motion to amend,” those circumstances were not present. The POP vacated the Board’s decision and granted DynaEnergetics’ motion to amend. Hunting appeals.
[...]
Unified petitioned for inter partes review of Arsus’s U.S. Patent No. 10,259,494 (“the ’494 patent”). Following institution, Arsus statutorily disclaimed the challenged claims and moved to dismiss the IPR. The Board construed Arsus’s disclaimer as a request for adverse judgment, which it granted. Arsus filed a “Demand” that the Board vacate the adverse judgment, arguing the disclaimer deprived the Board of subject matter jurisdiction over the IPR. The Board declined to vacate its adverse judgment. Arsus appeals.
Arsus argues the Federal Circuit held in Sanofi-Aventis U.S., LLC v. Dr. Reddy’s Labs., Inc. that, following a statutory disclaimer, the disclaimed claims are “effectively eliminated” and it is “as though the disclaimed claim(s) had never existed,” which “moot[s]” a case or controversy. Under Sanofi, it argues, the Board should have acted as if its disclaimed claims never existed and dismissed the IPR. Arsus also highlights Facebook, Inc. v. Skky, LLC, where it argues the Board declined to exercise jurisdiction over disclaimed claims.
Unified and the USPTO respond that 37 C.F.R. ۤ 42.73(b) explicitly provides for disclaimer as a request for adverse judgment. They argue Sanofi concerned the Article III case or controversy requirement, which does not apply to agency proceedings, such as IPRs.
On October 13, in Mobility Workx v. Unified Patents, LLC, the Federal Circuit rejected a series of due process challenges to the structure of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), leaving the PTAB to continue with business as usual. The court held that the structure and funding of the PTAB do not violate constitutional guarantees of due process based on (a) the fee-generating structure of the PTAB, (b) the alleged financial interests of the PTAB judges, and (c) the Director’s delegation of authority for the institution decision to the same PTAB judges who will render a final decision if trial is instituted. The panel concluded, however, that Mobility is entitled to a remand under Arthrex for rehearing by the Director to address substantive questions, and to consider Mobility’s argument that the PTAB’s failure to issue a final determination within 12 months of institution requires dismissal of the petition or issuance of a certificate confirming the challenged claims.
In reaching its conclusion that the structure and funding of the PTAB do not violate the constitution’s guarantees of due process, the court analyzed three Supreme Court cases.
We previously published an article discussing patent owner’s due process challenges based on alleged pecuniary interests of the Office and Administrative Patent Judges instituting cases to meet production goals and increase compensation. Since that article both cases, New Vision Gaming v. SC Gaming, Inc. f/k/a Bally Gaming, Inc. (Newman, Moore, Taranto) and Mobility Workx v. Unified Patents, LLC (Newman, Schall, Dyk), have been decided.
Both cases, in the end, were remanded under the Supreme Court Arthrex ruling. But while New Vision Gaming did not substantively address this due process challenge, Mobility did at length, including a Newman dissent that covered not only the due process issues, but also whether there continued to be an Appointments Clause issue because the same panel renders the institution decision and then conducts the trial.
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s IP Subcommittee had an active day yesterday with members sending out a pair of letters that suggest that they see some serious problems in the patent system.
The first letter, sent by both Chairman Leahy and Ranking Member Tillis to Chief Justice Roberts, in his role as head of the Judicial Conference, expresses serious concerns about the Waco court—and especially about Judge Albright’s behavior. Referring both to Judge Albright’s history of soliciting patent cases to his court and to his poor track record at the Federal Circuit—15 grants of mandamus and counting—Sens. Leahy and Tillis express concern about the lack of guidance on case assignment within a single district for patent cases and the abuses it enables. While their letter states they’re not aware of similar problems in other single judge divisions, there’s some evidence of this type of shopping in other arenas—manipulation of bankruptcy trustees and even more concerning, forum selling in the area of large company bankruptcies. The letter closes by requesting the Judicial Conference study the abuses the present situation enables and provide recommendations for how the problem could be fixed.
Another week and another patent suit against a major auto manufacturer. This action by Intellectual Ventures against Toyota follows on from a recent patent action by Avanci against Ford. Intellectual Ventures is a US venture capital firm that claims to own over 70,000 patents. That's a lot. The action relates to Toyota's in-car systems including wireless hotspot, infotainment system and remote access service. With 70,000 patents, it seems difficult to make a vehicle or vehicle system that does not step on Intellectual Ventures IP rights. Given previous history, one might expect that this will result in some sort of a settlement, setting another precedent that OEMs will need to consider. Whilst the major manufacturers are the targets for now, there surely has to be a trickle down effect over time to encompass component and service suppliers.
This is the second time writing about the Neurim v Mylan battle “take two” concerning a divisional patent (EP 3 103 443) granted on 30 June 2021 (but expires 12 August 2022). The first article ( Neurim v Mylan: Take Two) covered Neurim's successful application for an expedited preliminary issue trial. That article also covers (some of) the twists and turns of the original Neurim v Mylan battle on the parent patent.
Article 54 EPC states that an invention shall be considered to be new if it does not form part of the state of the art. Based on this statement, you might initially consider that it is therefore not possible to obtain a patent for a substance that is already known. However, there are certain circumstances where the substance per se might be known but this does not preclude the patentability of such a substance.
ToolGen argued in its Opposition that the Board should deny Broad's motion first, because Broad has neither established nor argued that dual-and single-molecule eukaryotic CRISPR is the same patentable invention, and second, that Broad's proposed Count 2 "does not define the common claimed subject matter [because] all of ToolGen's involved claims are limited to single-molecule RNA" species (emphasis in brief). As to the first argument, ToolGen contended that there is a distinction to be made between Broad's position that dual- and single-molecule CRISPR embodiments are "alternative approaches" to eukaryotic CRISPR and that they are the same invention, which ToolGen asserted they are. Presciently, ToolGen argued that "Broad cannot attempt to make that showing for the first time in its reply," citing Nau v. Ohuchida, Int. No. 104,258, 9 Paper 57, at *4 (B.P.A.I. 1999), regarding making the argument that a dual-molecule eukaryotic CRISPR system would be prima facie obvious over single-molecule embodiments, under Spine v. Biedermann Motech GmbH, 684 F. 18 Supp. 2d 68, 89 (D.D.C. 2010). And in this regard ToolGen argued that Broad had not established that Broad has best proofs that would be best adjudged for priority under Proposed Count 2.
ToolGen also argued that proposed Count 2 is broader than the common claimed invention between the parties because, as instituted by the Board, existing Count 1 is limited to single-molecule RNA embodiments of eukaryotic CRISPR and that common claimed subject matter is what defines an interference, citing Beech Aircraft Corp. v. Edo Corp., 990 F.2d 1237, 1248–49, and Louis v. Okada, 59 22 U.S.P.Q.2d 1073, 2001 WL 775529 at*4 (B.P.A.I. 2001).
In a letter sent to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai last week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce expressed disappointment that the Biden Administration "continues to entertain actions, such as a waiver of the TRIPS Agreement, that would undermine the pandemic response." The Chamber instead urged the Administration "to double down on efforts to distribute vaccines globally."
The Chamber sent its letter to the U.S. Trade Representative in advance of the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12), which will take place from November 30 to December 3, 2021 in Geneva, Switzerland (the Ministerial Conference is the top decision making body of the World Trade Organization (WTO)), noting that the MC12 "will be an inflection point for global pandemic response, the rules-based multilateral trading system, and international IP." In its letter, the Chamber "strongly urge[s]" the Administration at the MC12 "to herald the tremendous success of the U.S. and international innovation ecosystem that continues to produce technological solutions to the technical problems of the COVID-19 pandemic."
The EPO’s Enlarged Board of Appeal yesterday released its full written decision on G1/21. This case discusses whether oral proceedings can be held by video conference without the consent of all parties. The full written decision can be found here.
The decision provides the reasoning behind a preliminary order issued in July in which the Enlarged Board decided that oral proceedings before Boards of Appeal can be conducted by video conference without the parties’ consent during a “general emergency”, such as the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Enlarged Board notes in the decision that, whilst video conferencing can ensure the essential features of oral proceedings before the Boards can be maintained, in person hearings are the “gold standard” and should be a default option. This default of in person proceedings can only be denied for “good reasons”. The Enlarged Board particularly points out that availability of conference rooms and interpretation facilities or intended efficiency gains would not constitute “good reasons”.
To hold oral proceedings other than in person there must be a suitable alternative available (i.e. video conferencing) and circumstances that justify the alternative (e.g. international and domestic travel restrictions, quarantine requirements and EPO access restrictions).
In particular, the EBA considered that a hearing held by videoconference can be regarded as "oral proceedings" within the meaning of Article 116 EPC. While the EBA seemed to accept that those involved in drawing up the European Patent Convention (EPC) had "in-person" oral proceedings in mind, and may not have envisaged videoconference as an option, the wording of Article 116 EPC places no limitation on the format of the oral proceedings. The EBA felt it would be at odds with the purpose of the EPC, which aims to support innovation and technological progress, if formats for oral proceedings supported by technological progress were to be excluded. Further, given that the purpose of oral proceedings is to allow parties a chance to plead their case orally, it cannot have been the legislator's intent to exclude potential future formats that do indeed allow oral presentations to be made. The EBA also noted that if it were the case that a hearing held by videoconference is not "oral proceedings" within the meaning of Article 116 EPC, then this would have ramifications on the status of such hearings even if held with the consent of the parties.
The new trademarks are Nike’s latest effort in exploring the metaverse, cryptocurrencies and NFT worlds. The sportswear company in 2019 secured a patent for “Cryptokicks,” or virtual collectible shoes stored on a blockchain. The patent says that when a particular sneaker is purchased, a token is unlocked and 10-digit code will then be linked to the sneaker’s owner. The owner could also “breed” custom sneakers, which then could be produced as a physical product.
Nike has filed seven trademark applications as it prepares to enter the metaverse.
As part of the application, the company indicated its intent to make and sell virtual branded sneakers and apparel.
Introduced on 20 January 2020, the protection of Historical Trade Marks was designed as a tool aimed at boosting Italian companies and production and protecting them against foreign acquisitions.
More in detail: according to Law Decree No 34/2019, and in line with Article 11-ter of the Italian Intellectual Property Code (IPC), a mark can be included in the register of Historical Trade Marks (the “Register”) provided that (i) it has been registered for at least fifty years - or continuous use for at least fifty years can be proven, (ii) it is used for the marketing of products or services produced in a national productive enterprise of excellence, and (iii) it is historically linked to the national territory. Article 185-ter IPC then provides that the owners or licensees of historical trade marks intending to close their production site have to notify "without delay" the Ministry of Economic Development about the project and share economic or technical reasons underlying their decision, including the steps taken to find a potential buyer.
Eventually, Law Decree 34/2020 completed the legal framework, by introducing a specific Fund (Fund to safeguard employment levels and the continuation of business activity) operated by the Italian agency Invitalia with the purpose of inter alia financing the activity of owners (or exclusive licensees) of Historical Trade Marks.
Lawyers delve into the trademark strategy for Facebook’s Meta rebrand and explain why it might get away with having such an indistinctive name
EUIPO data shows non-EU countries are applying for ‘green’ EUTMs at a higher rate than their European counterparts, but which industry comes out on top?
Nike could be looking at a transition into the metaverse after it filed seven new intent-to-use applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in late October, The Fashion Law reported Tuesday (Nov. 2).
The applications were for several notable Nike trademarks, including the words “Nike,” “Just Do It,” “Jordan” and “Air Jordan,” along with the trademark Nike “swoosh” logo, the Jordan silhouette logo and the stylized combo of the company name and the swoosh.
After gaining further experience in private practice and with the European Patent Office (EPO), Olivier Lombardo joined Dennemeyer & Associates in 2010.
Spain has finally transposed the DSM Directive (DMSD), by means of a Royal Decree-law (RD-law), which was published in the Official Gazette on the 3rd of November. The same also transposes other Directives the implementation of which was pending, including Directive (EU) 2019/789 on online transmissions of broadcasting organisations and retransmissions of television and radio programmes.
The implementation measures of the DSMD entered into force yesterday, the 4th of November. The transposition closely follows the DSMD in many respects. In this post I will briefly consider the implementation of Arts. 15 and 17 DSMD.
As to the press publishers’ neighbouring right laid down in Art. 15 DSMD, the transposition generally sticks to the Directive’s provision, but does introduce some peculiarities which are worth noting. For instance, while the DSMD establishes that the right “shall not apply in respect of the use of individual words or very short extracts of a press publication”, the Spanish transposition seems to limit the reach of this exception. On the one hand, it provides that the right will not apply to the use of individual words, or to extracts which are very short or of little significance both in quantitative and qualitative terms. On the other hand, it establishes that this exception will only apply where the concerned online use does not prejudice the investments carried out by the publishers and news agencies, and does not affect the effectivity of the new neighbouring right.
UFC Chief Operating Officer Lawrence Epstein says that his company desperately needs an update to copyright law. Suing YouTube and Facebook is not viable so it's crucial to hold these platforms responsible for infringing content under federal law. In particular, UFC needs a takedown-and-staydown requirement and if new platforms can't afford it, tough luck.
