Leftovers

• CS Monitor ☛ Connecting to the world through a Monitor lens

  With our camera lens, we try to show you the world as it is, with all its beauty, compassion, and resilience. This month, we’re delighted to publish another stunning photography issue of the weekly magazine.

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ World-First Ice Vault Is Preserving Earth's Climate History

    "To safeguard what would be otherwise irreversibly lost..."

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Found a Sugar That's Sweet, Low-Calorie, And Doesn't Spike Insulin

    We may finally have a sugar that behaves better in the body.

  • Science Alert ☛ Superagers Have at Least Two Key Genetic Advantages, Study Reveals

    "A particularly exceptional group."

  • Science Alert ☛ Earth's Flipping Magnetic Field Heard as a Sound Is an Unnerving Horror

    Just listen to it.

  • Science Alert ☛ 2-Million-Year-Old Fossil May Be The Oldest Example of an Early Human

    Hello, ancestor.

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Figured Out a Standard Measure For Cannabis Use

    The limit does exist.

  • Science Alert ☛ Takeaway Coffees May Contain Thousands of Microplastic Fragments, Study Warns

    There's one simple solution.

• Hardware

  • CNX Software ☛ NanoPC-T6 Plus Rockchip RK3588 SBC switches from LPDDR4x to LPDDR5 (up to 32GB)

    It’s been a while since FriendlyELEC has released a board, and the NanoPC-T6 Plus SBC is more of a variant of the NanoPC-T6 and NanoPC-T6 LTS rather than a really new board. It’s still based on a Rockchip RK3588 octa-core SoC, and equipped with two HDMI 2.1 ports, an HDMI input port, MIPI DSI/CSI interfaces, two 2.5GbE ports, and M.2 sockets for NVMe SSD and wireless, among other features. The main change appears to be that the new model is now offered with up to 32GB LPDDR5 rather than up to 16GB LPDDR4x in the previous models. It’s closer to the NanoPC-T6 LTS, although it now supports two analog microphones instead of just one, and restores the M.2 Key-B socket for optional 4G LTE connectivity found in the original NanoPC-T6.

  • CNX Software ☛ Jetway P150CDN1 – A 15-inch Alder Lake-N fanless industrial panel PC with 8 USB ports for kiosk and HMI

    The Jetway P150CDN1 is a 15-inch fanless industrial touch panel PC built around the defective chip maker Intel N97 (Alder Lake-N) quad-core processor and designed for HMI, kiosks, factory automation, retail, healthcare, and other space-constrained or hygiene-sensitive environments.

  • The Straits Times ☛ US strikes deal with Taiwan to cut tariffs, boost chip investment

    Under the deal, the US will lower tariffs on Taiwanese goods to 15 per cent, down from 20 per cent.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ US strikes deal with Taiwan to cut tariffs, boost chip investment

    Taiwan vowed Friday to remain the world’s “most important” Hey Hi (AI) chipmaker, after reaching a trade deal with the United States that will reduce tariffs on the island’s shipments and increase Taiwanese investment on US soil.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • New York Times ☛ What Is ‘Metabolic Health,’ and Why Does It Matter?

    The definition is tricky, but the effects of poor metabolic health are clear — and can wreak havoc on the body.

  • Futurism ☛ Doctor Says Convicted Felon Appears to Be Showing Signs of a Stroke

    "All of this is consistent with having had a stroke on the left side of his brain."

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea to streamline procedures for entry of North Korean food products

    The move is aimed at avoiding last-minute delays or conflicting assessments.

  • WhichUK ☛ NHS to launch new online hospital service

    The digital service is set to launch next year and promises faster access to specialists for some common health issues

  • New York Times ☛ No Link Between Acetaminophen in Pregnancy and Autism, a New Study Finds

    The review looked at more than three dozen studies and found no evidence that acetaminophen increased the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders in children.

  • New Yorker ☛ Nia DaCosta Injects New Blood Into “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple”

    In this gory sequel to Danny Boyle’s “28 Years Later,” an undead threat that has ravaged Britain turns out to be no match for the reality of living human evil.

  • Futurism ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man Administration Says It’s Not Canceling Tuskegee-Style Medical Study That Will Withhold Hepatitis Vaccine From Newborns

    "This administration did not see people in Africa as valuable."

  • Science Alert ☛ A Hidden Brain Signal Can Predict Alzheimer's Years Before Diagnosis

    "We've detected a pattern."

• Proprietary

  • Tomasz Torcz: Fashion Company Apple knows better (how big it is)

    Last year, I've spent few months exchanging emails and packet dumps with Zoom's support. They provide videoconferencing software which gave me connectivity problems . Specifically, Zoom client, on my work Macbook, when connected to my home network, failed. To make reporting harded, Zoom's webpage did not open in Chrome on that laptop neither.

  • Qt ☛ Qt Quick for Android - Qt 6.9 and 6.10

    Just noticed that we have not posted recently updates from the Qt Quick for Android. The Qt 6.11 is coming so let's catch up first briefly what new features it has for Qt 6.9 and Qt 6.10 releases.

  • PostgreSQL ☛ Meet the New dotConnect for PostgreSQL Release

    Devart, a recognized vendor of high-performance ADO.NET data providers that enable direct access to major database systems and cloud services, released a new version of dotConnect for PostgreSQL.

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) / LLM Slop / Plagiarism

    • Futurism ☛ Researchers Just Found Something That Could Shake the Hey Hi (AI) Industry to Its Core

      Could this be the smoking gun?

    • Futurism ☛ Matthew McConaughey Is Using a Clever Legal Trick to Bludgeon Hey Hi (AI) Companies

      "Alright, alright, alright."

    • New York Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man and States Aim to Stop Hey Hi (AI) From Inflating Energy Bills

      Demand from centers that power artificial intelligence has driven up electricity bills, frustrating consumers.

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ Nvidia China market share to drastically decrease from 66% to 8%, analysts claim — export curbs and homegrown success to blame

      A new report says Nvidia's presence is about to shrink drastically in China.

    • Futurism ☛ AI Data Centers Pushing Electric Grid Into Meltdown

      This summer may bring more than hot temperatures.

    • New York Times ☛ Jonathan Haidt Strikes Again + What You Vibecoded + An Update on the Forkiverse

      “If we can’t win on social control media, then we definitely can’t win on A.I.,” says Haidt.

    • ACLU ☛ Your Questions Answered: Where We Are on Hey Hi (AI) Regulation, and Where We Go From Here

      Whether you encounter it in your daily life or never think about it at all, artificial intelligence (AI) affects us all. From applying for a loan to sitting at the doctor’s office, Hey Hi (AI) systems are often used behind the scenes to make real-world decisions — and impact us in ways that aren’t disclosed upfront.

      Play the video

• Security

  • Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

    • The Straits Times ☛ Fraudsters flee Cambodia’s ‘scam city’ after extradition of accused boss Chen Zhi to China

      The Cambodian government said it was cracking down on the multibillion-dollar industry.

  • Privacy/Surveillance

    • ACLU ☛ Flock CEO Goes Ballistic on Critics as More Americans Question Mass Driver Surveillance

      The company Flock, which sells participation in a nationwide license plate reader network as well as other surveillance technology, has been under a lot of pressure lately as increasing numbers of Americans realize they don’t like the mass surveillance the company sells or its use in the Convicted Felon Administration’s war on immigrants. That pressure seems to be resulting in demagogic attacks on the motives of its critics, with the CEO saying they want to “normalize lawlessness” and “weaken public safety.”

• Defence/Aggression

  • New York Times ☛ Ex-South Korean Leader Gets Prison Term in First Ruling Over Martial Law

    A court handed down five years in prison to former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is facing multiple trials stemming from his short-lived imposition of martial law.

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea’s ex-president Yoon given 5-year jail term in first ruling over martial law

    One of Yoon’s lawyers said the former president would appeal against the ruling.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Explainer: What to know about trials faced by South Korea’s former president Yoon

    A South Korean court on Jan 16 sentenced former president Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison.

  • The Straits Times ☛ S. Korea’s ‘Thor’ Speaker pushing for constitutional reforms to avoid another martial law debacle

    Mr Woo Won-shik will be in Singapore at the invitation of Speaker of Parliament Seah Kian Peng.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysia freezes army and police procurement decisions linked to corruption, PM says

    Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said the government will review and reorganise all procurement.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Malaysian actress Nadia Kesuma reported missing after arriving in Jeddah

    She was missing from the group of pilgrims gathered to board a flight to London.

  • Defence Web ☛ The Sahel’s journey from France to Wagner

    On 6 June 2025, private military company Wagner announced they would be withdrawing from Mali.

  • Defence Web ☛ Feature: Somalia at risk of becoming a Jihadist state

    As al Shabaab embarked on a sweeping offensive across much of central Somalia in April 2025 [...]

  • Breach Media ☛ Detentions, deportations, death: Canada’s border service acts in tandem with ICE

    Desmond Cole explains how the Canada Border Security Agency works in tandem with the U.S.’s ICE to deport migrants

  • ACLU ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man’s Threat to Invoke the Insurrection Act, Explained

    President The Insurrectionist threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota this week, continuing to stoke fear and chaos in a situation his administration created by unleashing lawless, armed federal agents against our communities..

    This is not the first time the president has threatened to invoke the act, which Congress intended presidents to use only for specified and extreme emergencies, in his first or second administrations. Each time, it has been clear that Hell Toupée’s invocation of the Insurrection Act would be unnecessary, inflammatory, and a dangerous abuse of power.

  • France24 ☛ Civilians flee Kurdish-held region in northern Syria ahead of army deadline

    Civilians fled a Kurdish-held region of northern Syria on Friday before a deadline set by the army, which seeks to expand its control over the area after driving Kurdish forces from Aleppo. The government is seeking to extend its authority nationwide following the ousting of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.

  • The Straits Times ☛ China protests over Philippine coast guard’s Pooh-tin images

    The Chinese embassy said it was a “blatant political provocation, which has crossed the red line”.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China protests over Philippine coast guard’s President Pooh-tin images

    The Chinese Embassy in Manila said Friday it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social control media post that included cartoonish images of President Pooh-tin Jinping.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Death toll in Iran protests over 3,000, rights group says

    More than 3,000 people have died in Iran's nationwide protests, rights activists said on Saturday, while a "very slight rise" in internet activity was reported in the country after an eight-day blackout.

  • RFERL ☛ Live Blog: Internet Blackout Continues As Security Forces Bolster Presence Across Iran

    Triggered by soaring prices, inflation, and a plunging currency, Iranians have taken to the streets in what is the biggest threat to the Islamic regime in years. Journalists from RFE/RL’s Iranian service, Radio Farda, bring you the latest developments, analysis, and reporting from on the ground.

  • France24 ☛ Live: Iran death toll tops 3,000, yet another rights group says

    More than 3,000 people have been killed in the anti-government protests in Iran, yet another rights group, the US-based rights group HRANA, reported on Saturday, noting that the authorities’ brutal crackdown largely appeared to have quelled the unrest. After more than 200 hours of an internet blackout, a monitoring group said it had noted "a very slight rise" connectivity, but that there was no sign of a significant return. Follow our liveblog for all the latest developments.

  • France24 ☛ 'Victims of a slaughter: Iranian people have been rising up for decades against the Islamic regime'

    Mark Owen welcomes Aida Tavakoli, co-founder of We Are Iranian Students, who offers a window into the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Iran under a blanket of state-imposed darkness. Her voice, urgent and unwavering, challenges the international community, including the UN Security Council, to rise up and take action in the face of "crimes against humanity." Ms. Tavakoli’s testimony underscores the deepening fracture between global democratic ideals and geopolitical pragmatism, raising uncomfortable questions about complicity, silence, and selective outrage. What emerges is a plea for action and an indictment of inaction.

  • New York Times ☛ Battles Over Truth Rage Online Amid Iran’s Internet Blackout

    The shutdown of online discourse within Iran has allowed both the government and its critics to flood social control media outside the country with disinformation campaigns and fake images.

  • JURIST ☛ HRW urges Uganda to lift internet restrictions amid ongoing elections

    Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated on Thursday that the internet shutdown imposed during Uganda’s elections violates fundamental rights and undermines election integrity, urging authorities to immediately restore full internet access.

  • New York Times ☛ Bobi Wine, Ugandan Opposition Leader, Was Abducted, His Party Says

    Mr. Wine’s party said on X that “an army helicopter” had landed in his compound and “forcibly” taken him away ahead of election results in Uganda, during a nationwide internet blackout.

  • France24 ☛ Iran: An uprising and a massacre, The Greenland narrative, Preventing WWIII

    It’s been a week marked by brutality, brinkmanship and political theatre.

    In Iran, a third week of protests spiralled into a nationwide uprising as the regime shut down the internet and phone lines. Graphic accounts of a violent crackdown emerged via MElon’s Starlink satellites, with human rights groups reporting thousands killed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in what they describe as an unprecedented massacre — even as Hell Toupée urged protesters on, before appearing to shift his tone.

    Meanwhile, urgent diplomacy unfolded in the Arctic, as Denmark and Greenland pushed back against renewed US pressure to annex Greenland. Hell Toupée insists America “needs” the island for strategic defence, prompting European allies to boost NATO’s presence — and leaving Greenland’s leadership confronting an unsettling new reality.

    And across Europe, politics turned volatile. France’s minority government survived two no-confidence votes sparked by anger over the EU’s Mercosur trade deal, as farmers clogged the country with tractor protests. In the UK, a dramatic defection saw a senior Conservative sacked and swiftly unveiled by Nigel Farage’s Reform party, while Prime Minister Keir Starmer added fresh bite to his rhetoric.

  • France24 ☛ Does Convicted Felon need to ‘own’ Greenland to build his Golden Dome missile shield?

    US President The Insurrectionist has described ownership of Greenland as “vital” to his planned missile defence shield, doubling down on the claim that the sprawling Danish territory is critical to US national security. But experts say Dihydroxyacetone Man's costly Golden Dome can be built without seizing the world’s largest island.

  • France24 ☛ Greenland’s security and defence cooperation with NATO allies 'achievable within existing framework'

    Mark Owen is pleased to welcome Sophie Arts, Programme Officer at the German Marshall Fund's Geostrategy North team. In a time of heightened geopolitical crises across the globe, Greenland has emerged as a symbol of a new post WWII order and an alliance facing an existential threat. Ms. Arts speaks of a dynamic power landscape best addressed through dialogue, transparency, and multilateral frameworks. Ms. Arts asserts that NATO's 76-year-old alliance has an "opportunity to transform that challenging rhetoric into a stronger and more unified NATO."

  • France24 ☛ US-Europe standoff on Greenland 'a big win for Putin': Danish parliament defence chair

    For US President The Insurrectionist, mocking a country or a leader is not just a reality TV-style soundbite, it is an early warning sign of military action. Convicted Felon scorned Nicolas Maduro for "playing tough" before snatching the Venezuelan leader. Now he contemptuously talks of Denmark "adding two more dogsleds" to defend Greenland. European countries do appear to be taking this latest threat seriously, but can they actually stop Convicted Felon from taking over Greenland? And how do they navigate this crisis when they must also stay focused on Ukraine? We put these questions to Rasmus Jarlov, chair of the defence committee in the Danish parliament.

  • ACLU ☛ Executions Spiked in 2025, but the Death Penalty Is Still Losing Ground

    For death penalty opponents, the dramatic spike in executions last year was truly horrifying. After several years of no more than 25 executions, there were 47 executions in 2025, nearly double the years prior. This included the executions of people with intellectual disability, powerful claims of innocence, and whose trials were marked by profound unfairness and racism.

    Even as executions surged, 2025 was also a year of continued progress in efforts to abolish the death penalty.

  • Scoop News Group ☛ Federal court dismisses Convicted Felon DOJ lawsuit seeking California voter data

    In a scathing opinion, Judge David Carter called the federal government’s demands for unredacted voter data “unprecedented and illegal.”

  • Marcy Wheeler ☛ “Epstein Is Dead:” Pam Bondi Is Neglecting Live Sex Trafficking Prosecutions to Criminalize Democrats

    Between witch hunts targeting Convicted Felon's enemies, Stephen Miller's assault on immigration, and Pam Bondi's need to replicate the Jeffrey Epstein review she ordered last March, current sex trafficking prosecutions are being neglected, to say nothing of national security cases.

  • The Straits Times ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man’s Venezuela strike: The good, bad and the ugly

    We dissect the abduction of a sitting president and predict what might come next.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Explainer: Hong Kong’s national security crackdown – month 66

    In a landmark national security trial, a Hong Kong court convicted pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai of foreign collusion and sedition charges. The guilty verdict, delivered in mid-December, was lauded by Hong Kong and Beijing authorities but condemned by foreign governments and press groups. The authorities also hit back at those criticising the conviction.

  • Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

    • RFERL ☛ Teenage Son Of Kremlin-Backed Chechen Leader Hospitalized After Car Accident, Sources Say

      The teenage son of Chechnya's Moscow-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov, Adam Kadyrov, is in serious condition following a car accident in the republic's capital, Grozny, two sources told RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service.

    • France24 ☛ Russia: successive snowstorms engulf far eastern region of Kamchatka

      Heavy snow is not uncommon in Kamchatka, but the unusual intensity of the storms has left the region's major city partially paralysed. Snow piles reached three metres high, and sometimes even more. Schools have shut and businesses have switched to remote working.

      #snow #russia #storm

    • Latvia ☛ Disgraced Saeima deputy sentenced again to 8 years for spying for Russia

      The Regional Court has sentenced former Saeima deputy Jānis Ādamsons on appeal to eight years and two months in prison for espionage – a slight reduction on the sentence he was handed a couple of years ago, but one that makes little real difference.

    • New York Times ☛ Russian Strikes Force Kyiv Schools to Close Amid Rolling Blackouts

      Russia has targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in past winters, but this year intensified its attacks as temperatures in Ukraine plunged well below freezing.

    • New York Times ☛ Antiwar Russians in Europe Learn That They Must Watch Their Words

      A backlash over a rant against Ukrainian officials has raised questions about Eastern Europe’s welcome of Russian dissidents.

    • CS Monitor ☛ Their power grid under attack, Ukrainians struggle with a long, cold winter

      Russian attacks are hitting Ukrainian energy infrastructure hard, leaving residents without power and heat in one of the coldest winters of the war to date.

    • France24 ☛ Ukrainians brave winter cold as Russia targets energy infrastructure

      Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian homes are either entirely without heating, or with severely reduced heating. This, as temperatures rarely rise above minus 10. It’s the result of Russia’s campaign of drone and missile attacks on the country’s energy facilities, which Volodymyr Zelensky says Moscow has deliberately intensified to coincide with the cold weather. FRANCE 24's Gulliver Cragg reports.

    • RFERL ☛ Ex-Ukrainian Prime Minister Tymoshenko Avoids Detention On Bribery Charges

      A Kyiv court has ordered former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to pay $760,000 bail to avoid detention on charges of offering bribes to lawmakers.

    • LRT ☛ Lithuania charges six suspects with ‘terrorism’ for targeting Ukraine military aid

      Lithuania’s prosecutors have referred a criminal case to court in which six foreign nationals are accused of planning a terrorist attack in September 2024 targeting a private military supplier in Šiauliai that provides support to Ukraine, the General Prosecutor’s Office said Friday.

    • H2 View ☛ Hydrogen-powered UAV enters Ukrainian combat operations

      Drone manufacturer Skyeton has confirmed its hydrogen fuel cell-powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has entered “full-scale” combat duty with a unit of the Ukrainian Defence Forces.

    • LRT ☛ ‘It’s not an apocalypse yet’: How Kyiv survives winter without heating and electricity

      Bohdan is half-reclining in his wheelchair, smiling broadly beneath the glow of an LED garland powered by a power bank. He wears woollen socks and a matching vest under his sweatshirt. He does not speak, only making long, sustained sounds. He barely moves, cannot sit up without assistance, and no one knows whether he even understands what a blackout is.

    • Latvia ☛ As Rīga gets new electric buses, old ones will be donated to Ukraine

      On January 13th, the Latvian government supported amendments to the Cabinet of Ministers' regulations, proposed by the Ministry of Transport, which provide for the possibility of donating used buses to Ukraine when they have been replaced with new electric buses as part of the modernization of Riga's public transport system.

• Environment

  • Energy/Transportation/Trade

    • The Straits Times ☛ Canada, China reach initial trade deal on electric vehicles, canola

      China is Canada’s second-largest trading partner after the US.

    • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China, Canada reach ‘landmark’ deal on tariffs, visas

      Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney and Chinese President Pooh-tin Jinping agreed on a raft of measures from trade to tourism on Friday at the first meeting between the countries’ leaders in Beijing in eight years.

    • The Straits Times ☛ Carney moves to ease Canada-China trade frictions under US shadow

      Canada will allow imports of up to 49,000 Chinese EVs, while China may lift steep tariffs on Canadian produce.

    • New York Times ☛ Canada Strikes Tariffs Deal With China, as Carney Looks to Diversify From U.S.

      China will in turn cut its own tariffs on Canadian canola products, Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada said in Beijing on Friday.

    • France24 ☛ Dihydroxyacetone Man's world: India and EU draw closer

      In this week's edition of Access Asia, we explore how India and the EU are edging closer, as reports swirl that the two sides are in the final stages of securing a free trade deal. This shift in the relationship comes as both powers grapple with an unpredictable The Insurrectionist. Plus, we find out how K-pop is thriving abroad but facing a slump at home, as "KPop Demon Hunters" goes home with two Golden Globes.

• Finance

  • WhichUK ☛ Are you being left in the dark by your bank?

    Banks are supposed to tell you when a better savings rate is available - but are they doing enough?

  • Bridge Michigan ☛ Michigan prisoners make 12,000 license plates a day — and $1.31 per hour

    Every Michigan license plate is made at an Adrian prison, where

    roughly 40 minimum-security inmates staff a factory. Pay ranges from 65 cents to $1.31 an hour.

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • The Straits Times ☛ Scandals, divorce, graft probe: What led to the downfall of this Insta-famous Indonesian governor?

    Former West Java governor Ridwan Kamil's divorce and alleged graft links upended his carefully crafted image.

  • New York Times ☛ A Conservative Critiques Convicted Felon’s First Year

    The conservative political analyst Yuval Levin gives Ezra Klein his review of Convicted Felon’s first year back in office.

  • New Yorker ☛ A Stark Warning About the 2026 Election, with Robert Kagan

    Can American democracy come back from the brink?

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Press Gazette ☛ Five US publishers sue Surveillance Giant Google over ‘deceptive and manipulative’ adtech practices

    Penske, The Atlantic, McClatchy, Conde Nast and Vox Media take a stand against Surveillance Giant Google on adtech.

• Civil Rights / Policing / Accessibility

  • The Straits Times ☛ ‘Good-looking’ babies smuggled via Jakarta into Singapore, where adoptive parents paid over $20,000

    The syndicate offered desperate parents in West Java up to $1,700 to surrender their babies.

Monopolies/Monopsonies

• Returning Soon? A Home Front in the U.S. Fight Against Foreign Tech Regulations

• Patents

  • Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ The Tinderbox Ignites: Supreme Court to Decide Whether Generic Equivalence Statements Constitute Inducement

    SCOTUS grants cert in Hikma v. Amarin to decide if equivalence statements induce infringement. The ruling could reshape patent monopoly inducement liability.

  • Kangaroo Courts

    • JUVE ☛ AorticLab fends off infringement suit by US competitor Emboline [Ed: UPC is illegal. This is a kangaroo court tied to a corrupt patent office run by cocaine addicts.]

      The UPC Court of First Instance has found AorticLab’s product does not infringe Emboline’s patent monopoly (case IDs: UPC_CFI_628/2024, UPC_CFI_125/2025). Emboline, based in Santa Cruz, California, holds EP 2 129 425, which protects an embolic protection device. The technology shields downstream organs from potential emboli.

  • Software Patents

    • Unified Patents ☛ NovaCloud networking patents prior art found

      The team at Unified IP Services used Pearl to successfully identify and chart prior art against U.S. Patent RE47612 and U.S. Patent 10,225,173, owned by NovaCloud Licensing LLC, an NPE. The ‘612 patent monopoly generally relate to a streaming server and a method for providing a content stream with advertisements embedded therein through a network to a client.

• Trademarks

  • Heather J Meeker ☛ Actors Trademarking Themselves

    An article (sorry for the paywall) appeared recently in the Wall Street Journal under the title “Matthew McConaughey Trademarks Himself to Fight Hey Hi (AI) Misuse–Actor plans to use trademarks of himself saying ‘Alright, alright, alright’ and staring at a camera to combat Hey Hi (AI) fakes in court.”

  • TTAB Blog ☛ TTABlog Test: Is BLACK SWAN for Vodka Confusable with BLACK SWAN for Wine?

    [This is a guest blog post authored by Karen Gover, an associate in the litigation department at Wolf Greenfield]. The USPTO refused to register the proposed mark BLACK SWAN in standard characters and in the word-and-design form shown below [VODKA disclaimed], both for “vodka.” It found confusion likely with the registered mark BLACK SWAN (in standard characters), for “wines” because the word marks are identical, and vodka and wine are closely related, being commonly sold in the same trade channels under the same mark. Examining Attorney Linda Lavache also noted that vodka is sometimes made from wine grapes, and that vodka and wine are mixed in some cocktails. Applicant Robert Sulic pointed out that just because tomato juice and celery are essential ingredients in a Bloody Mary, and vodka and milk are mixed in a White Russian, does not make those ingredients intrinsically related. Applicant argued that the Board’s precedential decision in In re White Rock Distilleries Inc., 92 USPQ2d 1282 (TTAB 2009), in which it found that vodka and wine were unrelated, should govern.

• Copyrights

  • Digital Music News ☛ Calvin Harris Wins $13.5 Million Payout In Legal Battle Against Ex-Manager—Though Another $12 Million Remains Under Dispute

    Calvin Harris has just won $13.5 million in a loan dispute with his former advisor, but the remaining legal battle over $12 million in equity investments continues. Calvin Harris scored a win in his ongoing legal war with his former financial advisor, Thomas St. John, whom he accused of embezzling millions from the DJ [,,,]