As we come into the new year, it might be part of your New Year’s Resolution to make the big move to the amazing world that is the Linux OS. If so, then the first hurdle you will have to overcome is choosing what distribution (distro) you want to use.
Sent in to the Linux kernel on Friday were the "char/misc" updates as the smorgasbord of kernel changes not fitting formally within other areas of the kernel. The char/misc changes range from AI accelerator driver updates to new Xilinx code to other random changes littered throughout.
Char/misc for Linux 5.17 is as diverse as ever. Among the many changes bringing in roughly 26.9k lines of new code (and 4.5k lines removed) include items such as:
- The Xilinx event management driver is new and is used for notifications from firmware. This can be used for error events, device events, and more.
Merged into Linux 5.17 this weekend is the Google-developed Page Table Check feature that can help combat some forms of memory corruption.
Google engineers last year uncovered a reference count underflow issue in the kernel that affected all kernel releases going back to Linux 4.14 four years prior. Stemming from uncovering that issue, Google engineers came up with Page Table Check to help uncover issues like that moving forward. The Page Table Check feature is principally about ensuring there is no illegal sharing of pages such as one process accidentally (or otherwise) leaking to another process.
Those wanting to enjoy some impressive Vulkan ray-traced visuals on Linux (and macOS or Windows) now have GravityMark to add to the list of Linux-native ray-traced software for testing.
GravityMark is the new graphics benchmark from Tellusim, the company led by Alexander Zapryagaev who was one of the original Unigine co-founders. GravityMark has been quite impressive for a free and cross-platform, cross-API benchmark while with this weekend's v1.44 release is even more impressive now that there is DirectX 12 / Vulkan / Metal ray-tracing support.
Looking for an app to store your passwords? Secrets is a good choice for those using GNOME desktop.
“Secrets” is a free open-source password manager that integrates perfectly with GNOME desktop and provides a modern and easy to use user interface. It’s formerly Password Safe (nothing to do with pwsafe). Since v6.0, it’s called Secrets.
A new version of JACK2 is available this weekend, the latest version of this cross-platform, professional sound server.
While PipeWire continues taking off on the Linux desktop for roles filled by PulseAudio and JACK, that hasn't let up development of JACK2. With JACK2 1.9.20 for that modern version of JACK there is fixes around the 32-bit support in the ALSA driver, multiple fixes affecting Windows and macOS, new build options around the example tools, and official FreeBSD support.
For users of Fedora, most packages are almost up to date with what is present and classed as stable. However, when it comes to Kernels, users often may want to try the latest release candidate without switching to Fedora Rawhide and having an unstable system. With Fedora becoming more popular and mainstream, newer users do not realize you can enable the Fedora repository and install upcoming release candidates constantly being updated by the Fedora team.
In the following small tutorial, you will learn how to install the Latest Linux Kernel from the Fedora Rawhide repository on your Fedora 35 Workstation or Server.
Initially conceived and sized so I could digitize my (rather sizeable) DVD collection, I started using it for other things; I added a few play VMs on it, started using it as a destination for the deja-dup-based backups of my laptop and the time machine-based ones of the various macs in the house, and used it as the primary location of all the photos I've taken with my cameras over the years (currently taking up somewhere around 500G) as well as those that were taking at our wedding (another 100G). To add to that, I've copied the data that my wife had on various older laptops and external hard drives onto this home server as well, so that we don't lose the data should something happen to one or more of these bits of older hardware.
In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Let’s Encrypt SSL with LEMP on AlmaLinux 8. For those of you who didn’t know, Let’s Encrypt is the free SSL option for you. Let’s Encrypt can be signed through Certbot, a free, open-source software tool for automatically issuing the SSL Certificate.
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 through the step-by-step installation of a free SSL certificate with LEMP on an AlmaLinux 8. You can follow the same instructions for CentOS and Rocky Linux.
This includes downloading, bootloader, and all the fixing for a functional arch system. Using this new branch you can do it as well!
AlmaLinux is a FOSS alternative to the old CentOS. It’s a great server distro and a lot of people switched to Alma after the whole CentOS Stream announcement. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to install and configure Java on AlmaLinux via the CLI.
Java has different editions to choose from, so we’ll include instructions for the most popular and widely used one – the Standard Edition. Java also has different packages to choose from, Java Runtime Environment (JRE) and the Java Development Kit (JDK). The JDK also includes JRE, so this tutorial will show you how to install JDK on Alma Linux. There are also two different implementations – OpenJDK (FOSS), and Oracle Java. Most people prefer OpenJDK, so that’s what we’ll use. If you don’t know the differences between any of these, you can either google them or don’t worry about it – this tutorial will set up the environment that will most likely work for you.
I've recently become a little obsessed with an online word puzzle game in which you have six attempts to guess a random five-letter word. The word changes every day, and you can only play once per day. After each guess, each of the letters in your guess is highlighted: gray means that letter does not appear in the mystery word, yellow means that letter appears in the word but not at that position, and green means the letter appears in the word at that correct position.
This is a long awaited feature for multi-screens users. In Latte upcoming v0.11 users can now choose their docks and panels to be on all screens or on all secondary screens. Docks and panels will be up to date in such case and it is also easier for users to make changes to them and use them in general.
I’m pleased to announce the release of 0.9.0 of librest, a library meant to interact with “Restful” web services. This library is very old and not really big but it handles the aspect of interaction with REST-APIs in a convenient fashion. After a long period of maintenance state i picked it up and brought it into 2022. Most of the deprecated API calls are gone now and it should be now possible to parallel-install librest with the previous release.
If you want to bring the chilled out tones of the popular Nord theme to your Ubuntu desktop you simply must check out the ‘Nordic’ GTK theme.
The Nordic GTK theme is a faithful implementation of the popular colour-scheme of the Nord theme For GTK-based desktop environment. Like the similarly-ubiquitous Dracula theme, Nord is a hugely popular colour scheme with developers, and there are a ton of ports for all kinds of applications.
Originally created to provide “optimal focus and readability for code”, Nord has bloomed in popularity with developers and non-developers alike.
Welcoming guests in stores or exibitions can require a lot of effort when peak hours are in progress. Usually, informative stands help managing guests with self-service devices, giving the first info and reducing guests bounce rate. You can build them on low costs solution by creating kiosks with Raspberry PI computer boars and touchscreen display
In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to create a kiosk with Raspberry PI, mounted with a touchscreen display.
A lot of tutorials on this topic focus on installing specialized kiosk software. I will make things simpler: our kiosk will just show a web page for the user. I’ll build my kiosk configuration on Chromium running in a special configuration named “kiosk”.
All the logic and customer services will be built on web pages to be shown. A good practice will be creating these web pages with a clear navigation menu so that guests can easily understand where they are and how to go back to the home page.
"Linux fans rejoice!" writes Hot Hardware. " Pine64's newest smartphone is officially available for pre-order."
Linux fans rejoice! Pine64’s newest smartphone is officially available for pre-order. Here is everything you need to know to get your hands on the PinePhone Pro Explorer Edition.
PinePhone Pro Explorer Edition pre-orders opened up yesterday. Devices that are pre-ordered before January 18th will be shipped from Pine64’s Hong Kong warehouse by January 24th and should arrive by early February. Devices ordered after that date will not be shipped until late February. The team will be on vacation for Chinese New Year, which begins on February 1st.
There are a few other things to note about pre-orders. First, consumers can only purchase a single device. Second, the PinePhone Pro Explorer Edition must be purchased separately from other items on the Pine64 website. Consumers will otherwise receive an error at check-out and be unable to complete their transaction. This includes adding items like the charging case. Last, Pine64 notes, "The PinePhone Pro Explorer Edition is aimed at Linux developers with an extensive knowledge of embedded systems and/or experience with mobile Linux." The device is intended for "developers and early adopters" and not for those who rely upon mainstream apps.
Details about the Intel NUC 11 Essential “Atlas Canyon” mini PCs with Jasper Lake processor were leaked in May 2021, but Intel has now made it official with the “launch” of five NUC 11 Essential SKUs with one Windows 11 mini PC with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage, three kits (bare mini PC), and one bare board all listed on Ark Intel.
Most of our projects are, to some extent, an exercise in glitch-reduction. Whether they’re self-inflicted software or hardware mistakes, or even if the glitches in question come from sources beyond our control, the whole point of the thing is to get it running smoothly and predictably.
That’s not always the case, though. Sometimes inducing a glitch on purpose can be a useful tool, especially when reverse engineering something. That’s where this low-cost electromagnetic fault injection tool could come in handy. EMFI is a way to disrupt the normal flow of a program running on an embedded system; properly applied and with a fair amount of luck, it can be used to put the system into an exploitable state. The PicoEMP, as [Colin O’Flynn] dubs his EMFI tool, is a somewhat tamer version of his previous ChipSHOUTER tool. PicoEMP focuses on user safety, an important consideration given that its business end can put about 250 volts across its output. Safety features include isolation for the Raspberry Pi Pico that generates the PWM signals for the HV section, a safety enclosure over the HV components, and a switch to discharge the capacitors and prevent unpleasant surprises.
The program is open-source and multi-platform. You can build it yourself or download pre-compiled binaries for Windows, Linux, and Mac.
Very good news about Osmo. "PIM" means Personal Information Manager, and Osmo has been in the pups for a very long time. However, it is somewhat neglected and not as well integrated as could be.
The way this latest work with Osmo came about, is I have an elderly relative who has a mobile phone with prepaid account with a telco. I pay it, every 4 weeks. Don't want to do a direct-debit with a bank, so renewal requires me to remember when to pay... and I forget.
Besides, renewal is peculiar. I have to pay $15 for the renewal, then separately have to pay $5 international-calls addon. That second payment requires a manual online choice. I cannot see how to automate this with direct-debit or bpay. The telco is Optus.
Want to run your system tests headless? And why not both ways? Here’s how to extend Rails tasks to run your system tests with the driver of your choice.
JavaScript is an interpreted programming language. It means that source code isn’t compiled into binary code prior to execution. The role of the JavaScript engine is to turn plain text script into executable code. In other words, the engine is a container in which you run your program.
JavaScript engines are often developed by web browser vendors, and every major browser has one. In a browser, the JavaScript engine runs in concert with the rendering engine via the Document Object Model. JavaScript engines implement specification of the language provide by ECMAScript. Standardization enables the development of independent engines and ensures scripts give the same results no matter wherever they run.
The first JavaScript engines were mere interpreters, but all relevant modern engines use just-in-time compilation for improved performance.
The use of JavaScript engines is not limited to browsers. For example, the V8 engine is a core component of the Node.js and Deno runtime systems.
Engines which use runtime interpreters and do not compile into native machine code are excluded from this roundup.
Here’s our verdict captured in a legendary ratings chart. We feature free and open source software only here.
Kasm Workspaces is an intriguing platform for security and development aficionados. It is accessible by web browser and allows users to deploy container apps, including full-fledged Ubuntu desktops.
In our daily lives, we must deal with a wide range of challenges that arise in our workplace. As an independent developer, I am concerned with designing secure code, optimizing application speed, and hunting and fixing bugs. But what if, when searching for something on the Internet, I accidentally click on a site that steals my session or downloads ransomware or malware? That is beyond frustrating. Isn’t that right? Every day, I’m sure firms of various sizes have the same difficulty. What if one of their employees accidentally downloads malware in the workplace? Kasm Workspaces, on the other hand, attempts to solve the same problem to a large extent.
And that fool would be me. After realising that HyperSeq is lazy, I managed to simplify the code in my last post.
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The sub needle transforms it’s argument or returns Nil. By turning Nil into Empty, any call to .head will skip all values that where not a hit. At least for strongly CPU-bound tasks, which allow for small batch sizes, .hyper doesn’t overshoot much.
A new version of the GStreamer Rust bindings, 0.18.0, was released. Together with the bindings, also a new version of the GStreamer Rust plugins was released.
As usual this release follows the latest gtk-rs release and the corresponding API changes.
This release includes optional support for the latest new GStreamer 1.20 APIs. As GStreamer 1.20 was not released yet, these new APIs might still change. The minimum supported version of the bindings is still GStreamer 1.8 and the targetted GStreamer API version can be selected by applications via feature flags.
Roller skates are fun and all, but they’re pretty well limited to rolling on relatively smooth surfaces. [Fireball Tool] wanted something a little more rugged, so set about a build of his own.
The challenge of the design was to build these skates using as many wheelchair parts as possible, including the wheels. Roughly 22ââ¬Â³ tall, the wheels have great bearings inside and are designed to run on a single-sided axle support, perfect for the skates. A metal bracket is then used to attach a snowboard boot binding so the wheels can be fitted to the wearer’s feet. Training wheels were fitted to the rear to make it easier for the rider, while a chainsaw engine was pressed into service to provide some welcome propulsive force.
While FDM printers have gotten bigger lately, there’s almost always going to be a part that is bigger than your bed. The answer? Break your design into parts and assemble them after printing. However, the exact method to do this is a bit of a personal choice.
Counting change is a great way to teach children about mathematics and money, but it grows tiresome for those of us that have passed the first grade. Thus, a machine should the job, as [Daniele Tartaglia] demonstrates.
A vibrating motor is used to shake a hopper full of coins, letting them fall through a feeder slot into the machine at a steady rate. They then go through a size-based sorter, which flicks the coins into a different channel depending on their physical dimensions. The coins are counted via infrared sensors wired up to an Arduino, and then pass through a rather lovely maze on their way down to sorting bins at the bottom of the machine.
In Britain, France, Spain and other countries across Europe, politicians and some public health experts are pushing a new approach to the coronavirus pandemic borne of both boldness and resignation: that the illness is becoming a fixture of daily life.
Governments are seizing a moment in which their populations have experienced less severe illness, and, in some instances, a drop in new daily cases after weeks of record growth. And they are moving their mitigation policies off emergency footing.
In Spain, for instance, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez declared last week that citizens would “have to learn to live with it, as we do with many other viruses,” and said that the country should adjust the national approach to more closely align with how it handles influenza outbreaks. Olivier Véran, the French health minister, said recently that France’s high level of infection and strong vaccination rate could “maybe” mean this would be the final wave.
Disclosed a few months back were "Trojan Source" attacks against compilers where specially crafted code could be rogue but not appear so due to exploiting Unicode issues. Unicode control characters could be used to reorder tokens in source code that could alter the behavior when compiled. With the upcoming GCC 12 compiler release there is a new warning to help point out possible Trojan Source attacks.
An attacker with physical access to the medium could use this flaw to force a user into permanently disabling the encryption layer of that medium.
Many enterprises, small businesses, and government users need to encrypt their laptops to protect confidential information such as customer details, files, contact information, and much more.
LUKS (Linux Unified Key Setup) is the standard for Linux hard disk encryption and it is transparent to the user as it operates below the filesystem layer. Basically, it is a block device encryption, which means that when a block from disk is read or written the encryption module at kernel level works for us, like a translator.
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This attack requires repeated physical access to the LUKS device but no knowledge of user passphrases. The decryption step is performed after a valid user activates the device with a correct passphrase and modified metadata. There are no visible warnings for the user that such recovery happened. The attack can also be reversed afterward with possible modification of revealed plaintext.
Microsoft has released a blog post on possible Master Boot Record (MBR) Wiper activity targeting Ukrainian organizations, including Ukrainian government agencies. According to Microsoft, powering down the victim device executes the malware, which overwrites the MBR with a ransom note; however, the ransom note is a ruse because the malware actually destroys the MBR and the targeted files.
It’s a familiar story at the Hawaii State Capitol: A bill is authored by top legislative leaders, strongly supported by experts in the field and publicly opposed by no lawmakers, and yet it mysteriously dies in the waning days of session.
Such was the case of House Bill 532 in 2019, which called for establishing a chief data officer within the state Office of Enterprise Technology Services.
Along with creating a data task force, the legislation authorized the new employee to develop, implement and manage statewide dataset policies, procedures and standards.
A chief data officer, a favorable committee report explained, “will help to standardize the sharing of data among agencies, increase government transparency, and promote data-driven government policies.”
British newspapers have given heavy coverage to the association between Prince Andrew and the Epstein saga. Yet the Australian press, faced with strict laws about defamation, can not give the same level of attention to the relationship between the Prime Minister and Hillsong allegations.
What we have just seen this week can be summarized as the defamation and harassment of a foreigner, the distraction from more serious issues and most critical of all, the trivialization of consent.
Decades later, lawsuits submitted under the Child Victims’ Act have exposed rampant claims of physical, emotional and sexual abuse.
I may not always agree with The Verge on Apple-related issues, but I have no problem acknowledging that they've been right all along to ask Apple when iMessage would finally support the RCS messaging standard in order to achieve interoperability with other messengers. Now that Google's Android chief Hiroshi Lockheimer publicly called on Apple to do so, there is at least some hope for change.
While the iMessage lock-in problem and the social pressures it exerts on low-income families has been discussed on the Internet for some time (see this Septemer 2020 thread on Hacker News, which contains pretty good explanations of how it works), it took a recent Wall Street Journal article to draw the attention of influential people to that problem. It also came up during the Epic Games v. Apple trial, with Apple-internal communications revealing a lock-in strategy.
When I ditched my iPhone last summer, I knew (not least thanks to the public debate surrounding Epic v. Apple) that one can switch off iMessage, which I did about a week before making my Google Pixel my primary phone. It was a non-issue since I primarily use WhatsApp and Signal. Then I'm not a teenager in the United States. The problem is real, and I do feel sorry for low-income families impacted by it. However, let's be clear that Apple's "culpability" in this context is merely a refusal to be interoperable. No one can reasonably expect them to provide an iMessage app on Android, but I agree with Google that supporting RCS would be the morally right thing to do.
Mark Twain famously said "Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well." Although procrastination usually does not have serious consequences, careful consideration is needed when enforcing IP rights. In its recent decision in case C-186/18, the Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU") concluded that an unjustified delay in enforcing IP rights may result in the loss of a large part of the claim due to time-limitation.
Designs overlap with all the other IP rights and are vital for a wide range of industries from fashion to automotive. I was delighted to have the opportunity to read and review the Research Handbook on Design Law edited by Henning Hartwig, Bardehle Pagenberg, Munich, Germany.
On November 19th, Junior Party the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Vienna; and Emmanuelle Charpentier (collectively, "CVC") filed its Substantive Preliminary Motion No. 1 in Interference No. 106,132 (which names Sigma-Aldrich as Senior Party), asking the Patent Trial and Appeal Board for benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/652,086, filed May 25, 2012 ("P1"), U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/716,256, filed October 19, 2012, ("P2"), and U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/757,640, filed January 28, 2013 ("Provisional 3"), pursuant to 37 C.F.R. ۤۤ 41.121(a)(1)(ii) and 41.208(a)(3) and Standing Order ۦ 208.4.1.
On November 19th, Junior Party the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Vienna; and Emmanuelle Charpentier (collectively, "CVC") filed its Substantive Preliminary Motion No. 3 in Interference No. 106,132 (which names Sigma-Aldrich as Senior Party), asking the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to substitute the Count of the interference pursuant to 37 C.F.R. ۤۤ 41.121(a)(1)(iii) and 41.208(a)(1).
On November 19th, Junior Party the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Vienna; and Emmanuelle Charpentier (collectively, "CVC") filed its Substantive Miscellaneous Motion No. 4 in Interference No. 106,132 (which names Sigma-Aldrich as Senior Party), asking the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to add Sigma-Aldrich's U.S. Patent Nos. 10,731,181 and 10,745,716 to the interference and designate claims 1-17 of the '181 patent and claims 2-4, 11, 14, and 21-22 of the '716 patent as corresponding to the Count, pursuant to 37 C.F.R. €§€§ 41.121(a)(1)(i) and 41.208(a)(2) and Standing Order ("SO") 203.2. CVC's substantive argument is that these claims would have been obvious over Count 1 and the Jinek 2012 reference (Jinek et al., 2012, "A Programmable Dual-RNA–Guided DNA Endonuclease in Adaptive Bacterial Immunity," Science 337(6096): 816-21) in light of the Krebber 2000 reference (Krebber and Silver, 2000, "Directing Proteins to Nucleus by Fusion to Nuclear Localization Signal Tags," Methods in Enzymology 327: 283-96) or the Lange 2007 reference (Lange, 2007, "Classical Nuclear Localization Signals: Definition, Function, and Interaction with Importin ñ," J. Biol. Chem. 282(8): 5101–05).
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The brief then explicates with particularity the disclosures in the cited references which in combination with the limitations in the Count satisfy the requirements for obviousness. These include 1) disclosure of dual-guide (dgRNA) and single-guide (sgRNA) RNA embodiments of CRISPR in the Jinek 2012 reference; and 2) the use of the nuclear localization signal from SV40 T antigen as the "canonical NLS for targeting proteins to the nucleus" in the prior art, citing references in exhibits. The brief then subjects each of the claims CVC asks the Board to designate as corresponding to the count to the test established by the Supreme Court in Graham v. John Deere and KSR v. Teleflex Int'l to support its obviousness argument with regard to those claims.
Bioionix, Inc, (www.bioionix.com) a technology platform company that develops, manufactures and distributes proprietary electrolytic systems to eliminate biological and chemical contaminants from water, announced today that the European. Patent Office issued the Letter of Acceptance for EP. Pat. No. 3507002 covering the configuration for electrochemical water treatment.
Inventive step and thus patentability of the claimed invention may be based on experimental data demonstrating a technical effect. In interim decision EPO T 116/18 - "Insecticide compositions" of October 11, 2021, questions on the admissibility of taking into account experimental data filed after the filing date of the patent application were referred to the Enlarged Board of Appeal (reference G 2/21).
The EPO has announced that the Austrian government has successfully completed its ratification of the Protocol to the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court on provisional application (PPA). Once this ratification is deposited with the EU Council, then the provisional application period can commence and final preparations can be made for the arrival of the UPC, with the knowledge that its commencement is assured. The UPC Preparatory Committee has estimated that this preparation period would need to last around 8 months, so the UPC could start around 8 months from Austria’s deposit (depending of course on when Germany deposits its ratification of the UPC Agreement (UPCA) itself – see below).
Though the pandemic has driven record-breaking profits for tech firms as demand for at-home leisure and communication hardware rises, it has also stoked a growing threat coming from patent trolls.
Companies specializing in exploiting patent rights have been buying up intellectual property from firms struggling amid the pandemic and using it as ammunition against Korean firms.
The approach is often seen as a “file-and-settle” strategy, as their targets would often prefer to avoid fighting a time-consuming court battle and the associated costs, even if they are likely to win the case.
As a result, they are settling an increasing number of patent suits at an early stage of court proceedings, particularly in the United States, where the tech market is largest.
...European Research Council (ERC) starting grant worth €1.5 million to undertake a five-year research project examining the bioethical implications posed by patents over technologies related to the human body.
There is a lot going in this decision, but the crux of the appeal is a license interpretation question.
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Statute of Limitations: Plastronics also had a counterclaim. In particular, Hwang had a right to further license the patent, but only with approval from Plastronics. Hwang admitted that he had licensed the patent, but that the license occurred 9 years before the lawsuit began and thus was outside of the 4-year statute of limitations under Texas law. The Texas allowed the claim — since it was an ongoing license. On appeal, however, the Federal Circuit reversed — holding that the “breach of contract … arose from a single, unauthorized license grant … almost ten years before Plaintiffs filed suit.” As such, the case was beyond the statute of limitations. The court distinguished other situations regarding periodic payments of royalties, where each missed payment is seen as another breach and thus can restart the statute of limitations. See Hooks v. Samson Lone Star, LP, 457 S.W.3d 52, 68 (Tex. 2015).
Field’s patent uses a spring to make it easier to slip on tight-fitting gloves. The case reached the Supreme Court in 1886, but the court sided with the accused infringer. The case involved admitted-prior-art. In particular, the patent specification admitted “that springs had been combined before with the wrists of gloves” in the past. That admission assured the court that the patent cannot cover “the combination of springs in every form with the wrists of gloves to close them.” The accused infringer was also using a spring-glove combination, but a different form than that claimed. As such, no infringement.
We are 2 years into the 2020s and have 5 decisions thus far (counting Google v. Oracle, which discusses substantive patent issues). If that trend continues, then the final figures for the 2020s would be similar to that of the 2010s. Of course, thus far in the 2021-22 term, the Supreme Court has not yet granted certiorari in any patent cases.
The Patent Act permits a patent to be divided up regionally within the United States.
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35 U.S.C. 261. The provision was (I believe) added as part of the Patent Act of 1870 and overruled the very first Supreme Court patent law decision, Tyler v. Tuel, 10 U.S. 324 (1810). In Tyler, the Supreme Court found that a patent assignment excepting a few specific counties was not a “true assignment” and therefore the purported assignees had no right to sue on the case. The court suggested that exceptions might be found in equity.
Albright’s actions are unusual enough to warrant the Supreme Court’s patent venue study, but they aren’t nefarious
Innovator and generics counsel weigh in on key court cases and why they have high hopes for Kathi Vidal
Germany and Slovenia have both deposited the Protocol on Provisional Application (PPA) with the Council of the European Union. Now only one more country will need to ratify the PPA before the Council can initiate the final step for implementation of the UPC, which is expected to enter into force in late 2022.
Figure 1 shows the number of Federal Circuit opinions and Rule 36 summary affirmances by origin since 2010. Once again, the highest number of merits terminations arose from the PTO. The most notable change for 2021 was a drop in the number of decisions arising from the district courts: from 197 in 2020 to 142 in 2021. These represent individual documents (i.e.: a single opinion or Rule 36), not docket numbers, but there’s also a 25% drop when looking at the data on a per-docket number basis. Overall, the Federal Circuit issued 653 merits decisions in regular appeals in 2021 as compared with 690 in 2020.
On January 10, 2022, Unified Patents filed an ex parte reexamination against U.S. Patent 6,615,137, owned and asserted by AutoBrilliance, LLC, an NPE. The ‘137 patent is generally directed to inter-vehicle communication systems and methods for detecting objects and notifying drivers of possible collision conditions and has been asserted against General Motors and Volvo. This filing marks the first U.S. reexamination within Unified’s new V2X Zone.
On January 13, 2022, Unified Patents added a new PATROLL contest, with a $2,000 cash prize, seeking prior art on at least claim 1 of U.S. Patent 7,337,650. The patent is owned by AutoBrilliance, LLC, an NPE. The '650 patent generally relates to a vehicle sensor system consisting of video, radar, ultrasonic or laser sensors, oriented to obtain a 360 degree view around the vehicle for the purpose of developing a situation or scene awareness. The patent is currently being asserted against General Motors.
The Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) provides a mechanism for accelerating examination of a patent application at a second patent office, if examination work has already been conducted at a first patent office with whom a PPH agreement is in place. If claims of an application have been found acceptable by a first office (often the office of first filing), accelerated examination of a corresponding application at a second office may be requested. The PPH allows a second patent office to make use of relevant work already conducted by a first office when examining an application.
Crunchfish Gesture Interaction AB ("Crunchfish") has received an Intention to Grant from the European Patent Office (EPO) regarding gesture interaction with a physical or virtual display to type PIN codes or passwords in a unique way every time. The patent protects scrambling the keypad or display to ensure different touchless interaction patterns every time PIN codes or passwords are entered to lock or unlock the wearable. The patent number is EP18197711.7 and is valid until September 2032.
Mazda recently filed a patent application for a rear-wheel drive rotary design with the European Patent Office. (Images: European Patent Office)
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If you’re interested in learning more about Mazda’s patent, you can search the EPO listings through a service called Espacenet, using the top search bar. The case numbers are EP3932712A1, EP3932714A1 and EP3932730A1 respectively.
Standard-essential patent (SEP) litigation will be an even bigger topic in 2022 than in recent years, and a major reason is a wide discrepancy between the "ask" and the "bid" prices for 5G licenses. Of course, agreements do silently fall into place here and there (be they license or arbitration agreements), but some 5G litigation is already underway and storms are brewing elsewhere. Let's not forget about WiFi 6 either--or the problem that one video codec pool (Access Advance) makes exorbitant demands. Bluetooth may be the only Sea of Tranquility in the digital standards space.
Munich and Mannheim will remain the world's primary SEP injuntion hotspots. London is also key, but let's talk about that one on a different occasion.
Vintage year 2021 and 2022 SEP cases in Munich and Mannheim will raise important new questions and have the potential to lead to more nuanced outcomes. That is so because cases that have been decided so far in the Sisvel v. Haier era--starting with the two Sisvel v. Haier cases themselves--presented fact patterns characterized either by implementers' reliance on a strictly sequential application of the ECJ's Huawei v. ZTE guidance or by defiance, ignorance, sometimes maybe terrible advice. Now we're going to see what happens when reasonably sophisticated defendants who benefit from realistic advice go out of their way to comply with German SEP case law during the entire course of negotiations. That wasn't the case before as far as I can tell.
Global players typically have significant exposure to patent assertions in Germany. That was already the case when the Munich I Regional Court issued its SEP guidelines about two years ago. Those guidelines did not even come as a surprise. For example, Presiding Judge Dr. Matthias Zigann of the court's Seventh Civil Chamber even went to an ETSI meeting to explain his plans beforehand. He listened to a lot of input, but then he and his colleagues decided. At that point, the prudent thing for implementers of FRAND-pledged SEPs to do would have been to heed that guidance in everyday licensing negotiations. It appears, however, that many parties were hoping that they wouldn't be slapped with a Munich SEP injunction before the appeals court would overturn those SEP Local Rules. Wishful thinking.
As we begin year three of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise of the Omicron variant has caused many workers, who had returned to the office during summer and fall 2021, to revert to working from home. This trend has further increased speculation that remote working arrangements will become more widespread, even after the pandemic ends, and may be here to stay.
In the United States, “[a]ny civil action for patent infringement may be brought in the judicial district where the defendant resides, or where the defendant has committed acts of infringement and has a regular and established place of business.” The shift to working from home has raised new questions regarding a defendant’s “regular and established place of business” and thus, the proper venue for a patent infringement suit when a company’s remote employees work within many judicial districts in the United States. Recently, however, Hatch-Waxman plaintiffs in Celgene Corporation v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc., 17 F.4th 1111 (Fed. Cir. 2021), received the clearest guidance to date from the Federal Circuit regarding venue.
The Senate Judiciary Committee confirmed the nominations of Kathi Vidal for USPTO director and Len Stark for the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, sending them off for a full Senate hearing.
The committee confirmed Vidal by a vote of 17 to five and Stark by 16 to six.
The hearing had originally been scheduled to take place last week but was postponed to allow committee members to attend the funeral of former senator Johnny Isakson on January 6.
Senator John Kennedy led the votes against Vidal’s nomination, saying: “If you took big tech and turned it upside down and shook it, our patent office directors would fall out of big tech's pocket.”
Michael Hawes, partner at Baker Botts in Houston, said he was pleased by Stark's confirmation.
"With Judge Stark’s experience as chief judge in Delaware, he can hit the ground running and add hands-on experience with Section 101 patentable subject matter procedures and pharmaceutical trials to the Federal Circuit," he said.
"He will also bring understanding of how Federal Circuit decisions on petitions for mandamus and interlocutory appeals, considering, for example, temporary injunction decisions, can affect a district court with a heavy docket of patent cases."
Vidal, the managing partner of Winston & Strawn’s Silicon Valley office, was nominated by President Joe Biden last October.
Stark, a judge at the District Court for the District of Delaware, was nominated in November to replace Kathleen O’Malley, who will leave the Federal Circuit in March.
A full Senate hearing is the last hurdle Vidal and Stark will face before they take their new position.
A date for the hearing has yet to be announced.
The festive season is, for many, a magical time of the year. And when magic is in the air, our imaginations are often encouraged to work a little harder – whether it's children listening for sleigh bells in the snow, or grown-ups trying to find a perfect gift for that difficult-to-buy-for person in their life. For some inventors, however, imaginations are focussed on how to solve problems that come but once a year, such as how to stop the angel at the top of the tree from sitting lop-sided, or how Father Christmas can get into a house with no chimneys. There's a certain kind of innovation which is special to the holiday season, and in this edition of Insight we explore some of the patents filed (and in some cases even granted) for Christmassy inventions.
We have snow on the ground here in Missouri. That makes me think of Gary Reinert’s new patent entitled “method and apparatus for rapid stopping of a motor vehicle particularly on snow or ice.” U.S. Pat. No. 11,091,154. The image below from the patent tells the story. Conventional brakes are awful. Antilock Brakes are much better, but the Reinert Snow Brakes take the cake. Rather than just stopping the wheels, the Reinert Snow Brakes actually shift the car into reverse and spin the tires backward to slow-down the car. I feel like I saw this in Cannonball Run II, but I’m probably misremembering.
The General Court has clarified the law on rights of representation before EU courts, but some lawyers think further challenges are possible
Motorola has been reportedly working on an all-screen smartphone. A patent submitted by the company has been published recently, suggesting that it has plans for making a smartphone with a screen that wraps all around it, such that only the top and the bottom edge of the smartphone is left with the frame. Read along to find out more details about the all-screen Motorola smartphone.
“We can no longer rely on these big superpowers to come in and save us.”
These words of biotechnologist Emile Hendricks capture the sentiment of countries unable to pay for the same quantities of COVID-19 vaccines as wealthier countries.
In Africa, Hendricks and others are currently working, with backing from the World Health Organization (WHO), to reverse-engineer the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine because the pharmaceutical company has not released the intellectual property rights for its vaccines.
Moderna, Pfizer, BioNTech, and other vaccine manufacturers have profited billions of dollars by selling their patented vaccines to wealthy countries, while nations such as Nigeria and Ethiopia endure the world’s lowest vaccination rates.
But the Biden Administration—despite publicly supporting a waiver of COVID-19 vaccine patents—has done little to help under-vaccinated countries lift the patents.
In a rare dilution ruling, the Board sustained this opposition to registration of the mark POTIFY, in standard character and word-plus-design form, for clothing and for software and services related to medical marijuana dispensaries, on the ground of likelihood of dilution by blurring of the famous, registered mark SPOTIFY for downloadable software and online services. The Board found the mark SPOTIFY to be "as famous as marks comes" and dilution not just likely but "inevitable." Spotify AB v. U.S. Software, Inc., Oppositions No. 91243297 and 91248487 (TTAB 2022) [precedential] (Opinion by Judge Michael B. Adlin).
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To prevail on its dilution claims, Spotify was required to show that: "(1) it owns a famous mark that is distinctive; (2) Applicant is using a mark in commerce that allegedly dilutes Opposer’s famous mark; (3) Applicant’s use of its mark began after Opposer’s became famous; and (4) Applicant’s use of its mark is likely to cause dilution by blurring or tarnishment. N.Y. Yankees P’ship v. IET Prods. & Servs., Inc., 114 USPQ2d 1497, 1502 (TTAB 2015) (quoting Coach Servs., 101 USPQ2d at 1723-24)."
On January 4, 2022, Unified Patents added two separate PATROLL contests with an opportunity to collect up to $4,000 in cash for prior art on at least claim 1 of two patents - U.S. Patent 8,452,273 and U.S. Patent 9,049,558. The patents are owned by Big Will Enterprises, Inc., an NPE. The patents generally relate to electronic messaging technologies for accurately identifying motion activity (MA) associated with mobile things (MT) using sensor data from a wireless communication device (WCD) transported by the MT so as to enable or initiate an activity based actions. The patents have been asserted against Montblanc, Unaliwear, and Kronoz.
In the recent EU case C-783/19, a Spanish tapas bar chain had used CHAMPANILLO in its name, why Champagne producers had brought action. The EU Court clarified the scope of protection and found that there was significant similarity between the name CHAMPANILLO and the world-famous Champagne protected by EU law due to its origin. New and interestingly, a service provider's use of a name similar to names protected due to their special origin was deemed an infringement.
The EAEU trademark Treaty that introduces a new regional trademark and appellations of origin protection system was signed in Moscow on February 3, 2020 by five member-states of the EAEU: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. The Treaty governs legal relations concerning filing application for registration and protection of trademarks and appellations of origin within the member-states of the EAEU. The said Treaty was ratified by all member-states and came into force on April 26, 2021. However, after the ratification procedure was completed it was not clear when the new regional trademark and appellations of origin protection system will become available for applicants.
On December 16, 2021 a new development has been made - the Russian government adopted a schedule of official fees for certain legal operations related to registration of Eurasian trademarks and appellations of origin which enter into force on July 1, 2022 (The Government Resolution No.2318 dated December 16, 2021). It may be expected that the governments of the rest of the member-states are to adopt the local fees this year as well in order for the Eurasian trademark and appellations of origin system to start operating.
The USPTO should make sure it deters attorneys and filers from bad practices if it wants its new process to be effective, say sources
I have again reviewed the TTAB's FOIA page (now called the "TTAB Reading Room") in order to estimate the percentage of Section 2(e)(1) mere descriptiveness refusals that were affirmed by the Board during the last calendar year (2021). I counted 92 refusals, of which 84 were affirmed and 8 reversed. That's an affirmance rate of about 91.3%, a five-point rise from last year's 88%.
A ruling in the US courts says gruyere is a generic style of cheese that can come from anywhere.
The decision means US cheesemakers, not just those in France or Switzerland, can continue to create and market cheese under the common name.
In a convincing opinion, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has upheld the Board's decision [TTABlogged here] finding the term GRUYERE to be generic for cheese, and thus unregistrable as a certification mark. On the Dairy Export Council's motion for summary judgment, the court found that "the undisputed evidence produced by the parties in this case makes clear that the primary significance of the term GRUYERE, as understood by the relevant purchasing public in the United States, is a generic term for a type of cheese and does not refer solely to cheese from a specific geographic region." Interprofession du Gruyère et al. v. U.S. Dairy Export Council et al., Civil Action No. 1:20-cv-1174 (E.D. Va. December 15, 2021).
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"The central issue in this matter is whether the term GRUYERE has become generic for a certain type of cheese and is no longer understood to refer only to cheese which comes from the Gruyère region of Switzerland and France."
In Europe, the mild, smooth and nutty cheese called gruyère must have a slightly damp texture, with average spring and low crumble. It must be in the shape of a wheel, weighing between 55 and 88 pounds. Fruity notes must dominate.
Perhaps most importantly, according to Swiss guidelines, gruyère must be made in the region around Gruyères, Switzerland, which has produced the cheese since the 12th century.
In the United States, however, gruyère can be made anywhere, according to a federal court ruling that was made public last week. It was the latest development in a long-running legal tangle between American cheese producers and producers in Switzerland and France over what makes gruyère gruyère.
In the ruling last month in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Judge T.S. Ellis III wrote, “Although the term gruyère may once have been understood to indicate an area of cheese production, the factual record makes it abundantly clear that the term gruyère has now, over time, become generic to cheese purchasers in the United States.” Under U.S. law, trademarks cannot be given to generic terms.
Following a referendum in the UK in 2016, the UK's official membership of the European Union ended in January 2020, triggering the start of an 11-month transition period which was relevant for various IP rights, including UK registered designs.
Prior to the UK's departure from the EU, a Registered Community Design (RCD) (also known as an EU design) would cover the UK. To ensure that rights from existing RCDs continue to be protected in the UK, the UK Government agreed to create an equivalent "cloned" registered UK design for all existing RCDs.
Yours truly, the TTABlogger, has once again reviewed the TTAB's FOIA page (now called the "TTAB Reading Room") in order to estimate the percentage of Section 2(d) likelihood-of-confusion refusals that were affirmed by the Board in the past calendar year. I counted 273 decisions, of which 240 were affirmances and 33 were reversals. That's an affirmance rate of approximately 87.9%, or a bit less than 9 out of 10. A follow-up question is: how many were WYHAs?
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How does this compare with past years? Here's a bar chart (prepared by the incomparable Francesca ("Frankie") Householder of Wolf Greenfield), covering the last ten years...
