RECENTLY
#1. House Bill Would Exempt USPTO from Sequestration.
- Tony Dutra at Bloomberg BNA reports a Bill has been
introduced into the House that would exempt the USPTO
from government cuts forced by sequestration. The Bill, and an
accompanying letter signed by several Silicon Valley Congressman urgers
Congress to exempt the USPTO because that Office is funded solely by fees
paid with the applications it receives. The USPTO stands to lose about
$150 million in funding.
#2. Judge's Facebook Friends not grounds for Recusal
- Venkat
Balasubramani at Eric Goldman's Technology & Marketing Law Blog
reports on two cases that seek to answer the question whether or not Facebook "friendships"
are grounds for Judicial recusal. The two opinions are further evidence of
the way the social networking site is affecting the law in very basic ways
by defining or redefining relationships.
#3. Library
of Congress Logging Blawgs
- Michel-Adrien
reports the redesign
of the Law Library of Congress' Legal
Blawg Archive. The LOC has been archiving these blogs for years.
However, only certain blogs are archived, generally the most reputable blogs
that are also tied to Law Schools and provide an academic style of
information and legal analysis.
#4. New Digital Rights Management
Technology (& the Fictitious Lillian Virginia Mountweazel).
- James Bridle at The Observer reports that Germany's
Fraunhofer Institute
recently revealed that it is working on a new digital rights management
system, entitled SiDiM.
Regular DRM involves making changes to the code of the media. The proposed
SiDiM, however, make literal changes to the content of the media. For
example, the word "unhealthy" would automatically change to
"not healthy" and thus distinguish a plagiarist's work from a
licensed work. Indeed, there is precedence for this: the "Mountweazel"
is a made-up word inserted into a dictionary to catch unwary
plagiarists, which originates in the fictitious Lillian Virginia
Mountweazel who first appeared in the New Columbia Encyclopedia
of 1975.
JOBS
Patent Search Attorney – Large
Corporation – Evanston, Ill.
- Cardinal Intellectual Property,
an Intellectual Property Search and Services company, is seeking a Patent
Search Attorney to work in its Evanston, Illinois office.
Patent Attorney / Agent – Law Firm –
Fairfax, Va.
- MG-IP Law, PLLC is
accepting resumes for a Patent Attorney or Patent Agent with an electrical
or computer science background and at least two years of experience. MG-IP
is a growing top 40 IP firm located in the northern Virginia area and
offers a flexible work environment.
UPCOMING EVENTS
- IPO Annual Meeting. Boston MA.
September 15-17, 2013. View the Meeting Program here - AIPLA Annual Meeting. October
24-26, Marriott Wardman Park, Washington, DC (703-415-0780)
Related
articles