Sound familiar? Taking songwriters to court; CBS News, April 3, 2022

CBS News; Sound familiar? Taking songwriters to court

"Sound familiar? Taking songwriters to court

When two songs share a melody, some chords, or even just a vibe, can the songwriter be taken to court? Correspondent David Pogue looks at how music copyrights have become an increasingly disharmonious area of litigation."

A Century-Old Debate Over Science Patents Is Repeating Itself Today; Slate, February 25, 2019

Charles Duan, Slate; A Century-Old Debate Over Science Patents Is Repeating Itself Today

"What caused the demise of Ruffini’s idea? It turned out to be devils in the details: Deep thinkers on the subject, even those in favor of scientific property in principle, couldn’t figure out the implementation. Rogers, for example, wondered how scientific property would deal with multiple contributors to one discovery. Who, for example, “discovered” electricity—Benjamin Franklin? André-Marie Ampère? George Simon Ohm? The “chap that made the Leyden jar”? Industries worried about unexpected liability and demanded creation of a scientific property insurance scheme. The American Association for the Advancement of Science report found concerns that the expansive scope of some scientific discoveries could lead to unbounded, tortuous litigation. A U.S. Patent Office official wondered how scientific property patents could be written without being too vague and speculative."

Entrepreneurs Tell USPTO Director Iancu: Patent Trolls Aren’t Just “Monster Stories”; Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), February 14, 2019

Joe Mullin, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF); Entrepreneurs Tell USPTO Director Iancu: Patent Trolls Aren’t Just “Monster Stories”

"Unfortunately, the new director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is in a serious state of denial about patent trolls and the hurt they cause to technologists everywhere. Today a number of small business owners and start-up founders have submitted a letter [PDF] to USPTO Director Andre Iancu telling him that patent trolls remain a real threat to U.S. businesses. Signatories range from mid-sized companies like Foursquare and Life360 to one-person software enterprises like Ken Cooper's. The letter explains the harm, cost, and stress that patent trolls cause businesses."

Sleepless Nights for GCs Caused by Regulations and Crisis Management; Inside Counsel, June 22, 2017

Jennifer Williams-Alvarez, Inside Counsel; Sleepless Nights for GCs Caused by Regulations and Crisis Management

"The inaugural "General Counsel Up-at-Night" report looks at responses to an online survey conducted in spring 2017 from more than 200 U.S.-based general counsel and other in-house legal decision-makers.

The results reveal that the most pressing challenges faced by respondents are: regulations and enforcement; privacy and data security; risk and crisis management; litigation; and intellectual property. Among these, the biggest concerns are regulations and enforcement, with 74 percent of respondents identifying this as a very important challenge, followed by privacy and data security with 65 percent and risk and crisis management with 63 percent."

Judge Rejects 'Making Available' Defense, Orders Teen File Sharer to Pay RIAA $7,400 - Wired.com, 10/24/08

Via Wired.com:

Judge Rejects 'Making Available' Defense, Orders Teen File Sharer to Pay RIAA $7,400:

"The decision contradicts last month's mistrial ruling in the nation's only file sharing case to go to trial. The split outcomes underscore that, after five years of RIAA file sharing litigation and some 30,000 lawsuits, the level of proof necessary to demonstrate copyright infringement in the peer-to-peer context varies from judge to judge."
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/10/judge-rejects-m.html