Bitter Contract Dispute Extends to Who Owns Yosemite Names; New York Times, 3/1/16

Thomas Fuller, New York Times; Bitter Contract Dispute Extends to Who Owns Yosemite Names:

"Sarah Maxwell, an official at the trademark office, said the law barred trademarking national or state flags, but there was no explicit prohibition on the trademarking of other American icons.

She added that there was a section of the United States Trademark Act that bars a trademark that “falsely suggest a connection” with a “national symbol.”

Affection for Yosemite runs deep. Yosemite Valley was set aside by Abraham Lincoln, who in the midst of the Civil War was shown photographs of the area and signed the Yosemite Grant Act, which protected Yosemite “for public use, resort and recreation.” The Park Service says Lincoln’s decision was the first time the federal government acted to protect land, paving the way for the creation of the National Park system.

Rhonda Salisbury, the chief executive of Visit Yosemite Madera County, a nonprofit organization that promotes tourism in the area, said the trademarking of Yosemite was “a big deal” among those fond of the park.

“It’s very personal. It’s hurtful,” she said. “With the U.S. in an uproar in the political scene, the last thing we need is someone to hold our parks hostage.”"

IBM Sues Groupon Over Alleged Patent Infringement; Reuters via New York Times, 3/2/16

Reuters via New York Times; IBM Sues Groupon Over Alleged Patent Infringement:

"International Business Machines Corp filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against daily deals website operator Groupon Inc alleging infringement of its patents.

The complaint, filed at the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, accuses Groupon of building its business model using IBM's patents without authorization despite prior warnings."

Libraries’ Love Your Data Week raises awareness among research universities; Penn State News, 2/5/16

Penn State News; Libraries’ Love Your Data Week raises awareness among research universities:

"During the week of Feb. 8, university research libraries across the United States, including Penn State’s University Libraries — @psulibs on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram — are participating in a grassroots social media campaign to spread awareness about the importance of documenting, sharing, preserving and making available research data.

Love Your Data Week — hashtag #lyd16 — is about recognizing the ways in which individuals can start caring for data now, adopting consistent practices, modeling and implementing them for generations to come. Managing data in a conscionable way, with attention as well to affordances for reuse, is both a responsibility to the scholarly record and an important public good.

University students, in particular, are learning and researching in an era of increasing compliance with federal funding agencies’ requirements for public access to research results, including data. The themes of Love Your Data Week prompt faculty and staff to ask: How do we teach students to be responsible stewards of their scholarly outputs? How do we instill in them an awareness of potential future users of their work — a perspective that affects how data gets shared or not, is made accessible or not?"

Rauschenberg Foundation Eases Copyright Restrictions on Art; New York Times, 2/26/16

Randy Kennedy, New York Times; Rauschenberg Foundation Eases Copyright Restrictions on Art:

"Images are vital in art scholarship and publishing, he added, and when they are not available, scholarship can be weakened or delayed or not pursued at all. The effects can filter down even to college art classes, where images necessary for teaching are sometimes too costly or complicated to obtain.

Whether other prominent foundations will follow the Rauschenberg’s lead remains to be seen. “In principle, I’m really for what” Ms. MacLear “is doing,” said Jack Flam, president and chief executive of the Dedalus Foundation, which represents the work of Robert Motherwell and has been active recently in public discussions about copyright issues. But Mr. Flam, an art historian, added that the current system still had a valuable role to play both in ensuring that the best images are used and in helping foundations and estates keep track of how those images are used. “It’s not a money issue; it’s a quality issue,” he said."

Sony Music Issues Takedown On Copyright Lecture About Music Copyrights By Harvard Law Professor; TechDirt.com, 2/16/16

Mike Masnick, TechDirt.com; Sony Music Issues Takedown On Copyright Lecture About Music Copyrights By Harvard Law Professor:

"Oh, the irony. First pointed out by Mathias Schindler, it appears that a copyright lecture about music copyright done by famed copyright expert and Harvard Law professor William Fisher has been taken down due to a copyright claim by Sony Music."

Library of Congress Puts Rosa Parks Archive Online; New York Times, 2/25/16

Jennifer Schuessler, New York Times; Library of Congress Puts Rosa Parks Archive Online:

"The Library of Congress has digitized the papers of Rosa Parks, enabling free online access to everything from her first-hand recollections of the Montgomery bus boycott and personal correspondence with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to family photographs, tax returns and a handwritten recipe for “featherlite pancakes.”

The collection, which includes roughly 7,500 manuscript items and 2,500 photographs, is on loan to the library for 10 years from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, which acquired the collection in 2014 after a dispute involving Parks’s heirs that had left the papers languishing in a warehouse for nearly a decade following her death in 2005. (If the archives move elsewhere, the digital files will remain at the library.)"

Patent scandal: Secret probe of top UN official completed; FoxNews.com, 2/18/16

George Russell, FoxNews.com; Patent scandal: Secret probe of top UN official completed:

"The WIPO staffers allegedly victimized by Gurry had also left the agency. They became embroiled in the alleged break-ins after anonymous letters circulated that made vague charges of financial impropriety against Gurry and his wife, in advance of his initial election as WIPO chief.

The DNA evidence collected against the staffers formed part of the tests subsequently performed by Swiss police on the staffers -- their diplomatic immunity was temporarily lifted to let that happen -- to determine their guilt or innocence in the letter-writing episode. They were cleared of being involved.

And it was when the staffers discovered mention of the DNA samples in testing paperwork that they said they realized it had come from illegal entry of their offices."