Look Who's Winning A New Generation Of U.S.-China Patent Disputes; Forbes, 7/5/16

Ralph Jennings, Forbes; Look Who's Winning A New Generation Of U.S.-China Patent Disputes:

"Chinese officials now as ever don’t like being told by foreigners, whether companies or government agencies, that their business people are breaking laws that hurt peers offshore. Now the Communist Party-backed legal system may want to bite back at the old allegations. Chinese smartphone developers conservatively took a 17% share of the world’s 349,000 smartphone sales in the first quarter, per data by market research firm Gartner, so their lawyers will be hard to ignore. Tech hardware firms tend to do a lot of suing anyway – just part of business...

Foreign business people are watching the Qualcomm case as another bellwether, like the Apple cases, for how Chinese courts will rule and watch for any political overtones. “If, now that Qualcomm has met those demands, China’s courts don’t uphold Qualcomm’s IP rights, then it will send a resounding message to other foreign firms that there’s really nothing you can do to protect your technology there,” says Mark Natkin, managing director with market research firm Marbridge Consulting in Beijing."

McDonald's Wins EU Trademark for 'Mac' and 'Mc'; Associated Press via New York Times, 7/5/16

Associated Press via New York Times; McDonald's Wins EU Trademark for 'Mac' and 'Mc' :

"McDonald's has won a case in a European court that could prevent another company from using any combination of the terms "Mac" or "Mc" to sell food or drinks.

The ruling came after the U.S. fast-food giant tried to stop Singapore's Future Enterprises from registering MACCOFFEE as a European Union trade mark."

Korean Tutor Gets Suspended Sentence in U.S. Exam Leak Scandal; Reuters via New York Times, 6/30/16

Reuters via New York Times; Korean Tutor Gets Suspended Sentence in U.S. Exam Leak Scandal:

"A South Korean court has handed down a suspended prison sentence to a cram school tutor for leaking test answers from the U.S. SAT college entrance exam, a ruling obtained on Thursday showed...

In May 2013, the U.S. College Board, which owns the SAT, canceled the sitting of the exam in South Korea because of leaked questions. It was the first time the organization scrapped an SAT sitting across an entire country."

11 THINGS DC COMICS TAUGHT US ABOUT KFC'S MULTIDIMENSIONAL COLONEL SANDERS; Comic Book Resources, 7/5/16

Meagan Damore, Comic Book Resources; 11 THINGS DC COMICS TAUGHT US ABOUT KFC'S MULTIDIMENSIONAL COLONEL SANDERS:

[Kip Currier: Colonel Sanders' Original Recipe of 11 herbs and spices, owned by KFC, is probably the 2nd most famous trade secret in the world. The zany--and props-for-creativity--free comic "KFC: The Colonel Corps" has the villainous Colonel Sunder scheming to pluck the perennially sought-after secret recipe from Colonel Sanders' control to leverage it for...wait for it...WORLD-WIDE RESTAURANT DOMINION. Cue mustache...err, goatee twirl.]

""KFC: The Colonel Corps" -- available for free on comiXology -- pits Earth-1's Colonel Sanders against an old foe: Colonel Sunder, our fast food hero's evil doppelganger from Earth-3. Colonel Sanders first encountered him in "The Colonel of Two Worlds" special, and -- in "The Colonel Corps" -- Sunder is back to his evil ways: he wants to steal Sanders' recipe and take the easy way out in conquering the restaurant business, instead of putting hard work into becoming number one. In order to overcome Sunder, Sanders teams up with his doppelgangers from across the multiverse to put an end to Sunder's plans once and for all.

It's every bit as ridiculous as it sounds, and twice as fun."

Juno probe enters Jupiter's orbit after 'amazing' Nasa mission – as it happened; Guardian, 7/5/16

Michael Slezak, Guardian; Juno probe enters Jupiter's orbit after 'amazing' Nasa mission – as it happened:

"Well, what a day. What an achievement.

After a five year journey from Earth, Juno the solar-powered spacecraft squeezed through a narrow band, skimming Jupiter’s surface, avoiding the worst of both its radiation belt and its dangerous dust rings.

It fired its main engine, slowing its velocity, and allowing it to get captured into Jupiter’s hefty orbit.

After it was complete, jubilant scientists fronted a press conference, and tore up a “contingency communication strategy” they said they prepared in case things went wrong.

“To know we can go to bed tonight not worrying about what is going to happen tomorrow, is just amazing,” said Diane Brown, a project manager from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Scott Bolton, principle investigator of the Juno mission told his colleagues: “You’re the best team ever! We just did the hardest thing Nasa has ever done.”"

NASA’s Juno orbiter set to arrive at Jupiter on Monday; Washington Post, 7/4/16

Rachel Feltman, Washington Post; NASA’s Juno orbiter set to arrive at Jupiter on Monday:

[Kip Currier: What a fitting testament NASA's Juno orbiter mission to Jupiter is to reason, shared human endeavor, and Open Science on this day, the USA's 240th birthday.]

"Take a break from your all-American cookout tonight to look up at the sky and think of Juno. On Monday, the football-field-size spacecraft will zip into Jupiter's orbit, allowing us to study the secrets of our solar system's biggest, oldest planet for the first time.

Other spacecraft have visited Jupiter before. But Juno will orbit closer than any of them – within 2,700 miles of the planet's cloud cover – and allow scientists to probe for data from beneath the giant planet's roiling, gassy surface.

"We're barreling down on Jupiter really quick," principal investigator Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute said at a news briefing held at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in California on Monday. "It's been an amazing journey."

Around 1:30 p.m. Eastern, he said, Juno passed Europa – the Jovian moon that has subsurface oceans where future missions may look for signs of life. Around half an hour later, it passed Io, the innermost moon.

"In one Jupiter rotation, we'll be there," said Jim Green, director of planetary science for NASA. "What a wonderful day to celebrate. It's a milestone for our country, but also for planetary science.""

Episode 709: The Quiet Old Lady Who Whispers "Fair Use"; Planet Money, NPR, 7/1/16

[Podcast] Planet Money, NPR; Episode 709: The Quiet Old Lady Who Whispers "Fair Use" :

"...[A]fter writing his own Goodnight Moon spinoff, Keith wanted to know: Could he sell it? Is that even legal?

Today on the show, we dive into the world of copyright and fair use. Just where is the line between inspiration and stealing?"