Patent Infringement Notice Pleading Standard Not MetJury deliberates Java copyright in Oracle-Android trial – iPad/iPhone – Macworld UKInnovation Law BlogAbout the Public Domain BlogWhere Can I Find Public Domain Content For My BlogArmy Admits Re-Education Camp Manual “Not Intended For Public Release”Negotiation Is Over! – New law criminlizes NIO’s anti-vivisection campaign tactics at UFB&J ‘Solar’ enlarger, Nov 46 PopPho pg. 27Orson Welles + Franz KafkaMaitri's VatulBlog

Google-Oracle: Java Infringement Trial Circus

There’s one key lesson you can learn from the clash of Oracle and Google in the courtroom over whether Google’s Java use in Android OS has infringed upon Oracle’s intellectual property rights…

The Internet continues to expose current patent, trademark, and copyright law as obsolete because the legal system is ill-equipped to identify and protect your intellectual property in the 21st Century.

It isn’t a matter of copyright infringement, patent infringement, or trademark infringement. The issue is that intellectual property law cannot keep up, which begs the question of whether it should in the first place.

This isn’t some anti-capitalist rant demanding intellectual property be in the public domain or distributed via a copyleft license. Instead, it is a reflection that current IP laws create trolls (Righthaven) who litigate and dinosaurs who abuse the system (RIAA and MPAA) rather than truly serving the rights of intellectual property owners while promoting entrepreneurial creativity.

So who wins in the Google Oracle Java Android dispute? Absolutely no one except the litigators who profit from it. And that’s a shame.

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Microsoft versus Linux – MSFT goes to war against free and open source software

Microsoft (MSFT) claims that freeware like Linux violates 235 of its patents. This means the company wants royalties to be paid by distributors and users.

Let’s cut to the chase. Microsoft has never been pro-entrepreneur…even in its infancy. Bill Gates was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and presumably got some very good legal advice from his lawyer father, a partner in a major Seattle law firm, when negotiating with IBM regarding MS-DOS.

Now that Windows Vista has shown the emperor is without clothes, Mr. Softee is trying to choke the competition out of existence. Back in 1998, The Onion created a satire piece titled “Microsoft Patents Ones, Zeroes.” Truth is stranger than fiction.

I hope that the Fortune 500 users of Linux stop this Microsoft shakedown. The average open source software user isn’t going to have the financial means to fight Microsoft in court.

In presidential politics, it looks like Congressman Ron Paul with his libertarian views would be most likely to rein in a patent system run amuck. However, at the moment he’s a dark horse candidate.

Hat tip to Roger Parloff at CNNMoney.com.

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Licensing Agreements Can Grow Your Business

A license agreement is a contract in which one party grants another party permission to do something that would otherwise be illegal. These types of licenses are common for intellectual property protected by copyright, patent, or trademark. It can include a proprietary way of doing business, such as real estate investing or even operating a yoga studio.

Licensing agreements are more flexible than franchises because they are not heavily regulated by the government, are more flexible, and are less expensive to create and control than a franchise. Licenses promote entrepreneurs instead of suffocating them with a one-size-fits-all method of doing business one finds with franchises.

There are two primary ways to grow your business through licensing: (1) find others who are willing to pay licensing fees for what you own and make money by replicating your business through these licensees; and (2) become a licensee for the rights to something that would be profitable for your business to use.

If you’ve invented the wheel, license it and make money. If you haven’t, don’t reinvent it. License it from the inventor.

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Patent Infringement Notice Pleading Standard Not MetJury deliberates Java copyright in Oracle-Android trial – iPad/iPhone – Macworld UKInnovation Law BlogAbout the Public Domain BlogWhere Can I Find Public Domain Content For My BlogArmy Admits Re-Education Camp Manual “Not Intended For Public Release”Negotiation Is Over! – New law criminlizes NIO’s anti-vivisection campaign tactics at UFB&J ‘Solar’ enlarger, Nov 46 PopPho pg. 27Orson Welles + Franz KafkaMaitri's VatulBlog