Blawg ITBlawg ITOngoing discussion of legal aspects of the online world. Blawg IT analyzes the very latest patent, copyright, trademark and licensing issues that affect you and your company. Blogging since 2003, Brett Trout is a registered patent attorney and author 
Articles
Judges Handing Down Hard Time For CyberCrime
2008-12-09 22:40:00 Everyone knows that hacking into an ex-employer’s computer network, shutting down the email system and deleting core files will land you in prison. Federal laws were designed to catch these types of hackers and put them away. But what about you? Have you every violated any of the dozens of federal laws governing computer and ... More About: Time , Hard , Judges , Cybercrime
Judges Handing Down Hard Time For CyberCrime
2008-12-09 22:40:00 Everyone knows that hacking into an ex-employer’s computer network, shutting down the email system and deleting core files will land you in prison. Federal laws were designed to catch these types of hackers and put them away. But what about you? Have you every violated any of the dozens of federal laws governing computer and ... More About: Time , Hard , Judges , Cybercrime
Lori Drew aquitted of felony charges in MySpace suicide case
2008-11-27 00:11:00 After three days of witness testimony in a Los Angeles courtroom, jurors acquitted 49 year old Missouri mother Lori Drew of felony charges under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Drew had been charged with running a phony MySpace page where Drew allegedly adopted the persona of a 16 year old boy. The fictitious boy ... More About: Myspace , Suicide , Case , Felony
Lori Drew aquitted of felony charges in MySpace suicide case
2008-11-27 00:11:00 After three days of witness testimony in a Los Angeles courtroom, jurors acquitted 49 year old Missouri mother Lori Drew of felony charges under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Drew had been charged with running a phony MySpace page where Drew allegedly adopted the persona of a 16 year old boy. The fictitious boy ... More About: Myspace , Suicide , Case , Felony
Do I Need a Patent?
2008-11-13 19:50:00 What is a Patent ? A patent is a legal document which allows you to stop other people from making using or selling your invention without paying you a royalty. What Can I Patent? While there are special types of patents offering limited protection, such as plant patents and design patents, when people speak of patents, they are typically ...
Do I Need a Patent?
2008-11-13 18:50:00 What is a Patent ? A patent is a legal document which allows you to stop other people from making using or selling your invention without paying you a royalty. What Can I Patent? While there are special types of patents offering limited protection, such as plant patents and design patents, when people speak of patents, they are typically ...
Ignite Des Moines Tonight!
2008-11-06 17:08:00 Social Networking 2.0Over the past year, Social Networking has taken the Internet by a storm. In its simplest form, social networking is an online cocktail party revolving around a common theme, interest or medium. One of the hottest tools for exploiting the benefits of social networking is Twitter . Twitter is a Web site which allows ... More About: Tonight , Ignite , Des Moines , Moines
Ignite Des Moines Tonight!
2008-11-06 17:08:00 Social Networking 2.0Over the past year, Social Networking has taken the Internet by a storm. In its simplest form, social networking is an online cocktail party revolving around a common theme, interest or medium. One of the hottest tools for exploiting the benefits of social networking is Twitter . Twitter is a Web site which allows ... More About: Tonight , Ignite , Des Moines , Moines
SPU - A Solo Practitioner?s Dream
2008-11-02 23:35:00 The Times They Are a Changin’ As little as twenty years ago, starting a solo law practice was tough. Starting a solo practice in a niche area, such as intellectual property, was next to impossible. The huge number of costly resources needed to effectively compete as a solo in a market of 800 pound gorillas, put ... More About: Solo , Dream
SPU - A Solo Practitioner?s Dream
2008-11-02 23:35:00 The Times They Are a Changin’ As little as twenty years ago, starting a solo law practice was tough. Starting a solo practice in a niche area, such as intellectual property, was next to impossible. The huge number of costly resources needed to effectively compete as a solo in a market of 800 pound gorillas, put ... More About: Solo , Dream
More on Bilski and Business Method Patents
2008-10-31 23:17:00 Since yesterday’s post on the future of business method patents, bloggers of all shapes and sizes have been waxing philosophic on the impact of the recent ruling in In re Bilski. Some of the more cogent commentaries from intellectual property lawyers can be found at IP Law & Business , PatentlyO, and The Patent Baristas. For a ... More About: Patents , Method
More on Bilski and Business Method Patents
2008-10-31 22:17:00 Since yesterday’s post on the future of business method patents, bloggers of all shapes and sizes have been waxing philosophic on the impact of the recent ruling in In re Bilski. Some of the more cogent commentaries from intellectual property lawyers can be found at IP Law & Business , PatentlyO, and The Patent Baristas. For a ... More About: Patents , Method
Federal Circuit Rejects Business Method Patents
2008-10-30 19:18:00 The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) is pretty much the “supreme court” of patents. While the real Supreme Court has granted certiori to a handful of cases appealed from the CAFC, that is certainly the exception, rather than the rule. Earlier today, the CAFC handed down its most momentous decision since it ... More About: Business , Patents , Method
Obama vs McCain: Courting The Tech Vote
2008-10-30 14:47:00 With the arrival of presidential candidate Barack Obama in Des Moines tomorrow, I thought it might be a good time to take a look the candidate’s positions on technology issues. Amidst all the online punditry over presidential candidates, there is very little actual insight into the candidates’ positions on technology, and how these positions will ... More About: Tech , Vote
Ethical Risks of Online Communications
2008-03-11 19:47:00 I am honored to be one of the presenters tomorrow for Strafford's continuing legal education program - Ethical Risks of Online Communications by Law Firms, Websites, Blogs and Online Networking:Staying on the Right Side of the Ethics Line. Two other panelists will be joining me for the live 90 minute presentation tomorrow at noon: John Steele, Ethics and Conflicts Director and Special Counsel, Fish & Richardson, Silicon Valley, Calif. He is responsible for conflicts of interest and ethics particular to IP law practice. He is a lecturer in legal ethics at Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California–Berkeley. Diane Karpman, Partner, Karpman & Associates, Los Angeles. She defends lawyers in attorney discipline and regulatory proceedings before the state bar and in court. She is frequently retained as an expert witness in legal malpractice actions. Even more important than the panel presentation will be the live question and answer session connecting over fifty different...
Pwnage as Game Developer Attempts Jedi Mind Trick
2008-03-07 17:13:00 [Remember, for the most recent BlawgIT postings, visit www.blawgit.com]Attorney Eric Menhart, the guy who tried to register the trademark CyberLaw, does not appear to the only trademark altruist out there. According to bit-tech.net, Finnish game developer Futuremark Oy is attempting to register the trademark pwnage. To be fair, they are only trying to monopolize the trademark as used in association with:Computer game software for communication devices; computer game software and computer game programs enabling users to play games with mobile phones and personal digital assistants; computer software and programs enabling users to communication devices to simultaneously access databases and global computer networks; software enabling transfer of data between mobile communication apparatus; computer game software; computer game programs; computer game discs; interactive multimedia computer game program; downloadable ring tones, graphics and music via global computer network and wirele... More About: Developer , Trick , Mind , Game , Jedi
And You Thought That Ferrari Was Yours?
2008-03-06 17:28:00 [Remember, for the most recent BlawgIT postings, visit www.blawgit.com]You buy a Ferrari and its yours right? Not according to Ferrari. Limousine builder Dan Cawley not only purchased a Ferrari 360 Modena, but he claims when he asked Ferrari if they cared if he modified the street legal race car into the fastest limo on the planet. Cawley says Ferrari told him he could do what he wanted, the car was his.£200,000 in modifications later, Ferrari is now arguing that to keep the Ferrari badging on the car is an infringement of Ferrari's trademarks. This should come as quite a shock to all you tuners and modifiers out there. Ferraris are apparently more like a porcupines than anyone previously thought. For the full story, check over at the Daily Mail. Brett Trout More About: Thought
Patent Lawyer Porn
2008-03-06 17:26:00 [Remember, for the most recent BlawgIT postings, visit www.blawgit.com]Due to a minor glitch in switching this blog over from Blogger to WordPress, I inadvertently cross-referenced the "Does your Lawyer Trust You?" post with the "Who Surfs This Much Porn?" post. As a result, a Google search for the term patent lawyer porn now lists me as the number one search result. I would, therefore, like to apologize to any of you arriving here actually looking for patent lawyer porn. As a consolation, however, I have already submitted you for inclusion in the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. As conditions of my parole release prevent me from posting anything that even remotely approximates patent lawyer porn, the best I can do is to direct you to this list of rather strange patents. I would also like to recommend several of this week's Blog Carnivals, all of which include patent attorneys. I can just imagine their excitement over their carnival's aff... More About: Patent
Does Your Lawyer Trust You?
2008-03-05 18:45:00 Seems like a strange question Everyone talks about whether they can trust their lawyers, but who ever hears lawyers talking about trusting their clients? One reason you do not hear much about it is that you do not spend enough of your free time hanging around lawyers (you may want to consider taking up polo and/or Alpine skiing). Another reason is that even if a lawyer does not trust a client, the attorney/client relationship prevents disclosure of the sordid details. Still another reason is that some lawyers see not being able to control a client as a sign of weakness. Probably the biggest reason why you do not hear much about it, however, is that either way, it is the client, and not the attorney that bears the brunt of the distrustful relationship.You do not want to be distrustedWe are not talking about lying. If you blatantly lie to your attorney, your attorney finds out and decides to keep you as a client, I would have serious reservations about continuing to engage a lawyer wh... More About: Lawyer , Trust
Who Owns Your Website (Now available in Chinese)
2008-02-29 17:43:00 My last Who Owns Your Website post was very well received. The jist of that post was that unless your website was created by your employee in the course of employment OR you obtained a written assignment of all rights in the website, you probably do not own your website. That post covered those parts of your website that you honestly thought you owned, but as it turns out, you do not. This post covers things you probably knew you did not own, but thought you could use without getting caught. Here are the excuses I hear when people get sued for infringing someone else's website design. I thought it was okay because:They Gave Me an InchYou paid a designer for work on a website. Now you want to replicate that design across several websites, and possibly even license it to others. Although you paid the designer for the work, you do not own the work. You merely have an implied license to use the work for its intended purpose. Whether that "purpose" includes use in other projec... More About: Chinese
Blawg Review #148
2008-02-27 22:54:00 Last week’s superb Blawg Review #147 by the world’s foremost authority on North American badger law left me rather intimidated. Realizing the challenge of following my good friend Rushwith a post of similar caliber, I nearly threw in the towel and moved to French Polynesia. Fortunately, Rush talked me down from the precipice and convince me to give it a try.While considering a theme for this week’s Blawg Review, it struck me that lawyers do not spend as much time aimlessly meandering the web as would, for instance, a typical air traffic controller. As a result, most lawyers are woefully detached from the Zeitgeist embodied in the lowly Internet meme. An Internet meme is any amusing video, email, picture, audio clip or other material that spreads virally across the internet. Unlike computer viruses, which spread based upon how many paint chips the people opening them consumed in their youth, Internet memes spread based upon how entertaining viewers find them.Although blawgers a...
Blawg Review at BlawgIT
2008-02-25 19:24:00 My Blawg Review #148 is now up over at the new BlawgIT.com website. If you don't check it out, you will have no one but yourself to blame the next time you get into a legal dispute with your badger.Brett Trout
BlawgIT Making a Move
2008-02-21 17:36:00 After five years and over five hundred posts I have finally decided to move BlawgIT to its own domain. It is even getting its own WordPress blog. I would like to give a big thanks to Christian Connett of eSolutions Interactive for moving all of my archival posts over to the new site.While I will continue to update both blogs for a while, I will begin posting blog posts to this site later and later. So, if you want the freshest dose of BlawgIT, hop over to www.BlawgIT.com Don't forget to update your RSS feeds, and don't forget to check back in on Monday, when I pillory Rush in next week's Blawg Review.Brett Trout More About: Move
Copyright Guru Seeks to Change Congress
2008-02-21 03:28:00 I do not write about politics, because this is not a political blog. It is a blog about intellectual property. As someone deeply concerned about intellectual property, however, I thought you would be interested to know that the most famous copyright attorney on earth is considering a bid for Congress . While reasonable minds may differ on so many political issues, one issue upon which we can all agree is the corruption in Congress has gotten out of hand. The petty differences, even between the major political parties, pale in comparison to the problem of Congressional corruption. Congress takes lots and lots of money from the very entities it is charged with regulating. Not good.You may have already heard of copyright guru Lawrence Lessig. Lessig is the founder and CEO of Creative Commons and board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Now the Stanford Law School professor, no longer quixotically tilting Microsoft’s antitrust windmill, is taking aim at corrupt politicians.... More About: Change , Copyright , Guru
Rush Hosts Blawg Review
2008-02-21 03:27:00 My buddy, and fellow I-Blawg Lawyer Rush Nigut is this week's Blawg Review host. Rush makes the most of his Blawg Review #147 pedestal by pedaling his way across memories of Iowa's own RAGBRAI.Although I am a RAGBRAI virgin myself, I have friends who have gone. Based upon their assessment, it appears Rush may have gone to bed a little early, missing a few things on his RAGBRAI trip. Despite being a veteran, he completely overlooked several notable aspects of the RAGBRAI experience:The lush, tropical beer gardensgroup car wash showersnaked beer slidesdrafting the Iowa Bikini TeamSharing sleeping bags to stay warm in the nearly 110 degree weatherroadside burritto rentals andKYBO return slots.Perhaps everyone was just on their best behavior for Lance Armstrong. More About: Hosts
I-Blawg: Iowa Law Blogs
2008-02-18 15:46:00 For some reason, Iowa is quite a fecund environment for blogging. Just a peek some of the blogs on the I-List gives you an indication of how offline collaboration between Iowa bloggers leads to a significant increase in online readership and quality. That same offline collaboration has now expanded to Iowa law bloggers as well.Back in 2003, I was the only law blogger in the state. Since that time, several high quality legal blogs have come upon the scene. Now there are at least ten legal blogs in just the Des Moines area alone. Although most are self explanatory, here is a link an short description of some of the most insightful I-Blawgs:BlawgIT (Hey, I am no dummy. I learned my alphabetization lesson standing at the back of lines all my life)Des Moines Injury Board Steve Lombardi shares in-depth insight on all things Personal Injury and Workers' Compensation.George Davison Iowa Law My former mentor and radio personality George Davison waxes philosophic on legalese and recent Iowa ... More About: Blogs
Buy That Domain Name First
2008-02-15 23:18:00 Part of my job is registering trademarks for companies. I always find it surprising that even internet savvy companies proceed with trademark registration before investigating domain name availability.While registering a domain name is not a prerequisite to filing a trademark registration, once you file the publicly available trademark registration, domain namenappers will likely foreclose that option, absent a rather large "donation" to their International Me, Me, Me Charity. If you get to the domain name even seconds after someone perusing recent trademark applications, the cost of your $9 domain name registration can jump to $10,000 or more.Even if you are unsure about which name you eventually want to protect, with trademark registrations running about $1,300 and domain name registration running about $9 a pop, it is worth grabbing ALL of the domain names under serious consideration.One last caveat. With some domain name registrars betraying long-term trust for short term profit... More About: Domain , Domain Name
A Particularly Inventive Blawg Review
2008-02-12 15:58:00 Stephen Nipper of The Invent Blog chose February 11, 2008, National Inventor's Day and birthday of Thomas Alva Edison, to host this week's Blawg Review #146. Like all of Stephen's posts, his Blawg Review is concise and well-written. Best of all, and not surprisingly, his Blawg Review leans a little toward the inventive, highlighting blog posts on patent attorneys, the much maligned proposed patent reform and the Patent Office's proposal to have patent attorneys do their own preliminary examinations (don't worry, it will only add another $26,000 onto your bill). From Bobby Knight to BrideZilla, this week's Blawg Review has something for everyone. And don't forget new week, when Iowa's very own Rush On Business will be hosting. Be sure to visit, but be gentle. It is his first time.Brett Trout
It's Hard Out Here for a Patentee
2008-02-07 21:20:00 The Storm No One ForecastWhen it comes to undermining innovation in the United States, it appears we are currently in the midst of the perfect storm. It all started in the late nineties and early naughts when patent trolls began to run rampant. Much to the chagrin of American innovators, the government overreacted, stifling innovation on nearly every front. Winds of ChangeThe storm has been brewing since June 23, 1998, when the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in that you could patent a method of doing business. This ruling led to inventors falling all over themselves trying to file patents on "novel" online business methods. A Storm a BrewinThe problem was that, prior to 1998, no business method patents had ever been allowed. Up until that time, checking patent applications against previously issued patents was the United States Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO) principal way to determine if a particular invention was truly novel. When these new business method ... More About: Hard
Patent Blog Feeds - OPML Code
More articles from this author:2008-02-06 21:07:00 The patent blog p-meme was a big hit yesterday. So much so, that people wanted MORE. Well baby, there ain't no more. What I can do however, is to give you my OPML file for all of the p-meme RSS feeds. Just import this file into your RSS reader to see all the same feeds I do (well, at least all the same patent blog feeds I do).To view the file, simply click on the ginormous blue button below: Alternatively, if clicking on huge blue buttons is not your thing, here is the OPML file itself. You can either copy and save it to a file you import into your RSS feedreader OR painstakingly cut and paste your way through it:<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><opml version="1.1"><head><title> ;Patent Blog s</title></head><body& gt;<outline title="Blawg IT Patent Blogs" text="Blawg IT Patent Blogs" htmlUrl="http://blog.bretttrout.com/" type="rss" xmlUrl="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Blawg It-internetPatentTrademarkAndCopyrightIss uesWithAttorneyBrettTrout" ... More About: Code 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
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