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Google Street View Privacy Lawsuit

A privacy claim was made against Google for its StreetView product.  A Google camera car drove on to private property to take the photos.

See Boring v. Google.  Original DecisionThird Circuit decision

Is Law School Worth The Money?

See NY Times Article

"The graying of baby-boom lawyers creates opportunities. As more senior lawyers retire, jobs will open, even in the unlikely case that the law business doesn’t expand with an improving economy. More opportunity will open to women and minorities, too. As with any industry in transition, changes in the delivery of legal services create opportunities as well as challenges. Creative, innovative and entrepreneurial lawyers will find ways to capitalize on this."

You Can't Say That on The Internet

A BASTION of openness and counterculture, Silicon Valley imagines itself as the un-Chick-fil-A. But its hyper-tolerant facade often masks deeply conservative, outdated norms that digital culture discreetly imposes on billions of technology users worldwide.

See NY Times

Copyright First Sale Doctrine Reviewed by Supreme Court


Can United States copyright owners block importation of copies of their works sold or distributed outside of the United States?

Confronting this apparently straightforward question, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument on 29 October 2012, that revealed complex interactions of the relevant statutes and the difficult consequences flowing from alternative interpretations of those statutes. Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, U.S. No. 11-697.  See oral argument transcript.

The case involves Wiley text books printed and sold in Thailand, and Kirtsaeng’s unauthorized importation and resale of those text books in the United States. Wiley sued, claiming that the importation was an infringement under 17 U.S.C. 602(a), and Kirtsaeng defended that he had a right to resell the publications purchased in Thailand under the first sale doctrine codified at 17 U.S.C. 109(a).

On review is the Second Circuit’s decision for Wiley that the text books printed in Thailand could not satisfy the limitation in Section 109(a) that the first sale right applies only to copies “lawfully made under this title,” which the Court interpreted as copies physically made in this country.

Google Liable for Defamation Based on Search Results

In a jury trial in Melbourne, Google was found to have defamed a Melbourne man by placing his photo next to underworld figures.

See SMH and WebProNews and IBT

Australian Domain Name Resales


Top 10 public .com.au domain sales
Source: domainerincome.com

Hardware.com.au - $33,333
Electricity.com.au - $30,933
Currencyconverter.com.au - $27,500
Websitedesign.com.au - $22,000
1300numbers.com.au - $20,000
Vitamins.com.au - $20,000
Fridges.com.au - $20,000
Wines.com.au - $19,000
Carparts.com.au - $18,011
Freestuff.com.au - $18,000

See: SMH

Do Not Track

THE campaign to defang the “Do Not Track” movement began late last month.

See:  NYT

Why are Google Maps So Much Better

This is a good post that explains why Google Maps are so good.  And see also this Atlantic article.  Some people have said that maps are the future of Google.  Photos below of Google Street View Bike People and Hiker.



Software and Internet Patents


The U.S. Federal Circuit on October 9, 2012 granted en banc review of a case in which a Federal Circuit panel held that a claim must not be deemed inadequate under 35 U.S.C. §101 if, after taking all of the claim recitations into consideration, it is not “manifestly evident” that a claim is directed to a patent ineligible abstract idea. CLS Bank International v. Alice Corp., Fed. Cir., No. 11-1301, 10/9/2012.  Alice Corp is an Australian company, suing for patent infringement in the United States.

The en banc court vacated the panel decision and requested briefing on the following questions:
  1. What test should the court adopt to determine whether a computer-implemented invention is a patent ineligible "abstract idea”; and when, if ever, does the presence of a computer in a claim lend patent eligibility to an otherwise patent-ineligible idea?
  2. In assessing patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101 of a computer-implemented invention, should it matter whether the invention is claimed as a method, system, or storage medium; and should such claims at times be considered equivalent for § 101 purposes?
The panel decision stressed that patent eligibility must be determined by what is evident from specific, concrete applications of the ideas behind an invention disclosed in the claims. The panel opinion, written by Judge Linn in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc.,  132 S. Ct. 1289 (2012), included the following observation:
[N]othing in the Supreme Court’s precedent, nor in ours, allows a court to go hunting for abstractions by ignoring the concrete, palpable, tangible, and otherwise not abstract invention the patentee actually claims. It is fundamentally improper to paraphrase a claim in overly simplistic generalities in assessing whether the claim falls under the limited “abstract ideas” exception to patent eligibility under 35 USC §101. Patent eligibility must be evaluated based on what the claims recite, not merely on the ideas upon which they are premised.

The challenged patents in this case are directed to a computerised trading platform for exchanging obligations in which a trusted third party settles obligations between a first and second party so as to eliminate “settlement risk.” The district court granted a summary judgment motion that the claims were not patent eligible because they are directed to an abstract idea. On appeal the Federal Circuit panel reversed, concluding that the system, method, and media claims are directed to practical applications of an invention falling within the categories of patent eligible subject matter defined by Section 101.
To read the Court’s order for en banc review, click here; to read a summary of the panel decision and obtain a copy of Judge Linn’s opinion, click here.

How should damages be assessed for privacy and cybersecurity breaches

Listen to this podcast where I discuss how damages should be assessed in privacy and cybersecurity lawsuits. The Lawyers Weekly Show host J...