Philip Brooks' Patent Infringement Updates

Best Practices: Developing a Legal Presence in the Virtual World

I have been following the virtual world of Linden Lab's Second Life from the real world.  I think it has some fascinating implications for our lives beyond the fun gamers derive from participating.  Some have noted it as a valuable resource for some autistic people because it offers a way for them to explore interaction in an environment that is safe.  In addition, people are able to trade and sell virtual assets within Second Life and some of these have spilled over into disputes in the real world. [See my full December 22, 2006 blog post.]

Live Teleconference and Live Audio Webcast from the 24th Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference on Friday, April 3, 2009. Sponsors: The American Bar Association Section of Intellectual Property Law, Section of Section of Science & Technology Law and the ABA Center for Continuing Legal Education.

This program will examine a variety of issues including ethical issues, marketing issues, technical issues, data privacy and other privacy issues, and intellectual property issues that are related to developing a presence in the virtual world for attorneys and others desiring to conduct business or participate in the virtual world.  The presentation will discuss current best practices for developing a presence in the virtual world and will identify legal resources and other resources and associations available to those interested in participating. 

Program Faculty

• Roxanne Christ; Latham & Watkins, LLP

• Ross A. Dannenberg; Banner & Witcoff, Ltd. of Patent Arcade

• Benjamin T. Duranske; Pillsbury Winthrup Shaw Pittman, LLP

• Catherine Intravia; Shipman & Goodwin, LLP (Moderator)

• Sean F. Kane; Drakeford & Kane, LLC

More information and registration details are available here.

Gibbs Delivers Automaker Patent Intelligence Report To Obama's Auto Task Force

From a March 26, 2009 press release available at PRWeb:

Today, President Obama's Task Force on Autos received the Automaker Patent Assets Intelligence Report (2009 APA-Intel Report) comparing the patent portfolio assets of General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota and Volkswagen.

As financial markets based on traditional assets continue to collapse, patents are emerging as the single most important asset class upon which sustainable economic recovery will depend. Most taxpayers agree that a trillion dollars in bailout money is staggering, but the Harvard Business Review reported that U.S. companies currently waste $1 trillion in patent assets every year.

The APA-Intel Report presents findings that show how the US automakers have managed innovation, and their patent assets over the past decade. The new information comes just in time for Task Force consideration as automakers prepare to present their recovery plans at the end of the month.

Andy Gibbs, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PatentCafe said: "The APA-Intel Report on patents is the first of its kind that provides an in-depth comparison of the quality of patent portfolios owned by Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors, against their largest Japanese and European counterparts. High quality patents provide huge revenue opportunities, and low quality patents increase operational risk."

See the full press release here and download the full report here.

Samsung Among Top Patent Holders in Solar

Rick Merritt writing today, December 3, 2008, for EE Times discusses a recently issued report:

Canon, TSMC and Samsung are among the largest patent holders in solar photovoltaic panels, although they have no products in the field today. By contrast, many of the world's biggest producers of solar panels hold relatively few patents on the technology.

That was one conclusion of a 70-page report analyzing U.S. patents in solar technology by Semiconductor Insights, a division of United Business Media, the publisher of EE Times. The report analyzes trends in U.S. solar patents by company and technology.

Patent activity has risen steeply since 1996 when about 25 solar patents were issued a year to 2006 when about 170 patents were awarded, the report found. Canon, TSMC, Sharp and Samsung were the top four patent holders respectively, according to the report which called Samsung "the IP gorilla in this relatively new field."

The panel makers may be adopting a strategy of getting to market quickly by licensing or acquiring existing technology, the report said. "Surely, they may face big challenges from companies with more solid patent portfolios and who are savvier when it comes to protecting their intellectual property," it added.

As many as 600 companies are involved in solar panel market, with as many as 60 new companies joining each year since 2000, according to the report. "This has produced an extremely fragmented market and will no doubt provide many opportunities for consolidation over the next decade," it concluded.

Will be interesting to watch what this patent imbalance does to licensing and litigation in this market.  See the full article here including a link to the report.

TV Giants are Flatliners in Stereo 3-D Patents

Rick Merritt writes in today's, September 18, 2008, EE Times:

The world's top television makers appear to hold no significant patents in stereoscopic 3-D despite the fact that some of the largest Hollywood studios want to drive the concept of 3DTV into the market. LG, Matsushita, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba currently have no significant patents on stereo 3-D, according to an initial patent search by EE Times.

Hollywood studios want to help set a standard for 3DTV so they can sell home versions of the increasing number of 3-D movies they are creating for the cinema. Some observers say stereo 3-D could be the next big thing in television beyond today's high definition flat panel systems. Others say the technology is far from ready for prime time.

Some 184 patents come up on a search of the U.S. patent office Web site for stereoscopic 3-D. About half those patents apply to product concepts such as 3DTV, with most of the rest related to a variety of topics including 3-D printing.

Sharp Electronics Corp. is the king of stereo 3-D intellectual property with at least 11 stereo 3-D patents granted since 1995. The company's patents have received a whopping 99 citations in other filings.

There's still time for the big players to catch up. One patent expert said patents only become really valuable when they apply to shipping products. Although Samsung and LG are experimenting with early 3DTV systems, most observers believe it could take three to five years or longer before the industry sets standards for 3DTVs geared for the mainstream.

"We haven't heard anyone talking about [3DTV patents] yet," said Joe Chernesky, president of IPotential (San Mateo, Calif.), a patent consulting and brokerage firm. "We typically see activity when there are products on the market that can be considered as infringing," he added.

Read the full article here.

Justin Muchoney Gets Dream Job

Congratulations! 
Justin Muchoney
2008 Disney Parks Chief Magic Official

After months of grueling campaigning culminating in a two-day climax of in-Park competitions, Justin Muchoney claims the victory as the Disney Parks Chief Magic Official! Be sure to come back in May to find out the latest on Justin's CMO activities. Meanwhile you can still check out the videos of the CMO competitions at Walt Disney World© Resort.

Watch a replay of this morning's winner announcement live webcast.

Justin Muchoney Makes Final Three for Disney's Chief Magic Official Contest

As described in my March 4, 2008 post on Disney's Chief Magic Official contest in conjunction with CareerBuilder.com, a good friend, Justin Muchoney, made the final ten.  At 12:01 this morning Disney announced after close to 500,000 votes were cast, Justin made the final three!

Here is Justin's note of thanks and plea for one more round of voting commencing on April 14th:

Thank you SO much for all of the votes and support you have given me as a part of this CareerBuilder.com / Disney Dream Job C.M.O. contest. I really appreciate you waiting around so patiently (for the most part!) with me for the official announcement of the final three.

Without further ado, I am thrilled to be able to tell you that your tireless voting efforts have paid off!

I am one of the top 3 candidates!

There is absolutely NO question that I couldn’t have made it this far with out all of you – your enthusiasm, passionate support, and very active voting fingers!  So, given how much you have already done for me, I feel bad coming to you asking for more.  We have just a little work left before things are all said and done.

There will be one last round of frantic voting – only one week this time, though!  Monday, April 14th – Monday April 21st.   You can go to the main contest page to vote; starting on the 14th (my guess is it will start at the stroke of midnight eastern – for all you night owls out there!)

On April 22nd, at an in-park ceremony in the morning, the Grand Prize winner will be announced.  The winner will then take on the role of Chief Magic Official for the Disney Parks for a 12-month period! 

SO, what can you do to help?  Well, here are a couple of things:

1.      Please accept my sincerest thanks!  You have been such an amazing support structure for me and I am overjoyed to be able to share this experience with so many of you.  THANK YOU SO MUCH!

2.      SPREAD THE WORD!  Please forward this email to as many people as you feel you can.  Especially if you know there were folks who voted in the last round.  I really want to make sure that they get word of the results and that they know how much I appreciate everything!

3.     VOTE.  The site should still be http://www.dreamcmo.com/.  If there is a direct link to a voting page just for me, I’ll send it along.  Hopefully we can get enough people on board that the voting craze will once again sweep through our community, our friends, our churches and schools, and all of the people we have contacted throughout the country and world.  With only one week to vote – and two other VERY deserving and talented finalists – I’m sure we will need to maintain some pretty high levels of momentum!

Again, sincerely, thank you so much for everything.  The laughter, stories, questions, enthusiasm, interest, jokes, etc, etc, etc, have really made this an incredibly magical experience for me.  I’ll be working hard to prove that I’m worthy of your votes – you can be sure of that!

For now, thanks for indulging me in a very long-winded email.

Keep smiling, keep laughing, and keep dreaming!

  ~Justin

A Unique Approach to Legal Recruiting

For those attorneys who are considering a move, this might be of interest:

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• $18,000 Placement Bonuses
• $1,000 Referral Bonuses
• BusinessWeek named our Principal Search Consultant one of the 50 "World's Most Influential Headhunters"

Our Approach

As a top candidate, you can steer your career wherever you choose, and we provide substantial assistance along the way.  After you contact us and we confirm your eligibility, we email you back with answers to your preliminary questions and suggest a time to discuss your potential move.  We work with you to develop a list of target law firms appropriate for your goals and preferences, drawing on our relationships with top law firms and our understanding of the current legal market.  We provide you with feedback and counsel every step of the way.  Once your applications to your target firms are finalized, we request your express permission to distribute them on your behalf.  We help arrange the interviews and follow up on your applications.  After you are placed, we provide you with the $18,000 Placement Bonus you deserve.

A link to Firm to Firm is available in the Tools section of the left sidebar.

Patent Bending

Bill Heinze of I/P Updates blog reported on August 14, 2006 about "[t]he Discovery Channel Canada's Patent Bending team ... scour[ing of] patents from the past 100 years 'to find the seemingly greatest, strangest or most fantastically odd ideas that never got off the page - then figure out why.'

"[E]ach episode identifies one idea and starts the process of bringing the invention to life. They build it, test it and they quickly figure out why it never worked." Episodes include:

1. “Bicycle Lawnmower;”
2. “Floating Tent;”
3. “12-Gauge Golf Club;”
4. "Helmet Bar;"
5. "Chute 'N Shoes;"
6. "Human Carwash;"
7. "Fishing Show;" and
8. "Motorized Picnic Table.

The show will air again, this time on the Science Channel, beginning on April 9, 2008.  Schedule and information on each of the 14 episodes is available here.  Thanks to my son for the heads up on this show.

e-IP, LLC (www.TechTransferOnline.com) Becomes The Place To Go For Intellectual Property(TM)

The following is excerpted from a March 20, 2008 e-IP, LLC press release at PR Newswire:

After only a few months of gathering intellectual property from universities, corporations, and other research institutions, TechTransferOnline has been entrusted with thousands of high quality Intellectual Property (IP) from some of the most prestigious research groups in the world, and is weeks away from launching the breakthrough proprietary portal to entities seeking IP.

"Universities' and national laboratories' technology transfer offices see this website as a means to get more leads more quickly for the licensing of their IP. Unlike other sites, this portal gathers IP from many different entities, allowing seekers of IP to enter their search criteria once, instead of having to visit many websites," says C.E.O. Christophe Sevrain.

Some of the site's features include:

    -- Proprietary automation software that uploads, and synchronizes hundreds or thousands of IP asset files onto the http:/// website with nothing for the IP holder to do,
    -- The ability to list non-published Intellectual Property online, with searchers required to agree to a strict online confidential agreement for these items,
    -- The logging of the identity of every party that has viewed the lister's postings, to get instant leads,
    -- A very low flexible fee structure that allows the lister to choose between paying when the IP is sold or licensed, or paying a flat subscription fee.

Read the full release here.

Disney's Chief Magic Official

To prove that making dreams come true is no longer reserved for fairy godmothers, CareerBuilder.com [on January 8, 2008] launched the search for the first-ever Disney Parks Chief Magic Official (CMO) who will spread magic during The Year of a Million Dreams.

"We're looking for that perfect someone to serve alongside our talented Cast of dream makers," said Craig Dezern, Vice President, Global Public Relations, Disney Parks. "The CMO will serve as an ambassador of dreams to help create the magic that only Disney can bring to its guests."

"Whatever you dreamed of being when you were growing up, chances are some of your plans hit a snag along the way," said Richard Castellini, a spokesperson for CareerBuilder.com. "In fact, in a recent survey of over 6,000 workers, only 15 percent said they were actually in their dream jobs. The Disney Parks CMO will have the unique opportunity to live out his or her dream and bring a little magic to the lives of others."

A good friend of mine, Justin Muchoney, who leads the music department at our church has managed to make the final 10 (out of 1,300 applicants) for a shot at Disney's Chief Magic Official position.  Justin almost got a job at Disney right after he graduated from Grove City College, but wound up at our church.  He has done an amazing job over the last five years or so building up a tremendous music program.  He needs lots of votes to make the final three that will compete at Disney in Orlando.

Take a look at his video and place a vote (or 100!) for Justin.  There is a lot of traffic on the site at times so you may have to try a couple of times, but it is worth it.

Thanks for taking the time to vote for Justin's dream and pass it along.