Via Courthousenews.com -

ALEXANDRIA, VA. (CN) – An inventor has sued the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, challenging new regulations that will limit the number of continuations an inventor can file on an original patent. Plaintiff Triantafyllos Tafas has eight patents and 17 patents pending. He asks the Federal Court to enjoin Sections 1.75 and 1.78 of 72 Fed Reg. No. 161, promulgated on Aug. 21, to take effect Nov. 1, claiming they violate the Patent Act and the Constitution. The revised rules “limit the right of a patent applicant to continue prosecution of applications related to a single invention … substantially change the regulatory landscape under which inventors … have traditionally operated, and, once effective, will frustrate the purposes of the U.S. Patent laws by preventing Dr. Tafas and other similarly situated inventors from realizing the full economic potential of their work.”

Courthouse news has posted a copy of the actual complaint here. [PDF file link.

By the way, just how many patents does Adobe claim are contained in its Reader program? Try to count them as the PDF Reader program loads up.]

The NYTimes reports today that America's 47th largest law firm, Nixon Peabody, is making a fool of itself (the Times didn't of course say that out loud) link here. N-P celebrated its banner year with a banquet and a show in which the in-house singers parodied a well known song, with lyrics patting the firm on the back. It got to YouTube and N-P got it taken down as a violation of its copyright. Ain't copyright wonderful.

But then someone else put up a short version, arguing it is okay as protected by “Fair Use”. Now, however, it seems to have disappeared even as I write.

It is interesting that the firm initially decided to let the complete YouTube piece run–and then changed its mind. Speaks well for lawyerly judgment. Now I'm beginning to wonder about YouTube.

Last September, David wrote about Rambus and its conviction by the FTC for illegal actions Link here . He went on to describe the behavior of the patent troll focused on computer ram chip makers. "In the ultimate submarine patent manuever, they not only patented an obvious idea and kept it secret, but then joined a standard making body, and without revealing they held a patent on the idea encouraged the body to agree on a standard that infringed their patent." Note that the FTC case first charged Rambus in June 2002.

Rambus has frequently been controversial. Here is a list of stories cited on TechDirt starting in 2001 Link here . Following the FTC determination, it can now look for further trouble, this time from the European authorities. The FTC finding provided the Europeans with the basis for a further complaint, based on the fact that the FTC determination would not cover ram that originated outside of the US and did not pass through the US. The Europeans have come up with a new descriptor for Rambus' illegal behavior as a "patent ambush", a new type of patent abuse Link here and Here .

The long history of this case suggests how difficult it is to get to closure. In Rambus' case, the threat of legal action has never been enough to deter. Even now, Rambus asserts that the FTC case is old news and they are appealing in the courts. Justice delayed.

One significant recent innovation is the introduction of health clinics into pharmacies. The article plausibly says that this is both convenient and cheap, especially for people who are poor or who don't have health insurance. Of course it represents competition for doctors (the clinics are staffed by nurse practitioners). Do I have to tell you what the president of the American Academy of Family Physicians had to say about the clinics?

[he] said the clinics have risen out of a broken health care system.

"The clinics are one response. They are not an answer."

and the AMA?

[they] passed a resolution in June asking state and federal authorities to investigate whether there was a conflict of interest in drug-store chains that both write and fill prescriptions.

The desire for monopoly springs eternal...

Here's a link to a copy of "The Misunderstood Idea of Copyright" by Karl-Erik Tallmo.

Here is the homepage for his forthcoming book, The History of Copyright: A Critical Overview with Source Texts in Five Languages.

A great article on why educators are on the wrong side of the copyright wars. It also includes a great analysis on how corporations and private institutions are being deputized to enforce copyright - thus preventing law officials from otherwise having to spend resources that might make them re-think copyright law.

[Hat-tip: Instapundit]

An earlier post by John highlights the move in Congress to extend copyright protection to the fashion industry. The mere fact that there is no problem to solve - innovation in fashion is thriving after all - appears not to be a consideration. A recent article by Kal Raustiala and Christopher Sprigman in the New Republic points out it is worse than that: the most likely effect of extending copyright protection to the fashion industry will be to kill innovation in the industry. They explain why:

By allowing the copying of attractive designs, current law fits well with the industry's basic mission--to set new fashion trends and then convince us to chase them. And the trend-driven copying of attractive designs ensures that those designs diffuse rapidly in the marketplace. This, in turn, makes the early adopters want a new style, because nothing is less attractive than seeing your carefully chosen clothes on the backs of the hoi polloi. In short, copying is the engine that drives the fashion cycle.

Schumer's bill would kill that engine.

A federal appeals court has issued a ruling this week that makes it more difficult to accuse a company of "willful" patent infringement.

Court opinion here.

News summary here.

Patently-O Patent Blog input here.

It seems that 25% of the population of Los Angeles County consists of "thieves" (at least as some would describe it).

Sample money quotes from the article -

[O]ne in four people in Los Angeles County knowingly bought, copied or downloaded illegal goods in the last year, according to a Gallup Organization survey commissioned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and scheduled to be released today.

Although previous studies have documented piracy's toll on the Los Angeles economy, the U.S. Chamber report is the first to focus on the attitudes and behavior of consumers here who knowingly buy fake goods, including bootleg movies, illegally copied CDs, knockoff handbags and counterfeit auto parts.

"The study confirmed what we already knew: That the buying of these products is widespread and is viewed as a victimless crime," said Caroline Joiner, executive director of the chamber's global anti-counterfeiting and piracy initiative.

The 25% piracy rate of Los Angeles County residents surveyed in May and June was slightly higher than the 20% nationwide rate the chamber found last year.

…

Justin Hughes, a law professor and piracy expert at Cardozo School of Law in New York, said Los Angeles might have a higher rate of counterfeiting than other cities because of the high volume of goods flowing through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. But, he added, the latest data reflect broad consumer behavior.

"Most Americans do understand copyright and trademark laws, but it's a bit like speeding laws," Hughes said. "We know they are there, and they're a good thing, but we usually find ourselves going five to 10 miles over the speed limit."

In terms of trying to objectively describe the way many currently perceive their relationship with intellectual property, Professor Hughes' "speed limit" analogy seems to be a fair one. However, it leaves out a crucial component - the direct relationship between the perceived fairness/appropriateness of the law and the incidence of those who will ignore it.

For instance, let us assume that a federally mandated speed limit was increased to 80 mph in the U.S. Would people still continue to go "five to 10 miles over the speed limit"? Surely many would, but it is fair to assume that the overall amount of speeding scofflaws would drastically increase decrease as the overall speed limit increases - and vice versa. If the federally mandated speed limit was instead capped at only 45 mph, then surely the incidence of speeding would increase (not just in terms of the overall number of drivers who would ignore the law, but also in terms of the level of contempt for it. Speeders would likely start averaging 10 to 15 miles over the speed limit, instead of the more casual 5 to 10). They may continue to speed more often and with more vigor, even though they might end up confessing to pollsters that on a purely abstract level, a stricter enforcement of speed limits would be a good thing for society.

There would be a simple reason for this dynamic - many people of perfectly good character would inherently perceive a 45-mile-an-hour speed limit as an abuse of federal authority that would hamper our quality of life well out of proportion to any potential social good such as safety/environmental concerns or energy conservation. Obviously, the definition of a fair and proper speed limit is partially dictated by the state of technology and infrastructure (i.e., the conditions of our road and highway systems, how advanced current automobile engineering and safety features are in any given era, etc.).

So let's bring the analogy back to intellectual property. If we were to analogize the strictness of current intellectual property laws to the speed limit, what would the federally enforced speed limit be today?

I'd argue that it is only about 35-miles-per-hour; a quite unreasonable restriction that hampers human progress to a level far out of proportion to any potential goods that IP legal schemes might have to offer. This too is partially dictated by the current state of our technology and infrastructure (i.e., the Internet, digital technology, how communication has evolved with new media, etc.). That is real the reason why more and more people are simply choosing to ignore the current state of the law and are rightfully guilt free about the situation.

But none of this is preventing the L.A. establishment from lining up to do the bidding of the IP lobby. As the Daily News reports -

The findings were expected to be discussed at the Westin Bonaventure hotel in downtown Los Angeles this morning at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce workshop expected to be attended by several legislators, city council members and local officials, including Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo.

You don't suppose that the "workshop" might convince local legislatures to help fight for sensible IP reform, do you? Nah. Didn't think so. We all know how these "workshops" play out and what the real goals are here: Creating an even harsher IP environment in order to hang on to the status quo business models for politically connected businesses. One that may very well turn an even higher percentage of the population into "thieves" and "pirates" in their eyes.

As I have increased my understanding of IP law and pondered the success of IP owners in expanding their monopoly interests, I have come increasingly to wonder if a more effective way of fighting back can be found. Advocacy is obviously important in increasing public understanding and I think that it has had some success, as for example, in getting the Patent Office to revise its procedures for vetting patent applications link here. Another track has now been suggested by a suit against the RIAA whose misbehavior has prompted a victim to seek to get her suit granted class-action status, potentially multiplying the cost for the offender link here. Still another avenue emerged when I encountered the story of a youngster who taped a few seconds of a feature film, was prosecuted, and got the movie chain boycotted link here.

Anybody else have more ideas of how to fight back?