The next Boston/Cambridge CopyNight will be held Tuesday, July 24th at 7:30pm. We'll meet at the Hong Kong restaurant in Harvard Square.
Hong Kong Restaurant
1238 Mass Ave.
Cambridge, MA, 02138
Phone: 617-864-5311
Web: http://www.hongkongharvard.com
Recent News Items of Interest:
Patent-reform bill moves forward:
"Congressional patent reform cleared its second significant hurdle this week with the Senate Judiciary Committee approving a measure by a 13-5 vote Thursday night. Wednesday, the House Judiciary committee passed a similar bill.
Strongly favored by the technology sector and equally opposed by the biotechnology and manufacturing industries, The Patent Reform Bill of 2007 would represent the first significant changes in patent law in several decades.
The legislation would more narrowly define willful infringement and reduce the amount of infringement awards to the actual value of the covered patent, as opposed to the overall value of a product containing the technology.
The bill would also open a "second window" for reviewing patents once the U.S. Patent and Trademark (PTO) issue them by instituting a post-grant review in hopes of weeding our bad patents.
Other key provisions in the wide-ranging legislation include reforming PTO procedures by creating a first-inventor-to-file system to replace the current first-to-invent standard."
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3690136
Copyright suit in Second Life:
"An entrepreneur in Second Life, who goes by the name 'Stroker Serpentine', has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against a fellow virtual resident.
Kevin Alderman operates Eros LLC, a maker of 'adult' items such as the SexGen bed, a piece of virtual furniture that allows Second Life users to simulate more than 150 sex acts. The bed retails for 12,000 Linden dollars ($46).
The 'John Doe' lawsuit accuses Volkov Catteneo of unlawfully copying the SexGen bed and selling it on for approximately 4,000 Linden dollars."
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2193796/second-life-sex-toy-creates
The ever-increasing awareness of copyright:
"Four enterprising prison inmates have been accused of trying to blackmail their way out of jail after they copyrighted their names and then demanded millions of dollars from jail officials for using them without permission.
Russell Dean Landers, Clayton Heath Albers, Carl Ervin Batts and Barry Dean Bischof allegedly sent demand notices for payment to the warden of the El Reno federal prison in Oklahoma City and filed claims against his property."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/19/wplan19.xml
Best,
Andrew Jankowich
