Video codecs: the ugly business behind pretty pictures - ▻https://www.infoworld.com/print/214525 #patents
Video codecs: the ugly business behind pretty pictures - ▻https://www.infoworld.com/print/214525 #patents
... to sublicense the techniques to any user of VP8, whether the VP8 implementation is by Google or another entity; this means that users can develop independent implementations of VP8 and still enjoy coverage under the sublicenses.
The announcement goes on to make two more important statements. First, Google intends to submit VP8 to MPEG for standardization. This would be a profound change in direction, potentially steering future efforts away from the patent thicket and toward open ground. Second, Google intends to propose V P8 be selected as the “mandatory to implement” codec in the RTCWEB group at IETF that’s defining protocols to enable real-time communications in Web browsers: WebRTC.
If all this were to succeed, it would unlock immense opportunity for open source software and the open Web. Freed from constant rent-seeking by patent owners, open source developers would at last be free to innovate on audio and video applications of all kinds without constantly looking over their shoulders or asking permission to innovate.
ok donc… ce serait en fait le contraire de ce que racontait ▻http://seenthis.net/messages/121344 ?
À la réunion IETF d’Orlando, qui vient de se terminer, le groupe de travail RTCWEB était à la fois une des vedettes de la réunion (tout le monde en parlait, puisque les travaux de ce groupe pourraient secouer pas mal de positions établies), un des groupes les plus stakhanovistes (plusieurs réunions) et un des moins efficaces : ils ont fini par se séparer sans avoir pu décider d’un codec...
Cheap drugs a bitter pill for the West | Mail & Guardian
▻http://mg.co.za/article/2013-03-08-00-cheap-drugs-a-bitter-pill-for-the-west
The Ugandan government faced an easy choice when it decided to start producing its own version of a key malaria treatment, rather than continuing to rely on expensive imports. Since the country began making its own medicine in 2007, Uganda has produced not only anti-malarials, but also antiretrovirals (ARVs) used to treat HIV. The public-private company, Quality Chemicals, plans to roll out more ARVs, anti-malarials and antibiotics in the coming months and years.
The venture, a shining example of African pharmaceutical manufacturing, was made possible in part because Uganda is considered a “least-developed country”. As such, it doesn’t yet have to respect international intellectual property laws (...)
But least-developed countries may be running out of time. They have until July to adopt the agreement’s measures into their own laws and a continued extension for pharmaceutical products until 2016.
Transatlantic trade talks near lift-off - FT.com
►http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/089ee396-56bd-11e2-aad0-00144feab49a.html#axzz2HNcImbqF
“The stars are almost aligned,” says Greg Slater, director of global trade policy at Intel, the chipmaker. The US and EU “have the opportunity to try to set the gold standard” in areas such as intellectual property protection, he says, which emerging markets like China and India would then have to respect.
#propriété_intellectuelle #législation internationale #patent
Le système de brevets américain largement détourné par des « trolls »
►http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/article/2012/12/11/le-systeme-de-brevets-americain-largement-detourne-par-des-trolls_1804621_65
Les « patents trolls », ces sociétés qui ne créent pas de produits mais vivent des procès pour violation de leurs brevets, encombreraient les tribunaux américains. C’est le constat effectué par Colleen Chien, professeur de droit à l’université de Santa Clara University, dans sa dernière étude. Au 1er décembre, 61 % des procès pour violation de brevet ouverts aux Etats-Unis l’auraient été par des « trolls ».
How TED Became a Consumer Franchise | Wired Business | Wired.com
►http://www.wired.com/business/2012/11/ff-tedx/all
a phrase — field-configuring event — to describe the role that gatherings play in the information age [...] Despite the fact that these fields all have their own media (trade journals, newsletters, etc.) to inform them, the gatherings cut through the flurry of information to set priorities, to confer status, to codify collective judgments.
It’s telling, the ways in which the spirit of the TEDx experiment has seeped out into the rest of the organization. In 2013, half the speakers on the main stage at #TED will be programmed through a talent search, fed by tryouts in 14 TEDx-style events on six different continents. For all the inherent elitism of the “thought-leader conference” as a concept, [...]
#marketing des idées
Voir aussi The #Patent Problem cette fois sur les #brevets des idées
►http://www.wired.com/opinion/2012/11/ff-steven-levy-the-patent-problem/all #patent_troll
Trolling is a multibillion-dollar industry—because the legal system favors it.
Brevets logiciels en Europe
La présidence chypriote trouve que c’est le moment de forcer « un peu » la main au Parlement européen : il y tant d’autres préoccupations plus importantes... Et puis ces sales gamin-e-s doivent comprendre que ce qui compte c’est l’économie donc le business non ?
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Unitary Patent: Council asks Parliament to sign its death certificate in patent law ===================================================================================
Brussels, 21 November 2012 — This monday, the Cypriot Presidency stated in parliament that they are “aware of concerns that the legislator can be deprived of their legislative competence”. In fact the new patent compromise is similar to the “a death certificate in patent law” for the European Parliament, says Benjamin Henrion, president of the FFII.
According to leaks published by PCinpact, the latest compromise seeks to remove the role of the European Parliament and the European Court of Justice from any power in the proposed patent system (articles 6-8).
Benjamin Henrion, president of FFII, warns: “The Council asks basically to the European Parliament to sign their death certificate in patent law. No part of the proposed system will be under the control of an elected legislator. This is a disaster for all the people that believes in the power of the European Parliament.”
All red lines imposed by the Parliament has been broken by the Council
compromise:
the enhanced cooperation (art118), with reference to national law,
still does not create a title of the European Union;
the Parliament is deprived of its legislative competence in patent
law;
the European Court of Justice is forbidden to have a say on patent
law, especially on substantive matters, such as software patents.
The Rapporteur and MEP Klaus-Heiner Lehne has been pushing the “death certificate” proposal to be voted for in the next Plenary at the 10th December, refusing any reopening of the discussions at committee level.
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Links
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Cyprus press release: Unitary patent closer to the finishing line ►http://www.cy2012.eu/index.php/en/news-categories/areas/competitiveness/press-release-unitary-patent-closer-to-the-finishing-line
FFII: Klaus-Heiner Lehne: software patent legislator and lobbying consultant ►http://wiki.ffii.org/KlausHeinerLehneEn
PCInpact: Brevet unitaire européen : un compromis veut écarter l’Union européenne ►http://www.pcinpact.com/news/75393-brevet-unitaire-europeen-compromis-veut-ecarter-union-europeenne.htm
Max Planck Institut: The Unitary Patent Package: Twelve Reasons for Concern ►http://www.ip.mpg.de/files/pdf2/MPI-IP_Twelve-Reasons_2012-10-17_final3.pdf
Permanent link to this press release ►https://press.ffii.org/Press%20releases/Unitary%20Patent%3A%20Council%20asks%20Parliament%20to%20sign%20its%20de
=======
Contact
=======
Benjamin Henrion
FFII Brussels
Mobile: +32-484-566109
Email: bhenrion@ffii.org
==========
About FFII
==========
The FFII is a not-for-profit association active in twenty European countries, dedicated to the development of information goods for the public benefit, based on copyright, free competition, open standards. More than 1000 members, 3,500 companies and 100,000 supporters have entrusted the FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions concerning exclusion rights (intellectual
property) in data processing.
_____________________________________________
FFII Press Releases.
(un)subscribe via ►https://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/news, or contact media@ffii.org for more information.
Top 40 Platforms for Crowdfunding Social Change | P2P Foundation
►http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/top-40-platforms-for-crowdfunding-social-change/2012/11/14
Aside from the cool art projects and funky products we’re all familiar with, can #crowdfunding be used to fund positive social change too? It sure can. As you’ll soon see, with the Top 40 Platforms for Crowdfunding Social Change listed below it is now easier than ever to crowdfund social change. But people have been successfully pooling resources to meet shared goals and needs for a long time.
An example of particular interest to P2P Foundation readers might be the story of how Jonas Salk created the very first #polio vaccine in the 1950s; it is was crowdfunded and #patent-free. Salk’s research “was not funded by private foundations or pharmaceutical companies, but by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, a public effort, financed by the donations of millions of ordinary Americans who were asked to give a ‘dime at a time’“.
via @dimitrikleiner
There Are 250,000 Active Patents That Impact Smartphones; Representing One In Six Active Patents Today | Techdirt
►http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20121017/10480520734/there-are-250000-active-patents-that-impact-smartphones-representing-one-s
la bulle des #brevets #téléphonie #mobile
A new analysis shows just how insane the patent thicket is today. Done by “defensive” #patent aggregator RPX (they try to position themselves as the “good” version of #Intellectual_Ventures), the estimate is that a stunning250,000 active patents today impact smartphones. 250,000. As the article notes that’s one in six active patents today — and for an industry that is certainly less than 1% of US GDP.
Patent Arms Race Fuels Mobile’s Doomsday Machine
►http://www.wired.com/business/2012/09/patent-arms-race-fuels-mobiles-doomsday-machine
Vous avez dit voleurs !!!
On s’y attendait mais #Myhrvold (ex #Micro$oft) fait très fort. tellement qu’on se dit que ça pourrait être un hoax.
►http://www.technologyreview.com/view/429566/nathan-myhrvolds-cunning-plan-to-prevent-3-d
Most 3-D printing has been done in industry or by hobbyists who share their designs freely online. Now Intellectual Ventures, the company run by Nathan Myhrvold, the former Microsoft CTO and alleged patent troll, has been issued a patent on a system that could prevent people from printing objects using designs they haven’t paid for....
et histoire de vraiment bien verrouiller, le #brevet est étendu à toute manipulation/reproduction d’objet. Tant qu’à faire !
The #patent number 8,286,236 filed back in 2008 and issued on October 9th to Invention Science Fund I, an arm of Myhrvold’s company, isn’t limited to 3-D printing, also known as additive manufacturing. It also covers using digital files in extrusion, ejection, stamping, die casting, printing, painting, and tattooing and with materials that include “skin, textiles, edible substances, paper, and silicon printing.”
For Software, Cracks in the Patent System - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com
►http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/10/07/business/patents.html
During a patent lawsuit, judges and juries sometimes turn to a patent’s path through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to be sure that it was new, useful and not obvious at the time it was invented. A look at the history of three Apple patents involved in recent lawsuits shows some of the challenges faced by the patent office.
For Software, Cracks in the Patent System - Interactive Feature - NYTimes
►http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/10/07/business/patents.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20121008
During a patent lawsuit, judges and juries sometimes turn to a patent’s path through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to be sure that it was new, useful and not obvious at the time it was invented. A look at the history of three Apple patents involved in recent lawsuits shows some of the challenges faced by the patent office.
#patent #internet #applications #logiciels #software #brevets #ordinateurs #ipad #iphone #operating-system
The Case for Abolishing Patents (Yes, All of Them)
►http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/09/the-case-for-abolishing-patents-yes-all-of-them/262913
A closer look at the historical and international evidence suggests that while weak patent systems may mildly increase innovation with limited side-effects, strong patent systems retard innovation with many negative side-effects.
Samsung Wins a Patent Case Over Apple in Japan - NYTimes.com
►http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/01/technology/in-japan-a-setback-for-apples-patent-fight.html
While Apple prevailed over Samsung in the United States, [...] the two companies remain neck-and-neck in legal disputes in almost a dozen countries
Personal genetics company patent raises hackles : Nature
►http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/05/personal-genetics-company-patent-raises-hackles.html
Avec ses #brevets #génétiques 23andme est-elle en train de trahir ses clients ?
According to a blog by company’s co-founder Anne Wojcicki, the #patent “relates to our discovery of a variant in the SGK1 gene that may be protective against #Parkinson’s disease in individuals who carry the rare risk-associated LRRK2 G2019S mutation.”
(...) “I had assumed that 23andMe was against patenting genes and felt in total cahoots all along with you guys. If I’d known you might go that route with my data, I’m not sure I would have answered any surveys.”
#Apple And Microsoft Behind #Patent #Troll Armed With Thousands Of Nortel Patents | Techdirt
►http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120521/13194719006/apple-microsoft-behind-patent-troll-armed-with-thousands-nortel-patents.sh
last summer that Apple, Microsoft, EMC, RIM, Ericsson and Sony all teamed up to buy Nortel’s patents for $4.5 billion. They beat out a team of Google and Intel who bid a bit less. While there was some antitrust scrutiny over the deal, it was dropped and the purchase went through. Apparently, the new owners picked off a bunch of patents to transfer to themselves... and then all (minus EMC, who, one hopes, was horrified by the plans) decided to support a massive new patent troll armed with the remaining 4,000 patents. The company is called Rockstar Consortium, and it’s run by the folks who used to run Nortel’s patent licensing program anyway — but now employs people whose job it is to just find other companies to threaten
#brevets via @sonntag
How Apple and Microsoft Armed 4,000 Patent Warheads
►http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/05/rockstar/all/1
Revealed : How Giant Patent Troll Intellectual Ventures Does Business
►http://www.businessinsider.com/revealed-how-giant-patent-troll-intellectual-ventures-does-business
du nouveau sur le #troll à #brevets Nathan Myhrwold
Intellectual Ventures has between 30,000 and 60,000 #patents. That’s a rough estimate. But even the low number makes Intellectual Ventures (IV) the 5th largest patent portfolio of any U.S. company, and 15th in the world. Nearly all of those patents originated elsewhere. IV does very little inventing of its own.
It uses more than 1,200 shell companies.
Why the Patent System Doesn’t Play Well with Software : If Eolas Went the Other Way | Electronic Frontier Foundation
►https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/02/why-patent-system-doesnt-play
Argumentaire détaillé contre les #brevets #logiciels, où l’on voit quand même que sur un brevet aussi ridicule qu’Eolas, les #patent_trolls ont engrangé plein de $
it seems we’ve had a moment of sanity in the patent wars. Last week, a jury invalidated the dangerous Eolas patents, which their owner claimed covered, well, essentially the whole Internet. (...) The bad news: it came after the patents already caused plenty of damage. Companies large and small have taken licenses from Eolas rather than pay millions to fight in court.
#Google Wants Huge Royalties Every Time #Apple Sells An #iPhone
►http://www.businessinsider.com/google-wants-huge-royalties-every-time-apple-sells-an-iphone-2012-2
As Google is set to acquire #Motorola and the company’s 17,000 #patents, it’s planning on asking for the same 2.25% maximum royalty per unit that Motorola is already demanding for every iPhone sold,
#Bill #Gates backs climate scientists lobbying for large-scale #geoengineering | The Guardian
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/feb/06/bill-gates-climate-scientists-geoengineering
A small group of leading climate scientists, financially supported by billionaires including Bill Gates, are lobbying governments and international bodies to back experiments into manipulating the climate on a global scale to avoid catastrophic climate change.
The scientists, who advocate geoengineering methods such as spraying millions of tonnes of reflective particles of sulphur dioxide 30 miles above earth, argue that a “plan B” for climate change will be needed if the UN and politicians cannot agree to making the necessary cuts in greenhouse gases, and say the US government and others should pay for a major programme of international research.
(...)
“We will need to protect ourselves from vested interests [and] be sure that choices are not influenced by parties who might make significant amounts of money through a choice to modify climate, especially using proprietary intellectual property,” said Jane Long, director at large for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US, in a paper delivered to a recent geoengineering conference on ethics.
(...)
Pressure to find a quick technological fix to climate change is growing
(...)
As well as Gates, other wealthy individuals including Sir Richard Branson, tar sands magnate Murray Edwards and the co-founder of Skype, Niklas Zennström, have funded a series of official reports into future use of the technology.
(...)
Analysis of the eight major national and international inquiries into geoengineering over the past three years shows that Keith and Caldeira, Rasch and Prof Granger Morgan the head of department of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University where Keith works, have sat on seven panels, including one set up by the UN. Three other strong advocates of solar radiation geoengineering, including Rasch, have sat on national inquiries part-funded by Ficer.
(...)
“Regarding my own #patents, I have repeatedly stated that if any patent that I am on is ever used for the purposes of altering climate, then any proceeds that accrue to me for this use will be donated to nonprofit NGOs and charities. I have no expectation or interest in developing a personal revenue stream based upon the use of these patents for climate modification.”.
Apple Made A Deal With The Devil (No, Worse: A Patent Troll) | TechCrunch
►http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/09/apple-made-a-deal-with-the-devil-no-worse-a-patent-troll
In both cases, Apple transferred ownership of the patent to a company called Cliff Island LLC, which in turn transferred it to Digitude Innovations. (...)
You probably haven’t heard of Cliff Island LLC, because it appears to exist in name only. There is a next to no information about the company available online — though the patent filing does include an address: 485 Madison Avenue, Suite 2300 in New York City.
(...)Put another way, #Apple appears to have transferred its patents to the #patent #troll Digitude, though it first routed them through a shell company that shares the same office as Digitude’s lead investor and Chairman.
Linus Torvalds: Software and Process Patents Don’t Make Sense | Muktware
►http://www.muktware.com/news/2866
Linus Torvalds on Oracle-Google dispute
Swapnil: What is your opinion about the whole Oracle Google court battle over Android?
Linus: I don’t really know all that much about that and that is another example of lawsuits not being all that great. It seems to be completely bogus and it is kind of embarrassing. One of the defenses that Google was using was the posting by Jonathan Schwartz’s blog entry saying that he was so happy that Google is using their technology and then the fact that company, after being sold a few years later, turns around and sues Google for using their technology — that kind of tells you that "OK, there is something wrong going on”.
I don’t actually know the details. I mean Java I really don’t care about. What a horrible language. What a horrible VM. So, I am like whatever, you are barking about all this crap, go away. I don’t care.
The Private and Social Costs of #Patent #Trolls by James Bessen, Michael Meurer, Jennifer Ford : : SSRN
►http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1930272
étude scientifique : en vingt ans, mille milliards de dollars ont été perdus à cause des trolls à #brevets … et ça ne va pas aux inventeurs
“patent trolls” who opportunistically litigate over software patents with unpredictable boundaries? Using stock market event studies around patent lawsuit filings, we find that NPE lawsuits are associated with half a trillion dollars of lost wealth to defendants from 1990 through 2010, mostly from technology companies. Moreover, very little of this loss represents a transfer to small inventors. Instead, it implies reduced innovation incentives.
Brazil Drafts An ’Anti-ACTA’ : A Civil Rights-Based Framework For The Internet | Techdirt
►http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111004/04402516196/brazil-drafts-anti-acta-civil-rights-based-framework-internet.shtml
That’s no accident: #ACTA is the last-gasp attempt of the US and the EU to preserve their intellectual monopolies – #copyright and #patents, particularly drug patents – in a world where both are increasingly questioned.
Much of the challenge to the old order is coming from the BRICS group of emerging countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – none of which has been involved in ACTA. Of those, the one in the vanguard of adopting innovative approaches to making knowledge widely accessible in the Internet age is Brazil.
(...) here’s some positive news coming out of the country, in the shape of a draft of a bill for a civil rights-based framework for the #Internet:
Pharmaceutical company bullying: The case of #Novartis | Quackdown!
►http://www.quackdown.info/article/pharmaceutical-bullying-case-novartis
Novartis is trying to extend its #patent on a #cancer drug in #India. It is this kind of behaviour that gives pharmaceutical companies a bad name and emboldens anti-#pharma quackery.
Internet companies : Attack of the clones | The Economist
►http://www.economist.com/node/21525394
dès qu’on a une bonne idée quelqu’un vous la pique, c’est pas juste !
the clone wars will get bloody.
One battleground will be #China. There, opaque rules have kept many American firms at bay, leaving the field open for Chinese ones to develop similar services. Diandian, for example, resembles Tumblr, an American blogging platform. Zhihu, a question-and-answer service, looks a bit like Quora, an American firm.
Another battleground will be #Germany, where three brothers, Alexander, Oliver and Marc Samwer, have become the copycat kings of Europe. The brothers have a knack for spotting good business models in Silicon Valley, and then quickly starting something similar in Europe. They later sell these “clones”, sometimes to the firms on which they were modelled.