Microsoft filed 3 suits against alleged cybersquatters and “typosquatters” as part of a 3-pronged campaign to end the practices, it said Tues. A new wave of cybersquatter trading on recent growth in online ads is profiting from common errors in spelling Microsoft-related domain names. In one suit, the software giant said it aims to use subpoenas to identify 217 “John Doe” URL registrants masking their names via privacy protection services, and in doing so reveal how profitable the practice has become. The suits claim violations of federal and state law.
Polk Audio co-founders George Klopfer and Matthew Polk each will get $83,000 annually under employment agreements they'll sign after Directed Electronics completes its Polk acquisition in late Sept., Directed said in an 8-K report filed at the SEC. Klopfer and Polk have agreed to provide “advisory services” to Polk’s new owner, Directed CEO Jim Minarik told analysts in a conference call.
Companies and utilities don’t realize how much of their critical information is available over the Internet, experts said Tues. at the InfraGard conference. “The amount of sensitive information online should be sobering” to companies and utilities, said Joanne Ashland, team lead for Dyonyx Security.
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has issued a proposed rule to amend 15 CFR Part 764 in order to set forth BIS policy concerning voluntary self disclosures of violations of 15 CFR Part 760 (Restrictive Trade Practices or Boycotts) and violations of 15 CFR Part 762 (Recordkeeping) that relate to 15 CFR Part 760.
At least 2 potential buyers for Tower Records have emerged as the chain sought bankruptcy protection, blaming a sharp drop in prerecorded music sales.
The Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) inquiry into patent- eligible subject matter is far too narrow, Computer & Communications Industry Assn. Senior Counsel Matthew Schruers told the agency. PTO should study software patents in light of the economic literature and public debate on such patents since the agency’s last software patent review, in 1994, Schruers said in a filing. PTO should consider joint 2002 FTC/DoJ hearings on competition and intellectual property (IP) law and policy “useful models,” he added. PTO’s “lack of hearing or consultation on business methods as a matter of substantive policy is also surprising,” since 2 late-1990s court cases “swept large areas of economic activity into the patent regime without the consent of Congress or the input of the businesses and sectors affected,” he said. A Supreme Court refusal to take up LabCorp v. Metabolite, involving the eligibility of “abstract processes” (WID June 23 p11), “appeared to reflect a view that the issues were not adequately developed in the record,” and in time the high court will accept review, Schruers said. Until then, though, PTO’s review could give businesses much-needed guidance, he added. Regarding whether signals such as those underlying Internet transmission and associated technologies can be patented, Schruers said allowing that would hit ISPs and other “network intermediaries.” Other filers told the agency signals are clearly patentable (WID Aug 18 p4). But if signals get IP protection, “they may implicate secondary or ‘contributory’ infringement risks” for businesses transmitting information, Schruers said. Any change would affect DMCA Sec. 512 and treaties the U.S. has signed, including the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement, all of which limit secondary liability for infringement, he added. Talks at the World Intellectual Property Organization on broadcasting rights have broached creation of a sui generis IP right in signals themselves, which “may conflict with or prove redundant” to a PTO action rendering signals eligible, Schruers said. PTO action also could raise preemption issues concerning state laws on “signal theft,” he added.
The FCC should auction educational broadband service (EBS) white spaces spectrum well before 2010, when a sale is scheduled, the Wireless Communications Assn. (WCA) and others said in oppositions to petitions for reconsideration filed as part of that longstanding debate. Allies of WCA include the WiMAX Forum, NextWave Broadband and Sprint Nextel. They're opposed by the Catholic TV Network and National ITFS Assn., which urged the agency to proceed with caution.
At least 2 potential buyers for Tower Records have emerged as the chain sought bankruptcy protection, blaming a sharp drop in prerecorded music sales.
The FCC should auction educational broadband service (EBS) white spaces spectrum well before 2010, when a sale is scheduled, the Wireless Communications Assn. (WCA) and others said in oppositions to petitions for reconsideration filed as part of that longstanding debate. Allies of WCA include the WiMAX Forum, NextWave Broadband and Sprint Nextel. They're opposed by the Catholic TV Network and National ITFS Assn., which urged the agency to proceed with caution.
The W.Va. PSC’s Consumer Advocate Div. (CAD) took issue with compliance filings by 17 telecom carriers that receive universal service subsidies. The CAD said the substantial amounts of data they redacted as proprietary makes it very difficult to evaluate their use of universal service funds. The CAD also cited confusion among carriers in how they make their rural-urban rate comparability determinations. The CAD said any protected treatment afforded to data from eligible telecom carriers (ETC) in universal service compliance reports should be restricted only to information that clearly compromises trade secrets. It said the carriers have taken an overly broad interpretation of what data needs to be protected, which “frustrates” public efforts to evaluate compliance with universal service program requirements. The CAD in Case 06-0953-T-GI also said carriers haven’t made up their minds about whether rate comparability should be based on all available calling plans or only on selected popular plans. It urged the PSC to lay out clear standards regarding what needs to be included in rate comparability submissions. It also said the PSC should make clear that ETCs don’t have a free pass to raise rates up to the affordability benchmarks. The PSC staff is to file its comments on the reports Sept. 8, with replies from all parties due Sept. 18.