Trademarking Emoticons

In a move that seems surprising to me, the Rospatent Federal Patent Agency, Russia's patent authority, ruled that a businessman did not trademark ;-), an emoticon that denotes a smiling wink, by itself but as a part of a name, denying the businessman a chance to earn a fortune in licensing fees.

Buy Me Now!!!

In related stories, Google pulled out of the deal with Yahoo because in their opinion it would have been too hard to appease the Justice Department's antitrust division regarding the advertising deal. On the flip side, Jerry Wang has asked Microsoft to come back to the table.

Are you kidding me?

Mark Lange's editorial in the Christian Science Monitor I think is suspect. He basically calls for regulation of the derivatives market as a solution to the current financial "crisis". Let's consider the facts - most derivatives of the type he considers are held by large financial instutions and work really well. The ones that we need to look at are asset securitizations which are done by everone from a retail store with accounts receivable to banks with huge mortgage portfolios. The people in charge of buying and selling them for huge financial instutions shouldn't be protected by the government. Imagine having to file additional security disclosures with the SEC prior to a company like Sears selling its credit card receivables to Bank of America. Do companies like Sears and BoA really need government protection from making "computer-generated casino wagers" that have been well-vetted and understood by the fianancial community the past 30 someodd years?

Stellar Patents

Mobile Satellite Ventures has received 25 patents for communications systems for rovers exploring the Moon or Mars. Currently pending is one for an extraterrestrial communications systems covering satellites orbiting other planets, a base station of the planet, and repeaters.

Supreme Court Takes Up Profanity Case

Let's talk about those words you can't say on television. The Supreme Court is going to hear the case about fleeting explatives on appeal from the 2nd Circuit. The Supreme Court did turn down without explanation C-SPAN's request to release a recording of oral arguments.

FCC cancels vote on telecom overhaul

Kevin Martin cancelled the vote on telecom overhaul bill.

ATT's Pareto Principle

According to AT&T, 5% of their subscribers take up 50% of the capacity of their internet usage. So starting in November, they're going to test 20 gig download limits in Reno, NV, for DSL services and increasing to 150 gigs at the 10 mbs level, or approximately 75 DVD quality movie downloads per month.

Google's Growth and Ad Deal

There's two good stories out there this week about Google. First, there's substantial questions about Google's storage of search queries. As the Yahoo article says:

Why does Google log the details of search queries for so long? What does it do with the information? Does it combine data from the search engine with information it collects through other avenues — such as its recently released Web browser, Chrome?

The other story is that Yahoo and Google have redefined their internet advertising partnership agreement to help settle antitrust concerns at the Justice Department. According to the Wall Street Journal, Yahoo would be limited to just 25% of the search advertising revenues, the agreement would sunset in two years, and Google's customers will have the option to opt-out of the deal.

Get Your New Web Browser Here!

Chrome was supposed to be released today by Google. But I don't see anything yet.

Opt-Out's Don't Work - Proof

NebuAd, Inc., provides monitoring of websurfing so that an ISP can provide targeted advertising to its clients. Six of the smaller ISPs reported the following results:

• Bresnan Communications - 18 people opted out of the trial out of 6000 participants
• Cable One - 14000 customers, no specific notice, no opt outs
• CenturyTel - 82 opt outs, 20000 affected subscribers
• Embarq Corp. - 15 out outs with 26000 participants
• Knology - unknown
• WideOpenWest - 330000 customers and 3,355 out-outs, though many from the same customer

All these companies did suspend the trial and testing because of privacy and related issues.

I think these numbers are quite telling on how effective the out-out strategy really is. With those number of opt-outs, I question how many people were really informed of the intrusion into their privacy they faced.

Political Bedfellows not Trademark Friendly

Living Liberally, LLC, is suing Blue State Coffee Inc. over the latter's use of the Drinking Liberally trademark. The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, alleges that the trademark's use is deliberately similar to Living Liberally's Drink Liberally campagin, and in bad faith. It's seeking cancellation of the trademark as well.

Comcast's New Limits

According to Comcast, starting October 1, 2008, users will only be allowed to use 250 gigs of internet traffic per month. Normal users average 2 to 3 gigs per month. I'm wondering how this affects commercial and business users.

Records Must Remain Records

It's quite normal that in security arbitration settlements that the parties agree to expunge records. Recently, in Karsner v. Lothian the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia questioned those practices. Although in this particular case the question presented was whether a state securities commissioner had a right to intervene to halt the confirmation of the arbitration award ordering expungement (which the Court of Appeals said she had), the language and the rest of the case suggests that the Court of Appeals was sympathetic with the state securities commissioner's arguments that such an expungement order may affect the integrity of her records.

FCC Ruling on Comcast / Internet Neutrality

The FCC voted 3-2 that Comcast's policy of blocking some internet traffic for users who use file sharing software was a violation of network neutrality. Comcast sounds like they are going to appeal the ruling.

Cell Phone Termination Fees

A California Superior Court judge ruled that early termination fees for cell phone users is an illegal practice under state law. The preliminary judgement orders Nextel to pay customers some $18.2 million in reimbursement, and enjoins the collection efforts of $54.7 million. This ruling is going to affect everything from the current rates to hardware costs. Many companies use hardware discounts as an incentive to lock in long term contracts.

Subpoenas

Judge John Bates ruled that senior Presidential advisors must oblige Congressional subpoenas, going against a couple of decades of arguments re executive privledge.

Speeding Traps with GPS

What is the latest in high tech fighting of law enforcement? Using GPS technology to question radar guns is coming to the forefront in California. GPS systems can now track the velocity of a vehicle with a significant degree of accuracy and using those GPS records could be evidence against the police radar guns.

See the Ars Technica story here.

SAG Fight

The upcoming SAG strike basically centers around made-for-internet content and the rights of its union members to participate in residuals. I feel sorry for some of the actors; after all, how can you live in just a small mansion?

Table Top Fusion

Purdue found misconduct by physicist Rusi Taleyarkhan in his behaivor since 2002 when he first claimed he produced nuclear fusion. For example, he published a paper in 2006 in Physical Review Letters that claimed his 2002 was independently verified, but failed to disclose that the "independently verified" work was extensively done by him.

The Most Important Case Ever!!!!

A jury decided that Barbie and Bratz dolls are sisters and that the Bratz dolls were created at Mattel, Inc., and not MGA Entertainment. Still outstanding is whether Mattel owns the copyrights to the original Bratz design drawings, and whether the dolls infringe on the copyrights.

FCC and Indecendy

The 3rd Circuit held that the FCC overreached its bounds by fining CBS $550,000 for a "fleeting, isolated or unintended" image when Justin Timberlake accidently exposed Janet Jackson's breast.

Phone Moratorium

China has ordered a new phone moratorium, "suggesting" to companys that they should be focusing their efforts on the Olympics. At the current rate, phone companies are adding 9 million new accounts per month.

ICANN Approves New Domain Names System

ICANN approved the first sweeping changes in the 25 year old URL addressing system. But the new domains won't come cheap, with about $100,000 in costs per domain. The new process is simple. An applicant proposes the new domain, and if nobody raises an objection on grounds as racisms, trademark conflicts and similarity to another suffix, the name should be approved quickly. Also, countries will be able to have non-English characters in domain names as well.

Nigerian Scam Busted!

Edna Fiedler pleaded guilty to attempting to defraud US citizens with the Nigerian scheck scam. She made $609,000 from people who fell for it. Is there anybody who still believes these scams out there?