Chip maker AMD has accused four former employees, now with Nvidia, of stealing trade secrets and other confidential files and handing them over to its competitor last year. AMD filed suit in Massachusetts claiming that former VP Robert Feldstein and managers Manoo Desai, Nicolas Kociuk and Richard Hagen grabbed an array of documents — including details of upcoming technologies,...
Should children be inventoried, like products in a supply chain, or tracked like livestock? Depends on whom you ask. One privacy advocate’s nightmare scenario might be another Texas magnet school’s “innovative” student program. For a year now, the Student Locator Project, a pilot program at San Antonio’s John Jay Science & Engineering Academy, has required kids on its 4,200-student...
Remember the tidbit last month about the woman who got slapped with a $750,000 lawsuit for writing a scathing review of her contractor on Yelp and Angie’s List? Jane Perez didn’t just recount her frustrations, she also levied accusations involving missing jewelry and urged people not to hire the company. Ultimately, the judge sided with the plaintiff, granting a temporary injunction...
The patent system is busted. Litigious companies suing over vaguely worded claims, tying up courts and throwing obstacles at each other, preventing consumers like you and me from getting our tech goodies, make that perfectly clear. That fact isn’t lost on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office either. That’s why the USPTO is planning to hold an open forum of sorts in New York and Silicon...
Google and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) agreed on a settlement meant to allow competitors access to patents for critical standard technologies, and online advertisers to allow competitors fairer access to compete with Google's AdWords and vertical products. At the core of the patent issue is whether Google is properly upholding Motorola Mobility's existing agreements with...
Ever wished you could have an iPhone running Android? Well you can if you live in Brazil … kind of. IGB Electronica SA, an electronics maker based in Brazil, announced this morning that it will soon be launching its line of Android-powered IPHONE handsets, according to Reuters. It seems the company applied for, and was granted, the IPHONE trademark for Brazil back in 2000, and after a...
Ever been ticked off enough by a company or local business to write a scathing review? (Who hasn’t?) Well, you might want to cool off before you hit that submit button. The line between sharing an experience and engaging in defamation is a fuzzy one, and Jane Perez just ran smack dab into it. When she told the Interwebs exactly how she felt about her dealings with her contractor, the...
We're big fans of Speck Products around here. You might know them best as the company that creates dozens of iPhone, iPad and other phone/tablet cases. One of the company's more popular product lines, dubbed "CandyShell" was recently copied and sold by counterfeiters. Speck announced today, however, that it has won a lawsuit against the counterfeiting firm Tsai & Shaw. This isn't...
Apple and Swiss Federal Railway have reached an agreement over the electronics manufacturer unauthorized use of the railroad company’s iconic clock. When the iOS 6 update went out to users in Sept., the clock app on the iPad had received a facelift of a new clock, but it just so happens it looked identical to a trademarked clock design used by Swiss Federal Railway. In late Sept. it was...
Are you familiar with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act? I don't blame you — it's not all that easy to follow. And it just got a little more ridiculous. The DMCA makes it illegal for people to "circumvent" digital rights management. But when Congress passed it in 1998, it also gave the Library of Congress a loophole, empowering it to make exemptions however it sees fit — and the...