Posts Tagged: "Internet"

Fitfully has filed at least one patent application which has been published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) as W.O. Patent Application No. 2016051416, titled System and Method of 3D Modeling and Virtual Fitting of 3D Objects. It discloses a method of virtual fitting a foot with a shoe by obtaining 3D model data associated with a foot, obtaining data of a second 3D model associated with a shoe and aligning point clouds derived from the 3D models of the foot and shoe.

Over the past few years we have seen a surge in cyber attacks against well-known organizations, each seemingly larger than the last. As cybercriminals look for innovative ways to penetrate corporate infrastructures, the challenges for brand owners to protect their IP has steadily grown… Most organizations have implemented stringent security protocols to safeguard their IT infrastructure, but conventional security measures don’t provide the critical intelligence needed to analyze cyberattacks that propagate in the Deep Web and Dark Web. It is fundamentally harder to navigate a medium where web pages are unindexed and anonymity can hide criminal activity.

Text messages sent between Andreesen and Erskine Bowles speak to Zuckerberg’s desire to be able to maintain control of Facebook while possibly serving two years in government… The fact that Zuckerberg is open to serving in government might actually carry some sway with the Trump transition team, which includes a Facebook connection through Peter Thiel… Given Zuckerberg’s stances on Internet issues, one possible position for Zuckerberg could be at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The IoT presents a challenge to IP practitioners to adapt existing IP protection strategies by developing new approaches better suited to the rapidly changing, connected-yet-disconnected network of innovations forming the IoT. By opening communications and application programming interfaces (APIs) to more and more collaborator-yet-competitor devices, innovators (i.e., clients) must carefully guard their IP while at the same time facilitating interoperability and security among connected devices. Below, we present the adaptation of some existing strategies as well as thoughts on new strategies for IP protection in the interoperable world of the IoT.

Join Gene Quinn (IPWatchdog.com), Ray Millien (Chief IP Counsel for GE Oil & Gas) and Julia Elvidge (President of Chipworks) on Thursday, December 1, 2016, for an panel discussion on the Internet of Things, what it is, what it means for the future of innovation, and what legal issues will be confronting clients (and lawyers) in this 4th Industrial Revolution.

Internet attorneys spend our days fighting the good fight – at least that’s what I think I do. In a time where judges confuse metadata and metatags, and people believe everything online is “in the public domain,” we march on. We worry about keeping the first amendment in tact and relentlessly champion Section 230, even when our protagonists are less than ideal (i.e., Backpage.com, thedirty.com). For better or for worse, we do our best, to make the Internet a place where people can have their opinions, and the companies we represent don’t get sued for them. So, what happens when the CEO of Reddit, one of the largest community forum websites out there, decides to have a little fun at the expense of Trump supporters/moderators on the subreddit, r/The_Donald? Let’s put it this way, nothing good.

The promise of the Internet of Things is the ability to perform analytics on data collected from the smart objects connected to the IoT in order to lead to new knowledge and provide insights to owners, users and servicers of the objects. Thus, simply put, the “digital transformation” being experienced by several industries involves companies shifting away from selling only hardware (e.g., household appliances, jet engines, locomotives, turbines, compressors, motors, etc.), to selling solutions — a suite of hardware equipped with sensors and wireless communications generating valuable data, coupled with analytics software solutions that enable users to monitor, control, diagnose and generally operate such hardware more e ciently (e.g., via remote diagnostics and scheduling preventative maintenance).

Another regulatory issue other than antitrust thatis likely to surface during review of the AT&T-Time Warner merger is zero rating, or the practice of providing content for free to consumers on a network. The way that the FCC has implemented net neutrality certainly would indicate that zero rating would likely be regulated at some point, even though it would do so to the likely detriment of the American consumer… This June, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler indicated that the investigation into zero rating practices was ongoing. In mid-October, a group of 76 organizations signed another letter urging the FCC to issue rules making zero rating illegal, so the momentum in this area looks like it’s increasing.

The FCC’s broadband privacy rules require ISPs to present their customers with a choice to opt in or opt out of providing consent to use certain categories of information which are deemed to be sensitive. Such sensitive information includes any data pertaining the the customer’s geo-location, health, finances, children, Social Security number, browsing history, app usage history or the content of electronic communications. Information related to a customer’s e-mail address or tier level of broadband service, however, is considered non-sensitive.

There are challenges that must be overcome through innovation before 5G becomes commercially feasible. Device-to-device communications, which allow mobile device owners to communicate directly without a base station, face challenges of inter-cell interference caused by many small cells operating in an area, as well as difficulties in device discovery. Software defined cellular networks, which are directly programmable without hardware changes, offer simplified network design and dynamic configuration capabilities, but global standards and network infrastructure application are still lacking. To address these and other issues, the White House recently announced a $400 million initiative for advanced wireless research, which will be spearheaded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

One of the companies which has positioned itself strongly in the industrial Internet sector is American conglomerate General Electric (NYSE:GE) of Fairfield, CT. This company has been melding the massive industrial machinery it manufactures, such as wind turbines and aircraft engines, with sensor networks and computer software platforms which allow the company to better ensure the operational efficacy of its equipment. A 2015 study of the industrial Internet’s impacts on corporations produced by GE and strategy firm Accenture indicates that big data analytics were within the top three priorities for 80 to 90 percent of corporate executives across eight industry sectors; the aviation, wind and power generation industries each eclipsed 90 percent in this regard.

The San Francisco-based online lodging rental company Airbnb is proving to be very disruptive to the hotel industry…. Despite the growing regulatory dustup concerning Airbnb, the short-term rental market continues to thicken with competitors. In July, the on-demand room sharing service Overnight launched in New York City after offering listings in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Austin, TX. The app only had about 4,500 hosts in its total network but it allows host to list shared room accommodations instead of a full apartment and encourages quick responses to reservation requests within a 10-minute window. Some competitors are rushing in to serve consumers who have been let down by their own experiences with Airbnb.

On the morning of Tuesday, July 12th, members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation convened for a hearing on a notice of proposed rulemaking recently issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The hearing, titled How Will the FCC’s Proposed Privacy Regulations Affect Consumers and Competition, did much to talk about the potential effects of the FCC’s increased oversight of broadband Internet service providers even as partisan viewpoints among committee members were exposed.

Upon closer review things are much, much worse than I previously reported. The problem is also far more widespread. Using LexisNexis Patent Advisor®, I looked at the E-commerce Art Units, this time focusing on what has happened over the past 18 months. Focusing on this segment of post-Alice prosecution the allowance picture is utterly atrocious… Only 12 patents were issued by Art Unit 3689 in 2015, while 365 applications went abandoned, which corresponds to an allowance rate of 3.2%. So far in 2016 there have been only 3 patents issued by Art Unit 3689, while 232 patent applications have gone abandoned, which corresponds to an allowance rate of 1.3%.

This new post-prosecution pilot program feels a lot like rearranging the chairs on the Titanic. Unless and until the Patent Office does something about recalcitrant patent examiners this effort may wind up being much ado about nothing… If you look at Art Unit 3622, which handles applications dealing with incentive programs and coupons, and compare it with Art Unit 3688 and Art Unit 3682, both of which also handle patent applications relating to incentive programs and coupons, you see the same alarming trend. These three Art Units that handle the same type of patent application yet have allowance rates of 9.5%, 29.2% and 63.2%. Something seems seriously wrong and is screaming for investigation.