A system for resolving an act of copyright infringement, comprising: an infringement module configured to identify an infringing computer, wherein the infringing computer includes a computer associated with an infringement event; an identification module configured to identify an ISP associated with the infringing computer; a notification module configured to notify the ISP that the infringing computer is associated with the infringement event; a receiving module configured to receive a redirected request for access to Internet content, wherein the request for Internet content has been redirected by the ISP; and a generation module configured to generate a redirect webpage, wherein the redirect webpage includes a link associated with a settlement webpage that includes a settlement offer to resolve the infringement event.

examine the link between women who own small business concerns and intellectual property, including—

(A) the number of patents, trademarks, and copyrights granted to women; and

(B) the challenges faced by high-growth small business concerns owned and controlled by women in obtaining and enforcing intellectual property rights.

TechCrunch has a post looking at another area that is very similar to speech assistance devices: hearing aids. The market for these devices is old and stale, dominated by a few key players who have cushy exclusive deals with doctors that allow them to charge exorbitant prices (averaging around $3000), but a year-old startup called Embrace Hearing is beginning to shake things up by selling $300+ hearing aids directly to consumers. They discovered that 75% of Americans who qualify for hearing devices don't actually use one, and the number one cited reason is high price. But they also know that those high prices are mostly artificial:

Audiologists (health care professionals who specialize in hearing, and the loss thereof) control the majority of sales in the U.S. market. While these specialists provide essential services, they use the sale of hearing aids to their own gain, often charging markups of three to five times — because they can.

Not only that, but the clever business people they are, they bundle re-fittings and follow-up visits into the cost, generally using this as the explanation for why hearing aids cost so much. The Embrace co-founders say that the reality of the situation, however, is that only 20 percent of customers make five or more visits to audiologists in the year after being fitted for the device. For those who fall into that category, the insurance and other benefits might make sense, but for most it doesn’t.

That, my friends, is what you call a market opportunity. Interestingly, the TechCrunch post doesn't discuss patents, instead focusing on other factors that have limited the market: the aforementioned exclusive deals with doctors, the lack of entrepreneurial presence since hearing aids aren't a "sexy" product, and the fact that many people are uncomfortable bypassing a healthcare professional when purchasing something like this. Embrace Hearing is turning all these problems into opportunities: they work with a new manufacturer who has no exclusive deals, they are trying to make hearing aids sexy (social stigma is the #2 reason people who need them choose not to buy them), and they are working on an online tool for testing your hearing.

I do wonder, though, if they will face patent problems in the future. Their German manufacturer is presumably operating in good faith, but that's never stopped a good patent showdown before, since aggressive companies like to use their patent portfolios as a way to control the market and crush competitors, regardless of how valid those patents are or whether any genuine infringement is taking place. If Embrace Hearing grows and is perceived by the incumbents as a threat, it's quite likely that they or their manufacturer will face litigation. Of course, all this just tells you they are on the right track: when the kings of a particular market defend their thrones through exclusive deals, patents and other monopoly protections—rather than by actually competing—it's a surefire sign that the market is underserved. And where there's an underserved market, entrepreneurs will eventually move in to capitalize on it. When that happens, existing monopoly protections can only delay the inevitable, but they can cause very real harm by doing so—and in an industry that effects the quality of life of millions of people, the public backlash against these monopolies can be huge. Any company that operates in the health and wellness space by selling at huge markups and relying on exclusivity would be wise to start thinking about their future in the long-term: if they don't meet the demands of the market, someone else will.

• 7,796,116: Electronic equipment for handheld vision based absolute pointing system
• 7,852,317: Handheld Device for Handheld Vision Based Absolute Pointing System
• 7,864,159; Handheld Vision Based Absolute Pointing System.

The rejection of [...] applications — assigned to Nintendo Co. Ltd. — based on the ’116 patent is proof that the Nintendo defendants knew or should have known of the objective risk that one or more of their products infringed at least one claim of at least the ’116 Patent.

Odom thoroughly searched the prior art before asserting his tool groups patent. He's filed accelerated examination (AE) continuations. AE requires a fairly exhaustive search of the prior art, and identification of how the claims are supported in the specification, as well as mapping the closest prior art to the claims.

Odom filed '592 in late 2000. Seven years later active tool groups burst into the commercial marketplace, introduced, and actively promoted, by Microsoft. It has spread like wildfire as a new user interface standard. Belated infringement coupled with commercial success is itself an indicator of non-obviousness.

As an aside, punters, who have commented that Odom's claims are Bilskied out, don't know what they are talking about. The CAFC has been concerned about overreaching business method patents. Bilski required, for software patents, that claims transform the subject matter, and have tangibility (according to one interpretation), i.e., representational of non-computer existence. Odom's tool groups are like containers in a toolbox, and his claims alter the condition of those groups.

However, the court held that the asserted claims presented “one of the clearest” cases of obviousness that had come before it because Odom had simply “cob-bled together various pieces of what was already out there in a manner . . . that would have been obvious to anyone skilled in the art at the time of the invention.”

Those same concepts are claimed in the ’592 patent except that the groups of tools are on a single toolbar. That is an insignificant advance over Kavalam. KSR Int’l Co., 550 U.S. at 417 (“If a person of ordinary skill can implement a predictable variation [of a prior art work], § 103 likely bars its patentability.”). Kavalam explains that although its invention has been described in the context of a web browser, employing collections of buttons and toolbars that are relevant to that application, a person of skill in the art would appreciate that the inven-tion can be adopted to other applications where a different arrangement or combination of tools may be desired. Kavalam, col.15, l.63–col.16, l.12. The district court thus did not err in determining that the manner in which ’592 patent divides up toolbars into groups and claims manipu-lation of tool groups would have been a common sense variation of Kavalam for a person of skill in the art. Likewise, it would have also been a trivial change for a person of skill in the art designing such alterable tool groups to add an indicator that could indicate any altered condition of the tool group.

And so, another “license” is paid up, and copyright lawyers use it as proof to politicians that licenses are paid and the system works. It’s circular reasoning at its most insidious.

The danger here lies in the difference of perspective: lawyers and politicians regard court proceedings as having zero cost, as basically being a correspondence or a negotiation. In the reality entrepreneurs live in, however, the court cost of a monopoly lawsuit can easily hit a million euros.

So the next time the monopoly laws need revision and redrafting, the politicians go to the monopoly lawyers with demonstrated understanding of the substance matter. Politicians note that the lawyers have been correct in their predictions that license money would start to flow, and take it as proof the system works; they can’t see or know money is flowing for all the wrong reasons.

And so, the monopoly lawyers get to expand and revise those laws yet again, when it was nothing but a legalized extortion racket from the start. The cycle continues.

Apple, Activision, Adobe, Autodesk, Capcom, Citrix, Corel, Dassault, Delcam, Square Enix, Electronic Arts, Frontrange Solutions, IBM, Intuit, Konami, Digital Entertainment, Maximizer Software, Nuance, Parametric Technology, Sage Software, Sega, Skype, SPSS, Teradata, THQ and Legacy Interactive

America's largest big tech corporations are now using a business technique called "efficient infringement," which means that they calculate the benefits of stealing someone else's patented technology against the possibility of getting caught, tried in court and being forced to pay damages and penalties. If the benefits exceed the costs, they steal.

What makes patent theft so attractive is that infringement is not a criminal act and those found guilty face no jail time. Paying up is the worst that can happen to the infringer.

As the breeders keep tinkering, South Asia is bracing for impact. The CDL recently tried to get its hands on a suspicious P. graminis sample from Pakistan that is said to knock out Sr31. But the country is reluctant to share: "Some countries regard isolates of their pathogens as part of their genetic heritage," CDL director Marty Carson says. "I guess there's a fear that we'll patent something off of it."