Patent Problems Hit RFIDs

Grok Headline matches for Patent Problems Hit RFIDs

More Patent Problems For WiFi

More Patent Problems For WiFi 09/23/2004 11:18 AM
Earlier this year, we noted that Wi-Lan's legal team was drooling over the opportunity to hit up WiFi equipment vendors for patent licensing fees. The company basically admitted that they knew they had a patent that covered an element of WiFi -- but waited until the technology was widespread to pounce. Now, we can add Symbol to the list of companies who "want their piece" of the WiFi pie. After a win last week against Proxim over patents, Symbol is preparing to send threatening legal letters to plenty of WiFi vendors, claiming they violate Symbol's patents. In other words, WiFi equipment is about to get more expensive. Again, this totally defeats the stated purpose of patents, does nothing to promote innovation, and promotes patent hoarding. It also weakens the standards creation process for new technologies. Too many companies now join standards groups for the sole purpose of making sure that their patented technology is somehow included, so that they'll be able to set up a tollbooth.

Patent Problems Creep Into WiFi

Patent Problems Creep Into WiFi 06/24/2004 01:49 AM
For all the talk of how WiFi and WiMax are these wonderful open wireless standards, it seems the may have a bit of a patent problem. Last month, I wrote about the potential patent troubles for WiMax, after Wi-LAN, a company that claims to own patents on core technical issues related to WiMax convinced a WiMax equipment maker to pay up, rather than go through a costly legal battle. Now, realizing that WiMax is still a bit far away, someone has realized that their patents can apply to WiFi as well -- an established market where companies may be willing to quickly pay up to get Wi-LAN off their backs. That seems to be about the only explanation for Wi-LAN's decision to sue Cisco, along with all sorts of evil patent overlord quotes like: "It is our intent to collect, either directly or through component manufacturers, royalties from any company selling 802.11a, 802.11g, or WiMax-certified equipment." It should be clear by now that these sorts of patent battles do more to slow down innovation than to enhance it. I explore that idea more thoroughly in my latest writeup for TheFeature about WiFi's new patent problem. What it means right now, however, is that there are going to be a string of legal battles, and WiFi equipment will likely get more expensive.

Patent problems pester penguin

Patent problems pester penguin 08/05/2004 10:16 AM
Free Software Foundation counsel Daniel Ravicher says a broken patent system is in urgent need of repair.

RFIDs Tracking More Than Just Goods

RFIDs Tracking More Than Just Goods 01/03/2005 06:04 AM
While most people talk about RFIDs in supermarkets for the ways in which they can track inventory, both in the back of the store and on the shelves, it's important to realize that the technology can be used for many other kinds of tracking as well -- including supermarket employees and customer shopping carts. This is where the technology reaches a bit more of a gray area that makes some people nervous. There isn't really anything wrong with it, as long as those people who are being tracked are aware they're being tracked, and the reasons for such tracking are made clear.

Chemical, Printable RFIDs

Chemical, Printable RFIDs 02/13/2004 10:41 PM

Xeni on PBS TV tonight -- RFIDs and
privacy

Xeni on PBS TV tonight -- RFIDs and
privacy 05/06/2004 04:12 PM
On this week's edition of the PBS television program "California Connected," I join host Lisa McRee with guests Beth Givens, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, State Senator Debra Bowen, and Mark Roberti, RFID Journal to debate consumer privacy issues related to radio frequency ID tag (RFID) technology.

There's a great online discussion salon going on concurrently, too, with Professor Shyam Sunder of the School of Management at Yale University, Chris Hoofnagle, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Lee Tien, senior staff attorney at the EFF, and Dr. Daniel Engels of the MIT Auto-ID Labs.

Dubbed by one skeptical journalist as "Big Brother in small packages," RFID chips are tiny transponders that can be attached to almost any consumer good. While companies are set to use these radio frequency identification tags to track their merchandise from assembly line to warehouse to store shelf, privacy watchdogs suggest these same RFID tags could be used to keep tabs on consumers -- beyond the confines of a store or supermarket.

Link to show home page. Link to stations and airtimes for both the TV and radio editions of the show. Video will be archived online later.

European retailers have the hots for
RFIDs

European retailers have the hots for
RFIDs 01/29/2004 01:59 PM
Supply chain economics

Xeni on NPR's Day to Day: RFIDS and
privacy

Xeni on NPR's Day to Day: RFIDS and
privacy 11/04/2003 11:03 AM
On today's edition of the NPR program "Day to Day," I speak with host Madeline Brand about RFIDS -- radio frequency ID tags -- and the technology's potential impact on commerce and personal privacy.

Wal-Mart executives are scheduled to meet with some of their top suppliers today to establish RFID compliance standards. Participants in the meeting to be held near Wal-Mart's Bentonville, Arkansas headquarters are said to include Kraft Foods, Proctor & Gamble, Tyson Foods and Unilever. A number of large IT companies are also expected to be in town for an RFID-related tech event slated for Wednesday, including IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Philips Semiconductor and SAP. Both Wal-Mart and the US Department of Defense plan to require that their major suppliers implement the wireless tracking technology by early 2005 -- a move similar to Wal-Mart's push for UPC (bar code technology) some two decades ago.

Link to "Day to Day" home, listen to the archived show here after 12PM Pacific.

Implantable RFIDs for nightclub VIPs

Implantable RFIDs for nightclub VIPs 05/21/2004 05:16 PM
Club kids who want VIP status at the popular Baja Beach Club in Barcelona can now get implanted with a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag. For 25 euro, customers can have an Applied Digital Solutions VeriChip, the size of a grain of rice, injected into his or her upper arm. Makes it easier to run a tab. Link (via my journal at TheFeature.com)

RFIDs Used To Secretly Track Officials
At Tech Summit

RFIDs Used To Secretly Track Officials
At Tech Summit 12/15/2003 02:26 AM
Every time people write about the potential for RFID chips to be misused, people come along and say that the possibility of them to be misused is pretty slim, and people should just calm down. While we agree that some of the anti-RFID rants have gone a bit overboard, the threat of the technology being secretly used to track people might not be so overblown. A report coming out late last week discovered that b adges used at the World Summit on the Information Society last week included RFIDs for tracking attendees. The attendees were apparently unaware the badges included these chips. The article is a little confusing, and does raise some questions. First, since the people who figured this out snuck into the summit, some of the article focuses on the poor security that let these people get official badges with fake identification - and the article shifts back and forth between the two stories as if they're related. The article also doesn't explain how they determined that there was an RFID chip and what it was used for. While the article claims that people at the conference were "tracked" by these chips - it's unclear that's what actually happened. They seem to indicate that attendees could have been tracked - but not that they actually were tracked. Still, it does point out some of the problems with putting RFID chips in everything. Perhaps people need to be looking more seriously at technology that might stop the "bad" aspect of RFIDs, such as a blocker chip that lets users only allow specific RFIDs to work when they want or need them to.

US Patent and Trademark Office Nixes
Eolas Browser Plug-in Patent

US Patent and Trademark Office Nixes
Eolas Browser Plug-in Patent 03/06/2004 01:59 AM

Chinese Patent Office Grants Fingerprint
Recognition Hardware Patent

Chinese Patent Office Grants Fingerprint
Recognition Hardware Patent 12/28/2004 11:11 PM
ChinaTechNews.com Dec 29 2004 3:10AM GMT

World Wide Web Consortium Presents the
US Patent Office with Evidence
Invalidating Eolas Patent

World Wide Web Consortium Presents the
US Patent Office with Evidence
Invalidating Eolas Patent 10/30/2003 12:34 AM
World Wide Web Consortium Presents the US Patent Office with Evidence Invalidating Eolas Patent .. se ha presentado en las oficinas de patentes y marcas de los Estados Unidos .. Read the briefing .. News release

w3.org/2003/10/28-906-briefing
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U.S. Patent Office Grants New Patent for
BUGS Carbon Reactivation Technology;
Innovative Biotechnology Solutio

U.S. Patent Office Grants New Patent for
BUGS Carbon Reactivation Technology;
Innovative Biotechnology Solutio 06/17/2005 04:27 PM
Investors Business Daily Jun 16 2005 1:56PM GMT

Patent Office Agrees To Check Into All
That Prior Art On The Eolas Patent

Patent Office Agrees To Check Into All
That Prior Art On The Eolas Patent 11/12/2003 01:35 PM
The latest in the Eolas patent saga is that someone at the Patent Office has finally agreed to review the patent based on stacks and stacks of prior art that people have been finding. Amazingly, the Patent Office appears to have responded quickly (though, they don't say how long it will take for a new decision on the patent) to the requests for a re-examination of the patent. There's a quote from the USPTO's deputy commissioner for patent examination policy saying that this was an "extraordinary situation" which necessitated the quick response. The problem with this statement is that it's not an extraordinary situation. In fact, it's an increasingly common situation, where silly patents are getting the stamp of approval every day - and then used to hold other companies up for extortion, rather than for encouraging innovation.

Eolas browser plug-in patent invalidated
by US Patent Office

Eolas browser plug-in patent invalidated
by US Patent Office 03/08/2004 11:08 PM
The US Patent and Trademark Office has now stepped in and invalidated the Eolas patent. The decision, if it is upheld, will clear Microsoft of charges of wrong-doing.

CyberMonday Midday: Microsoft Settles
Patent Suit with InterTrust; Wireless
Sees Patent Tech as Growth Key: Re

CyberMonday Midday: Microsoft Settles
Patent Suit with InterTrust; Wireless
Sees Patent Tech as Growth Key: Re 04/12/2004 07:26 PM
AVN Online Apr 12 2004 11:05PM GMT

Patent Office to Undertake New Review of
Critical Web Patent

Patent Office to Undertake New Review of
Critical Web Patent 11/13/2003 03:09 AM
BeSpacific Nov 13 2003 1:29AM ET

Silly Patent Of The Day: Adobe Hit With
Lawsuit Over Hyperlink Patent

Silly Patent Of The Day: Adobe Hit With
Lawsuit Over Hyperlink Patent 07/08/2004 05:05 PM
I think it's about time we came up with a new topic/icon for stupid patents. There are just so many of them these days. The latest is that Adobe, who is no stranger to abusing intellectual property rules, is now being hit with a patent over their PDF technology. The patent is for a method of extracting network information via hyperlinks. Reading through the patent, they're basically describing a system for clicking on a hyperlinking and having the system not only download the page in question, but all locally related pages linked from that page as well. Perhaps a useful system, but it seems like this sort of technology was around well before the patent was granted, and it's unclear what it has to do with PDF files.

Patent Office asked to review Microsoft
FAT patent

Patent Office asked to review Microsoft
FAT patent 04/15/2004 05:09 PM
Write open source software - and go to jail

Newly Launched Patent Database Opens
Free Search Access to IBM's Open Source
Software Patent Collection

Newly Launched Patent Database Opens
Free Search Access to IBM's Open Source
Software Patent Collection 02/01/2005 09:16 PM
PatentCafe's Natural Language Based OSS Patent Search Engine™ Accelerates Software Developers' Use of IBM's 500 Pledged Patents. Freely accessible by the entire OSS community, PatentCafe's Open Source Software Patent Search Engine adds significant value to IBM's contribution by accelerating the integration of IBM's patented technology into the marketplace, helping to foster worldwide interoperability standards. [PRWEB Feb 1, 2005]

Patent office to re-examine Eolas patent

Patent office to re-examine Eolas patent 11/12/2003 01:14 PM

Eolas patent defended before US patent
office

Eolas patent defended before US patent
office 05/13/2004 07:48 AM
Computer Weekly May 13 2004 12:23PM GMT

Patent Office Reviews Disputed Web
Patent

Patent Office Reviews Disputed Web
Patent 11/14/2003 04:41 AM
BizReport.com Nov 14 2003 4:18AM ET

The Patent Office is going to re-examine
the Eolas patent

The Patent Office is going to re-examine
the Eolas patent 11/13/2003 08:53 AM

news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5106129.html
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US Patent Office Grants Special Patent
Status to Private Inventor Regarding
Alleged Technology Infringement by
Acterna Corporation’s DSAM 2500 Cable
Modem Tester

US Patent Office Grants Special Patent
Status to Private Inventor Regarding
Alleged Technology Infringement by
Acterna Corporation’s DSAM 2500 Cable
Modem Tester 09/27/2004 03:30 AM
Richard C. Jaworski announces that the US Patent Office has granted his “Petition to Make Special” on his System of Testing the Upstream Cable Modem Channel (TUCMC) patent application. The petition to the US Patent Office alleged infringement of his technology by Acterna Corporation in their DSAM 2500 Cable Modem Test Instrument. Mr. Jaworski has written evidence that Acterna knew of the patent and the technology prior to releasing the feature in the DSAM 2500. According to patent law, triple damages are applicable for prior knowledge infringement as soon as the patent issues. Due to its special status, Jaworski expects the patent to issue in the immediate future. [PRWEB Sep 27, 2004]

The Problems With PCs

The Problems With PCs 09/23/2004 06:51 AM
ABCNEWS.com Sep 23 2004 11:02AM GMT

We Should All Have Such Problems....

We Should All Have Such Problems.... 07/21/2004 12:38 PM

John Batelle writes....

Ad space is running out (pdf download) on search engines. Damn....

Why do we care? It means the demand has outstripped supply. And that means very good things for high quality community driven web sites. Blogs? Yes.

[Searchblog]

Here here.

Our 1UP.com site has tripled ad revenues - since we turned on the social networking/blogging aspects to it last month. It's an ever increasing body of inventory - in which to run ads in.

IT Problems at the FBI

IT Problems at the FBI 06/17/2005 03:19 PM
CIO Jun 17 2005 12:22AM GMT

.Pro problems

.Pro problems 04/08/2005 10:13 AM

As people have reported widely, there has been a great deal of abuse of .Pro. .Pro was supposed to be a top level domain dedicated to creating a credentialed area for verified professionals and profession related domain names. People have been registering obviously unrelated domains and going as far as selling them on eBay. This clearly violates the spirit of the agreement, but it is still unclear whether anyone is technically violating the agreement. ICANN has been criticized for not policing .PRO especially in light of ICANN approving new sponsored top level domains. As Michael Palage pointed out in his comments during the board meeting, ICANN staff is currently investigating the issues and they will come back with the facts and the board will discuss any appropriate actions.

Comment - TrackBack

Most Common CSS Problems

Most Common CSS Problems 08/11/2004 03:38 PM

Andy Budd wants to know the most common CSS problems.

connection problems

connection problems 01/06/2004 11:49 AM

While I finished deleting the spam comments a few hours ago, the Internet connection problems remain. I can't reach several sites, including news sites and weblogs, and neither IM or IRC can connect. Other sites, both in Ireland and abroad, work fine. Definitely weird.

Troubleshooting DLL Problems

Troubleshooting DLL Problems 01/02/2005 08:47 AM

Some land problems

Some land problems 04/01/2005 04:49 AM
My post last month about free land, Get yer free land!, has landed (har har) me in a tricky spot. I now seem to be the fifth Googe response for free land which is leading to strange emails from people. Two excerpts: I would like to request more information about the free land. I'd like too know how I could get in on it also. And today's missive, with (I hope) some typos: would love to move from calif to on of the places that has free land . But i have quistions like I have two foster bays I need to know what that county would give to them to live on. The other thing is do they have places to rent until you build. the other is could you place a mudular or moble home on the land to live in while you get a job and you feel me. I updated the post. I don't know about the free land, I only link to it. And I don't want to feel anyone.

RSS Scaling Problems: How Can We Help?

RSS Scaling Problems: How Can We Help? 07/26/2004 10:58 PM
Okay, I'm in Portland for OSCON and catching up on a very big backlog of stuff. Mark Fletcher, in RSS Scaling Issues, brings up an issue that I've been worrying about (but not talking about) for quite some time now. Centralized services like Bloglines avoid this problem because we only fetch a feed once regardless of how many subscribers we have to it. Desktop aggregators can't do that, of course, and end up generating huge amounts of traffic to sites...

Gmail Problems

Gmail Problems 04/30/2004 12:02 PM
Brad of The BradLands reports that Google will give access to your Gmail account to anyone who can answer your secret question, and since most people's secret question is something easily discoverable (mother's maiden name, pet, etc.), this isn't very good news. On the other hand, as Matt and Brad point out, most other services (Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, etc.) have the same problem. So if you do use Gmail, do pick a more difficult challenge question. On a more uplifting note, Brad notes that Gmail is starting to work decently with Safari now, if you click past the your browser is unsupported screen by hitting "sign in anyway". And Dane Carlson notes the suspicious potential beginnings of a Google Blog (look at the URL)....

PSP Pixel Problems

PSP Pixel Problems 03/28/2005 04:06 PM

As I mentioned here last week, the PSP debut has brought with it a relatively large group of complaints about dead pixels on the screens. They range from a single pixel to whole rows or columns of dead pixels. Anandtech has posted a response from Sony about the dead pixels. It’s a generic type response, but worth reading..

The Sony rep suggested that PSP owners who encounter the pixel issue should try the device "for a week or two" to see if it continues to bother them. "If you find the spots are interfering with gameplay/video viewing during this period, we will support the various elements of [the PSP] warranty," the rep said. Each PSP comes with a one-year limited warranty, which is on page 125 of the PSP manual. If a PSP is "determined to be defective" by SCEA, the company will see to the "repair or replacement of this product [the PSP] with a new or refurbished product at SCEA's option."

Solution to gcc problems.

Solution to gcc problems. 12/19/2004 03:50 PM
Apple has released the November 2004 gcc3 updater, available (upon free registration) at connect.apple.com. This updater fixes the problems with the gcc3 compiler in XCode 1.5. If you are using XCode 1.5, you should install this updater. (The updater will update correctly for users with an untouched XCode 1.5, and also for users who installed the workaround which the fink project had previously recommended.) We would like to thank Apple for responding to our reports about this matter, and working to resolve it as quickly as possible.

More Diebold problems.

More Diebold problems. 11/16/2003 11:30 AM
Anthony Argyriou uncovers what seems to be a serious problem either with California voting machines or the vote tallying system: The Secretary of State's summary of votes on the Davis recall shows three counties--Alameda, Kern, and Plumas--that apparently had zero voters who didn't vote on the recall. Not one. All three counties used Diebold machines. Other counties ranged from 0.5% to 10.3% of voters not voting on the recall. More from Rick Hasen, a top election law scholar. [Via Volokh.]
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Patent Problems Hit RFIDs

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