Months of aggressive lobbying by the MPAA and its allies at the Copyright Office gave them the result they desired In the current debate over cable set-top box competition, content and cable industries worked together to oppose regulation that could… Read More ›
Tag Archive for ‘Fair Use and Intellectual Property: Defending the Balance’
Inside Intellectual Ventures’ Portfolio: Nearly 500 University Patents
Harvard researcher Yarden Katz has just published some fascinating findings on which universities have sold patents to notorious patent-holding company Intellectual Ventures (IV). Of the nearly 30,000 active patents that IV lists publicly, 470 of them were originally assigned to… Read More ›
Patent Forum Shopping Must End
It’s Time for the Supreme Court to End the Venue Loophole As we’ve detailed on many occasions, forum shopping is rampant in patent litigation. Last year, almost 45% of all patent cases were heard in the Eastern District of Texas,… Read More ›
Upload Filtering Mandate Would Shred European Copyright Safe Harbor
After months of study, European regulators have finally released the full and final proposal on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, and unfortunately it’s full of ideas that will hurt users and the platforms on which they rely, in Europe… Read More ›
Tell the Copyright Office: Copyright Law Shouldn’t Punish Research and Repair
After eighteen years, we may finally see real reform to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s unconstitutional pro-DRM provisions. But we need your help. In enacting the “anti-circumvention” provisions of the DMCA, Congress ostensibly intended to stop copyright “pirates” from defeating… Read More ›
No One Owns Invisible Disabilities
The purpose of registered trademarks is to protect people. When you buy a bottle of Club-Mate, the trademark affords you some certainty that what you’re buying is the product you already know and love and not that of a sneaky… Read More ›
Stupid Design Patent of the Month: Rectangles on a Screen
On October 11, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the long-running Apple-Samsung litigation. The issue is whether Apple, by virtue of having its designed patents infringed by Samsung, is entitled to all of Samsung’s… Read More ›
Don’t Hide DRM in a Security Update
HP Promises to Restore Printers’ Functionality, But Questions Remain Over 10,000 of you have joined EFF in calling on HP to make amends for its self-destructing printers in the past few days. Looks like we got the company’s attention: today,… Read More ›
Copyright Loophole Could Undermine Important Consumer Protection Bill
The Consumer Review Fairness Act Is a Noble Bill but Could Leave the Door Open for Copyright Abuse There’s a bill making its way through Congress that would protect consumers’ freedom of speech by limiting unfair form contracts. The Consumer… Read More ›
TPP Goes Down to the Wire: Help Stop It by Joining Our Call-In
On September 14, Ask Your Representative to Oppose the TPP It’s now or never for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). It’s almost certain that if the TPP can’t pass during the lame duck session of Congress in its present form before… Read More ›