In quite a big piece of news in the patent system, the Court today unanimously ruled that if you are a patent troll you can no longer extort money from a company by holding an injunction (a stop your entire business order) over its head like it is a guillotine.

The general rule before this case came out was that if a person or company was found to be infringing on a patent an injunction would automatically issue. This rule had no parallel in other areas of law. Generally, if you wanted an injunction (like to keep your neighbor’s dog from being outside at night) you had to go through a rigorous process. In the words of my professor, “What makes patents so god damn special?” The Supreme Court has answered, “Nothing.” Finally a decision from the Court that almost everyone can agree with.

A plaintiff must demonstrate: (1) that it has suffered an irreparable injury; (2) that remedies available at law, such as monetary damages, are inadequate to compensate for that injury; (3) that, considering the balance of hardships between the plaintiff and defendant, a remedy in equity is warranted; and (4) that the public interest would not be disserved by a permanent injunction. . . . These familiar principles apply with equal force to disputes arising under the Patent Act.

Commentary here and here

I‘ve uploaded some of the pictures from the Great Move-in of 2006. Have a look.

Click Here for the rest

“What are people worried about? What is the problem?” asked Lott, a former majority leader. “Are you doing something you’re not supposed to?”

Wait, what’s that sound I hear? Oh, that’s George Orwell coming back from the dead to smite you.

I‘m finally done. I’ve got a short break before I start writing my law review application paper, but the stress has certainly been lifted for the moment. Plans for the summer are to keep myself busy by working for my teacher doing an article on the General Counsel’s office at the CIA, taking a a class and half, continue creating more websites for Vik, and studying for the Patent Bar exam. Should be nice and relaxing, or something. I’ll also finally get around to creating the new layout on here. I’ve spent the past four or so hours catching up on news that I’ve missed out, on so I thought I’d share some good stuff I found.

The first is something I wrote about last year. It has to do with those expensive air “purifiers.” It appears that another study has come out confirming what Consumer Reports initially reported. Found via Engadget, MSNBC is reporting that not only do they not clean the air, they actually create smog

Next is another follow up from an old post regarding Apple’s new Aperture program.  Ars Technica has looked at the 1.1.1 release to see if they fixed the problems that plagued the first version.  Its conclusion?  It rocks now.  The RAW processing actually works so it can be used for what it was originally intended for.  Now, only if I had a mac that could actually run this beast.  Oh well, that is for when I actually graduate and have some money even if I won’t have any extra time.

Last is an awesome website I came across called the Six Minute Project.  The idea is to take a picture every 6 minutes for 24 hours and then post them online.  There are a few people’s galleries up there and they are really interesting to look at.  It provides a very real and unedited version of some people’s lives.  The interface is very slick and you can waste a lot of time just watching
the slideshows.

A big thanks to everyone that helped me and Jessica move in a while back.  I don’t know how we could have moved without your help.  If you haven’t heard we are having a ”house warming” party on the 20th.  Should be a good time.  Well that is all for now.  At some point during the next month or so I’m going to be posting a lengthy article on all the various bills that are presently in Congress being debated and how much they plan on screwing you.  Granted the chances of anyone actually getting prosecuted under these draconian laws is nill, it is still scary to think the recording industry wants it to be a felony (sentencing up to 10 years in federal pound me in the prison * Office Space rocks *) for anyone even attempting to copy a song.  Fun stuff if you’re interested, otherwise just continue on when I finally get it put together.