intellectual property

Santa Clara law professor Colleen Chien, who has published research that questions the economic justification for patent trolling, will advise the Obama Administration’s Chief Technology Officer. Read More »

I spent the past few days in Boston at the Harvard Medical School Conference Center speaking audiences at the Medical Device Connectivity Conference (I presented lectures on how to design next-generation medical devices and gateways). Read More »

Here's a pretty interesting development: As part of a criminal investigation the UK Government has shut down the popular blog RnBXclusive which posted news, commentary and links to music. Authorities have arrested the owners of the site for allegedly defrauding the music industry. Read More »

Manufacturers have made it increasingly difficult for individuals or independent repair people to fix electronics. A growing movement is fighting back. Fifty years ago, if your television broke you could bring it to the local electronics shop to be repaired. These days, a broken TV likely means a trip to Best Buy for a new one. Electronics have become harder to fix. This is, in part, because they’ve become more complex. But some of the problem is by design...

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In the current startup universe, there’s still a lot of chatter about changing the world, an objective that has become so cliché—and ridiculed—that it’s easy to forget that those voicing this desire genuinely, vehemently believe it. From the outside, the prospect of a world-changing software product is either very exciting or completely delusional, depending on who’s talking...Idealism about technology as a democratizing force currently looks a lot like defense: protecting digital civil liberties, and fighting against further erosion. This is the side that Justin Peters is most committed to documenting in his book The Idealist: Aaron Swartz and the Rise of Free Culture on the Internet, a partial biography of the late activist and Open Access advocate...

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We've been noting for a while how numerous states have been pushing so-called "right to repair" bills, which would make it easier for consumers to repair their own products and find replacement parts and tools. Not surprisingly, many tech companies have been working overtime to kill these bills. That includes Apple, which recently proclaimed that Nebraska's right to repair bill would turn the state into a nefarious playground for hackers. Opposition also includes Sony and Microsoft, which both tend to enjoy a repair monopoly on their respective video game consoles...

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