| Customer Service
SAN DIEGO (AP) - A federal judge has found that Qualcomm Inc. waived its rights to enforce two patents on compressing video signals because it deliberately concealed them from an industry standard-setting group. The company's behaviour suggests "extremely foul play" and exposes "a carefully orchestrated plan and the deadly determination of Qualcomm to achieve its goal of holding hostage the entire industry" that would use the H.264 video compression standard, wrote U.S. District Judge Rudi Brewster. The ruling, dated Monday, came in one of several patent disputes between chipmakers Qualcomm and Broadcom Corp. Qualcomm initiated the case, suing Broadcom in October 2005 on claims that its rival violated patents on technology that is used to compress video signals in DVD players, digital televisions and music players.
Inventors Save Planet
Now that just about everybody but Exxon has finally admitted that global warming is a reality, the opportunity to make money is obvious. From the labs of multinational corporations to suburban garages, inventors all over the globe are trying to find ways to rescue the world and get rich doing it. Santa Barbara, which likes to think of itself as the birthplace of the environmental movement, is holding its own pretty well in this contest. The array of astonishing inventions pouring out of UCSB now includes film-thin photovoltaic cells as well as super-efficient LED lights. In the world beyond academia as well there is a groundswell of green innovators, and people eager to cultivate them. Even before global warming became a household word, Larry Crandell, Santa Barbara's long-reigning silver-tongued emcee for civic fêtes and corporate roasts, was promulgating the notion that protecting the environment could be a for-profit venture — and not the exclusive province of tree-hugging Luddites who had taken vows of poverty.
7 IP attorneys defect from Senniger to Armstrong
Armstrong Teasdale has added seven attorneys and six support employees to its intellectual property staff -- all from Senniger Powers. The move, effective Aug. 1, expands Armstrong Teasdale's IP practice to 32 attorneys, of which 24 are licensed patent lawyers. Senniger Powers now has 37 intellectual property lawyers, including 25 licensed patent lawyers as well as two licensed patent agents. .
Kilpatrick Beefs Up North Carolina Office in Response to Competition
Kilpatrick Stockton is pouring reinforcements into the heated Charlotte, N.C., legal market, where local competitor King & Spalding just opened an office last week. The firm has added seven lawyers to its 11-lawyer Charlotte office and will bring on three first-years in September, said its co-managing partner, William E. Dorris. Two of the seven additions are new hires, and the rest are from other Kilpatrick offices. .
F1 Spy row timeline
McLaren have today escaped punishment despite being found to be in possession of confidential Ferrari information. McLaren were made to answer a charge of 'fraudulent conduct' and following an extraordinary meeting of the World Motor Sports Council, the FIA - world motor sport's governing body - decided there was insufficient evidence to impose a penalty. Timeline June 21: Ferrari announce the launch of a criminal investigation against their head of performance development Nigel Stepney. No details are given as to the reason behind the investigation. .
Maja Hazell Joins Fried Frank as Director of Diversity and Inclusion
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP announced today that Maja D. Hazell has joined the Firm as Director of Diversity and Inclusion. Ms. Hazell will have overall responsibility for firm-wide diversity and inclusion initiatives. She will work directly with the Firm's Diversity Committee and will also work closely with all attorneys and firm administrative staff, in particular the Office of Attorney Development, Human Resources, Legal Recruitment and Marketing Departments developing, implementing and monitoring programs and processes that promote and sustain diversity, equity, and respect throughout the Firm. .
Something Ventured: August 10th, 2007
My body bruised.
She's got me with nothing left to win
And nothing else to lose. - U2, With Or Without You First, I want you all to know that I am working on a Club Penguin story, especially given my column from June and the apparent happy ending to a great ride (Disney buys them for $350M plus an earn out of another $350M. If all of the deal gets earned out, they would be the 3rd largest acquisition in BC technology history). Given that Disney now runs the shop, it is even tougher for a part time columnist to get a formal interview but at least they return my calls now. Baby steps. This week I wanted to talk about a classic start-up problem that emerges at the very beginning: who gets what and why. {I thought I had written on this topic before, but neither my Google Desktop nor a cursory surf through 220 or so columns in the archive could locate the topic. Hmmmm.} This idea was spurred by the recent and ongoing news that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is being sued by his former classmates at the Harvard MBA school. They argue that he stole their collective idea (hatched in an entrepreneurship course) called HarvardConnection, which sounded to me a lot like a rip off of Classmates.com, and created Facebook. Read about the story here. The first thing that jumps to mind is the fact that the other members of the group that werent part of Facebook have conveniently waited until Mark turned down $1B from Yahoo and may be considering an IPO valuing him closer to $10B in the near future. In other words, they didnt bother suing him when he left their group, but now their is gold in them thar hills. In fact, they probably sneered at him for even trying to copy their idea on his own.
|
