Law and Innovation

Fresh and interesting article posted on Fortune about the top seven patent-earning tech companies in 2014.  Happy reading! "Patents are the lifeblood of the tech industry—and if last year’s numbers are any indication, that sector is performing with vigor.  More than 300,000  utility patents—those are the ones for inventions, rather than designs —were issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office last year, a record high. Such patents allow companies to put their inventions on lockdown for up to two decades, reaping rewards for significant R&D investments. And there’s another incentive: allowing businesses to stock up their intellectual property warchests and fortify their legal defenses. “If you’re a bully you’re not going to pick on the big kids,” says Larry Cady, vice president of marketing and senior patent analyst at IFI Claims Patent Services, a firm that maintains a database of patents. “You’re going to pick on the pipsqueaks.” So which co...

Tech predictions for 2015 are all around: A smartphone-PC marriage , cyber attacks, the continuing rise of wearable technology (particularly smart watches), phablets, drones, Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, mobile payments system, etc. In sum, 2015 is going to be exciting!  But what about smartphones, more precisely, iPhone? It seems the iPhone generation is over. La boucle est bouclée. Most of the mobile trends to watch in 2015 articles are talking about everything related to mobile except a new iPhone... and that makes sense.  Let's take a closer look at the Apple iPhone timeline and evolution And now at the Apple iPad timeline and evolution And finally a closer look at the recent iDevices Considering how big the iPhone 6 Plus is, a new iPhone 7 seems unlikely. A "super" mini iPad too. The iDevice generation is completed. And that's a good thing. Big improvements are sometimes better than small new evolutions. Or perhaps Apple is still ...

Fresh and interesting article posted on IPWatchdog about the history of Apple iDevices. Happy reading!  " Early on in his career with Apple, Steve Jobs conceived the idea of a personal computing device that a person could keep with them and use to connect wirelessly to other computer services. Almost 25 years later, Apple and Jobs would upend the world of personal computing by launching the iPhone smartphone, and a few years later a tablet computer counterpart, the iPad. According to the most recent sales figures available from Apple corporate analysis website AAPLinvestors.net,   the iPhone has achieved lifetime sales of 590.5 million units ; Apple has also sold 237.2 million iPads in just over three years since the release of that product. The iPhone has retained mass appeal despite the presence of the iPad and   Apple has even reverted to soft launches for new iPad products , evidence of the incredible hold that the iPhone still maintains over Apple’s core consum...

(Article published in the ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law, International Associates Action Group Newsletter , p.15).   I nnovation continues to outpace the law. Since the last six years, the convergence of cloud-based products/services with the consumption and distribution of entertainment content is producing a large number of conflicts and legal uncertainty in the television industry. Indeed, the scope and bounds of copyright law remain ill-equipped to tackle this rapid pace of technological advancement. The question remains: are we not in presence of a “loophole” in the law?    Following the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in favor of the TV content owners ( American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., et al., Petitioners v. Aereo, Inc ., 573 U.S. ___ (2014)) concluding that “Aereo performs petitioners’ copyrighted works publicly” infringing this exclusive right by selling its subscribers a technologically complex service that allows them to watc...