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Will Congress Break the Internet? A look at SOPA and PIPA.

There has been a lot of writing, and action, by people for and against the two bills being considered by Congress for protecting intellectual property owners from having their rights infringed online. In this blog I address many of the arguments against these bills.

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World Intellectual Property Report 2011

According to the World Intellectual Property Report 2011, published by the United Nations, royalties and license fees for intellectual property outpaced economic growth in recent years.

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Patent reform: the big guys won, the little guys lost

On September 16, 2011, President Obama signed The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act into law. One of the key, and most controversial changes, is a shift in the patent priority rules from the “first-to-invent” system. Professors David S. Abrams and R . Polk Wagner performed a study on the effect of this change on entrepreneurs and individual inventors.

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Podcasts on software intellectual property and software development

Here are my new podcasts about software intellectual property and software development relating to IP issues. I believe you’ll find them useful. The Software IP Detective’s Handbook About Software Copyrights About Software Trade Secrets About Software Patents The Software Clean Room Process

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Inventions must be novel and nonobvious, not complex

In August I debated the impact of software patents at the Computer History Museum (you can watch the debate here). I asked members of the audience how many were programmers or had  written software. A large number of hands went up. I then asked  those people to put their hands down if they thought what [...]

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Grocery trolls and civil liberties

People have been asking me lately what I think about those organizations that buy up patents and license them or sue infringers. Kindly known as non-practicing entities (NPEs), patent licensors, or patent aggregators, they are disparagingly called “patent trolls.” However, there is a much more troubling entity out there that I want to bring to [...]

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Why da Vinci was not an engineer, scientist, or mathematician

Leonardo da Vinci has been called the greatest genius who ever lived. While his artwork has been appreciated by millions over the centuries, his so-called accomplishments in mathematics, science, and engineering are only myths and I debunk them here.

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Guidelines for lawyers dealing with experts

Over the years as an expert witness I’ve worked with a lot of lawyers. Most are really sharp, some are brilliant, and a few… not so much. Here are some guidelines for treating an expert right.

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Wikipedia: reliable reference or biased blathering?

Wikipedia is great for cocktail party banter, but don’t rely on it for critical facts. The anonymity of its contributors, the poor fact-checking on the early contributions, and the bias of unqualified volunteer editors make it an increasingly inaccurate source that is losing its initial attraction for many.

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The Software IP Detective’s Handbook

My book on software intellectual property has just been published by Prentice-Hall.

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