|

The Story of UC and the “Troll”

Byuclafaculty

Bloomberg and other sources are reporting that UC and a firm described in the news media – particularly news media sympathetic to the high-tech sector – as a patent troll have lost an appeal concerning an internet patent.  On the other side of the appeal were Amazon and Google.  In an earlier trial in a lower court, the patent was invalidated.  Yahoo and J.C. Penney were also involved in the lower court case.

[“Patent trolls” are companies that acquire patents – particularly patents that seem to involve a broad range of activities – and then sue firms that use the alleged patented idea.  The Obama administration – with support from Silicon Valley – has been trying to curb patent trolls and recent issued. Poke around the web searching for Obama and patent trolls and you will get articles such as http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2013/06/18/why-silicon-valley-likes-obamas-patent-troll-offensive/ and probably find the relevant White House media release.  If not, the release is at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/06/04/fact-sheet-white-house-task-force-high-tech-patent-issues.]

One version of how UC has a claim and a partnership with the firm pursuing lawsuits related to this particular patent is at http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/02/patent-troll-trial/. The Bloomberg story mentioned at the outset of this posting is at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-22/google-amazon-com-win-appeal-to-toss-internet-patents.html.

As earlier posts have noted, UCLA is forming an entity called “NEWCO” – now approved by the Regents – to pursue revenue that can be derived from technology originating at the university.  So one suspects there will be litigation in the future, particularly in the area of technology and medicine, over who owns the rights to what.  Nonetheless, trolls have never been popular:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaoxI1DO6Sk?feature=player_detailpage]

Similar Posts

  • |

    Spotlight on Speech Codes, 2022

    Byadmin

    Fire (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) has just released its yearly summary of the state of free speech at 481 public and private colleges and universities in the United States. FIRE defines free speech as “the overwhelming majority of speech protected by the First Amendment.” Few exceptions exist. The survey addresses a wide variety of issues with relevance to free speech, including: Free Speech Zone PoliciesPrior RestraintsSecurity Fee PoliciesPolicies Governing Speakers, Demonstrations, and RalliesPolicies on Bias and Hate SpeechInternet Usage PoliciesPolicies on Tolerance, Respect, and CivilityBullying PoliciesThreats and IntimidationHarassmentPolicies on Bias and Hate SpeechObscenityIncitement The report is both disappointing…

  • Faculty call for pause on budget & network security changes at UCLA

    Byhigbie

    Over 250 UCLA faculty, including a large number of department chairs and center directors, have written Chancellor Block with a detailed critique of plans for administrative centralization. The letter follows earlier exchanges between department chairs and Executive Vice Chancellor/Provost Emily Carter and other top administrators. “Although we appreciated the fora that EVC/P Carter recently organized in response to an earlier letter requesting more time to evaluate the re-organization plans she is proposing, we continue to feel that there has been insufficient time or detail to evaluate their consequences and that we have not been adequately involved in the consultation process,”…

  • | | | | | | |

    Listen to Part of the Regents Afternoon Session of 1-22-2014

    Byuclafaculty

    As we have noted in numerous prior posts, the Regents refuse to archive their meetings beyond one year.  So we dutifully record the sessions in real time.  Below is a link to part of the afternoon session of Jan. 22.  This segment is mainly the Committee on Educational Policy.  Gov. Brown was in attendance.  We will separately (later) provide links just to certain Brown segments.  But for now, we provide a continuous recording. There was discussion of designating certain areas of UC-Merced as nature reserves, followed by discussion of a new telescope.  The discussion then turned to online ed and…

  • | | | | | | | | |

    Tradition!

    Byuclafaculty

    The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) has issued a report on UC and CSU funding.  LAO is usually viewed as a neutral agency.  But it is a component of the legislature.  So it tends to favor approaches that add to legislative control as opposed to, say, gubernatorial control.  This report is no exception. LAO seems to want to return to what it terms the “traditional” approach to funding, but with bells and whistles added to monitor legislative goals.  The traditional approach seems to be one focused on undergraduate enrollment.  But in fact the tradition – such as it is – has…

  • |

    Oversize Load?

    Byuclafaculty

    From the Sacramento Bee: …(T)the University of California’s academic student workers union recently filed a complaint against the UC Office of the President demanding that discussions about class size be a part of their contract negotiations. The union has been bargaining with UC since last summer, and its contract expired at the end of the year… The UC Student-Workers Union, which represents more than 12,000 teaching assistants, tutors and readers across the UC system, is seeking a regular forum to talk about class size with faculty and UC management, said Josh Brahinsky, a Ph.D. candidate in the history of consciousness…