https://www.europesays.com/1912964/ Why the UK Food Regulator is Trying to Legalize Lab-Grown Meat #biology #diet #FARMING #Food #GreatBritain #law #NortheasternUniversityLondon #patents #UnitedKingdom

I hope countries around the world feel emboldened to repeal all the intellectual property laws that they adopted in hopes of trading with the US. None of it matters any more. It should be apparent now that US tariffs are getting applied RANDOMLY, to countries EVEN WHEN THEY COMPLY WITH ALL TRADE DEALS. I hope they do themselves a favor and free their societies from the shackles of US economic imperialism and innovate in a way that US companies cannot.

I always love a good initiative that circumvents or limits big-techs' horrible monopolism and arrogance and abuse of patents, copy-rights and whatever laws and rules that are never there to protect YOU, but always to protect capital!

So...

Get honest answers to the questions that have been bugging you about technology. And get to know how the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) fights every day to make sure your rights follow you into the digital world.
Ever wondered...

Why is it so expensive to repair my devices?
Can the government read my text messages?
Is my phone listening to me?
Do I really own the digital media I bought?
Why is printer ink so expensive?

https://www.digitalrightsbytes.org/

#capitalism #monopoly technology #BigTech #copyright #patents #CrashCourse

The Supreme Court has rejected FC2's appeals against two lower court rulings ordering the Las Vegas-based video-sharing platform operator to stop violating Japanese peer Dwango's patent on a comment-posting system. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/03/04/japan/crime-legal/dwango-fc2-top-court/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #crimelegal #fc2 #dwango #patents #supremecourt #internet

This week I've been mainly reading, no. 214.

Nicola Griffith's novel of corporate control of intellectual property & the owners' family intrigues is sort of sci-fi, but really Slow River (1995/2012) is a business thriller (both legitimate & illegitimate businesses). Its a well written & intriguing read, which has a number of reveals that work well. To the extent is steps between genres its difficult to place, but very much worth reading.

@bookstodon #books #business #patents #scifi

Some people are dedicating their entire adult life to sharing ideas, knowledge and inspiration with others in the hope to bring forth a better world, others are dedicating their years to hoarding patents for every little "insight" (incl. brain farts) they ever had or been involved with, and then use this collection of accumulated "IP" as central/singular thesis to brag about on their website...

Case in point, the personal website of Humane AI's CEO:
http://www.imranchaudhri.com/

All repeat with me: #patents don't mean innovation.

Not all you read in patents will be future technology, not all innovative things end up in patents (the web, QR codes, for example), not all you find in patents is an invention, reading patents teach you nearly nothing about how technology works.
Software patents are mostly crap, and totally useless for developers anyway.

Focus on news SEO? Excellent article covering Google's patent for ranking news content -> How Google REALLY ranks news sites (based on key Google news patents)

And yep, site-level scoring is part of the mix. :)

"SOURCERANK(SOURCE(D)): A ranking of the source (news website, journalist, or publisher) that produced the document, indicating its credibility, authority, or influence."

https://leadershipinseo.substack.com/p/how-google-really-ranks-news-sites

https://www.europesays.com/1843351/ EC Withdraws Draft Rules on Patents, AI Liability, Privacy #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #eu #europe #EuropeanCommission #EuropeanUnion #MessagingApps #News #patents #privacy #PYMNTSNews #regulation #What'sHot

The patent-telecoms-complex has been granted its wish and the move by the EU to regulate #patents embedded in #standards (#SEPs) has been killed. SEP holders prefer expensive and obscure litigation instead and were afraid the transparentcy would harm them so lobbied Council into submission.

https://www.juve-patent.com/legal-commentary/eu-commission-withdraws-sep-regulation/

This doesn't mean action is not required however. SEPs embedded in the standards we have to obey to comply with the law have got to go. https://opensource.org/blog/standards-and-the-presumption-of-conformity

You Didn't Notice MP3 Is Now Free

｢ The MP3 format, once the gold standard for digital audio files, is now free. The licensing and patents on MP3 encoders have expired, meaning you can now include them in your applications without paying royalties. For software developers and audio enthusiasts, this might seem like a big deal ｣

https://idiallo.com/blog/listen-mp3-is-free

as there is this billionaire triggered craze against #regulations
...just wanted to give some input

West African lawyers, activists rally against GMOs. Legal activists from Nigeria and Ghana have called on the governments of both countries to ban #GMOs, which “diminish the positive contributions of smallholder farmers who are feeding both countries.” The experts stressed concerns about GMOs are not only about safety but also the appropriation of the right to seeds by transnational corporations that deprive farmers of their traditional rights, in favour of their #patents https://businessday.ng/agriculture/article/west-african-lawyers-activists-rally-against-gmos/

"The rights we have in the offline world–to speak freely, create culture, play games, build new things and do business–must be available to us online, as well. This core belief drives EFF’s work to fight the misuse of the patent system.

Despite significant progress we’ve made over the last decade, patents, and in particular vague software patents, remain a serious threat to online rights. The median patent lawsuit isn't filed by what Americans would recognize as an ‘inventor,’ but by an anonymous limited liability company that provides no products or services, and instead uses patents to threaten others over alleged infringement. In other words, a patent troll. In the tech sector, more than 85% of patent lawsuits are filed by these “non-practicing entities.”

That’s why at EFF, we continue to help individuals and organizations fight patent threats related to everyday activities like using CAPTCHAs and picture menus, tracking packages or vehicles, teaching languages, holding online contests, or playing simple games online.

Here’s where the fight stands as we move into 2025."

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/12/fighting-progress-patents-2024-review

Excited to see that the #ISHTIP2024 paper I commented on last July is published: congrats to Prof. Jessica Lai for her creative use of data re contraceptive #patents to think about #gender & #innovation #reprorights #law #IP #histmed
https://academic.oup.com/jiplp/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jiplp/jpae096/7922542#497247131

A significant change of objective has quietly happened to the #standards system in #Europe, with the transformation of standards from a tool to promote #interoperability to a mechanism to comply with the law.

Yet the toleration of #patents in standards remains, meaning complying with the law may require a relationship with the corporations controlling the market. Surely this is anti-competitive and reverses the very purpose of standards?

https://opensource.org/blog/standards-and-the-presumption-of-conformity

At least they are doing some good.

EA just made a whole bunch of accessibility patents open-source

https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ea-just-made-a-whole-bunch-of-accessibility-patents-open-source-181131893.html?src=rss

‘Electronic Arts (EA) is expanding its #Accessibility program with 23 additional tech #Patents that other companies and #Developers can freely use …’

https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/5/24314026/ea-electronic-arts-expands-accessibility-pledge-tech-patents

A basic human right, access to the #law in #Europe includes access to the harmonised #standards it predicates. But is it right that those standards can include royalty-due #patents (#SEPs), making compliance subject to payment to the private companies that wrote the standards?

https://the.webm.ink/patents-and-the-presumption-of-conformity