[digital-copyright] Center for Intellectual Property - Legal Updates

[Jordan Reth <jordan.reth@xxxxxxxx>]

Center for Intellectual Property - Legal Updates
Week of 4/18/2013

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Despite Copyright Concerns, 1DollarScan Grows, Marks Second Year.
By: Calvin Reid, Apr 17, 2013, Publishers Weekly.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/copyright/article/56766-d
espite-copyright-concerns-1dollarscan-grows-marks-second-year.html

Launched in March 2011, 1DollarScan is an unusual business venture that
allows anyone to send the company a physical book and they will scan it and
send the customer a high resolution PDF for $1but the physical book will
be destroyed and recycled in the process. 1DollarScan is marking its second
anniversary and CEO Hiroshi Nakano told PW, its business is growing quickly.

...The company also offers a copyright management center that it claims
allows publishers and authors to list their publications and approve or
disapprove of scans. How often authors/publishers actually use the center
is unclear...

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Why Filing a Patent Just Got More Complicated For Startups (Opinion).
By: Scott Shane, Apr 17, 2013, Entrepreneur.
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226419#ixzz2QolizzSZ

The major provisions of the America Invents Act -- which made the most
substantial changes to the U.S. patent system in the last 50 years -- came
into effect on March 16, dramatically changing the U.S. system for
protecting intellectual property...
...Consider the following four provisions, which may negatively affect the
patenting process for your small business...

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Broadcasters Petition Court for New Hearing in Aereo Case.
By: Katy Bachman, Apr 16, 2013, Adweek.
http://www.adweek.com/news/television/broadcasters-petition-court-new-hearing
-aereo-case-148624

Two weeks after the Second Circuit Court of Appeals refused to shut down
Aereo, New York TV station owners petitioned the court for an "en banc"
hearing.

"This petition is an important next step in ensuring the protection of our
copyrighted material," said a statement from plaintiffs Fox, Univision,
WNET and the Public Broadcasting Service.

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NPPA Joins Fifteen Others in Copyright Suit Against Google Books.
By: DL Cade, Apr 15, 2013, PetaPixel.
http://petapixel.com/2013/04/15/nppa-joins-fifteen-others-in-copyright-suit-a
gainst-googles-books-search/#MQhM5gY2oZGzUzYx.99

The National Press Photographers Association has decided to throw their hat
in the ring with 15 other organizations that are all suing Google over what
they see as widespread, well-publicized, and uncompensated infringement of
exclusive rights perpetrated by the search giants Google Books program.

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Supreme Court considers gene patents.
By: Robert Barnes, Apr 15, 2013, The Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court-weighs-gene-case-on-scie
nce-vs-patent-scale/2013/04/15/35dd4d42-a60a-11e2-8302-3c7e0ea97057_story.htm
l

The Supreme Court on Monday seemed skeptical that a human gene can be
patented but also worried about what a decision to bar such patents would
mean for private scientific inquiry and research.

Even the normally confident justices expressed some trepidation as they
considered the complexities of patent law and the mysteries of
biochemistry. They talked about the introns and exons that are parts of
genes, but spent more time on simpler illustrations: baseball bats, a
hypothetical plant in the Amazon with miraculous powers, the recipe for
chocolate-chip cookies.

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AP: Court decision is victory for media.
By: Mike Schneider, April 15,2013, Mercury News.
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_23028626/ap-court-decision-is-victory-
media

A recent court ruling that an Internet news clipping service infringed on
the use of Associated Press content is a victory not only for the media but
for the public, the news cooperative's CEO said Monday at the AP's annual
meeting.

A federal judge in New York ruled last month that Meltwater News had
infringed on AP's copyright by using unlicensed AP content verbatim to
produce a service for paying customers. The judge granted AP's motion for
summary judgment. Meltwater has vowed to file an appeal.

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Whose MP3s Are They, Anyway?
By Caitlin Kenney, Apr 11, 2013, GPB News.
http://www.gpb.org/news/2013/04/11/whose-mp3s-are-they-anyway#

If you have a CD or book you don't want anymore, you can sell it. The law
says that's perfectly legal. But what about an MP3 or an e-book? Can you
legally resell your digital goods?

This was the question before a judge in the case of Capitol Records v.
ReDigi Inc.

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GE to Release Patent Trove to Inventors on Quirky.
By: Susanna Kim, Apr 11, 2013, ABC News.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2013/04/ge-to-release-patent-trove-to-in
ventors-on-quirky/

While many companies protect their patents like precious, money-making
offspring, GE and social product development company Quirky have partnered
to allow at-home inventors access to thousands of lab-tested patents.

GE, which traces its roots to Thomas Edison and is based in Fairfield,
Conn., and Quirky, a four-year old company based in New York City, appear
to be as different as can be.
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