Futurelawyer

RIM Escapes Injunction for Now

Link: RIM Escapes Injunction for Now As I predicted, and as my wife cheerfully advises me, that she did also, the Court refused to order an injunction requiring the shutdown of BlackBerry service in the U.S. The Judge ordered the parties to meet and resolve their differences. Nice to have an adult in the room. Judge Spencer told the parties that the delay should not be construed as a decision never to issue the injunction, but he clearly was letting the parties know that if they couldn't act like adults, he would be happy to treat them like children. RIM's stock price rose immediately upon the news. IMHO, the only thing to decide now is how much the settlement will be. If the parties don't get the hint now, they could find themselves losing customers and market share to Windows Mobile and Palm rather quickly.

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Technology -- Key dates in BlackBerry patent battle

Link: SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Technology -- Key dates in BlackBerry patent battle. Here is a great chronology of the key dates in the BlackBerry Patent fight.

BlackBerry - WorkAround

Link: BlackBerry. Here is the BlackBerry website's description of the workaround planned to be deployed in the event the hearing today doesn't go well. The workaround is promised to be transparent to the user, service providers and system administrators. Sounds like the invisible workaround to me. We shall see.

RIM's Biggest Day in Court

Link: RIM's Biggest Day in Court. Today's the day. RIM and NTP, along with lawyers from the Justice Department will argue today about damages and an injunction, and the entire world is watching. The sub-headline of this Business Week article is "BlackBerry Addicts on Tenterhooks". What an image. Somehow, the image fails when I think of my spouse, the BlackBerry addict. It is more likely that I will be on tenterhooks. By the way, what are tenterhooks? The hearing begins at 9 A.M. in the Richmond, Virginia courtroom of Judge James Spencer. I will be keeping an eye on this story for you. More later.

Home>TECHSHOW blog> Blogger's Identity Protected

Link: Home>TECHSHOW blog> Blogger's Identity Protected. A recent Delaware Supreme Court decision, highlighted at the ABA TechShow site (celebrating its 20 year Anniversary this April), does a good job describing the delicate balance between the competing interests of free speech in a world where everyone has an Internet megaphone, and the rights of individuals to be protected from defamatory content. In this case, a blogger's identity was protected from a politician who felt the blogger's comments about his mental status were defamatory. Don't ask me about my views of the typical politician's mental status. I won't go there. In any event, read the decision.Doe v. Cahill (Delaware 2006) We report. You decide.

Palm Dictate Professional Dictation Recording Software for Palm PC - Dictation Recorder

Link: Palm Dictate Professional Dictation Recording Software for Palm PC - Dictation Recorder. How do you create dictation for your secretary or transcriptionist when you are out and about? One of the coolest apps for the Palm Treo 650 is Palm Dictate, the companion software to Express Dictate, about which I have written in this space before. My secretary hates it, which means I love it. It allows me to use the Treo 650 like a portable digital dictation system, anywhere I happen to be. Once complete, I just press a button, and the dictation is emailed directly to my secretary's desktop, ready for transcription. I have toyed around with computer transcription of the spoken voice, but it really isn't there yet. Until then, this is a really cool way to annoy your secretary, and get work done wherever you are. Enjoy.

Patent office issues final rejection of NTP patent | CNET News.com

Link: Patent office issues final rejection of NTP patent | CNET News.com. One down, four to go. The USPTO rejected one of the five patents NTP claims have been violated by RIM in its BlackBerry devices. This final rejection will be met by years of appeals by NTP. Unfortunately for RIM, the hearing that could result in an injunction occurs tomorrow, and the decision could come early next week. In the event an injunction issues, RIM, of course, will play the "work-around software" hand, which NTP will immediately claim also violates its patents. Those hearings should take another couple of years. Patent lawyers have to be patient fellows and gals, don't they? As you know, my take on this is that, by the time NTP and RIM get done with each other, Microsoft and Palm and other competitors will own the mobile email market. Requiescat in Pace, RIM and NTP.

Google, EarthLink Team Up on Wi-Fi Bid - Yahoo! News

Link: Google, EarthLink Team Up on Wi-Fi Bid - Yahoo! News. Google plans to offer free basic WiFi Internet service to San Francisco in the near future, and will set up a similar network in Mountanview, California, where its headquarters is located, in June of this year. Will WiFi become a basic right of citizens in the future? Google will charge for high speed broadband, but basic access to the Internet will be free for the citizens in all locations within the San Francisco Bay area. If this spreads, how with the telcos counter? EV-DO, which uses cell phone towers, is ubiquitous, but a little slower than the kind of broadband that Google will provide, and the telcos can't afford to give it away. Why Google chose to team with Earthlink could mean that they plan a broad countrywide rollout; however, it is too early to tell. Free Internet, paid for by advertising. Somehow, I don't think so. Government never saw an activity they wouldn't tax. It is the American way. Google versus the telcos versus the Government. Should be fun to watch.

Motorola SLVR

Link: Motorola SLVR. Now, if they could make a smartphone that looks like the SLVR, I would be tempted to get rid of my Treo. Hello, MOTO. This little phone is thinner than the Motorola RAZR, and is super cool looking. It gets POP3 email, has an MP3 player, and is bluetooth capable. Too bad it doesn't have the Palm operating system to run my mobile apps. If you don't need PDA functionality, this is the phone you want.

China Said Cracking Down on Junk E-Mail - Yahoo! News

Link: China Said Cracking Down on Junk E-Mail - Yahoo! News. Well, either Hell has frozen over or pigs are flying, because I am posting today in favor of junk email and spammers. I have never liked junk email, and I filter it, delete it, and otherwise ignore it. However, I have always chalked its existence up to the cost of freedom, and the price of living in a happily capitalist society. Now, the Chinese Government has decided to crack down on the spammers. Be afraid, be very afraid. When the Chinese Government speaks, the earth shakes, and companies listen. As I have discussed in previous posts, Google, one of the largest and most influential corporations on the planet, has bowed to Chinese Government pressure and agreed to filter its web searches in China. Now, China says any advertising sent by email without people's permission must contain prominent AD language. Unfortunately, the new rule does not specify what constitutes illegal messages, nor does it set forth a penalty. Of course, we trust the Chinese Government to be fair and even-handed in dealing with "illegal" emails, don't we? NOT.