Sotomayor's Supreme Court Case History – Intellectual Property

28 Thursday May 2009

Posted by in Copyright, Intellectual Property, Litigation, Supreme Court

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During Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s 17 years as a federal judge, the U.S. Supreme Court has reviewed her decisions on at least eight occasions, including the following copyright case:

Tasini vs. New York Times, et al (1997), 972 F. Supp. 804: As a district court judge in 1997, Sotomayor heard a case brought by a group of freelance journalists who asserted that various news organizations, including the New York Times, violated copyright laws by reproducing the freelancers’ work on electronic databases and archives such as “Lexis/Nexis” without first obtaining their permission. Sotomayor ruled against the freelancers and said that publishers were within their rights as outlined by the 1976 Copyright Act. The appellate court reversed Sotomayor’s decision, siding with the freelancers, and the Supreme Court upheld the appellate decision (therefore rejecting Sotomayor’s original ruling). Justices Stevens and Breyer dissented, taking Sotomayor’s position.

Source: CNN

Patent Searching Terminals Now Available at Indianapolis Central Library

27 Wednesday May 2009

Posted by in Patent, Tech Developments

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The Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library now provides five dedicated PubWEST patent searching terminals at its downtown Central Library location, thanks to a donation to the Library Foundation by Woodard, Emhardt, Moriarty, McNett & Henry LLP.  The five dedicated PubWEST computer terminals are located on the fourth floor of the Central Library at the east end.

The Central Library is one of two designated Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries (PTDLs) in Indiana, the other being the Siegesmund Engineering Library at Purdue University in West Lafayette.  As a designated PTDL, the Central Library is able to provide free public access to PubWEST, a web-based examiner search tool used by patent examiners at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, in addition to a variety of other patent and trademark resources.  The PubWEST system is only available to the public at designated PTDLs and is a valuable inventor resource which is not otherwise available on the Internet.

patent

Obama's Pick for Supreme Court, Sotomayor, has Intellectual Property Background

26 Tuesday May 2009

Posted by in Intellectual Property, Litigation, Supreme Court

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sotomayor

President Obama has selected Sonia Sotomayor to fill the Supreme Court seat left vacant by retiring Justice Souter.  Prior to being selected to the federal bench in 1991 by George Bush, Sotomayor was in private practice in New York…and her specialty was intellectual property law.  She represented clients like Ferrari and Fendi in intellectual property, commodities trading and business cases.

The president had said publicly that he wanted a justice who combined intellect and empathy — someone who could understand the troubles of everyday Americans.

From an IP viewpoint, let’s hope her background can help the Supreme Court make some sense out of upcoming copyright and patent litigation.

Here is a brief biography of federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor:

Age 54 (Born June 25, 1954)

Judicial Career
– U.S. Appeals Court judge, 2nd Circuit, 1998-present
– U.S. District Court judge, 1992-1998
– Nominated to federal bench by Bush in 1991, Clinton in 1997

Government/Legal Career
– Former N.Y. County Assistant District Attorney, 1979-1984
– Former private practice attorney, Pavia & Harcourt, New York, 1984-1992

Politics
– Confirmed by Senate 67-29 in 1998
– Confirmation to current seat took over 1 year
– Was opposed by majority of Republican senators
– Was unopposed in 1991 confirmation process

Education
– J.D., Yale Law School, 1979
– B.A., Princeton, 1976 (summa cum laude)

Academic Positions
– Adjunct Professor, New York University School of Law since 1998
– Lecturer-in-law, Columbia Law School since 1999

Professional Associations
– American Bar Association
– Puerto Rican Bar Association
– Hispanic National Bar Association
– Association of Judges of Hispanic Heritage
– New York Women’s Bar Association

Judicial Committees & Activities
Former Member, Second Circuit Task Force on Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness
in the Courts

Other Activities
– Former Member, Board of Directors, New York City Campaign Finance Board
– Former Member, Board of Directors, State of New York Mortgage Agency
– Former Member, Board of Directors, Puerto Rican Legal Defense & Education
Fund
– Former Member, Board of Directors, Maternity Center Association
– Former Member, New York City Campaign Public Finance Board (Mayor’s
Appointee)
– Former Member, Board of Directors, State of New York Mortgage Agency
(Governor’s Appointee)

Honors & Awards
– Herbert L. Lehman College, Degree of Law Honoris Causa, 1999
– Brooklyn Law School Degree of Juris Doctor Honoris Causa, 2001
– Princeton Univ., Degree of Juris Doctor Honoris Causa, 2001

Publications
– Statehood and the Equal Footing Doctrine: The Case for Puerto Rican Seabed
Rights, 88 Yale Law Journal 825 (1979)
– Sonia Sotomayor & Nicole A. Gordon, Returning Majesty to the Law and
Politics: A Modern Approach, 30 Suffolk U.L. Rev. 35 (1996)

iLike Helps Musicians Create iPhone App, Streamline Social Networking

14 Thursday May 2009

Posted by in Just for Fun, Tech Developments

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logoMusicians have a powerful new tool to enhance communication with their audience. Seattle-based iLike promises to synchronize many popular social networks to provide bands with maximum exposure.  iLike’s tagline is “Post Once, Publish Everywhere.”

The new iLike Artist Dashboard lets an artist manage the content for all of his social networks in one place.  From the iLike interface, an artist will be able to post content on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Youtube, Ticketmaster, and many more… reaching over 45 million music fans and 500,000 more every week.  Artists will be able to upload songs, videos and concerts to several platforms simultaneously.

iLike will even build an iPhone app for the artist.  The app will be populated with any videos, photos, blogs, and concerts the artist posts to iLike.

For the stat-minded musician or manager, the iLike Dashboard allows users to track fan growth, “add to profile” and “dedications” stats.  It can be helpful to see where your audience is located, what they’re talking about, and get immediate feedback on new work.ilike

I’ll be interested to see if this business model can support other types of artists, other than musicians.  Or other fields entirely.

Whether iLike’s Artist Dashboard will be helpful and take off is yet to be seen.  But seriously, if you’re a musician, at least go check it out and see how it MIGHT help.