Tag Archives: Silicon Valley

California dreamin’

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The Notre Dame Patent Law family at Half Moon Bay

The Notre Dame Patent Law family at Half Moon Bay

A post from our student blogger Megan

“California Love,” “California Dreamin,’” “California Girls,” “Like a California King,” and “Californ-I-Ay.” These are just a few of the dozens of songs that have been written about the thirty-first state admitted to the union. With so many songs written about it, there must be something special about California, and in fact, there is. Sure, there’s the beautiful topography, the pristine beaches, and the endless drops of sun all year round, but what else? The MSPL received an invitation from Notre Dame’s William K. Warren Foundation Dean of the College of Science, Gregory P. Crawford, to visit Silicon Valley for a full week to find out what really makes California unique. We learned that the Golden State is more than just a pretty place—it’s all about hard work, passion for what you do, and an effortless vibe of excitement.

Dean Crawford is relocating to California to launch a strong Notre Dame presence on the West Coast. After all, California boasts the second highest number of Notre Dame Alumni in the entire United States. But in addition to this fact, Notre Dame has solidly established itself as a competitive science, technology, and business university—three qualities that fit like a glove with NorCal’s high-tech atmosphere (think Google, Facebook, and a whole host of start-ups that have hit the area like a spontaneous meteor shower within the past decade and a half). Dean Crawford serves as a charismatic ambassador between the halls of gold and blue in Indiana and the glistening sunshine soaked techie industry in San Francisco. During a brief November, 2014 meeting with the MSPL, Dean Crawford shared his plans for the ND-CA alliance. A casual comment was thrown out suggesting that Dean Crawford host the class in California during the second semester of the program. Dean Crawford immediately jumped on board. Ten weeks later we boarded a plane and watched the frigid snow of South Bend disappear, touching down a few hours later in beautiful San Francisco on a warm Sunday afternoon.

The MSPL cohort visited multiple private law firms including Morrison Foerster, and companies such as Qualcomm and eBay. MSPL’ers also got to spend time with Notre Dame alums that are now living and working in NorCal. Tim Connors informally lectured to the group on the basics of venture capitalism and John McNelis discussed the life of a patent attorney. The week-long Cali trip included some fun events like a visit to Half Moon Bay and some of the best ice cream sandwiches we’d ever tasted in the Valley.

The California trip was fun, but perhaps the most surprising thing about Silicon Valley was the immediate rush of intoxicating intellectual satisfaction that the people of NorCal emanated. Everyone that we were introduced to from IP lawyers to tech-savvy engineers loved what they did, loved where they lived, and exuded an air of confidence and happiness. Silicon Valley, you see, is the land of the start-up. Some new businesses rise up and some don’t make it off the ground. But regardless of whether your venture makes it in this area, at least you tried. And you don’t stop there. You keep going until you do succeed.

I once had an undergrad geography professor who hailed from California and he told us time and time again, “everything you hear about California is true.” He was right. California is one of those rare places that not only looks beautiful on its surface, but is truly filled with inspiring people who have big dreams. It might sound cliché, but the exposure to such a unique area of the country has changed the way that I think. If you have an idea, chase it. If you succeed, great; if you fail, try again. But whatever you do, have the courage to do it, not just dream about it.

Jury’s Out, and the Future of Technology Awaits

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The nine jurors who will convene this week in the Apple vs. Samsung patent lawsuit may not know it, but their decision will likely have a profound impact on the shape (and many other features) of mobile technology to come.

According to the New York Times, if Samsung comes out on top, we should expect to see a lot more devices on the market with an unabashed likeness to the iPhone and iPad. Without any retribution handed down in a landmark case like this, it may be open season for imitators of Apple’s signature sleek, minimalist design.

As for the other outcome, the Times cites Christopher V. Carani, an intellectual property lawyer in Chicago: “I think what we’ll see is a diversification of designs in the marketplace if Apple wins.” Rather than face similar lawsuits, the burden will be on mobile manufacturers to make products of distinct design and functionality.

But experts say the verdict will likely be a mixed bag. The Times reports that Apple’s case for infringement of design patents—regarding the look of the devices—is weaker than that of their utility patents, which protect functional features. Experts say Apple will likely win-some, lose-some, and ultimately won’t come close to the 2.5 billion in damages they were seeking.

But how’s this for some juicy courtroom tidbits—evidence was presented in which a top-level Samsung executive expressed that the iPhone’s release gave their company “a crisis of design” and that using the iPhone compared to Samsung’s products was a difference like “that of Heaven and Earth.”

Ouch! How will it all shake down? We should know this week!

Apple v. Samsung: The Inside Tweets

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Here’s a fun one: we report all the time on the steady stream of Silicon Valley legal imbroglios, but rarely does one get to be a fly on the wall of the courtroom. Here’s an insider look at the latest throwdown, Samsung vs. Apple, courtesy of selected tweets from the peanut gallery:

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Feisty start in patent case, Samsung lawyer clashes with Judge Koh over evidence it wants to submit. “We need to move fwd” says Koh sternly

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John Quinn, Samsung lawyer: “Your honor, I’ve been practicing law for 36 years and I’ve never begged the court. I’m begging the court now.”

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Samsung atty Charles Quinn trying to get judge to rehear an issue, and she just blasts him..”I want you to sit down, please!”

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Judge Koh threatens to sanction Samsung lawyer John Quinn in a heated exchange over exhibits.

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25 years covering courts, and haven’t seen big name law firm partner eviscerated in court like that….i think i see an intestine on the…

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Opening statements have started. Apple lawyer Harold J. McElhinny of law firm Morrison Foerster (which calls itself MoFo) is talking to jury

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Apple lawyer arguing that it is “hard to remember what phones looked” like before the iPhone launched in 2007

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How did Samsung get from its 2006 phones to its 2010 phones? Apple witnesses will say it’s all about iPhone introduction, Apple atty says.

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”Less than 10 miles form this courthouse, that is what this team put together,” says Apple playing to the home advantage

 

And that’s just the first day… get the rest at Mashable.

Coastal Opportunities for Patent Agents

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Job prospects for patent professionals are about to get a lot more… coastal.

Plans for the Silicon Valley office of the USPTO have begun to firm up. Last week, acting U.S. Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank told city officials that the office will open within “12 to 18 months,” employ 125 people, and be “the biggest modernization of the patent office we’ve ever seen.”

The news comes just in time, considering that Silicon Valley is ground zero for high-profile patent lawsuits. Apparently in the world of computer software and hardware, with engineers playing musical chairs between companies, it’s all too easy to step on each others’ toes and infringe on intellectual property.

But the new satellite offices should help curb that. Says Rebecca Blank, “these new offices give us the ability to do higher-quality patents, and could mean fewer legal challenges.”

And not to mention less plane tickets for patent agents headed to to Virginia, home to the original USPTO. It’s fair to say the Patent Office has been all a-flutter about the new offices, which in addition to Silicon Valley, are slated to open in Denver, Dallas, and Detroit, which will be the first to open and was actually dedicated just last week!

Patent Litigation Abuzz in Silicon Valley

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It is no exaggeration to say that what’s stirring the pot in Silicon Valley right now isn’t the latest i-Gadget—it’s tech patents. Licensing intellectual property is a big money-maker out there, where something as intangible as an algorithm is often the hottest commodity. Protection of IP is the sign of the technological times—consider that a majority of the half-million patents applied for each year are tech-related.

And a behemoth tech-company like Google, which has quickly become a part of our everyday lives, (and profits very well from that fact), is not surprisingly taking the lion’s share of patent-related lawsuits.  Fresh from litigation with Oracle, a software company that claimed Android devices infringed on its Java programming, Google is now back in court with IP Engine, concerning the very web search algorithm that made Google, well, Google.

Because the 14-year history of this particular algorithm is perhaps more complex than how it works, here’s the IP Engine/Google fiasco in a nutshell according to Fast Company: in 1998 engineers Andrew Lang and Donald Kosak patented an algorithm that allowed search engines to scour the web and filter the results. While the patent was bought and sold since, it is now owned by IP Engine, who claims Google and other companies like AOL have used the algorithm and therefore owe a royalty. Given that Google alone makes 38 billion annually, a mere fraction of that would be a tidy sum.

As is common with many patent lawsuits, the devil is in the details, or in this case, the definitions. “Scanning” is the term in question—whether it refers to the traditional hand-visor surveying to pick out a particular thing, or the more technical method of “spidering” that is the M.O. of many a search engine.

This is, of course, just the groundwork being laid out as the case goes to trial. We’ll have more for you as the drama unfolds.