ANOTHER PROFESSOR GENERATES STUPID ARTICLE ON PATENT REFORM

The 11 August 2008 edition of Forbes, page 30, has an opinion piece by real estate law professor Michael Heller of Columbia Law School on patent reform. What's next, an article on patent reform by divorce settlement law professor? If nothing else, his opinion piece supports the argument that Mark Chandler of Cisco and his ilk in the CPF are whiners. Heller argues that too many crappy biotech/pharm patents are stifling research and driving up litigation costs. His solution? Change the formula for patent litigation damages (gee, I wonder where Heller gets some of his academic support)? Not once in the article is any mention of reforming the incompetent and corrupt PTO management, which gets rid of most of the problems Heller and Chandler whine about. That's the law professors' solution to every legal problem - anything (like more legislation) but what might actually solve the problem. Columbia Law School is near New York University, which means nothing, except it gives me an opportunity to insult once again the IBM scam otherwise knows as the NYU Patent Public Peer Review joke.

Morons proclaim September 24th the World Anti-Software Patent Day

Newswires report that on September 24th, lying engineering/law morons around the world will be organizing an anti-software patent day. Liars because they are really against all patents, morons because their arguments are equally applicable to hardware patents. But they can't argue against hardware patents because that would reveal their true goal - the elimination of patents for unconstitutionally, plague-like (according to the ABA) copyright system.

FEDERAL COURT RULES THAT EBAY IS A CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION

From: Steptoe_Newsletter@steptoe.com Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2008 12:47 PM Subject: E-Commerce Law Week, Issue 520 E-Commerce Law Week Issue 520, Week Ending April 16, 2008 Court Says eBay is a Criminal Enterprise. Seriously. A federal court in California recently held that eBay's allegedly false statements about the safety of its "Live Auction" service can support a claim against the company under section 1962(c) of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO), a statute originally designed to go after organized crime. The ruling is at: http://www.steptoe.com/attachment.html/3504/520a.pdf For your information, 18 USC 1962(c), the section of RICO of interest here states: (c) It shall be unlawful for any person employed by or associated with any enterprise engaged in, or the activities of which affect, interstate or foreign commerce, to conduct or participate, directly or indirectly, in the conduct of such enterprise's affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity or collection of unlawful debt. Although the case involves a civil suit, the court's ruling in Mazur v. eBay Inc. amounts to a remarkable statement that eBay's description of its auction service constitutes criminal behavior. While the Federal Trade Commission has brought actions for "unfair" or "deceptive" acts in commerce against companies whose actual privacy practices did not live up to their stated policies, allowing RICO actions to be brought on the basis of similar misstatements is a giant leap - and could have enormous negative ramifications for websites. (c) Copyright 2008 Steptoe & Johnson LLP.