[Noisebridge-discuss] TALK AND BOOK-SIGNING BY BOB ZEIDMAN AT NOISEBRIDGE TOMORROW NIGHT

Tue Aug 9 03:57:36 UTC 2011

On Mon, Aug 8, 2011 at 6:52 PM, Julien Bloit <julien.bloit at gmail.com> wrote:
> Leaving Bob's possible opinion on patents out of the discussion, I learned
> interesting stuff about patents, which I didn't know much about. To me, one
> of the most interesting remarks came from the audience when another expert
> insisted that patents aren't intended to allow you to do something, but to
> prevent others from doing it. In that sense, it's a monopoly tool.
> Now I wonder, let's say you have an invention, and want to share it with the
> community. If you don't want to file a patent, how do you keep another
> company from filing it and bust you after you show your prototype around? It
> seems to me like CC, as a copyright licence, works for content and code, but
> does it work if you also want to describe a method, or the idea for an
> invention? I guess a scientific publication, or some serious public
> disclosure about the invention can prevent a monopoly-intended patent from
> being filed, but I'm not 100% sure this is a robust legal tool.

What you're talking about is prior art, which is a consideration when
granting patents.

The United States is relatively unique in having a first-to-invent,
rather than a first-to-file system:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/First_to_file_and_first_to_invent
but such documented prior art is important in all patent
jurisdictions.

It's a long road to challenge a patent after it has been successfully
filed (that's what the Patent Busting project was all about -- see
https://w2.eff.org/patent/ ), but there's also the possibility of
supply prior art as patents are being considered -- see the
PeerToPatent project.

The general strategy against patents these days is effectively a
nuclear option: you join in a coalition with others who have a
collection of "defensive" patents, and commit to counter-suing anyone
who comes at you with a patent. This doesn't help against so-called
"patent trolls", who have one patent that they go around multiple
companies charging license fees for.

If people are interested in what sounds like an alternative to Bob's
point-of-view, Jason Schultz of the Samuelson Law Clinic, and ex-lead
on EFF's Patent Busting Project would be a great speaker on all of
these topics.
https://www.eff.org/about/staff/jason-schultz

Zedd, maybe something for Noisebridge In Depth?

d.

> It looks like http://www.patentcommons.org/ was made for this purpose in
> mind, but looking at the website's news section, the project seems to have
> stopped in 2007. Has anyone heard of it before, or knows about similar
> initiatives?
> Julien
>
> Bob was fairly gracious about it. He's sending us a check for the procedes
> from his book sales. I will bring the dough to nb for deposit when it
> arrives.
>
> At the end of the day, he was mostly there to inform us all about the patent
> system, which, despite the system being a shambles, is something we should
> all know about. Learn your enemy's tactics and all that...
>
> On Aug 8, 2011 1:02 AM, "Evan Bangham" <ebangham at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Were you not there to see the speaker and a certain NoiseBridge member
>> verbally assail each other?
>>
>> On Sun, Aug 7, 2011 at 11:37 PM, Ken Adler <ken.adler at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Whys that?
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sun, Aug 7, 2011 at 9:45 PM, Evan Bangham <ebangham at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Some how I don't think this guy is going to be coming back.
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Aug 3, 2011 at 4:30 PM, VonGuard <vonguard at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> TL;DR: 7 PM Thursday Aug 4 (tomorrow) Bob Zeidman will be speaking at
>>>>> Noisebridge about intellectual property rights and patents. Come one,
>>>>> come
>>>>> all.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> THE MADE, NOISEBRIDGE TO HOST TALK AND BOOK-SIGNING BY BOB
>>>>>
>>>>> ZEIDMAN
>>>>>
>>>>> “The History of Digital Game Intellectual Property from Atari to Zynga”
>>>>>
>>>>> The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment is pleased to announce a
>>>>> talk
>>>>> and
>>>>>
>>>>> book-signing by Bob Zeidman, inventor of the Silicon Valley Napkin,
>>>>> co-hosted by
>>>>>
>>>>> Noisebridge. The event will take place August 4th at 7:00PM at
>>>>> Noisebridge’s hacking
>>>>>
>>>>> community space located at 2169 Mission St., San Francisco CA.
>>>>>
>>>>> The talk will cover video game copyrights, intellectual property, trade
>>>>> secrets, and
>>>>>
>>>>> patents, as well as how to protect your own intellectual property.
>>>>> Zeidman will
>>>>>
>>>>> also discuss early landmark video game cases such as Atari v. Nintendo,
>>>>> Williams
>>>>>
>>>>> Electronics v. Artic International, and Apple v. Franklin.
>>>>>
>>>>> Copies of Zeidman’s book, The Software IP Detective's Handbook:
>>>>> Measurement,
>>>>>
>>>>> Comparison, and Infringement Detection, will be available for signing
>>>>> after the event. All
>>>>>
>>>>> proceeds from book sales go to benefit The MADE, a registered 501(c)3
>>>>> non-profit.
>>>>>
>>>>> About Bob Zeidman
>>>>>
>>>>> Bob Zeidman is the founder and president of Zeidman Consulting. Since
>>>>> 1987, Bob
>>>>>
>>>>> has designed ASICs, FPGAs, and PC boards for RISC-based parallel
>>>>> processor
>>>>>
>>>>> systems, laser printers, network switches and routers, and other real
>>>>> time systems.
>>>>>
>>>>> His clients have included Apple Computer, Cisco Systems, Ricoh Systems,
>>>>> and
>>>>>
>>>>> Texas Instruments. He has written technical papers on hardware and
>>>>> software design
>>>>>
>>>>> methods, and has taught courses on Verilog, ASIC, and FPGA design at
>>>>> engineering
>>>>>
>>>>> conferences throughout the world. He holds a master's degree from
>>>>> Stanford University
>>>>>
>>>>> and two bachelor's degrees from Cornell University and holds several
>>>>> patents. He is the
>>>>>
>>>>> author of The Software IP Detective's Handbook, Designing with FPGAs
>>>>> and
>>>>> CPLDs,
>>>>>
>>>>> Verilog Designer's Library, and Introduction to Verilog.
>>>>>
>>>>> Bob was also the president, CEO, and founder of The Chalkboard Network,
>>>>> an e-
>>>>>
>>>>> learning company for engineers and business professionals and is
>>>>> currently the
>>>>>
>>>>> president of Zeidman Technologies, a company developing unique software
>>>>> tools for
>>>>>
>>>>> efficient development of embedded systems.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>>>>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>>>>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>>>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>>>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Ken Adler
>>> 510-290-5806 (cell)
>>> Ken at adler.net
>>> ----
>>>
>>>
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> Julien Bloit
> http://www.phonotonic.com
> http://imtr.ircam.fr/imtr/Julien_Bloit
> http://www.myspace.com/jazzovale
>
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