“French-born Jean-Noel Frydman is suing the country for ‘cybersquatting’ on the France.com domain name, CNBC reported.”
“When it comes to repair, farmers have always been self reliant. But the modernization of tractors and other farm equipment over the past few decades has left most farmers in the dust thanks to diagnostic software that large manufacturers hold a monopoly over. In this episode of State of Repair, Motherboard goes to Nebraska to talk to the farmers and mechanics who are fighting large manufacturers like John Deere for the right to access the diagnostic software they need to repair their tractors.”
“Though the treaty is still imperfect, it does raise hope for more trade and therefore higher living standards. What is downright humiliating for Americans is that the treaty became better only after the US withdrew from it.”
Read more: https://fee.org/articles/this-trade-treaty-got-better-when-the-us-bailed/
“The Supreme Court on Monday delivered a major blow to so-called patent trolls—shell companies whose business revolves around acquiring patents and then suing others for infringing on them—by making it much harder to bring lawsuits in friendly venues like East Texas. In a unanimous ruling written by Justice Clarence Thomas, the court overturned a lower court’s interpretation of federal venue rules and said that patent owners must sue companies in the districts where they are incorporated.”
Read more: http://fortune.com/2017/05/22/texas-patent-supreme-court/
“Sanofi’s proprietary Apidra brand insulin has increased in price by 1,123% since 1996. So they’ve turned to the black market, trading the insulin that Corely’s insurer will buy with other diabetic people they meet on the internet, who are covered on plans that buy the kind of insulin Corely needs to not slip into a coma and die before her tenth birthday.”
Read more: http://boingboing.net/2017/04/27/cvs-caremark.html
“The state of Georgia has gone to extreme lengths to keep its own state laws hidden from the people, and has even gone after those who have attempted to give this information to the people.”
Read more: https://fee.org/articles/this-state-really-doesnt-want-its-residents-to-know-the-law/
“In 2012 we endured a fresh attempt by our governments to reduce our freedom to create and share intellectual works with the ACTA. And, if we look at the negotiations mandates of these trade agreements, we can see they all include a chapter on the reinforcement of ‘intellectual property’ rights. Intellectual property has become a key concept of the international economy. But this must not hide its illegitimacy. Each time a new ‘free trade’ treaty is enacted, what is seen is the attenuation of tariff barriers, but what is not seen is the sneaky proliferation and harmonization of non-tariff barriers impeding free enterprise and creating monopolies at an international scale.”
https://mises.org/library/no-more-free-trade-treaties-its-time-genuine-free-trade
“TPP was negotiated in secret and details have yet to be published. One chapter appears to give the signatory countries (referred to as ‘parties’) greater power to stop embarrassing information going public. The treaty would give signatories the ability to curtail legal proceedings if the theft of information is ‘detrimental to a party’s economic interests, international relations, or national defense or national security’ – in other words, presumably, if a trial would cause the information to spread. The rules also state that every country has the authority to immediately give the name and address of anyone importing detained goods to whoever owns the intellectual property.”
“A sport utility vehicle that bears an uncanny resemblance to the Land Rover Evoque will go on sale in China this week at a third of its sticker price. More than 5,500 people have put down deposits for the Landwind X7, which will be available in dealerships from Thursday at a starting price of 135,000 yuan ($21,700). The Evoque, which is Jaguar Land Rover’s best-selling model worldwide, retails from 398,000 yuan. Both models feature similar broad fenders, recessed door panels and a sloping roof. Jaguar Land Rover Chief Executive Officer Ralf Speth railed at what he called the the rise of Chinese ‘copy-and-paste‘ jobs earlier this year at the Shanghai auto show.”
“The ongoing legal saga known as the Oracle-Google copyright battle took a huge leap Wednesday when Oracle claimed the last six Android operating systems are ‘infringing Oracle’s copyrights in the Java platform.’ That’s according to the latest paperwork (PDF) Oracle filed in the five-year-old closely watched case that so far has resulted in the determination that Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are, indeed, copyrightable. Its suit, which had been mired in litigation and appeals, now names Android operating systems Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean, KitKat, and Lollipop. These are the operating systems that came after Froyo, when the suit was filed in 2010.”