A “Heavenly” view.

June 21, 2013 by nvantreeck

Earlier this week I posted about the Chinese space station Tiangong-1, or Heavenly Palace mission.

Well, it appears that the Shenzhou-10 module has successfully docked with the space station. Can you see the space station in another amazing image taken by fantastic transit photographer Thierry Legault.

Because of the speed of the orbiting space station, Thierry had less than half a second each to capture these two images of the Shenzhou-10 docked with the Tiangong-1 space station. What is even more amazing is that each image was taken on two different days.

These images are even more impressive when you consider the size of the two objects and how far away they are from the surface. The Tiangong-1 space station is about 34ft (10.4 meters) long and the Shenzou-10 is about 30ft (9.25 meters) long. Together they are about 65ft long orbiting at around 225 miles (362 kilometres) overhead. Pretty much like imaging a needle in a haystack.

Thierry uses a program that I have not tried, CalSky, to calculate when and where to take these amazing 1/2 second photos. I think I will have to give it a try. I have been using a program called The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE) to plan my Moon, Sunrise and Sunset photographs and I highly recommend it as well. You should add them to your arsenal of good tools for taking great shots.

– Ex astris, scientia –

I am and avid amateur astronomer and intellectual property attorney in Pasadena, California. As a former Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, I am a proud member of the Armed Service Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association working to aid all active duty and veterans in our communities. Connect with me on Google +

Norman

The Gap Facing Trademark Infringement Lawsuit Over Copycat Shoes

June 20, 2013 by nvantreeck

Intellectual property issues are increasingly impacting the fashion world. Months after Christian Louboutin won a trademark battle over its red-soled shoes, the Gap is facing a trademark infringement lawsuit over its own footwear line.

Designer Charles Philip Shanghai alleges that the Gap essentially pilfered his designs in its latest line of moccasin-style loafers. Like Shanghai’s own collection, the shoes feature a blue and white striped insole. The complaint also notes that the names of the shoes, which include “Phillip Moccasin Slipper” and “Phillip Slipper,” are not a coincidence.

Shanghai has two trademark applications pending for the blue striped lining in his shoe designs and claims that Gap is simply trying to sell cheaper knock-offs. “It’s upsetting for me,” Philip told the New York Post. “They’re using the same stripes, the same colors, the same kind of name. But we have a lot of attention to detail. They sell the shoes without [that].”

Although the price points for the shoes vary by at least $100 dollars and Shanghai’s shoes are traditionally sold at high-end retailers like Bergdorf Goodman, the lawsuit contends that there is still a high likelihood of customer confusion. Shanghai specifically points to the current trend, employed by Gap and other clothing chains, to partner with well-known luxury designers. He argues that past partnerships could lead consumers to believe that the Gap shoes are the result of a legitimate collaboration.

Shanghai’s complaint asserts claims for trademark infringement, trade dress infringement, unfair competition, dilution, and right of publicity He is also seeking injunctive relief and lost profits.

How Can I Help?

If you, or someone you know, need help with any Intellectual Property issue, from filing a patent, trademark or copyright, or just advice regarding how best to protect your ideas and your brand, contact me for a free 30 minute consultation at nvantreeck@usip.com or call TOLL FREE at 1-855-UR IDEAS (1-855-874-3327) and ask for Norman.

– Ex astris, scientia –

I am and avid amateur astronomer and intellectual property attorney in Pasadena, California and I am a Rising Star as rated by Super Lawyers Magazine. As a former Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, I am a proud member of the Armed Service Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association working to aid all active duty and veterans in our communities. Connect with me on Google +

Norman

How did I miss this?

June 20, 2013 by nvantreeck

Planetary Resources started this Kickstarter campaign to make the first publicly available space telescope.

The project has already reached its initial goal of $1,000,000 and is looking to extend the Kickstarter to expand the scope of the mission.

According to their mission statement, Planetary Resources is in part interested in: “Harnessing valuable minerals from a practically infinite source will provide stability on Earth, increase humanity’s prosperity, and help establish and maintain human presence in space.”

So, basically, this is one of the first commercial attempts at space mining. I think this is a good idea and will help spur commercial interest in space.

The goals for the space telescope are:

To give students access to space capabilities
To support important research and discovery
To build excitement about space and all of its potential
To give YOU a say

All of these are worthy goals, so if you feel like contributing follow the link above.

This gives me an idea for making a Kickstarter to purchase and maintain the ISS before it is crash landed. Now all I need to figure out is how to get several governments to let us buy it!

– Ex astris, scientia –

Norman

Google Sees Spike in Copyright Removal Requests

June 19, 2013 by nvantreeck

Google recently announced new figures regarding the number of takedown notices it receives under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The search giant also announced that interested parties can now download all the data shown for copyright removals in a new “Transparency Report.”

According to Google, when it launched the copyright removals feature, it received more than 250,000 requests per week. That number spiked in just six months to more than 2.5 million requests per week.

Google also reports that although it is receiving more requests, it is still able to process them, on average, within approximately six hours. Overall, Google has removed 97.5 percent of all Web links included in copyright removal requests.

Google has staunchly opposed legislative efforts to combat online piracy, such as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). The latest reports seems to be an effort to show that it is up to the task of policing its own search results.

“We’ll continue to fine tune our removals process to fight online piracy while providing information that gives everyone a better picture of how it works,” Fred Von Lohmann, Legal Director at Google, stated in a related blog post. “By making our copyright data available in detail, we hope policymakers will be able to see whether or not laws are serving their intended purpose and being enforced in the public interest.”

How Can I Help?

For more information about how to protect your copyrighted material, contact me for a free 30 minute consultation at nvantreeck@usip.com or call TOLL FREE at 1-855-UR IDEAS (1-855-874-3327) and ask for Norman.

– Ex astris, scientia –

Norman

Faster and Faster.

June 19, 2013 by nvantreeck

We all know about the massive dust and wind storms on Mars (and Earth for that matter), but what about our evil twin Venus?

It turns our that the winds on Venus, at over 180Mph (300Km/h) are getting faster!

After analyzing more than six years of data collected by the Venus Express has shown that the winds on Venus are getting faster.

Two different groups studied the data and came to similar conclusions. It seems that the winds on Venus have increase 30% to 400km/h. Although Venus is already one of the most inhospitable places in the solar system, the high winds and sulphuric acid atmosphere aren’t going to make it into a garden spot resort destination any time soon.

Venus is unusual for more than just its wind increase. A day on Venus is longer than its year. A Venusian year is about 225 days and it takes 243 days to complete a single rotation on its axis (one day). So a day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus. So in this case, watching the clock does make time seem to go slower. And it runs backwards, Venus rotates in the opposite direction of Earth.

The other unusual fact about Venus is that its atmosphere spins around it much more quickly than its surface rotates (known as super-rotation). It only takes four days for something in the atmosphere to go all the way around the planet, thanks to those high winds.

Saturn’s moon Titan is the only other place in the solar system that has atmospheric superrotation.

All in all, Venus is a very strange planet. It would be great to explore it more, but the heat, pressure and caustic atmosphere are bound to keep it a secret for a long time.

– Ex astris, scientia –

Norman

Trademarks, Bankruptcy and the U.S. Supreme Court.

June 18, 2013 by nvantreeck

Although this term of the Court is bound to be one for the ages as far as intellectual property goes, there are other decissions the Court has recently made that can affect you personally.

The Supreme Court let stand a 7th circuit decission regarding the status of trademarks during bankruptcy. The specific issue before the Court was whether a trademark licensee retains the ability to use a debtor’s trademarks after the contract is rejected in bankruptcy.

Many were hoping that the Supreme Court would resolve a split of authority between the 4th and 7th Circuit Court of Appeals regarding what happens to IP licenses that are rejected during bankruptcy. The 4th Circuit determined that when an intellectual property license is rejected in bankruptcy, the licensee loses the ability to use licensed IP rights.

Displeased with the ruling, Congress amended the Bankruptcy Code in 1988 to expressly allow licensees to continue using IP after rejection (provided its meets certain conditions). However, trademarks were not included in the definition of intellectual property, leaving much ambiguity regarding whether the rejection of an IP license ends the licensee’s right to use trademarks.

The 7th Circuit rejected the 4th Circuits result and concluded that the rejection of a license during bankruptcy constitutes a breach of contract. The court reasoned that a licensor’s breach does not generally terminate a licensee’s right to use intellectual property and, therefore, the same should apply in bankruptcy. The court explained:

What §365(g) does by classifying rejection as breach is establish that in bankruptcy, as outside of it, the other party’s rights remain in place. After rejecting a contract, a debtor is not subject to an order of specific performance. [. . . ] The debtor’s unfulfilled obligations are converted to damages; when a debtor does not assume the contract before rejecting it, these damages are treated as a pre-petition obligation, which may be written down in common with other debts of the same class. But nothing about this process implies that any rights of the other contracting party have been vaporized.

In refusing to grant certiorari, the 7th Circuit’s decision remains intact. Although some ambiguity still remains, the decision has undoubtedly strengthened the IP protections available during bankruptcy.

How Can I Help?

If you are going through bankruptcy, or you know someone that is, be sure to contact me for a free 30 minute consultation at nvantreeck@usip.com or call TOLL FREE at 1-855-UR IDEAS (1-855-874-3327) and ask for Norman. You may be overlooking items that can help you during a bankruptcy proceeding.

– Ex astris, scientia –

Norman

Smaller IS Better.

June 18, 2013 by nvantreeck

At least when you are talking about habitable planets.

Astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics that the nearest planet in a habitable zone probably lies within fifteen light-years of Earth. This announcement was made after analyzing recent data from the recently crippled Kepler Mission.

Kepler has revolutionized our understanding of exoplanets and what they are made of. As seems to be typical with the human race, scientists are really trying to find Earth-sized planets residing in habitable zones around their stars. The hope being that we can find ourselves somewhere else in the Universe.

Scientists also believe that these planets are the only types of planets that can harbor life. I am skeptical of this reasoning as we have found life unlike ours on our own planet, let alone have any idea of what is capable elsewhere in the Universe.

But, following current convention, Kepler has identified a host of exoplanets with orbits that are capable of producing surface temperatures that allow water to remain liquid, which scientists have deemed a prerequisite for the development of life.

It turns out that there are about 12 times as many small stars (M-dwarfs about 1/2 the size of our sun) with surface temperatures less than about 4000K.

Hunting for Earth-sized planets around M-dwarfs, therefore, is now particularly interesting to researchers. Not too long ago, it was believed that the possibilities of habitable planets around M-Dwarfs was small due to the cooler star temperature and the potential that any planet would be tidally lock to the star (like the way the Moon is tidally locked and always facing Earth). Additionally, small stars tend to flare more which could have deleterious effects on any closely orbiting planet.

New research, however, suggests that suitable habitable regions might develop on a planet anyway. Since there are a lot more small stars, and it is easier to find and study their planets scientists have begun to concentrate their efforts there.

So far using Kepler data, scientist have identify 64 dwarf stars and 95 candidate planets. Just from this data, the statistical probability is that there should be one Earth-sized planet on every 6th star.

– Ex astris, scientia –

Norman

Legislation to Boost Patents for Humanity.

June 17, 2013 by nvantreeck

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Patents for Humanity initiative may get a boost, thanks to legislation introduced in Congress. The bill, originally introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), seeks to build on the existing USPTO program by providing additional incentives for the use of patented technology to address humanitarian needs.

As I have previously discussed, the Patents for Humanity program accelerates certain patent processes for applicants who use patented technologies to address humanitarian needs. Unlike other pilot programs, it is run as an awards competition. Participating patent applicants, patent owners, and licensees submit program applications describing what actions they have taken with their patented technology to address humanitarian needs among an impoverished population or further research by others on humanitarian technologies. .

The proposed legislation, S. 3652, initially died in committee, but was re-introduced this year by Patrick Leahy as S. 712: Patents for Humanity Program Improvement Act of 2013. The legislation would authorize the holder of an acceleration certificate issued pursuant to the Patents for Humanity Program to transfer the certificate to a third party. As explained by Sen. Leahy, the hope is that allowing the certificates to be transferred will make the program more attractive to patent owners, particularly small businesses.

For more information about how to participate in the Patents for Humanity Initiative or other USPTO pilot programs, please contact me for a free 30 minute consultation by sending me an email or call TOLL FREE at 1-855-UR IDEAS (1-855-874-3327) and ask for Norman.

Visitors to the Heavenly Palace

June 17, 2013 by nvantreeck

Three Chinese astronauts have successfully docked their Shenzhou-10 capsule with the Tiangong-1 space laboratory (“Heavenly Palace”) for a 15 day stay in in orbit.

The crew, pictured above, also includes Wang Yaping, China’s second female astronaut. She will be practicing docking maneuvers between the Shenzhou-10 and theTiangong-1. Wang is the China’s first teacher in space, in an analog to Christa McAuliffe.

These are the last astronauts to stay in the Heavenly Palace because it is running short on material to sustain it’s mission. Luckily, a new Heavenly Palace, the Tiangong-2, is being built to replace the current lab in the near future. Interestingly, the Chinese are not abandoning the current Heavenly Palace, but intend to use it as a giant warehouse in the sky to help store material for their planned space station.

– Ex astris, scientia –

Norman

“Patent Wars”

June 14, 2013 by nvantreeck

Former Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, David Kappos, addressed the so-called “patent wars” impacting the software industry before he left the office. With fresh court decisions on this matter, I thought it was time to re-address this issue as well. In his remarks he acknowledged several concerns about patent quality, he also highlighted the importance of IP rights to the software industry.

“Patent protection is every bit as well-deserved for software-implemented innovation as for the innovations that enabled man to fly, and before that for the innovations that enabled man to light the dark with electricity, and before that for the innovations that enabled the industrial revolution,” Kappos stated. However, he also acknowledged that patent protection must be “properly tailored in scope, so that programmers can write code and engineers can design devices without fear of unfounded accusations of infringement.”

Kappos also debunked reports that the “patent wars” between companies like Samsung and Apple signal that the system is broken. He cited a USPTO study that found that in over 80 percent of the smartphone lawsuits, the courts have construed the software patents at issue as valid. He further noted that rejections in software patent applications taken to the USPTO appeals board are upheld at a slightly higher rate than for the office as a whole, and those few decisions appealed to the Federal Circuit are affirmed 95 percent of the time.

Kappos also noted that the changes implemented under the America Invents Act should improve the quality of software patents. He specifically listed new procedures, such as post-grant opposition, inter partes review, and covered business method patents review. He also noted that additional changes are forthcoming as the USPTO completes the rollout of the AIA.

“So to the commentators declaring the system is “broken” I say: give it a rest already, and give the AIA a chance to work. Give it a chance to even get started. But we’re not done. Not nearly,” Kappos stated.

The full text of Kappos’ remarks can be found here.

How Can I Help?

If you have developed some software that you want to patent, or you know someone that can use my help, please contact me for a free 30 minute consultation at nvantreeck@usip.com or call TOLL FREE at 1-855-UR IDEAS (1-855-874-3327) and ask for Norman.

– Ex astris, scientia –

Norman

Astronomy and Law

Astronomy and Law Blog

Monthly Archives: June 2013

A “Heavenly” view.

The Gap Facing Trademark Infringement Lawsuit Over Copycat Shoes

How did I miss this?

Google Sees Spike in Copyright Removal Requests

Faster and Faster.

Trademarks, Bankruptcy and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Smaller IS Better.

Legislation to Boost Patents for Humanity.

Visitors to the Heavenly Palace

“Patent Wars”