A newsletter by Clock Tower Law Group founder Erik J. Heels about trends in technology, intellectual property (IP) law (patent law, trademark law), baseball, and rock ‘n’ roll.

Greetings,

I, Erik Heels, a lawyer, do hereby swear and affirm that this is my LawLawLaw newsletter: read/subscribe at http://www.LawLawLaw.com.

LawLawLaw is about technology, law (mostly patents and trademarks), baseball (mostly Red Sox), and music (mostly rock). Besides being an attorney, I’m good at spotting trends, connecting people on social networks, fixing things, solving Rubik’s cube, and a handful of other things.

I try to keep LawLawLaw short (fail), relevant (win), and timely (draw). Did you know that messages must be heard seven times before being acted on? So please forward this to your friends. Please please please please please please. There. My work here is done. Thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks!

Do not expose to direct sunlight.

Regards,
Erik
—
Clock Tower Law Group [Patent Law | Trademark Law]
2 Clock Tower Place, Suite 255, Maynard, MA 01754
http://www.ClockTowerLaw.com

“The person who says ‘it cannot be done’ should not interrupt the person doing it.” – Chinese Proverb

—snip—

LawLawLaw

Technology, Law, Baseball, Rock ‘n’ Roll

Client Stuff

Clock Tower Law Group has some wicked cool clients. Here’s what some of them are up to. I mean, here’s up to what some of them are.

The Founding of PatientsLikeMe (2011-07-21)
Is Encryption The Solution To Cloud Computing Security And Privacy? (2011-08-04)
Monetate Raises $15 Million For Realtime Testing And Targeting Platform (2011-08-04)
BuyWithMe Acquires Scoop St., Its Fifth Daily Deals Acquisition This Year (2011-08-16)
CloudSwitch to be Acquired by Verizon to Simplify Secure Cloud Services (2011-08-25)

Tech Stuff

We are now 16 years into the Internet age. Newsweek magazine (remember magazines?) declared 1995 to be the year of the Internet. But we’re still working out the bugs.

Print publications are going away, websites are rushing to be mobile-friendly, music (and everything else) is moving to the cloud.

I wrote about the passing of Steve Jobs separately. I purchased my first iPad the day after he died. Note that Dilbert now refers to desktop PCs as “grandpa boxes.”

Dilbert: Desktop Computers Are Grandpa Boxes (2011-08-03)
Drawing That Explains Why Google+ Doesn’t Suck (2011-08-31)
Any why Facebook is panicking.
As Yahoo Continues to Struggle, CEO Carol Bartz Is Fired (2011-09-07)
Advice For Startups From A Giant Robot Dinosaur: BE ON FIRE (2011-10-25)
Jess vs. The World: Startup Ipsum (2011-11-01)
Need filler text for your startup? Here you go.
In the Wake of Estonian FBI Bust, Have You Checked Your DNS Settings? (2011-11-10)

Law Stuff

Even though Internet technology continues to progress, laws continue to struggle to keep up. Rather than adapting, the entertainment industry, in particular, keeps trying to pass bad laws to hold on to broken business models from another era. I think it will take a full generation (30 years, i.e. until 2025) until the old guard lets go of its old ways and starts treating the Internet like a feature instead of a bug.

The patent backlog remains bad but has been getting slightly better lately. See the USPTO patent dashboard (below) for the latest patent and trademark stats.

Patent First Office Action Backlog Dips Below 700,000 (2011-07-12)
USPTO patent dashboard (2011-07-12)
A Harvard Law School Professor Publishes A Study Of UDRP Decisions Involving “Fair Use” & Finds Cases Turn On Nationality (2011-07-20)
Jazon Kottke: Our Broken Patent System (2011-08-04)
Erik J. Heels’s Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week (2011-08-20)
Patent Litigation Is For Optimists (2011-09-03)
Post-Bilski Cases Fail To Clearly Define ‘Abstract’ Idea (2011-09-20)
Video On How PROTECT IP Act Breaks The Internet (2011-10-26)

PROTECT IP Act Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.
How To Start A Boston Patent Law Practice (2011-11-08)
Advice for new Boston patent lawyers.
VP Joe Biden Explains Why SOPA & PROTECT IP Are Anti-American & A Bad Idea (2011-11-15)
The Customer Is Frequently Wrong (2011-11-15)
Especially when it comes to patents and trademarks.
EU Parliament Warns The US To Stop Censoring The Internet (2011-11-17)

Baseball Stuff

So – I’m going to pretend that September 2011 never happened. The good news is that pitchers and catchers report in about three months!

Papi, Adrian, Ellsbury, Beckett named All-Stars (2011-07-04)
Tim Wakefield Wins His 200th Career Game (2011-09-13)
The Legend of Lavarnway (2011-09-28)
Dear 2011 #RedSox: Thanks for a great season. In 2004, zero starts missed due to injury. This year, not so much. Win or lose, we love ya! (2011-09-29)
How the Wild Card Redeemed Baseball (2011-09-29)
Thanks For Everything, Tito. Godspeed. (2011-09-30)
Ellsbury earns AL Comeback Player honors (2011-10-13)
Red Sox choose Cherington as GM (2011-10-13)
Done Deal: Theo Heading to Chicago on ‘Massive’ Five-Year Deal (2011-10-13)
Nothing But Class From Theo (2011-10-23)
Theo backed up his first words (2011-10-24)
3 Dodgers, 3 Red Sox earn Gold Glove honors (2011-11-02)
Ortiz, Ellsbury, Gonzalez make Red Sox only MLB Team with Three Silver Sluggers (2011-11-03)
Orioles hire Dan Duquette as VP of baseball operations (2011-11-07)
Papelbon agrees to four-year deal with Phillies (2011-11-11)
Godspeed, Dances With Bud Light Box (2011-11-11)
Saying Goodbye to the Red Sox ’04 and ’07 World Series Teams (2011-11-15)

Music Stuff

In a span of three days, iTunes Match (iTunes in the cloud) and Google Music (music in the Google) launched. Let the race to the cloud begin!

Amy Winehouse Found Dead (2011-07-23)
Infographic: The Death Of The Music Industry (2009-08-03)
It’s been like watching a predictable, avoidable, slow-motion train wreck.
Rolling Stone’s Readers List The 10 Worst Songs Of The 1990s (2011-09-02)
Federal Judge Finds Cloud Music Lockers Do Not Violate Copyrights (2011-09-10)
Chilean Singer Sounds Just Like Eddie Veder (2011-09-23)
How Not To Make Music Social: The Way Spotify And Facebook Did It (2011-09-26)
Listen To 10 Seconds Of Every Hit Song Of The ’70s (2011-11-10)
This is pure awesome!
Apple Finally Launches iTunes Match, Servers Overwhelmed by Demand (2011-11-14)
How iTunes Match Works and Whether You Should Subscribe (2011-11-14)
No More Beta: Google Music Goes Live (2011-11-17)

Random Stuff

Than goodness for humor. It’s good to have happy diversions in times like these. Enjoy!

Cancer Causes Cell Phones (2011-07-15)
From the cause-and-effect department.
Government website hacked! (2011-08-01)
From the hear-what-you-want department.
Drama (2011-08-02)
From the deniers-gonna-deny department.
The Best Plan In The World (2011-08-16)
From the like-it-or-leave-it department.
Angry Rich Startup Guy (2011-10-11)
If You’re Happy And You Know It (2011-11-09)
The Beavis And Butt-Head Soundboard (2011-11-12)
The Best Of Turtlecalls (2011-11-14)
For $2, Brian Spaeth will call a victim of your choosing and pretend to be a turtle.
Multiple flights (2011-11-15)
I love architecture. The site StairPorn.org is one of my guilty pleasures.
Marching Goose Band (2011-11-16)