Putting the Status of Liberty on a US stamp seems like a no brainer, send someone out to take an original picture of miss liberty, stamp it and run. Or, get full rights to a picture, modify it to your hearts content — maybe make her happier to be holding up so well after most of a century in the New York weather! (Maybe add a Mono Lisa Smile!?)… But, often, copyrights may not be as simple as they appear.
Rick Kurnit has a great blog about a copyright for the Status of Liberty stamp on Lexology.
Here’s the backstory. The US Post Office got a picture of a Status of Liberty, but not THE Status of Liberty. It is a picture of the replica (although Lady Liberty is smaller, mind you) in Las Vegas.
“Robert Davidson, the artist who created the model, upon seeing the stamp (after his wife came home from the post office and exclaimed ‘they put our statue on a stamp’) registered the copyright in his version of the statue and sued.”
After 5 years and a 2 week trial… Davidson won $3.5m+. That’s a lot of forever stamps. Talk about making it BIG in Vegas!
Kurnit takes the time to make this a learning moment by discussion the use of copyrighted materials, and even derivative works.
You would kind of think that anything publicly owned and publicly viewable link the Statue of Liberty would be, well, public domain, including the photos thereof. Not so. (Generally, I own my photos, and the derivative works of those photos.)
Category: lawsuit
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Taking Liberty, A $3.5m copyright stamp of mistaken identity
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America's patent problem – POLITICO.com Print View
America’s patent problem – POLITICO.com Print View:
Interesting Politico article by Leahy & Lee related to legislation to tame some of the really bad actors in the patent pool.
The didn’t mention patent trolls by name, but the idea of building a bridge over the pond certainly implies that it will make it harder for trolls to reach up and pick off stray pieces of the economy.
The article talks about the problem of patent holders skipping over the (?infringing?) manufacturer and going straight to end users and consumers.
The two Senators are promoting legislation that would help curb this intrusion into the mainstream economy.
Looks pretty good on the face of it?
What do you all think?
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Apple-Samsung Case Muddies Future of Innovation – NYTimes.com
Apple-Samsung Case Muddies Future of Innovation – NYTimes.com:
Oh boy, this is gonna get ugly. Especially if you are in the habit of ripping off other companies technology.
Samsung, just got smacked down hard. A $1B verdict is just the beginning. Apple will of course, try to get treble damages for “willful” infringement of Apple’s technology. But the $1B is only the beginning. On September 20, the hearing (resumes) related to an injunction of the sales of Samsung’s offending products.
One would assume that the new Samsung line (Galaxy) does not infringe, but that too may soon become subject to tighter scrutiny.
Faced with injunctions or licensing Apples technology, that is the issue that will be confronting players in the market, including Google.
The war chests of patents are: Apple; Samsung (kinda); Google (now with Motorola wireless that they seem to have bought primarily for the patent portfolio); and Microsoft (now with a boat load — $1B worth actually — of patents from AOL).
Who else is there. RIMM? Palm’s technology that went to HP is dwindling fast.
Of course, Samsung is appealing. But it’s outlook is not, well, appealing. And this loss in the US, is going to seriously shape the face of the screen in there rest of the world.
Samsung is down 7% in Asian trading on Monday Aug. 27, 2012. Expect Apple to open up big on Hurricane Isaac Monday.
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Apple, Samsung, Kodak, imitation… a little more… on the patent war.
Apple, Samsung, Kodak, Imation: Intellectual Property – Businessweek:
Here you go with a huge patent war. Smartphones, iPads and more.
Apple has been trying to injoin Samsung from sales of Galaxy product line. No injunction yet, but Apple is winning so far in the USA. Kinda.
This law suit will be telling.
In the meanwhile the Apple-Samsung war is being fought across the globe. In Germany this week, Apple lost miserably and was ordered to make a public apology. That was belayed yesterday until appeals have been processed. See more about the apology and appeal here.
The smartphone war chests are Apple, Samsung, Microsoft and Google. All those players in the market that don’t have to stand back and see the last gladiator(s) standing. It’s gonna be ugly for most/all of the other players?
And whatever happened to all the great technology from Palm (HP)? I’m surprised the HP doesn’t sell or license it. Blackberry (RIMM)?
Forget about the Olympics, the real contest is in the smartphone arena.
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AP: Yahoo, Facebook strike patent truce, ad alliance
The Associated Press: Yahoo, Facebook strike patent truce, ad alliance:
“Yahoo’s legal assault had exposed Facebook’s vulnerability to patent claims as it prepared to complete the biggest initial public offering of stock by an Internet company.”So Facebook had to go out and build its own war chest of patents: 750 here, 650 there. Now the law suit goes away and everybody’s making nice.
“Facebook insulated itself by buying 750 patents from IBM Corp. for an undisclosed amount and spending $550 million to acquire another 650 patents that one of its biggest shareholders, Microsoft Corp., had purchased from AOL Inc. Armed with its own arsenal of intellectual property, Facebook signaled that it wasn’t backing down and filed its own patent infringement lawsuit against Yahoo in April.” That’s 1400 patents from IBM and AOL (via MSFT).
For those people who used to think that anyone could duplicate Facebook; that’s going to now require some rethinking. Plus, if everyone you know (and a whole lot of “friends” who you don’t really know) are on Facebook, there’s really no easy way to switch. Unless, of course, you have become tired of your old friends and you wanna start over by looking for new ones:-)