Gradually bridging the gap from the paper age to the web era, I’ve recently posted an e-version of my 1994 Louisiana Law Review article A Civil Law to Common Law Dictionary. For more theoretical discussion of civil law and common law, see my Legislation and the Discovery of Law in a Free Society, from the Summer 1995 issue of the Journal of Libertarian Studies.
Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker (US employment law firm–coolest jingle of all; click the “INTRO TO WEMED” link); Studio Legale Sutti (Italy); and Becerril, Coca & Becerril (Mexico).
The WEMED one is the coolest one by far. There was another Italian firm I saw a few months ago, that had a “disco/modeling runway” type theme (naturally), but now I can’t find the link. If you know others, let me know.
From FindLaw: “Three bungling crooks spent hours prying a cash machine loose and then stealing it, only to realize later that it had been out of order for two years. The thieves’ efforts to steal the ATM machine from L and G restaurant [in Chicago] early Aug. 22 were met with little resistance from the restaurant owner and employees who had long been trying to get rid of the machine.”
The Harder They Fall: Fascinating profile, in The American Lawyer, of the decline of high-tech-boom firm Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, and its relationship with former chairman, Tower Snow.
The following free, multi-country patent retrieval software was recommended by Carl Oppedahl on the EFS list: GetIPDL (installation/usage tips). Similar tools/links found here.
A recent US patent (Delphion version) covers a WOODEN STICK or TREE BRANCH for a dog to play with. I am not, repeat, not, making this up.
Related: Smartass Patent Hijinks: Self-referential Patent
A recently-published US patent application (not yet issued): Computer implemented method of paying intellectual property annuity and maintenance fees. Uhh… a patent on a method for paying patent annuities. Whatever. For more “curious” patents, see this link.
A recent article of interest to IP lawyers of a normative bent: The Case Against Intellectual Property, by Michele Boldrin (University of Minnesota) and David K. Levine (UCLA).
Interesting new article, Patents and Copyrights: Do the Benefits Exceed the Costs?, Julio H. Cole, Journal of Libertarian Studies. Most of us IP lawyers either hope so, or don’t much care.
London’s The Independent reports that agents of “the avant-garde, experimentalist composer John Cage, who died in 1992” are upset that “Mike Batt, the man behind the Wombles and Vanessa Mae, has put a silent 60-second track on the album of his latest classical chart-topping protégés, the Planets.” Cage’s reps apparently claim that Batt’s minute-of-silence infringe Cage’s copyrights in Cage’s song (sic), 4’33”, which “contains” four minutes, thirty-three seconds of silence, “composed” (sic) by Cage “in his”prime” (sic). “As [Batt’s] mother said when I told her, ‘which part of the silence are they claiming you nicked?’.” Batt’s defense? “[M]y silence is original silence, not a quotation from [Cage’s] silence.”
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