Legal Commentary

EU Justice Ministers Approve a Law to Guarantee Translation and Interpretation Rights in Criminal Proceedings in All EU Courts -- including LEGAL ADVICE

Posted on October 08, 2010
Several egregious miscarriages of justice have occurred in the past in the European Union (EU) because criminally accused persons have been criminally tried without knowing the language of the accusing EU Member State. A landmark precedential development on fair trial rights in criminal proceedings in the EU is thus in the make to solve this problem...

A Europe United by Golf is Beset by a Host of Political Problems Pointing to a Lack of European Integration

Posted on October 08, 2010
Europe! Europe! Europe! is Roger Cohen's provocative op-ed at the New York Times on European integration in the European Union -- or -- what does golf have that the politics of European integration otherwise lacks? Hat tip to CaryGEE.

Lawsuits in the Patent Thicket for Smartphones Boggle the Imagination Showing the Absurdity of Modern Patent Laws

Posted on October 08, 2010
One of the new doctorates that universities around the world might think of introducing would be "the Patent Doctor", someone who would be an expert in cutting his way through the already unthinkable and ever-expanding patent thicket, here an example from TechDirt in the case of Smartphones -- the graph shows just the lawsuits, not even to dream of trying to show the licensing: Anyone who can demonstrate that legislators, judges and government patent agencies have created anything other than an unnecessary, uneconomical, and absurdly confused chaos in the smartphone patent world can step forward.

German-American Day 2010

Posted on October 08, 2010
Oops, we missed this proclamation from U.S. President Barack Obama on October 6, 2010:German-American Day 2010Of interest in this regard is our posting at Blawg Review #180 on German-American Day 2008.

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Germany's Optimistic Young German Generation Finds Positive Thinking to be "IN"

Posted on October 08, 2010
German Missions in the United States writes about German Youth: "Young people are strongly performance-oriented, have a pronounced awareness of social relationships, are pragmatic when it comes to everyday challenges and have an optimistic attitude to life, a new survey has found...

Real Estate? Homes and Houses: Exterior and Interior Architecture Design and Decor at Willow Decor

Posted on October 08, 2010
Real estate? If you like looking at homes and houses, exterior and interior architecture, design and decor, take a look at the excellent Willow Decor.

The Patent Wars Continue: Apple Microsoft and Google Lock Horns at ITC as Android Success Poses Threat of Real Income Loss to Competition

Posted on October 07, 2010
At the ZDnet.com Linux and Open Source blog of Dana Blankenhorn & Paula Rooney, the next chapter in the battle over the increasingly successful and thus competitively threatening mobile phone platform Android is discussed by Blankenhorn in ITC may help Apple and Microsoft force Google to negotiate, writing: "Apple is claiming here that they control all multitouch devices for the next decade...

England and Wales Reform Patents County Court and Put Caps on Costs For Patentholders

Posted on October 07, 2010
As reported in various sources, new rules went into effect for England and Wales on 1 October 2010 via a reform of the Patents County Court "through amendments to Parts 63 and 45 of the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) and corresponding Practice Directions", to be known in the future as the IPCC, "Intellectual Property County Court"...

ABA Ethics and Social Media Mining

Posted on October 07, 2010
Nicole Black at Sui Generis--a New York law blog reports on NY Ethics Committees Tackle Social Media Mining.

Bloglines Closing its Doors and To Be Shut Down by Ask.com on November 1, 2010

Posted on October 07, 2010
Twitter and Facebook take their toll on RSS Aggregators, as Bloglines its closing its doors. See Bloglines Update at Bloglines

Snyder v. Phelps, et al. (09-751): The Limits of Free Speech and Religion Under the U.S. Constitution: When Two Noses Meet, Who Wins? How About a Compromise?

Posted on October 07, 2010
U.S. Supreme Court argument was held yesterday, Wednesday, October 6, on the free speech case of Snyder v. Phelps, et al. (09-751), involving a Baptist Church in Kansas that pickets private funerals of other churches as a means to advertise their own particular political message...

YPPSYS FBS College Football Predictions for Week 6 and post-Week 5 Ratings and Rankings are Up at SportPundit

Posted on October 06, 2010
The YPPSYS Week 6 Game Predictions in FBS college football as also the YPPSYS post-Week 5 Rankings and Ratings are up at SportPundit.

Southern Cal USC Trojans Emerge Victorious over the South Carolina Gamecocks in Interlocking SC Trademark Squabble as US Supreme Court (SC) Passes on the Ball

Posted on October 05, 2010
With this many SC's in the works, Dr. Saturday, also known as Matt Hinton, had a field day at Finally, USC is the real 'SC,' thanks to U.S. Supreme Court - Dr. Saturday - NCAAF - Yahoo! Sports

Patch.com by AOL Opens New Vistas in Local News Reporting Online

Posted on October 05, 2010
Susan Gunelius of Newstex writes that AOL Redefines Local News with Patch. Not all of the US is covered yet by any means, but do check out some of the local sites that are covered.

ABA Legal Rebels; Racing Toward Mediocrity at Simple Justice

Posted on October 03, 2010
See Simple Justice and their posting ABA Legal Rebels; Racing Toward Mediocrity

MyPaint: A Fabulous Digital Painter as an Open-Source Graphics Application

Posted on October 03, 2010
Take a look MyPaint. It is really quite fabulous.I am going to be using the program for some of my graphics-related projects and documents.

Germany's Bifurcated Patent Litigation System Improved by Reducing Potential for Conflicting Decisions

Posted on October 03, 2010
See the Kluwer Patent Blog at Of Mice and Elephants.

Ubuntu 10.10 nearly a Perfect Ten?

Posted on October 03, 2010
See the ITworld Review by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols at Ubuntu 10.10 scores close to a ten.

At Patently-O: Challenging the Clear and Convincing Standard of Proof for Invalidating Patents in Court

Posted on October 03, 2010
Dennis Crouch in Challenging the Clear and Convincing Standard of Proof for Invalidating Patents in Court discusses Microsoft Corp. v. i4i Limited Partnership (on petition for certiorari 2010)

European Union takes United Kingdom to Court for UK Failure to Adjust Privacy and Data Protection Laws to fit EU Requirements

Posted on October 03, 2010
See John Hunt at thinkbroadband inEU take UK to court over privacy and data protection rules.

TARP Bailouts May Turn a Profit

Posted on October 03, 2010
Tobin Harshaw at the New York Times asks: Will TARP Turn a Profit?Anytime you buy assets of any kind, if they rise in value, the profit could be there. Why not?Nevertheless, we think there may be a countervailing inflationary component.

Geeks Delight: The Roberts Court Starts a New Term on Monday as New Justice Elena Kagan Takes Her Seat - U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS)

Posted on October 03, 2010
For a short intro, see The Roberts Court, Version 4.0 which presents a "greenhouse view" of the U.S. Supreme Court, which begins a new term on Monday, October 4, 2010.For the technology side of upcoming cases, see David Kravets, All Rise: Supreme Court?s Geekiest Generation Begins.

Latvia: EPP hails victory of PM Dombrovskis; another centre-right victory for Europe

Posted on October 03, 2010
Latvia: EPP hails victory of PM Dombrovskis; another centre-right victory for Europe

Oh, the Brilliance! Found in Translation

Posted on October 03, 2010
If you read -- or write -- you will surely appreciate the brilliance of Found in Translation at the New York Times, by Michael Cunningham.

President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso Addresses Germans in German Language on German Unity Day - Tag der Deutschen Einheit

Posted on October 03, 2010
Today, October 3rd, is German Unity Day, in German, der Tag der Deutschen Einheit President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso addresses all German speakers here in German language on the 20th anniversary of the reunification of Germany, 3 October 2010...

Immigration Law Becomes a Central Issue in Many States of the USA

Posted on October 03, 2010
A.G. Sulzberger at the New York Times in Anti-Immigrant Focus in, of All Places, Nebraska discusses the prospect that more States of the United States will seek to pass strict immigration laws similar to the controversial new immigration law in Arizona.

Libel and Blogging: Journalism Law Online for Bloggers: Mondays 4 to 5 PM EST November 4 - December 2, 2010 via the New York Times Knowledge Network

Posted on October 03, 2010
This course on libel law looks useful for people who blog. We post this as a public service announcement.Journalism Law for Bloggers« New York Times Knowledge NetworkNovember 4 - December 2, 2010, Registration Closes November 3Live Sessions Mondays 4:00 ? 5:00 PM ESTInstructor: George Freeman $175 "This course will teach you the fundamentals of media law, including special concerns that apply to online journalists and bloggers...

"The Adobe Flash plugin has crashed" in Mozilla Firefox - A Solution for this Vexing Problem

Posted on October 03, 2010
The best solution that we have found for getting rid of the privacy-violating and intrusive The Adobe Flash plugin has crashed alerts, which by default appear everywhere 45 seconds after termination in Mozilla Firefox, is just to disable the plug-in hang detector pursuant to this tip from the MozillaZine Knowledge Base: "Plugin hang detectorIn Firefox 3...

Proposition 19: How will California change if voters make marijuana legal? - CSMonitor.com

Posted on October 02, 2010
How will California change if voters make marijuana legal? - CSMonitor.com

The ABA Flexes its Muscles and Considers Regulation of Cloud Computing by Attorneys: Guild Monopoly of the Bar Manifests a Feudally Controlled Profession

Posted on October 01, 2010
Nicole Black at Firmex.com writes that ABA Considering Regulating Attorneys' Use of Cloud Computing. Let us ask a simple question. Just how outdated are the seemingly anachronistic monopoly guilds of the bar, state-wise and nationally? To what degree are such guilds self-serving rather than instruments of the common weal?

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