Realitista

When Startups Need More Lawyers Than Employees, The Patent System Isn't Working

The FBI-style anonymization might seem a little extreme, but ultimately it is making a legitimate point: not only do patent trolls pile on to successful startups, they can also be vindictive towards those who criticize them. The developer describes the snowball effect that patent lawsuits can have:

Even if you fight, and you win, you still put a big bullseye on your back that other patent trolls can look for, because suddenly you’re on their radar and they think maybe you’re wounded and don’t have any more resources to fight.

The developer’s story is familiar. Once a startup crosses a certain threshold of success, the licensing demands start pouring in, followed by the lawsuit threats, followed by the tough choice between settling and fighting. And, of course, these are the kinds of patents that describe broad concepts without actually solving any problems, held by non-practicing entities who develop no products:

We are now being sued by two of them for patents that are as broad as using a website to talk to a server, which is just the building blocks of the internet, to making a font legible on a mobile device. Just basic stuff, and it’s been hugely disruptive to our business.

Car headlamps 'make rain invisible'

Wow, cool idea. I’ll be impressed if this really works.

Car headlights that make rain “invisible” for drivers are under development and could save lives on the roads.

Developers hope their brainchild will reduce the number of accidents by improving visibility for motorists in treacherous conditions so they can effectively see through rain.

The hi-tech lights are programmed to detect water droplets and “dis-illuminate” them as they fall - with the result that the driver is far less distracted and can focus on the road.

The “See Through Rain” technology works like a projector rather than a traditional single bulb headlight found in today’s cars.

Currently when a beam shines on a dark road during a downpour, it illuminates raindrops which can distract a driver. The new technology relies on a digital camera to establish a drop’s location.

Software then predicts where that drop will fall within the driver’s field of view and light rays from the headlight that would usually illuminate it are turned off for an “imperceptible fraction of a second”.

B'Tselem: More than 50% of Palestinians killed in Israel's last Gaza operation were civilians - Diplomacy & Defense - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper

More than one-third of the Palestinian civilians killed during Israel’s operation in the Gaza Strip last November were under the age of 18, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said in a report released this week.

The B’Tselem based its findings on Operation Pillar of Defense on statements issued by the Israel Defense Forces, the Shin Bet security service, and on an internal investigation.

The IDF killed 167 Palestinians during the operation, at least 87 of them non-combatants, according to the data presented in the B’Tselem report.

Thirty-one of these non-combatant civilians, or 35 percent, were minors. Of these minors, 20 were under the age of 12, according to B’Tselem.

Novel approach to school discipline reduces expulsions by 80%

Iraq records huge rise in birth defects

I’m sure all the liberation was worth it though.

High rates of miscarriage, toxic levels of lead and mercury contamination and spiralling numbers of birth defects ranging from congenital heart defects to brain dysfunctions and malformed limbs have been recorded. Even more disturbingly, they appear to be occurring at an increasing rate in children born in Fallujah, about 40 miles west of Baghdad.

There is “compelling evidence” to link the increased numbers of defects and miscarriages to military assaults, says Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, one of the lead authors of the report and an environmental toxicologist at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health. Similar defects have been found among children born in Basra after British troops invaded, according to the new research.