Mehmet Oz, M.D. is taking the fight to the scam operators who have been duping the public using his good and extremely popular name. Indeed, the two-time Emmy Award-winning, nationally syndicated daytime series The Dr. Oz Show is launching an aggressive campaign to stop illegal use of the Dr. Oz name, image and show. This campaign dubbed “IT’S NOT ME,” began Monday, May 6, 2013.

As you may be aware, over the past several years the Internet has become overrun with advertisements featuring one or another product allegedly endorsed by Dr. Oz. On Monday Dr. Oz told viewers that he endorses none of these and he is going to fight to take back his name.

“Today I am taking back my name and protecting my viewers from people I consider dangerous, who try to mislead you into buying products I don’t endorse,” Dr. Oz told the audience. “Anything you see on this show is part of a conversation I am having with you about your health. We are always transparent about our trusted, official partnerships and a full list of these partners is available on our website.”

Qualcomm Incorporated, headquartered in San Diego, CA, is a global leader in the design and manufacture of wireless telecommunications products, like cell phone semiconductors and tracking devices. Recently, Qualcomm has broadened its product and service base in wireless Internet networking and application programming. The company’s commitment to research and development make Qualcomm a visible presence at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office each week.

Today, we’ll take a close look at some of the more intriguing, recent Qualcomm patent applications recently published by the USPTO, many of which show the technology developer focusing on improving mobile network connections. Patent applications released within the last month describe systems of improving mobile device Internet connectivity to peripheral devices, like printers, or while indoors for pedestrian traffic analysis. More efficient means of social network messaging is the subject of another application. A fourth application included here is filed to protect a gesture-based system of interacting with computer projectors.

One patent received recently by Qualcomm, and covered below, protects a system of geographically locating computers and other devices connected to the Internet through an IP address, which doesn’t typically contain any geographical data.

The Federal Trade Commission is cracking down on affiliate marketers that allegedly bombarded consumers with hundreds of millions of unwanted spam text messages in an effort to steer them towards deceptive websites falsely promising “free” gift cards.

In eight different complaints filed in courts around the United States, the FTC charged 29 defendants with collectively sending more than 180 million unwanted text messages to consumers, many of whom had to pay for receiving the texts. The messages promised consumers free gifts or prizes, including gift cards worth $1,000 to major retailers such as Best Buy, Walmart and Target. Consumers who clicked on the links in the messages found themselves caught in a confusing and elaborate process that required them to provide sensitive personal information, apply for credit or pay to subscribe to services to get the supposedly “free” cards.

“Today’s announcement says ‘game over’ to the major league scam artists behind millions of spam texts,” said Charles A. Harwood, Acting Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The FTC is committed to rooting out this deception and stopping it. For consumers who find spam texts on their phones, delete them, immediately. The offers are, in a word, garbage.”

Microsoft Corporation finds itself on the defensive side of a lawsuit that could make them pay for infringing two patents on reflexive advertising in search engines. The lawsuit is being brought forth by I/P Engine, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of mobile technology innovator Vringo, Inc.

The patent infringement lawsuit, filed in the Southern District Court of New York State, seeks reasonable royalties from Microsoft for not only infringing on I/P Engine’s patents in Microsoft’s own search engine, which employs filtering technology, but also for continuing to engage in the practice for years after alerted to the patents. I/P Engine alleges that Microsoft has been knowingly infringing upon U.S. Patent No. 6,314,420 (the ‘420 patent), which is titled “Collaborative/Adaptive Search Engine,” since at least October 2003 and U.S. Patent No. 6,775,664 (the ‘664 patent), which is titled “Information Filter System and Method for Integrated Content-Based and Collaborative/Adaptive Feedback Queries,” since at least December 2008.

It is the Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet that has primary jurisdiction over matters relating to intellectual property matters. The Subcommittee’s jurisdiction includes copyright, patent, trademark law, information technology, antitrust matters and other appropriate matters as referred by the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Thus, the House Subcommittee on IP that will be one of the primary focal points for any new legislation that deals with intellectual property over the next two years.

Two weeks ago House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (VA-6) announced the House Judiciary Committee’s Republican subcommittee assignments for the 113th Congress. See Republicans of the House Subcommittee on Intellectual Property. Today we meet the Democrats on the Subcommittee.

Mel Watt (NC-12), Ranking Member

Representative Mel Watt was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina on August 26, 1945. He was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1967 with a BS degree in Business Administration and in 1970 he received a JD degree from Yale University Law School. From 1970-1992, specializing in minority business and economic development law. In 1992, Representative Watt was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He is member of the House Judiciary Committee, House Financial Services Committee and served as the Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (2005-2006).

The White House website explains that it is the right of the people to petition the government, a right that is guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Of course, the idea of petitioning the President is not something that is new, but the ability to use the Internet to create an online petition that may be considered and responded to by the Federal Government is indeed quite new. Not surprisingly, the Obama Administration, known for savvy use of the Internet both in governance and campaigning, pioneered this unique approach to making government reachable by the masses.

With this in mind, last week, a petition was created to petition the White House to take down the website Jerk.com. To date the petition has unfortunately not received many votes. Earlier today I was the 28th e-signer of the petition. My guess is that this is due to lack of publicity more so than anything else. Once people learn of the petition my guess is that the signatures will accumulate quickly, but will there be enough time to reach the 100,000 signature threshold by February 22, 2013?

The first order of business, however, is to get the required 150 signatures so that the petition will be searchable on WhiteHouse.gov.  To view and/or sign the petition visit We the People.

By now you may have noticed that most successful businesses have a blog. This is no coincidence. Blogging can help you gain customers, drive traffic to your website and raise your rank in the search engine result pages. Here is a list of business blogging do’s to help you get started with your own blog.

1. Choose an easy application.

One of easiest, most effective ways to blog is to use WordPress.  It is the most common and widely used by many successful bloggers. The reason it is so popular is because it makes blogging easy. It provides you with templates and other tools to quickly and easily set up your blog. It is not necessary to know website design or even HTML with a plug-in blog platforms like WordPress. It also allows you to add a plethora or plugins and widgets to completely customize your blog; and again, it’s all quick and easy. WordPress.com is a free service, but you will be required to have wordpress.com as an extension on your web address. If you want your own, hosted site, you can go purchase a domain and install WordPress.org.

Jerk.com is one of those sites on the Internet that is the poster-child for everything wrong with the anonymity of Internet communications. Shrouded in the secrecy provided by the Internet, anonymous cowards become emboldened to say vile things and stoop to ridiculous lows — even publishing pictures of minors and asking the Internet community to vote on whether the minor is a jerk. That is the business Jerk.com is in, and they refuse to remove any profile that has been created regardless of the vile, anonymous comments that have been posted.

An earlier edition of the Jerk.com “REMOVE” page explained:

No one’s profile is ever removed because Jerk is based on searching free open internet searching databases and it’s not possible to remove things from the Internet. You can however use Jerk to manage your reputation and resolve disputes with people who you are in conflict with.

That obviously ridiculous and inaccurate statement of fact and law has been watered down now, but based on what I hear from those who feel aggrieved by Jerk.com suggests that their philosophy seems to continue to be that no one gets removed. Jerk.com almost seems to play the part of victim, suggesting that it is impossible to remove something from their servers. It is certainly possible for Jerk.com to remove a profile.

In reading this article, I invite you to continually ask yourself if domination, by any governmental authority is ever for the good of the people – or just for the power structures they serve?

To begin, maybe you kept up with the crescendo of increasing anticipation and the ultimate climax of the WCIT held this December in Dubai. But, just in case you haven’t, it was somewhat of a bomb-threat that fizzled out, instead of exploding. At least for now.

From December 3 – 14, delegates from national governments around the world met in Dubai, United Arab Emirates for the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT). The event was hosted by a United Nations agency, called the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The purpose was to revise and modernize a 1988 treaty known as the International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs). This treaty is governed by the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

For the sake of clarity, let’s look at the scope of authority the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has over international radio-communication issues – and then we’ll look at the treaty’s authority. And, finally, what happened at the recent conference in Dubai.

The Federal Trade Commission adopted final amendments to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule that strengthen kids’ privacy protections and give parents greater control over the personal information that websites and online services may collect from children under 13.

The FTC initiated a review in 2010 to ensure that the COPPA Rule keeps up with evolving technology and changes in the way children use and access the Internet, including the increased use of mobile devices and social networking. The updates to the COPPA Rule reflect careful consideration of the entire record of the rulemaking, which included a public roundtable and several rounds of public comments sought by the agency.

“The Commission takes seriously its mandate to protect children’s online privacy in this ever-changing technological landscape,” said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. “I am confident that the amendments to the COPPA Rule strike the right balance between protecting innovation that will provide rich and engaging content for children, and ensuring that parents are informed and involved in their children’s online activities.”

On Thursday December 13, 2012, Google and a group of Belgian newspaper publishers reached an agreement on a 6-year long copyright dispute.

In an official statement that was released by Google, the company stated: “We have reached an agreement that ends all litigation. From now on Google and Belgian French-language publishers will partner on a broad range of business initiatives.”

Thierry Geerts, Managing Director of Google Belgium, also wrote on the Google Europe blog: “We have reached an agreement that ends all litigation and represents great news for both us and the newspapers. We continue to believe that our services respect newspaper copyrights and it is important to note that we are not paying the Belgian publishers or authors to include their content in our services.”

With the growing trend of online marketing for business, it has become important to have a distinct Internet presence. A blog can give help you raise your search engine ranking, get more traffic and even win over more customers. Setting up your own business blog isn’t difficult if you know the steps to take.

But your not sure blogging is for you? Even if you aren’t sure about blogging, many people are starting to use blogging platforms as an easy to use content management system that easily delivers professional looking websites.

As with anything you new, if you haven’t ever done it before it will seem daunting. To make it approachable break it down into manageable action items. Here are the first three critical steps, or action items, to setting up your blog, or just going down the path of setting up a website.

This afternoon Register of Copyrights Maria A. Pallante welcomed friends, family and members of the Authors Guild to the Library of Congress for a celebration. The Authors Guild is 100 years old! Long live the Authors Guild! But is that a likely reality? If you listened to the parade of horribles discussed at this “celebration” one has to wonder whether being an author by profession is nearing the end of the road. If that happens it would be truly tragic, but the handwriting is on the wall it seems in both important and unfortunate ways.

The event at the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress was part of the “Copyright Matters” lecture series started by Pallante in 2011 as a community forum to discuss the practical implications of copyright law in the 21st century. On December 11, 2012, the lecture series turned to a celebration of sorts. The event began with a beautiful rendition of Happy Birthday to You, staff of the Library of Congress taking stage to lead the audience in this time-honored birthday tradition, singing to the Authors Guild. But as the excitement of 100 years turned into a poignant discussion of the state of the industry one has to wonder where the industry is headed and whether it will be possible for authors to actually put in the time and energy to create their works on a professional basis given the direction of the marketplace.

The first speaker at the event was world-renowned author Scott Turow, who also happens to be the President of the Author’s Guild.  Turow began by speaking about a recent trip to Russia, where he explained that the authors in Russia are quite depressed because they face such long odds, not being privy to the Constitutional protections and rights that are given to U.S. authors, for example.

An online advertising company agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it used “history sniffing” to secretly and illegally gather data from millions of consumers about their interest in sensitive medical and financial issues ranging from fertility and incontinence to debt relief and personal bankruptcy.

The FTC settlement order bars the company, Epic Marketplace Inc., from continuing to use history sniffing technology, which allows online operators to “sniff” a browser to see what sites consumers have visited in the past.  It also bars future misrepresentations by Epic and requires the company to destroy information that it gathered unlawfully.

“Consumers searching the Internet shouldn’t have to worry about whether someone is going to go sniffing through the sensitive, personal details of their browsing history without their knowledge,” said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz.  “This type of unscrupulous behavior undermines consumers’ confidence, and we won’t tolerate it.”

In 2009, I wrote for IPWatchdog about the case of In re Lister where the patent applicant barely avoided a potentially fatal “printed publication” bar based on his own copyrighted manuscript that was searchable in two commercial databases, but only after the critical “bar date.”  See CAFC Rules Patent Applicant’s Own Copyrighted Manuscript Not Publicly Accessible.  That was followed by a much more comprehensive article that I wrote which was published in 2011 on applying the “printed publication” bar to electronically posted documents.  See Guttag, Applying the Printed Publication Bar in the Internet Age:  Is It as Simple as Googling for Prior Art.  That 2011 article included a discussion of the Lister case, but focused primarily on the 2008 case of SRI International, Inc. v. Internet Security Systems, Inc. where a majority of the Federal Circuit panel ruled that there were “genuine issues of material fact” sufficient to preclude a grant of summary judgment that an electronic document temporarily posted (but freely accessible) on the FTP server of the patentee (SRI International) was a “printed publication” bar.

One of the “revelations” I discovered in researching and writing that 2011 article is that the “printed publication” bar is really two distinct and parallel doctrines that the Federal Circuit has all too often unfortunately commingled together.  The first, more active form is the “dissemination” doctrine. The second, more passive form is the “publicly accessible” doctrine (sometimes referred to as “constructive publication”).

The recent case of Voter Verified, Inc. v. Premier Election Solutions, Inc. (Nov. 5, 2012) is the latest example of the Federal Circuit being oblivious to the parallel existence of these two doctrines (and especially the requirements for each of these distinct doctrines) for applying the “printed publication” bar.