The latest decision was handed down on June 2, 2014, in the case of Limelight Networks, Inc v. Akamai Technologies, Inc. Justice Alito wrote unanimous opinion of the Court stating that a defendant is not liable for inducing patent infringement when there has been no direct infringement. Without going into the details of the case, the opinion seems to confirm common sense (not always the case for legal opinion): there should be no crime if the actual act did not happen; the thought or the plan to commit a crime is not a substitute for the crime. Of course, I understand that patent law is in the realm of civil cases….
Full Text of the opinion is available at http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/12-786_664d.pdf
and as usual a variety of new products are on display. The June 3rd high level forum featuring speakers from MediaTek, Acer, Amazon, and ARM focused on cloud computing and the Internet of Things. The group seems to agree that the new age of the Internet of Things ( IoT or 物联网) has arrived. However, the real killer applications of this Internet 2.0 have yet to emerge.
The speakers, on the other hand, seem to have divergent opinions on the infrastructure of the Cloud: should the resources for the Cloud be individualized (Acer approach), or should the resources be provided by one company (namely Amazon)?
Pro-business Narendra Modi swept into victory in May, and is expected to improve trade ties between the US and India. While no specifics on his IP future plan have been announced, the following article outlines some of the possible benefits on the intellectual property front:
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/05/16/india-election-what-narendra-modis-victory-means-for-the-u-s-economy/
There is also a timely ABA event organized by the International Law Section of the American Bar Association on how the recent election is likely to impact business climate in India.
http://shop.americanbar.org/ebus/ABAEventsCalendar/EventDetails.aspx?productId=128812530
Let’s hope Modi will fulfill his promise on brining a brighter economic future for India.