Apple sued by Tracbeam for alleged Patent Infringement.

TracBeam has filled a complaint with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. TracBeam has alleged that Apple has infringed Patent Nos. 8,032,153; 7,764,231; 7,525,484; and 7,298,327. of TracBeam. They allege that many of the core technologies used by Apple in its Location Service were invented by the TracBeam originally. They allege that they invented such technologies a decade before the Apple even entered Smartphone business. Legal representative of the TracBeam feels, “well positioned” in this case against Apple. Expecting this fight against such technology giant to be long and hard.

By: Karan Mahala

Senior Journalist demands drafting of media law from Juba Government.

As per the last year world press freedom rankings by the Reporters without Borders, the country stood 124th country out of 148 countries.  South Sudan does not have any media law, bill for the same has been passed by the Parliament but signature of the President are still pending. The chief editor, Jacob Akol of Gurtong Trust has blamed the absence of media law for the infringement on freedom press. He appeals that the government of Juba must provide legal framework, as mere verbal instructions are not enough to control media practitioner. In reply to the ban imposed on media from publishing voices of the rebels, Akol argued that if the government does not want the media to publish voices of the rebels, then they should put it into law. He argued that working of law and order merely on the orders of the people in absence of any legal documents will not lead to proper functioning.

By : Karan Mahala

Britain’s Government announced amendments in current Highway codes for allowing driverless cars in roads

Vince Cable, the Business Secretary revealed the plan of the government to amend the outdated Highway Codes and rules of the road. Recently ministers admitted that the prevailing laws are outdated and need amendment. Such amendment may allow the driverless cars trials (Google Style vehicles). Such driver less cars will be on roads of Britain within six months, first trials of such cars will start from January as announced by the Business Secretary.

There has been changes in road laws around the world, such as:

*  In certain U.S. states driverless cars are allowed on road, but someone must be sitting in driver’s seat. Licence to such cars and their co-pilot will be granted from September by the California Dept. of Motor vehicle.

* Amendment in the U.N. Convention on Road Traffic 19968, as long as the driver has the ability to override or switch off the system, driverless cars are allowed. This Convention also covers the European countries such as: Brazil, Mexico, Russia and Chile.

 

By: Karan Mahala

India’s D’lecta Café filed Patent for world’s first ever automatic tea brewing machine.

An Indian company D’lecta Café filed Patent for world’s first ever automatic tea brewing machine. By this patent technology tea leaves of choice are infused in the machine to maximize flavor, smoothness and aroma of the final brew and dispense a cup of refreshing hot tea. The tea can be had black, green or white. Adding milk and/or sugar is as per preference, and has been provisioned separately on extended trays attached to the machine. Creamers made of evaporated cow milk, and aseptically packed, are used in place of powdered milk. The new tea vending unit will dispense a cup of freshly brewed connoisseur tea within thirty seconds, and can dispense up to 400 cups a day.

This is an extract of an article published on ‘Web NewsWire’.

Homeland Security Conference 2014 @ FICCI

Today was the second (as well as last) day of conference on Homeland Security organised by FICCI, Delhi. Yesterday’s welcome address at conference was given by Dr. A. Didar Singh who is Secretary General at FICCI. Today’s session was chaired by Dr. Vivek Lall who is Co- Chair at FICCI Homeland Security Committee and also holds the post of President and CEO at New Ventures, Reliance Industries.

In the initial half of the conference there were 4 speakers, namely:

1. Mr. Muktesh Chander, Special Commissioner – Traffic, Delhi Police

2. Mr. Zori Kor, Vice President, ASERO Consulting Services, Israel.

3. Dr. Gandhi Kaza, Chairman, Truth Labs.

4. Mr. Sunny Vaghela, Director & CTO, TechDefence Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

Dr. Muktesh Chander brought various important points while giving his presentation, like how cyber crime is costing huge loss to Indian economy, how certain countries are involved in cyber crimes against other nations etc. While discussing the matters of cyber security he mentioned that Section 70 of IT Act as amended in 2008, the government can declare any computer resource to be a protected system if it directly or indirectly affects the facility of Critical Information Infrastructure. Sub-Section 3 of Section 70 of IT Act states that, if any person tries of access to a protected system against the provision of this section shall be punished with imprisonment and fine.

Mysterious Company Applied for “MH17” Trademark of Class 41 Service.

Class 41 service is a protection which applies to almost everything, movies, to music, to documentary videos, to video games, to education books to live performances. This application was filled in the Australian Trade Mark office by the Remit Now International company within a day after this tragic event. Remit Now International was termed mysterious on the grounds that this company neither has its own website, apparently address of this company is registered as Kuala Lumpur, but it also has its post office box in Australia according to the Daily Mail Australia. Malaysian Airlines has started the process of filling the trademark to make sure that no company takes advantage of this tragic event said the Malaysian Airlines Spokesperson. 

For further coverage please click HERE

 

Legitimate Businesses Are Finding it Difficult to Compete With Pirates.

Illegal trading activities such as piracy and counterfeiting are severely affecting the local producers which is slowly leading to loss of jobs and businesses. Piracy and counterfeiting damages the efforts of local manufacturers – said Alex Frimpong, Chief Executive Officer of GEA. According to the Ghana Employer’s Association, many industries had collapsed in Ghana due to such illegal acts, especially the food, drink, textiles and pharmaceutical. To put an end to such an illegal practice, there is a need to review our existing anti piracy laws and render severe punishment for offenders indulging in this illegal act, so as to deter pirates.   

For further coverage please click HERE

Snapchat is moving towards Mobile Commerce

What is Snapchat?

Snapchat is a Mobile App that allow its users capture videos and photos and share them with other users on network. These videos and pictures are self destructive in nature and lasts for just few seconds.

What is Snapchat’s Trademark Application?

To make its future more bright Snapchat has recently field two trademarks in the field of mobile commerce. First trademark refers to a computer application software which will handle electronic payments and second trademark is for electronic transfer of money to others.

Why Snapchat is moving towards mobile commerce?

A very simple answer to this question can be found in Silicon India’s 2013 report (Report could be accessed HERE). As per their report,

By 2014 the world will have more cell phone accounts than people on Earth at the current growth rate for that service. the number of cell phone accounts to rise from 6 billion now to 7.3 billion in 2014, compared with a global population of 7 billion. Over 100 countries have the number of cell phone accounts exceeding their population.

These days smartphones can be used to book plane or railway tickets, to take 3D photos, to view maps etc. A number of banks across many countries are providing mobile banking option to their customers. In such a scenario, this move of Snapchat will surely bring more capital to its stakeholders.