Blogging Issues: What Companies and Bloggers Face

As the Patent Troll Tracker libel suit shows, blogging can bring up some intricate legal issues. Bloggers like Dennis Crouch can find themselves facing subpoenas. A few years ago, Apple sued some bloggers that revealed the date of a new product release; the company wanted the source of the information. And as Cisco is learning, employer bloggers can entangle their employers in legal action. We chatted with media lawyer Robert Clothier, a partner with Fox Rothschild LLP, about some of the questions that arise for the technology industry, where blogging sometimes seems as prevalent as engineering.

• Aug 26, 2008

Patent Bar Brawl: Lawyers Suing Cisco Subpoena Legal Blogger

Since March, there's been a legal brouhaha in patent circles, as lawyer Eric Albritton sued a blogger as well as the blogger's former employer, Cisco, for libel. Now the dispute is spilling wider, as the plaintiff has sent a subpoena to a well-known law professor and blogger, Dennis Crouch, who wasn't part of the controversy at all. What's Albritton after? Only the identities of people who anonymously commented on Crouch's blog, Patently-O. Now there are probably prominent patent attorneys sweating because they left a comment and potentially could get dragged into the middle of the conflict.

• Aug 25, 2008

Change in Iraq Would Have Tech Industry Impact

One of the potentially clear areas of change in the face of a presidential election is foreign policy. As BusinessWeek pointed out, these are unpredictable times for military deployments and for the defense contractors that provide equipment. But any impact on defense spending won't stop there; many high tech companies could find sudden shifts in demand -- and possibly drops that they didn't expect.

• Aug 25, 2008

Google Verizon Deal Should Boost Android and Help More Deals

Google must win the handset operating system wars because Android's true mission is to deliver ads, just as a magazine and its articles generally exist to deliver ads. But today's Wall Street Journal story that Verizon and Google and nearing a mobile ad deal shows the other side of the business equation: the temptation of revenue that will turn Google's efforts into a self-reinforcing upward spiral.

• Aug 22, 2008

Jott.com: an Interview with CEO John Pollard

For about two years, Seattle-based Jott Networks Inc. has provided a service called Jott. People call a toll-free number, record a message, and see the words translated into text and emailed, either to themselves or someone on their contact list. (I tried it with a stanza of Gilbert and Sullivan patter song, which the system got mostly right.) There is also some ability to let the service interact with others, effectively providing voice control for a number of web-based offerings. Earlier this week, the company left beta and implemented a fee structure. We caught up with CEO John Pollard for a conversation.

• Aug 22, 2008

Wireless Recharging Is Business Accident Waiting to Happen

Maybe I'm just old and cranky, but Intel's plans for wireless recharging seem to beg for lawsuits and bad press.

• Aug 21, 2008

Cheap Hardware Will Force Cloud Computing

For all of the availability of such online productivity suites as Google Apps and HyperOffice, applications that live on a computer's hard drive have remained king of the hill. But that's about to change, I think. Intel's acknowledgement of the netbook and nettop markets -- low cost computers designed primarily for Internet access -- with a new chipset for sub-$200 computers not only potentially opens that market wide, but helps set the foundation for hardware to drive software off into a cloud.

• Aug 21, 2008

Apple Gets High Customer Satisfaction Rating, Sued by iPhone User

There's an irony in this week's news for Apple. Abundant consumer good will is evident on one hand. On the other are signs that the company dangerously close to burning bridges with newer customers who never grew up in the Apple brand cult and might have little patience when things go wrong.

• Aug 21, 2008

FiOS: Verizon Thinks Farther Ahead than Analysts

With the New York Times article yesterday, the debate reemerges as to whether Verizon was wise in its FiOS strategy, upgrading the final customer link from copper to fiber optics. Frankly, I think you need to toss the usual stock market analysis aside and look at competitive fundamentals. Over the next five to ten years, FiOS may prove to be a giant club in Verizon's hands because it will have the the bandwidth for the Internet's future, not past.

• Aug 20, 2008

Method Patents Face Legal Infringement Loophole

Muniauction v. Thomson Corp. and i-Deal is a case, decided last month by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC), that could open the door for companies to use a patented method, including but not limited to business methods, without technically infringing the patent.

• Aug 20, 2008

Top 6 Ways to Get Business Execs and Techs Working Together

GigaOM had a good post over the weekend about the top five ways business executives fail to work effectively with product and engineering execs, and that respect, ethics, determination, discipline and humility can solve the problem. I'd agree with that â€" you don't necessarily need a technical person at the top (though an affinity for technology is a smart thing to seek in a high tech CEO). But I think they missed the boat a bit. In describing the problems, Kevin Fortuna and Marty Abbott were specific, which makes it easier to see a situation for what it is. I think the following six positive habits for executives would be a good counterweight.

• Aug 18, 2008

Cloud Outages: Are Vendors Selling Before They're Ready?

It's official: the media declares that cloud computing is changing the world. For anyone who's made more than one circuit around the high tech block, this sounds like many other bits of jargon -- SaaS, MSP, ASP, web services, thin client, client server, even mainframe timesharing -- and for good reason. The concept of running, from a single location, major computing services for thousands of users is actually an old one. But in their rush to jump aboard the latest fad gravy train, many companies are stumbling and taking their customers with them. As a result, they have tossed the mud that will sully the cloud name and require yet another new term in the future to entice customers now jaded and distrustful.

• Aug 18, 2008

Android Handsets: Why Google Has to Win this Market (UPDATED)

It sounds as though the reports that handsets powered by Google's Android software would be delayed until 2009 are wrong. Well, that is if the New York Times story is right and HTC handsets for T-Mobile are out before Christmas Whether it will be a true rival for the iPhone or Blackberry is impossible to tell yet, but this isn't about one handset versus another. What is happening is a battle, at least on Google's side, for the ability to serve mobile advertising at all. And the company will use every trick to make economics work in its favor. If it does this right, Apple may remain a premium device, but the market will move toward Google and more affordable devices with similar features. And that means Google stays in the ad business.

• Aug 15, 2008

Free and Proprietary Software Groups Applaud Copyright Decision

A court ruling on the Jacobsen v. Katzer case this Wednesday had many declaring it a "win" for open source software. I spoke to a few lawyers about the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) decision for a better understanding of what happened and how it affects software vendors of all stripes, whether in the free or fee camps. Participating were Neil MacBride, vice president of anti-piracy and general council of the Business Software Alliance; James Vasile, legal counsel for the Software Freedom Law Center; and Jeffrey Neuburger, partner and co-chair of the technology, media and communications practice at law firm Proskauer Rose. I've pulled quotes together in a "round table" form for convenience.

• Aug 15, 2008

Chips Are Down for EDA, Semiconductor Companies

Semiconductor design tool vendor Cadence Design Systems has given up on buying rival Mentor Graphics when the price became more than it could afford, or borrow. This isn't an isolated failed deal, but an indicator of the problems that the electronic design assistance (EDA) market has been seeing â€" a flat market, entrenched competition, and nothing new on the horizon making chip designers reach for their wallets.

• Aug 15, 2008

Show More