There's A Draft: A Cold Wind Blows Over the 2011 NFL Draft as a Labor Dispute between Team Owners and Players Looms Over this Year's Selections

The NFL Draft is set to begin at 8 p.m. (ET) tonight, but the labor dispute has put an element of disinterest into this year's draft that was not there in 2010. Here are some reports:

NFL Draft 2011 LIVE UPDATES: Round 1

NFL Draft begins tonight

NFL Draft 2011: TV Schedule, Start Time For ESPN, NFL Network

QB Newton widely expected to be top pick in NFL Draft | Reuters

Excitement, uncertainty encompass Hurney, NFL as draft week begins

2011 NFL Mock Draft: Final Projection Before Thursday's First Round -- SBNation.com

2011 NFL Mock Draft: Final Predictions Before the Draft Begins -- Bleacher Report

Google Patent Filing for Social Messaging User Interface Published Today, April 28, 2011: Send to Nearest Congressperson or Judge for an Explanation

At SEO by the Sea, Bill Slawski gives us the latest at:

A Hint of What Google's Social Network Might Look Like?

by pointing to a new Google patent filing for "social interaction" published today. Here is the abstract:

"Hubs for social interaction via electronic devices are described. In one aspect, a data processing device includes a display screen displaying a social interaction hub, the social interaction hub including a collection of records. Each record includes a counterparty identifier identifying a counterparty of a past social interaction event, a mode indicium identifying a mode by which the past social interaction event with the counterparty occurred, and a collection of mode indicia each identifying a mode by which a future, outgoing social interaction event with the counterparty can occur. The counterparty identifier, the mode indicium, and the collection of mode indicia are associated with one another in the records of the social interaction hub."

Let us get that straight... the counterparty identifier (let us call that A), the mode indicium (let us call that B) and the collection of mode indicia (let us call that C) are inter-connected in the records of the social interaction hub (let us call that D). Brilliant and Bravo. Just hand over the billions of dollars for this invention.

I wish we could send that to every Congressperson, U.S. Supreme Court Justice and Federal Circuit Judge for each to comment -- in one page or less -- just what they view as being patented there and what in their view has been invented.

Just a few words Congresspeople, Justices and Judges, clue us in!
You are the ones permitting this to happen.
Tell us what that abstract means to YOU personally, in one page or less.

The Buggy Apple Patent for Tracking People on the iPhone Without their Consent

Oops, an Apple patent for the invasion of privacy via iPhone. See Kashmir Hill and the The Not-So-Private Parts at Forbes Blogs in Apple Filed a Patent Application in 2009 for What It’s Now Calling a 'Bug'.

Now, think about it, all you iPhone-owning patent yay-sayers out there, not only is Apple patenting YOUR hand motions to operate electronic equipment but they are also specifically PATENTING tracking YOU.

Is that an "invention" or "discovery" envisioned by the Constitution or did "tracking" come "Out of Africa"?

It would seem to me that any "tracking" system is simply an application of the state of the art at any time to something that was basically invented millennia ago by our hunting forefathers. I suppose there are millions of ways to do that. "Stop following me around!" Ever heard that?

But patentable? We would say not. Tracking is tracking. Nothing is discovered.

If a mobile phone can be located electronically then it is quite obvious that such information can be used to track where and when the phone is going and thus also to follow the activities and location of its owner viz. carrier.

In the days of regular phones, you knew people were home if they answered the phone. Tracked to the source. Brilliant? But surely not an invention.

Take a look at the drawing of this pandemonious "discovery":



When I was younger, we used to call this kind of stuff B.S.

I am still trying to figure out what the invention here is.

WHAT is the invention? Sneaky tracking by phone? People have done that before too.

Aggressive Trademark Litigation Study Issued by the USPTO

See the TTABlog by John L. Welch for the report and link: USPTO Issues Trademark Bully Study

Don't Worry About Linux, Worry About Patent Reform

Brian Proffitt at IT World in Patent verdict no reason to worry about Linux: Worry more about the need for patent reform hits upon some interesting points in connection with another Kafka-like patent jury trial result in East Texas.