EU Design Law: Infringement Case Correctly Decided by UK Courts In Dyson v. Vax, Not Extending Protection to Products of Different Overall Impression

The result in this case restores one's faith in the sanity of the courts, at least in the UK and the EU.

As reported at LexixNexis.com in Design Law Sucks: Dyson Fails in Court of Appeal Infringement Action, a vacuum cleaner design infringement suit was decided by the UK High Court and Court of Appeal against the Dyson registered design.

This is a wonderful case because Dyson was trying to monopolize generalities of design, rather than protecting the specific design of its particular product.

The designs of the Dyson and Vax were found to be similar but their overall impression to be different. The judges said THEY could see the difference, and that was enough.

We too have no problem in distinguishing a Dyson from a Vax.

This basic test is a lesson that the courts have not yet learned in their assessment of similarly protected overly general designs for technology such as mobile phones and pc tablets, where overly general designs have been stupidly protected, allowing rectangles with rounded corners to be sold by monopolists (Apple v. Samsung).

We say that beer is the paradigm example for the correct judicial standard in intellectual property. God created fermentation. Man created beer. You can protect YOUR particular brand of brewed beer, but it gives you no right to keep others from brewing their own particular brand of brewed beer, similar as it may be.

Sell your rectangles with rounded corners all you want, but do not deny others from selling their own rectangles with rounded corners all they want.

Why many judges and courts do not understand this basic truth in the technology patent and design sector is one of the great mysteries of modern jurisprudence.

 

Free Markets? or Government Regulation? What are the Solutions to Our Economic Problems? Read "Who Was Milton Friedman?" by Paul Krugman

What are the economic solutions to the current problems
the world economy is facing?
especially as relates to the financial problems of the USA.

Do economists have the necessary solutions?
And if so, which economists?

In this regard, we must note that it is too easy to dismiss the ideas of people that we disagree with by alleging that they have no clue.

Surely all of us have been guilty of this logical failure at some time in our lives.

But to get it right, we have to pay attention to all points of view, if only because the solutions may be found elsewhere than where the drilling appears to be the easiest.

For example, we occasionally hear criticisms of economists on the basis of an argument that runs basically that this or that economist does not know what he or she is talking about it.

That is seldom the case.

In fact, economists tend to be very knowledgeable about their professional subject matter, and, indeed, economists of opposing camps often understand each other better than anyone else. They know what they are talking about.

Where they differ is in the conclusions they draw on the basis of what they know.

Anyone who doubts the truth of that statement should read the exceptional summary of the history of economic thought in the twentieth century that is found in Paul Krugman's

Who Was Milton Friedman? by Paul Krugman | The New York Review of Books

where Krugman discusses Friedman's contribution to economic thought in our modern era and suggests where Friedman was right in some cases -- and in other cases -- wrong in his theories, at least, based on the evidence.

Anyone commenting the economic situation in the USA and the world should read this article to have some basic knowledge about the development of modern notions of free markets and government regulation of markets, especially in terms of when free markets or government intervention work and when they do not. After all, the proper role of government(s) in economic affairs is the major economic issue currently facing the world.

We have to get it right.

To do that, we have to be informed.

Read it.

Mashable Tech Presents Eight Emerging Technologies From The Past Year

At Mashable, Peter Pachal has a slide show on 8 Amazing Emerging Technologies From 2011.

60 Million Americans Get Increased US Social Security Benefits Starting January 1, 2012 but Taxes Also Go Up: Medicare Benefits and Premiums Also Changing

60 million Americans who get Social Security payments will see an increase of 3.6 percent in 2012, or an average of $43 per month per recipient.

2012 changes in US retirement benefits are reported by Emily Brandon at US News and World Report in 11 Retirement Benefit Changes Coming in 2012.

Social Security and Medicare benefits, taxes and premiums are all going up. Take a look. And if you are born in 1946, as e.g. the LawPundit, we will all turn 66 this year, and you should apply for benefits this year if you are eligible -- see Tips for Baby Boomers Reaching Retirement Age in 2012 at US News and World Report in another Emily Brandon article.

Writer Being Sued By Former Employer For 17,000 Twitter Followers as Being the Equivalent of a Corporate Customer List

At Mashable,
Chris Taylor has the story
in Meet the Writer Being Sued For His 17,000 Twitter Followers.