Unified Patents in the EU, nearly: Unified Patent Court to be located in Paris, London and Munich for 25 EU Member States as Italy and Spain Opt Out

Owen Bowcott, the legal affairs correspondent at the Guardian, reports that a new European Union EU Unified Patent Court will be split between Paris, London and Munich as the European Council Summit OKd the new unified court

-- except for Spain and Italy, who opted out.

The agreement of the European leaders means that a single patent at some time in the future -- perhaps by 2014 when the court has been set up -- will be valid across the other 25 European Union Member States.

Advocates of States' Rights in the USA should examine the disconcerting Spanish and Italian opt out. That kind of undesired development is what happens when federalism is too weak and legal authority is watered down by local action.

USPTO to Open Four Regional Offices Outside of Washington D.C. at Dallas, Denver, Detroit and Silicon Valley

MORE patents, not fewer, is the trend in government.

See the USPTO Press Release, 12-40 announcing the first-time ever opening of 4 regional offices outside of Washington D.C. -- at Dallas, Denver, Detroit, and Silicon Valley.

Detroit already opens on July 13.

Charles Krauthammer at The Washington Post with a Nice Piece on "Why Roberts Did It"

We are fans of the writing style of Charles Krauthammer, but not always his sometimes far right political opinions.

He has a new op-ed at the Washington Post at Why Roberts did it - The Washington Post, outlining the Roberts opinion in the National Health Care case and offering this conclusion:

"Why did he do it? Because he carries two identities. Jurisprudentially, he is a constitutional conservative. Institutionally, he is chief justice and sees himself as uniquely entrusted with the custodianship of the court’s legitimacy, reputation and stature."

We agree.
Roberts did his job.
Bravo.

Net Neutrality Lawsuit: Verizon Alleges that FCC Overstepped its Authority in Adopting Net Neutrality Rules

Did the FCC overstep its authority in adopting Net neutrality rules?

That is the argument of Verizon in a lawsuit against the FCC as Marguerite Reardon at CNET News Politics and Law reports that Verizon makes its case against the FCC's Net neutrality rules.

Private companies do not like the government controlling the rules that dictate how the Internet operates, but government institutions and educational research organizations and universities created the Internet so why should all these insatiably greedy private companies now be free to rake in the chips? No way.

Solution to Adobe Flash 11.3 Crashes in Firefox is Uninstalling and Downgrading to Flash 10.3 or Flash 11.2 - See Instruction Links -- Query: Should Companies like Adobe be Fined Massively by the Government for Fraud?

Mozilla Firefox Support has advice on Flash 11.3 crashes.

Flash 11.3 crashes on my PC have become so pervasively invasive that I am of the opinion that companies like this should have massive fines imposed upon them by governments for wilfully publishing software that they must know to be faulty - it is a form of fraud because the frequent invasive "send a crash report" pop-ups merely serve as cheap advertising for this monopolistic company.

Mozilla Firefox Support writes:

"Adobe has recently updated Flash to version 11.3. Some users have reported that this version of Flash is crashing more frequently than previous versions of Flash. If you are experiencing excess crashes, please downgrade to Flash 10.3 or Flash 11.2."

Here is the link Mozilla Firefox Support suggests with instructions to downgrade to a more crash-free program -  http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/flash-113-crashes.

One problem is that browsers and software use Adobe Flash.
Well, if the software is faulty, STOP USING IT!

Adobe are one of the worst monopolists out there and the history of the .pdf format is a lesson in what kinds of intellectual property should never be given any kind of legal protection.

Talk about hampering progress, Adobe is it.