Blawg Review: September 2008

Flash of Genius Review

This week's presentation of Blawg Review is a treasure trove of Intellectual Property news and opinion, including something for everyone, patents, trademarks, copyright, trade secrets, and cyber law.

Blawg Review #179 is being hosted on Securing Innovation, the business blog of IP.com, on the birthday of Laszlo Biro, to commemorate his invention of the ballpoint pen seventy years ago. Like many, I didn't know who invented the ubiquitous ballpoint pen that, in its original invention by Biro, was apparently very similar to the classic BIC Cristal. I was also surprised to learn from this week's Blawg Review that Laszlo Biro had many other inventions, including an automatic transmission, which he sold to GM.

Blawg Review links a patent attorney's preview of Flash of Genius, a movie about the guy who invented the intermittent windshield-wiper. Stephen Albainy-Jenei, at the Patent Baristas patent law blog, thinks he will like this movie.

Billed as educational while also inspiring and entertaining, the early reviews have been positive. The story is based on the true story of college professor and part-time inventor Robert Kearns’s (Greg Kinnear) long battle with the U.S. automobile industry and his fight to receive recognition for his invention. Kearns took on a battle that nobody thought he could win.

Kearns invented and patented the intermittent windshield wiper mechanism for use in light rain or mist and tried to license it to the big automakers. They all rejected his idea and then some went ahead and put intermittent wipers in their cars beginning in 1969. In 1967, he received the first of more than 30 patents for his wipers. He sued Ford in 1978 and Chrysler in 1982 for patent infringement.

Click here to watch the movie trailer, and check out this week's Blawg Review #179 for more surprises. Is the guy in the movie poster above reading our blog's sidebar on the right? You should!

Blawg Review on IP Blog

This week, on Monday, September 29, 2008, Blawg Review #179 will be hosted on Securing Innovation, the business blog of IP.com and, as those familiar with Blawg Review might anticipate, they plan to create a special theme for that presentation, which will make perfect sense to anyone interested in patents, trademarks, copyright, trade secrets, innovation management, and intellectual property law and policy.

If you've written a blog post you'd like next week's host to include in their presentation of the best law blog posts touching on IP law and policy, or if you come across something on a lawyer's blawg or a company's business blog that you'd like to recommend as fitting and deserving of special consideration, please send a link following these Submission Guidelines for Blawg Review. C'mon, put on your thinking caps.

Blawg Review OneWebDay

Welcome to OneWebDay at Blawg Review.

Blawg Review #178 is being hosted today at Freedom to Differ, the law blog of Peter Black, a lecturer at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. Peter’s research interests focus on legal issues relating to the regulation of the media and the internet. He is a regular contributor to the Internet Law Bulletin and The Business of Law from FindLaw Australia. Peter currently has a contract with Idea Group Publishing to edit a book with Kelley Burton titled Legal and Political Issues of Blogging: Surviving in the Blogosphere.

It's perhaps not surprising that Peter Black was scheduled to host Blawg Review on this day. September 22, 2008 is also One Web Day:

OneWebDay is an Earth Day for the internet. The idea behind OneWebDay is to focus attention on a key internet value (this year, online participation in democracy), focus attention on local internet concerns (connectivity, censorship, individual skills), and create a global constituency that cares about protecting and defending the internet. So, think of OneWebDay as an environmental movement for the Internet ecosystem. It’s a platform for people to educate and activate others about issues that are important for the Internet’s future.

To learn more about One Web Day click here.

On the third annual “Earth Day for the Internet”, communities across the country are holding events to learn about and advocate for that marvel of modern infrastructure, the Internet. It happens in the United States and around the world on OneWebDay, Monday, September 22, 2008.

“Earth Day was the model when I founded OneWebDay in 2006,” says Susan Crawford, a professor of law specializing in Internet issues at the University of Michigan. “In 1969, one man asked the people to do what their elected representatives would not: take the future of the environment into their own hands.” By 1972, the United States had a federal agency devoted to protecting the environment, the E.P.A., and today a worldwide citizens’ movement has put the environment front and center politically. According to Crawford, “peoples’ lives now are as dependent on the Internet as they are on the basics like roads, energy supplies and running water. We can no longer take that for granted and we must advocate for the Internet politically, and support its vitality personally.”

The Internet has also become the means by which citizens around the world build movements to hold their elected leaders accountable and support those who represent their interests; it is also increasingly the medium through which citizens interact with their governments. The theme of this year’s OneWebDay is online participation in democracy, coinciding with the U.S. elections.

Watch for a special election-eve Blawg Review this year on Monday, November 3, at The Faculty Lounge.

Blawg Review is the blog carnival for everyone interested in law. A peer-reviewed blog carnival, the host of each Blawg Review decides which of the submissions and recommended posts are suitable for inclusion in the presentation. And the host is encouraged to source another dozen or so interesting posts to fit with any special theme of that issue of Blawg Review. The host's personal selections usually include several that reflect the character and subject interests of the host blawg, recognizing that the regular readership of the blog should find some of the usual content, and new readers of the blog via Blawg Review ought to get some sense of the unique perspective and subject specialties of the host. Thanks to all the law bloggers who collaborate to make Blawg Review one of the very best blog carnivals of any genre.

Being the anonymous editor of Blawg Review, the Internet has changed my life in ways I cannot tell. LOL

Blawg Review on Twitter

Peter Black, who hosted Blawg Review #85 and #136 is back again -- this year on One Web Day.

Blawg Review #178 will coincide with One Web Day, so Peter says he plans to showcase an exciting and emerging part of the web by delivering Blawg Review #178 in two ways - on Freedom to Differ, his law blog, and via Twitter. The blawg posts that will be included in his Blawg Review #178 will be released progressively via Twitter throughout Monday 22 September (Brisbane time) before the the complete web presentation of Blawg Review #178 is posted here on Freedom to Differ at the end of the day (Brisbane time). To receive Blawg Review #178 via Twitter all you need to do is follow @BlawgReview178.

Editor's Note: I'm really not sure why that video is included in this post. The gentleman in the YouTube Video above is not Peter Black, and the kangaroo is not twittering. By the way, you can now follow the editor of Blawg Reivew on Twitter @blawgreview.

It's Talk Like A Pirate Day

As a boy, George M. Wallace always wanted to talk like a pirate; in adulthood, he became an insurance lawyer. Click on the graphic above to see his excellent presentation of Blawg Review #153. Arrgh!

Mike Dillon, GC of Sun Microsystems, got into the spirit of the day, lifting the spirits of his shipmates and raising some booty for charity:

Last week, we celebrated "International Talk Like a Pirate Day". It was a great way for all of us to release a little stress and channel our "inner buccaneer". But we took it a bit farther than most as we not only spoke like pirates, but dressed like them as well.

Avast, there!

Monica Bay Campaigns

Monica Bay is campaigning for gender equality in the legal workplace and for equal pay for work of equal value. On her blog and in an email to her extensive list of contacts in the legal community, Mon rails against the injustice.

The August census bureau reports that women trial support (paralegals, lit support) are making about 7% less than their male peers. And that's in an area of our world that is DOMINATED by women.

But surprisingly, that's NOT the worst news. Ironically, the trial support folk are in just about the best shape -- the report shows that women in the legal industry, across the board, earn FIFTY ONE PERCENT of what their male colleagues earn in identical jobs.

THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS. I am calling upon every Law Firm mgg partner, every GC, and every vendor CEO to immediately evaluate their own figures, and fix this NOW.

Monica Bay is editor-in-chief of Law Technology News and author of the popular legal blog, The Common Scold. A frequent speaker and industry analyst, she has been quoted in newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times and Southwest Spirit. She has won journalism awards from the Associated Press, American Business Media (finalist), the Association of Business Publications Editors, the Trade Association Business Publications International, the American Bar Association, Technolawyer and Sigma Delta Chi. A member of the California Bar and a rabid Yankees fan, she lives in New York City and Lakeville, Conn.

She's got my support. How 'bout you?

Back to Business

Anita Campbell, a former GC, is hosting the next Blawg Review #177 at her award-winning business blog, Small Business Trends.

This is the third year that Anita has hosted our weekly review of the best of the legal blogosphere on the Small Business Trends blog, so we expect nothing less than she delivered in Blawg Review #40 and #126.

In her preview post on Small Business Trends, Anita Campbell explains what she's looking for in law blog posts related to business and corporate law and policy. Web-savvy lawyers with a focus on business clients will appreciate this rare opportunity to get their law blogs seen by the exceptional readership of Small Business Trends and, amazingly, over 86,000 RSS Subscribers.

International Literacy Day

It's International Literacy Day, so Blawg Review #176 is hosted this week on Legal Literacy, the personal blog of Hanna Hasl-Kelchner, Associate General Counsel and national counsel for trademark enforcement for a Fortune 500 company. [Hat Tip: Zara Larsson]

5 Blogs & 5 Blawgers

Blog Day has inspired us to start another great meme for law bloggers.

The idea is to post links to five great blogs (other than law blogs) on your blawg and tag five of your favorite blawgers to do the same under the post title "5 Blogs & 5 Blawgers".

I'm recommending the following 5 blogs:

Zen Habits
Trust Matters
Language Log
Uncornered Market
Trizle

I'm tagging the following 5 blawgers to propagate this meme:

Colin Samuels
Charon QC
David Lat
Kevin O'Keefe
Diane Levin

As each of those blawgers responds in kind, I'll link their posts below.

Colin Samuels at Infamy or Praise was the first to continue this meme with an excellent post of 5 Blogs & 5 Blawgers. Colin's post has already prompted Anne Reed to return to blogging at Deliberations with five good blogs to start September. And Jordan Furlong at Law21 has followed up with his own excellent list of 5 Blogs & 5 Blawgers. Jordan tagged Simon Fodden, who tagged Tom Mighell, inter alia. Jordan also tagged Susan Cartier Liebel, who played along. Susan Cartier Liebel tagged Nicole Black, as did Adrian Lurssen. Among others, Niki tagged Ann Bartow, who -- well ---tagged everyone else. Bartow's tag prompted Frank Pasquale to link to his five favorite non-legal blogs. Craig Williams picked up his podcast partner Bob Ambrogi's tag and went overboard, tagging "six", including the Editor of Blawg Review, which brings us full circle.

Diane Levin at Mediation Channel has posted five excellent blog links and has tagged five more blawgers she thinks will have more good blogs to share with fellow law bloggers. Bob Ambrogi, whom she tagged with this meme, didn't disappoint with his 5 blogs and 5 blawgers. Among others, Bob tagged David Harlow, who tagged five blawgers, including Eric Turkewitz. Turk tagged Beck/Hermann, who tagged Paul Karlsgodt. Diane Levin, Susan Cartier Liebel and Jordan Furlong all tagged Victoria Pynchon. One health care law blogger, David Harlow, tagged another, Bob Coffield.

Across the pond, Charon QC charted a course for the British with his choices of 5 blogs and 5 blawgers to participate in what he says is an interesting meme -- but that might be the Rioja talking. Charon QC tagged Carl Gardner and Simon Myerson. "I don't usually do memes," responds White Rabbit, "but an invitation from Charon QC has to be complied with."