highfloydelity

GC736

jesus: also, take a law class (or pass one), and develop an actual understanding of litigation in america; and while you're at it, take in a substantive argument against patent law.

Swearing or not, political correctness or not, Giz is certainly guilty of too often thrashing on litigation. While their are arguments out there,
Giz doesn't appear to know them. Instead, they just come across like some uninformed teenager smoking a bong in the basement of their mother's MacMansion subdivision home, preaching to their buddies about how much they know about the world.

Giz, know a lot about what other people told you about cell phones. With cell phones you have full license. When you're an obvious interloper, though, try and stay either funny or meek. You were neither. Except perhaps to your teenage bong buddies

cvalue13

When you (for example) spend a few decades developing a technology that someone else then uses outside the bounds of law for enormous profit to your exclusion, AND you don't say a word because of how much you believe in 'progress' and how much you don't care about money, THEN you can open your claptrap trap.

cvalue13

cvalue13

cvalue13

Jesus, and all the rest: do you know half as much about lasers as this goofy ol' grandma? Can even one of you describe how a laser works, without plagiarizing from Wikipedia? No? Then why not fucking shut up about things that are over your head, and go back to explaining the difference between 720p and 1080i, or why Cylons have big tits.

snej

And she's doing it with lasers!

The headline was funny - and if it wasn't, you got to say what you wanted about it.

Can we get some background information about the deal with Phillips? Did they give her a list of competitors that use the same type of technology, or how about a list of suppliers for materials and specialized components that she got to peruse and ear mark for this case.

Phillips was smart, they actually listened to their engineering department (who could possibly have been former students of her) and wrote this one off.

Interesting to see the creators of the Wii not mentioned.

skulldriveshaft

FritzLaurel

YouCanEatMe

I wonder how this is going to affect the BD future dominance or if the BDA will settle out of court or something similar. Are there any expiration dates on patents like this? If there aren't, there should be. No matter what people say, if the outcome of this patent infringement suite didn't involve this professor getting any cash, I guarantee it wouldn't even be an issue.

Out2gtcha

TheMightyAlbatross

mikedudeRx

TheMightyAlbatross

TheMightyAlbatross

Ninjastorm66

seze_one

The Full English Please!!

dwight-schrute

bmoctta

Loonie

ithcy

MastaFalse

I hate when people look for ways to make easy money. Sniveling, cowering, hiding behind the lawmaking bodies to exploit a technical fault. Come on. "Well actually sir, sir there's like ... this little thing that like ... maybe sort of validates a claim, and if you'll see here, sir ... sir, I am partially related to this person who once spent their life refining this technology ... so I think I deserve a lot of money because I'm related to them ... -gigglesnort-"

DAMN!

ROCK'N'ROLL FRENCH FRIES!

MastaFalse

Hell inflammatory, degrading and borderline inappropriate or offensive tag lines and posts are at least 1/2 or more of the reason I read Giz everyday! (Well that and all the ultra-sensitive apple fanbois - they rule)

Out2gtcha

@Jesus Diaz:

REAL products instead of just theorizing about things

Anyway, it seems fairly distasteful for a university professor to be suing a corporation for patent infringement in the first place. While she may intend to funnel that money into funding for her students research projects, one would ideally expect their professor to be working for 'the love of knowledge and learning'. Whether or not she's due the credit.

ParJoe

TerryinSt.Paul

Mandatory_Field

greysky

pete_at_brandeis

Blu-Ray_

uberfu

Even if they have overseas plants and factories they still aren't subject to the same laws that Sony or Nokia would be as they are U.S. based_ Makes no sense_

uberfu

Curves

You see how they used "HD DVD" as the generic, easy to understand term and then "e.g., Blu-ray disc" to specify a certain type?

Just in case anyone forgot, Sony got away with a big one here. That's right, I said Sony. I don't care about the member companies or any of that crap. It was Sony's baby the whole time and it was their money and sleazy tactics that won it for them.

Sorry for hijacking the thread but holy crap this stuff makes me mad as hell. I'm just glad it's over... for now at least.

fsusmithc2

And I'm sure Madame PhD's blue-laser-baked cookies are delicious.

Franssu

openfly

strider_mt2k

I don't envy writers on here because presenting technology and stuff in an informative way while trying to remain contemporary seem to be at odds with one another sometimes.

The "hip" way to be is usually going to be to come off like you're too cool to care or to radically oversimplify and dismiss because whatever the heck YOU'RE doing is so valid and cool.

strider_mt2k

Now, why is she a money grubber?
This technology has been used for years. She is cashing in now that the technology companies have used them in all of their products. She could have sued years ago, and stopped this before now. She didn't because she wanted to make more money. That is a money grubber.
If she would have sued when the first product came out, than I would have respected her. It isn't like she didn't see this coming. She made the decision to wait.

Just because someone has degrees or are famous should be no reason not to joke about them.
Just about every famous person who has graced this blog have been made fun of.
She is no different.

@Jesus Diaz: Don't worry about trolls like this. Keep up the good work.

FarwellTexas

+ Watch video

Jesus Diaz

The bottom line here is that you don't find the image of her baking cakes with lasers funny. That's ok. I and other people do. I didn't mean it to be sexist or derogatory in any way. That's you reading between lines from your politically correct mind. I chose to find the funny side of things, and the image of an old lady -no matter her education and achievements- fighting 30 huge corporations makes me smile. It is funny, and the article exaggerates that.

Actually, if you think about it, the only sexist and derogatory statement (against old ladies who bake cakes) is yours, who apparently think that baking cakes and just being an old woman is a bad attribute for a PhD to have.

My view: I just like the idea of a very smart, extremely well-prepared person at her old age doing just that, baking cakes, like any other human being but with lasers, which is her field of expertise.

Jesus Diaz

derogatory and sexist has become common place behavior here (and elsewhere), especially for younger, less experienced, people. too bad. I think it is more powerful and effective to be "right" than "loud and obnoxious".

mtopper

tobedetermined

I think your understanding of the patent system is pretty narrow and formed by reading examples of the small number of problems that we've had with it. Patents aren't given to people just "theorizing" - you make it sound like Gertrude Homemaker was just baking a cake and said "hmm, I bet if I add some low-temperature atomic hydrogen in the formation process, it will yield a low bipolar resistivity semiconductor." Not the case; Doctor Neumark Rothchild has a PhD and was an emeritus professor in Applied Mathematics and Applied Physics at Columbia. No small achievement, that, so I think it's safe to say that the processes that she developed were the result of lots of hard work and experimentation.

Which brings me back to my original point; whether she has a legitimate patent claim will be settled by the courts, but either way there's no reason to degrade her as a cake-baking old lady. Your attempt to be funny just comes off as derogatory and sexist.

weatherman

citizen024

I for one, am all for proper licensing, and profits from such. But for several cases where the IP was initially created for "greater good under financing as such", to read that some academic (retired no less) has become selfish, is just a finer example that some prof's are just greedy-lazy-superIds who still think some grad student will kisses their arse to get their thesis approved.

SigmundTheSeaMonster

skittlzncombos

twistah

She may be money grabbing, her patents may or may not have merit, but that's not an excuse for you to project your personal hang ups with successful, intelligent women on to her.

The article itself is fine. By the headline is very patronizing.

wjousts

Damn, I feel like slapping a bat in the teeth. Who knows, maybe she isn't a total bitch.

Oh, nevermind.

MastaFalse

Sgt. Bilbo

Second, her complaint IS about getting money.

Third, on second thought, yeah, she literally is trying to be a moneygrabber. That's why she sued Philips and settled out of court.

Fourth, and more important, you and I don't have a flying fuck about what the merits of her patents are. Philips may have settled out of court, but many high tech companies do that to avoid dragging lawsuits forever, even if the patents' merits are dubious (because the patent system in this country is fucked up big time.) For all that we know, her patents may not be good at all. Or they may be.

Now, why are you siding with her instead of the corporations? Because she's an old lady and a professor and the corporations are big and evil? How many times have people called other people doing similar claims?

What about all the scientist working at this corporations? They have no merit because they work in a company to make REAL products instead of just theorizing about things? Maybe they developed something it first? Maybe they made things possible? Maybe her patents build on somebody else's previous work, like everything else?

Jesus Diaz

Yes Jesus, How DARE you try to add some humor into your article. Maybe CNN will appreciate the stick up my butt.

/sarcasm

TKWarrior

jewsrock

svgjjc

mikedudeRx

jewsrock

weatherman