Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The parent company of the Discovery Channel (Discovery Communications) has filed a lawsuit against Amazon.com, claiming that the Internet retailer's Kindle e-book reader infringes Discovery's U.S. patent 7,298,851, titled "Electronic book security and copyright protection system".

It was filed in 1999 as a "continuation in part" from patent applications dating back to 1992. Among the prior-art disclosures listed are 52 U.S. patents or applications, 34 foreign patents or applications, and 15 nonpatent publications. It has 171 claims, three of which are independent. Those are all signs of a strong patent.

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The Startup 2009 conference, which will take place in New York in June. The conference is co-hosted by Silicon Alley Insider, New York University's Stern School of Business, General Catalyst, SoftBank, and Venrock. Startup 2009 will showcase 10 top startups competing for bragging rights, buzz, and a $50,000 prize.

Startup 2009 will be a one-day conference featuring interviews with entrepreneurs, expert panels, networking, and a 10-company startup contest. Committed speakers include:

* Jason Calacanis, Founder/CEO Mahalo, founder Weblogs, former EIR at Sequoia.
* George Bell, partner General Catalyst; former CEO Excite, Excite@Home, and Upromise; board member Big Fish Games; Going; HubSpot; PhotoShelter; ShortTail Media and WonderHowTo.
* David Pakman, partner Venrock, former CEO eMusic.
* Kevin Ryan, CEO Alleycorp; former CEO Doubleclick; founder Gilt Groupe, Silicon Alley Insider, Shopwiki, Panther, 10gen.

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Media regulator Ofcom will take over the regulation of video on demand services, but will delegate it to an industry-formulated co-regulator, the Government has said.

The Government has published details of how it will ensure that the UK complies with the European Union's Audio-Visual Media Services (AVMS) Directive, which extends regulation to television-like programmes regardless of the medium used to show them.

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New iPhone uses

A host of companies took the stage at Apple headquarters in Cupertino on Tuesday to explain what their new applications can do on the much-vaunted personal communications device.

NBC Bay Area tech reporter Scott Budman tweeted all the updates as they occured.

Developers will gain access to thousands of new application "API's" because of the updates. The API's will allow developers to create and change the applications they want, Budman reported.

Designers unveiled new audio file and texting features for the iPhone. There is also a new voice memo feature built into the phone's home screen, as well as a more synchable calendar, Budman reported.

More information is available here >>

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  • Written by: Christy"
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