March 25, 2008 Archives

I have recently discovered a rather awesome fan written web comic called The Ten Doctors. If you're a fan of Doctor Who I suggest you go and check it out. The previous link will take you to the archives so you can start reading from Page 1 without spoiling future pages.

Retired Columbia University Professor, Gertrude Neumark Rothschild claims that Sony violated her patents that involved methods of using light emitting diodes to read data off of discs. (The full details are: U.S. Patent No. 4,904,618, "Process for Doping Crystals of Wide Band Gap Semiconductors," and U.S. Patent No. 5,252,499, "Wide Band-Gap Semiconductors Having Low Bipolar Resistivity and Method of Formation")

Rothchild's complaint filed with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) on February 20th claims that some 30 companies, including Sony Corporation, Samsung Group, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., LG Electronics, Pioneer Corporation and others, are violating a patent she owns for light-emitting and laser diodes.

Professor Rothschild has requested that the 30 companies be issued a cease and desist order, preventing them from manufacturing and importing anymore units into the US.

The ITC has agreed to investigate the matter, and it's worth noting that Rothchild has already successfully tested the legislative waters with a lawsuit against Philips, which was settled out of court in February.