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Into Troubled Waters… Scotland and South Korea plan to generate alternative energy and unoriginal ideas

On Monday, May 6, 2013, Scottish Development International (SDI), the investment and trade promotion arm of the Scottish government, and Incheon Metropolitan City in South Korea signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to share ideas, knowledge, and technology. SDI has also stated that it wishes to create a new export market for Scottish tidal energy companies. While the nations’ collaborative impulse is laudable, it is important to note that innovation enabling tidal energy generation is neither new nor in its nascent stages.

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Is Micron's bid for Elpida the Deal of the Century?

Elpida Memory, Inc. (Elpida) filed for Chapter 15 protection from U.S. creditors in Delaware’s bankruptcy court on March 19, 2012, after it filed for company reorganization in the Tokyo District Court at the end of February. On July 2, 2012, Micron Technology, Inc. (Micron) announced a planned sponsorship agreement for $2.5 billion in order to purchase Elpida. An Ad Hoc group of Elpida bondholders filed a motion which objected to terms in the sponsorship agreement, stating that the agreement did not reflect the true value of Elpida.

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Dell’s Bargain Bin Pricing

On February 5, 2013, Dell announced that Michael Dell and Silverlake Partners were planning to take the company private at $13.65 a share. Their proposed price could undervalue the company and possibly diminish the interest of current Dell shareholders. Dell’s second largest investor, Southeastern Asset Management (Southeastern), publicly opposes the transaction. It released a sum-of-the-parts analysis of Dell’s share price. Southeastern came to the conclusion that a more appropriate share price would be 75% larger than Michael Dell estimated.

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Intellectual Property Analysis of Celgard, LLC v. Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd.

On February 22, 2013, Celgard, LLC filed a patent infringement claim against Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd. The complaint accuses Sumitomo of infringing Celgard’s U.S. Pat. No. 6,432,586 (hereafter ‘586), which covers a separator technology for use in lithium ion batteries. Sumitimo is accused of willful infringement of the ‘586 patent particularly through its sale of separators to Panasonic for use in the Toughbook line mobile computers.

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Alcatel-Lucent’s (Un) Happy Holidays

Alcatel-Lucent’s (ALU) financial troubles drove it to seek financing from Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs this quarter. Since the struggling telecom company is unable to slow its cash burn, ALU may use its 29,000 patent portfolio as security for $2.1 billion of senior secured financing. They include the intellectual property (IP) originally developed by Bell Labs. Earlier this year, ALU attempted to monetize its portfolio by announcing a preliminary deal with RPX, but as yet no formal deal has been announced.

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Kodak: Cloaking Justice in Celluloid

While this just may be the next reel in the on-going saga of Kodak’s celluloid dream of destiny initiated when management shunned digital imaging in favor of believing that film would die a much slower death than the market had ordained, this movie is getting more unfocused each day. And to think that it’s all playing out under the cataract-clouded eyes of the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice – neither of whom could actually review this transaction for its anti-competitive effects EVEN IF the material identities of the participants were disclosed.

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Kodak: Cloaking Justice in Celluloid

While this just may be the next reel in the on-going saga of Kodak’s celluloid dream of destiny

initiated when management shunned digital imaging in favor of believing that film would die a

much slower death than the market had ordained, this movie is getting more unfocussed each day.

And to think that it’s all playing out under the cataract-clouded eyes of the Federal Trade

Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice – neither of whom could actually review this

transaction for its anti-competitive effects EVEN IF the material identities of the participants

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In regione caecroum rex est luscus or… In the jury of the blind, Velvin Hogan is King

'If this were my patent, could I defend it?' was the question jury foreman, Velvin Hogan asked himself when considering the Apple Samsung patent infringement suit. On August 24th, 2012 a nine person jury reached the verdict which awarded Apple slightly over $1 billion in damages. This is a grievous miscarriage of justice in which Velvin played an active role. Velvin does not understand that novelty and obviousness are what determine patent validity. His public opining reinforces the widespread ignorance of the broken patent system and the myth of Apple’s innovation.

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Not So Magic, Jack - Intellectual Property Analysis of Personal Voice Freedom, LLC v. YMAX Corporation et. al

On November 9th 2010, Personal Voice Freedom (PVF) filed an infringment suit against YMAX Corp. as well as its subsidiaries magicJack LP and TigerJet Network Inc. In an effort to fight off the case, magicJack filed for a reexamination of the asserted patent, US 7,336,654 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in November of 2011. The patent was reissued with amended claims and magicJack has subsequently appeared to enter a settlement agreement with PVF.

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