Elearning! - December 2007/January 2008 - (Page 9)

Supreme Court Visits Issue of Patent Trolls Over the past few years, there has been a rise in lawsuits against some learning companies — by what are commonly called “patent trolls.” These are companies that have created or purchased patents, without creating any new inventions or systems, for the purpose of suing companies—and forcing a settlement rather than risk high costs of litigations or settlements. “Poor process, understaffing in the U.S. Patent Office, and the inability to invalidate ‘bad’ patents has made this either a big expense or even larger nightmare for learning suppliers,” says Elliott Masie, an internationally recognized futurist, analyst, researcher and organizer on learning, technology, business and workplace productivity. Here is a summary from a recent MIT Technology Review: “In January 2007, the justices made it harder for trolls to wage licensing campaigns. Before, trolls could send letters to targeted companies, putting them on notice — and in so doing putting them at risk of being found ‘willful’ infringers facing triple damages. Companies that wanted to remove that potential liability, however, could not themselves file suit to get a court to declare that they were not liable. Now, according to MedImmune v. Genentech, as interpreted by the Federal Circuit, a company receiving a letter referencing its activities and offering a patent license may file a lawsuit where it resides.” The entire article, written by Scott Feldmann, a partner in the Irvine, Calif., office of the law firm Crowell and Moring, can be accessed at: http://www.technologyreview. com/Biztech/19180/. Indian Company Tops World-Class Learning List Forty-two organizations from Canada, India, South Africa and the U.S. are winners in the 2007 BEST Awards competition sponsored by the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD). Satyam Computer Services of India holds the first place ranking. More information about the 2007 ASTD BEST Award winners may be found at www.astd.org/BEST_Awards. The BEST top 10: 1) Satyam Computer Services 2) sanofi-aventis U.S. 3) TELUS Communications 4) BD (Becton, Dickinson & Company) 5) Deloitte & Touche USA LLP 6) U.S. Army Armament Research Development and Engineering Center 7) Equity Residential 8) Wachovia 9) Home Depot 10) Air Products and Chemicals Elearning! December 2007 / January 2008 9 http://www.astd.org/BEST_Awards http://www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/19180/ http://www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/19180/ http://www.rollouttools.com http://www.rollouttools.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Elearning! - December 2007/January 2008

Elearning! - December 2007/January 2008 Contents Editor’s Note News Google Tops List Learning Hours Increase Web 2.0 Whitepaper Available Listing World-Class Learners Kick Your Career in High Gear Trendline Best of Elearning! Awards Happy Birthday to Us Virtual Worlds for Learning Learning Leaders: Innovation, Excellence Learning Leaders Case Studies The Business Case of E-learning The Business Case for E-learning Case Study: Adecco Case Study: GlaxoSmithKline Case Study: Williams Scotsman New Products Collaboration Tools Content Pop Quiz Last Word

Elearning! - December 2007/January 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.