Britain in dock over privacy

The 'Big Brother' state comes under fire as the European Commission launches an inquiry into the secret surveillance of Web users, reports The Independent.

Britain's failure to protect its citizens from secret surveillance on the Internet is to be investigated by the European Commission.

The move will fuel claims that Britain is sliding towards a Big Brother state and could end with the government being forced to defend its policy on Internet privacy in front of judges in Europe.

The current economic crisis is accelerating the fragmentation of legal services, opening up further opportunities for outsourced legal support, according to legal commentator, Richard Susskind, reports IP Review.

Speaking at the recent 2009 American Bar Association Techshow in Chicago, Susskind told delegates to prepare for a period of dramatic change in the legal industry that will play itself out in tandem with the global slowdown.

The changes he foresees are set to have an impact on IP-related processes that form the majority of outsourced legal work.

An Alcatel-Lucent patent that resulted in a $358 million jury verdict against Microsoft was rejected by the US Patent and Trademark Office after the agency took a second look at the invention, reports The Seattle Times.

The patent covers a touch-screen technology for entering information on forms and was the subject of a trial last year in which Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker, also was told to pay another $10.4 million over a second Alcatel-Lucent patent.

The elements of the patent that were used against Microsoft were an obvious variation of know-how that was public in books about touch-screens, an agency examiner said in a notice on the review, called a re-examination.