JulieSamuels

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  • Live from the Engadget CES Stage: the EFF's Julie Samuels

    by 
    Brian Heater
    Brian Heater
    01.08.2014

    Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney Julie Samuels has quite possibly the greatest job title in the history of job titles: The Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents at EFF. She'll join us to speak about how said stupid patents are hampering innovation. January 8, 2014 5:30:00 PM EST

  • Live from Expand: Know Your Digital Rights

    by 
    Brian Heater
    Brian Heater
    11.10.2013

    Patents, digital rights, the NSA -- it's a lot to wrap one's head around. Thankfully, we've got some of the most knowledgeable folks in the biz, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Julie Samuels, Techdirt's Mike Masnick and American University Washington College of Law professor Michael Carroll. November 10, 2013 1:15:00 PM EST Follow all of Engadget's Expand coverage live from New York City right here!

  • The Engadget Interview: EFF's Julie Samuels talks patents, podcasting and the SHIELD Act

    by 
    Brian Heater
    Brian Heater
    03.07.2013

    We've heard it shouted from the mountaintops more times than we'd care to mention: the patent system is fundamentally broken. But that manner of righteous indignation can often fail to make an impression on those attempting to live their lives unaffected on the sidelines, as hardware behemoths level a seemingly endless string of suits based on often overly broad language. One's perspective shifts easily, however, when targets change and the defendants themselves are no longer aggressively litigious corporations with an arsenal of filing cabinets spilling over with intellectual property, as was the case when one company used a recently granted patent to go after a number of podcasting networks. When we wanted to get to the bottom of this latest example in a long line of arguably questionable patent litigation, we phoned up Julie Samuels, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who has also been designated the organization's Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents. Samuels has been fighting the battle against dangerously broad patents for some time now, recently traveling to DC to support passage of the SHIELD Act (Saving High-tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes), a congressional bill that would impose heavy fines against so-called patent trolls. We spoke to Samuels about supposed trolls, podcasts, SHIELD and how those with microphones can make their voices heard. Note: The owner of the podcasting patent in question declined to comment on the matter.

  • Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with the EFF's Julie Samuels (update: video embedded)

    by 
    Brian Heater
    Brian Heater
    01.09.2013

    The topic no one wants to talk about at CES? Yep, it's gonna be a half-hour of frank patent litigation talk with the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Julie Samuels. If you care at all about legal kerfuffles, you're not gonna want to miss this one. January 9, 2013 5:30 PM EST Check out our full CES 2013 stage schedule here! Update: video embedded