RDR Books, based in Muskegon, Michigan, won’t be publishing Steven Vander Ark’s much-anticipated “Harry Potter Lexicon.” Not any time soon, and not any time. A US District Court judge in Manhattan has issued a permanent injunction against publication of the work, finding that it infringes copyrights in the popular Harry Potter series of children’s novels. [...]

You can download a copy of the judge’s Opinion and Order in Warner Brothers Entertainment and J.K. Rowling v. RDR Books here at Arborlaw (PDF). Many thanks to Dineen Pashoukos Wasylik for pulling this down off PACER.

New snooping device can snarf phone numbers, data, call logs and text messages off Motorola and Samsung phones Think twice before leaving your Motorola or Samsung cell phone on the table in a public place, or in the pocket of your coat. Or leaving your cell phone anywhere, for that matter. CNet News reported yesterday [...]

I couldn’t resist picking up this little gem from the excellent blog Staring at Strangers by Jennifer J. Rose and David Leffler (thanks David for correcting me!): Lynne G. Beresford, commissioner for trademarks in the Patent and Trademark Office, stated that 85% of the trademark office’s 390 examining attorneys work primarily from home. To my [...]

Google is threatening to do to venture capital funding what it has done to the search, browser, applications software, advertising and publishing worlds: turn the status quo upside down. The company has been quietly making relatively small investments in the $500K range in promising technology startups since 2Q 2007 — and then typically buys the [...]

Business owners who are behind in paying their taxes to the IRS are going to pony up more dough. The IRS raised the interest rate on taxes past due to 6% for balances existing or beginning in the third quarter of 2008. That’s an interest rate increase of a full point (and reflects the fact [...]