Is Standardization for Autonomous Cars Around the Corner?: Antitrust and IP Considerations

Published: Competition Policy International
Date: November 8, 2017

Excerpt: Given the recent focus on self-driving cars, it is only a matter of time before the industry begins to consider setting technical interoperability standards for such cars.  The automated vehicle industry will need a mechanism to allow these cars to drive side-by-side with both autonomous and human-operated cars, communicate with each other, and avoid obstacles.  One solution is to develop open technical interoperability standards, and establish a patent pool to facilitate the licensing of essential patents and avoid the expensive and time consuming litigation that has consumed the smartphone industry.

Physician Complicity in Misrepresentation and Omission of Evidence of Torture in Postdetention Medical Examinations in Turkey

PublishedJAMA. 1996;276(5):396-402. doi:10.1001/jama.1996.03540050056024

Excerpt:

Between June 1994 and October 1995, representatives of Physicians for Human Rights studied the problem of physician complicity in torture (ie, misrepresentation and omission of medical evidence in postdetention examinations of detainees) in Turkey. The research consisted of a survey of forensic documentation of torture, interviews with individual physicians who examine detainees, analyses of official medical reports of detainees, and interviews with survivors of torture. Results from the survey, interviews, and medical report analyses provide evidence that torture of political and criminal detainees continues to occur in Turkey and that Turkish physicians are coerced to ignore, misrepresent, and omit evidence of torture in their examinations of detainees to certify that there are no physical signs of torture.

Glucocorticoid treatment increases the ability of CRH to induce seizures

Published: Neuroscience Letters: Volume 174, Issue 1, 6 June 1994, Pages 113-116

Excerpt:

We examined whether glucocorticoids could enhance the ability of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) to induce seizures. Rats were treated with systemic glucocorticoids (dexamethasone, 100 μg) or vehicle for either 3 days (chronic) or 2 h (acute) before intracerebroventricular CRH (3 or 10 μg) or saline injections and then monitored for 8 h following each injection. Our results suggest that chronic, but not acute, glucocorticoid pretreatment increases the likelihood of CRH-induced seizures.

Selective lysis of malaria infected erythrocytes

Published: United States Patent

Excerpt:

The invention provides methods and compositions for inhibiting the development of intracellular parasites by treating such cells with an effective concentration of a magainin, PGLa or XPF peptide under conditions whereby the development of the parasite in the cell is inhibited. The targeted parasites have been found to increase in the accessibility of the plasma membrane of said cell to the peptide, and particularly, to effect an increase in the cytopathic, especially lytic, sensitivity of the cell to the peptide. In one application, the invention provides methods for treating blood infected with a Plasmodium species, by contacting the blood with magainin 2 under conditions whereby the development of the Plasmodium in the infected erythrocytes is inhibited and the infected erythrocytes evidence relatively increased cytolytic sensitivity to the magainin.

System and method for providing a web-based operating system

Published: United States Patent

Excerpt:

A system and method for providing a web-based operating system is disclosed. A web-based operating system is downloaded from a server to a network-enabled device. The web-based operating system provides a platform from which to run web-based computer applications. Web-based computer applications are downloaded from the server onto the network-enabled device, and executed in conjunction with the web-based operating system. Those portions of the web-based operating system software and web-based computer application software are downloaded to the network-enabled device as needed. A component-based environment for the development and deployment of a web-based operating system and web-based computer applications is also provided. Components are deployed within library files as part of a component-based development model. The web-based operating system downloads those library files needed to execute the web-based computer applications.

Collective procurement management system

Published: United States Patent

Excerpt:

A collective procurement management system which permits multiple potential purchasers of a specific item or service to submit orders for the item or service on an ongoing basis. As orders enter the system, they are grouped such that potential purchasers are may “cooperate” in generating a collective bulk order so that all participants may obtain discount/volume pricing. Once a threshold level of order volume is obtained as a result of multiple orders, the grouped order is submitted to the supplier for fulfillment. The order is then fulfilled at a volume pricing level although individual portions of the collective order are routed to a plurality of purchasers. The present invention also includes a Reverse Auction Process (RAP) which, in one embodiment, operates to allow potential purchasers to select a product or service and set a maximum price that they are willing to pay for the same. Following submission of this information to the system, possibly including orders for the same item from other potential buyers, potential vendors bid to supply the item to the relevant buyers requesting the item.

Apparatus, method and system for improving application performance across a communications network by node replication

Published: United States Patent

Excerpt:

An apparatus, method and system to enable dynamic replication of Web servers across a wide area in response to access patterns by Web clients as well as in response to customer requests. The method for dynamically replicating one or more parent nodes on a network in response to a user request by a policy manager. The policy manager transmits the user request to an event module. The event module transmits the user request to a data consistency module, wherein the data consistency module maintains integrity of the data on the parent node. The event system communicates with a resource management module to ensure proper utilization of network resources, and transmits the routing request to a request routing module for appropriately balancing the network load. The request routing module is capable of providing optimal routing based on the network resources.

System and method for providing a web-based operating system

Published: United States Patent

Excerpt:

A system and method for providing a web-based operating system is disclosed. A web-based operating system is downloaded from a server to a network-enabled device. The web-based operating system provides a platform from which to run web-based computer applications. Web-based computer applications are downloaded from the server onto the network-enabled device, and executed in conjunction with the web-based operating system. Those portions of the web-based operating system software and web-based computer application software are downloaded to the network-enabled device as needed. A component-based environment for the development and deployment of a web-based operating system and web-based computer applications is also provided. Components are deployed within library files as part of a component-based development model. The web-based operating system downloads those library files needed to execute the web-based computer applications.