Month: January 2016

(credit: Gabriel Garcia Marengo)

A Maryland lawyer has sued the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), asking that the agency’s new drone registration regulations be overturned.

According to the civil complaint filed December 24, 2015 at the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, John Taylor is a "model aircraft hobbyist" who owns "one or more small unmanned hobby aircraft" and intends on acquiring more. He does not describe himself as a drone owner in the brief, nor would he confirm himself as such in a conversation with Ars. However, a profile on DIYDrones.com corresponds to his name and location.

In the case, Taylor asks that the appellate court annul the new registration system that began on December 21. Taylor argues that the new rule is in violation of Section 336 of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, which states that the agency may not create new rules if such model aircraft are "flown strictly for hobby or recreational use." If he is indeed a drone owner, then the suit would seem to turn on whether the courts consider drones and traditional model aircraft as distinct from one another.

President Vladimir Putin visits the Vostochny Cosmodrome in October 2015. (credit: Kremlin Press Service)

An old theater rises above the center of Baikonur, a dusty town in Kazakhstan near the cosmodrome from which Russians have launched humans into space since 1961. Long ago, Soviet soldiers mingled in its lobby and sat in its uncomfortable wooden chairs to watch propaganda films. In those early days, the Soviets often bested the United States with space milestones.

Today, after launches of Russian, American, and other astronauts to the International Space Station, the fliers’ families gather along with NASA officials in the theater to watch the Soyuz spacecraft dock to the orbiting laboratory. Afterward, they will offer celebratory toasts in the lobby against a backdrop of large, beautiful murals depicting Russia’s three great space pioneers. There’s the rocket visionary Konstantin Tsiolkovsky on the left, Yuri Gagarin in the middle, and aerospace engineer Sergei Korolev on the right.

All of those men have been dead for nearly half a century, and the Russian space program has been in a long slumber for most of the time since then. Yes, Russia is one of only two nations capable of putting humans into space, and it has an enviable record of launch safety, having not lost crew members since Soyuz 11 in 1971. Additionally, the most reliable American rocket, the Atlas 5, uses the exceptionally well-built Russian RD-180 engines to power its ascent into space.

(credit: Megan Geuss)

Wearable technology company Valencell has sued both Apple and Fitbit, saying the two companies' devices infringe on various Valencell patents.

In the Apple complaint (PDF), Valencell says that the Apple Watch infringes its patents, and the company also adds some unusual breach of contract claims. Valencell lawyers say that Apple employees downloaded white papers from the Valencell website. The white papers are publicly available, but they require a user to enter contact information before receiving the papers. Valencell says that "Apple breached this contract by not providing the organization, name, and email address of the recipient."

Valencell was able to capture several IP addresses from visitors who got the white papers and link them to Apple. The breach of contract claims say that white papers were downloaded to Apple IP addresses in March 2013, March 2014, and April of 2015. The paper allegedly downloaded in 2013 was called “PerformTek Precision Biometrics: Engaging the Burgeoning Mobile Health and Fitness Market."