Month: July 2018

Enlarge / Mylan Inc. CEO Heather Bresch holds up a 2-pack of EpiPen as she testifies during a hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee September 21, 2016 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

In a unanimous decision, an appellate court has resoundingly rejected the legal claim that sovereign immunity, as argued by a Native American tribe, can act as a shield for a patent review process.

On July 20, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found in a 3-0 decision that the inter partes review (IPR) process is closer to an "agency enforcement action"—like a complaint brought by the Federal Trade Commission or the Federal Communications Commission—than a regular lawsuit.

IPR is a process that allows anyone to challenge a patent’s validity at the United States Patent and Trademark Office—it was used famously in 2017 to reject the "podcasting patent."

Enlarge / Over the past few years, Facebook's heart-filled pleas to advertisers have received a few red Xs from critics—and WA State's Attorney General. (credit: Facebook / Sam Machkovech)

Though Facebook announced a voluntary plan to update its controversial advertising-filter system earlier this year, Washington State announced a firmer plan for the social media company on Tuesday.

State Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced a legally binding plan that will force Facebook to "make significant changes to its advertising platform by removing the ability of third-party advertisers to exclude ethnic and religious minorities, immigrants, LGBTQ individuals, and other protected groups from seeing their ads."

Ferguson also declared the end of his office's 20-month investigation into Facebook's advertising practices on Tuesday, which coincided with an Assurance of Discontinuance (PDF) filed in King County Superior Court.

Enlarge / The Ariane 5 rocket moves into the Kourou-based spaceport's ELA-3 launch complex. (credit: Arianespace)

The Western Hemisphere may host two launches within 15 minutes on Wednesday morning as both Arianespace and SpaceX prepare for satellite delivery missions. The launches are presently scheduled to occur between 7:25am ET (11:25 UTC) and 7:39am ET (11:39 UTC).

First up is Arianespace, with a mission launching from Kourou in French Guiana, over the Atlantic Ocean. This flight of the Ariane 5 ES rocket—the Ariane 5 fleet's third mission in 2018—will send four Galileo satellites into medium Earth orbit (at an altitude of 22,922km) for the European Commission. These satellites will form part of Europe's own global navigation system constellation.

Of note, this will be the 99th launch of the Ariane 5 rocket, which first flew in 1996. This rocket will continue flying until 2022, at which point Arianespace and the European Space Agency will phase out the booster in favor of the Ariane 6 rocket, designed for lower-cost operations in order to compete on the commercial launch market with SpaceX.

Enlarge / An Analogic CT scanner at JFK Airport in New York. (credit: American Airlines)

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is starting to use CT scanners to look for explosives and other banned objects in carry-on bags. The advance in technology might—eventually—let travelers go through airport security without removing electronics, liquids, or anything else from their bags.

"We think, in perhaps five years or so, the passengers won't have to take anything out of their carry-on bags," TSA Administrator David Pekoske told CBS News in a report yesterday.

Analogic CT scanners provide a three-dimensional view of carry-on bag contents, an upgrade from the 2D X-ray scanners more commonly used by the TSA. The Analogic machine is being tested at New York's JFK airport. A different CT machine made by L3 was deployed in Phoenix in June 2017, and another CT machine from manufacturer IDSS was installed in Boston that same month.