Electrical Engineers Policy Patent Restrictions : Just Like Cab Compaines?

Is this just another collective action to control outcomes? What this is an attempt to manage innovation and reap the rewards of others. Isn't this what unions do? What ever happened to the free market?

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Patent Restrictions Will Discourage Innovation
Source: Alden Abbott, "Patent Policy Change would Undermine Property Rights and Innovation," Heritage Foundation, March 4, 2015

March 6, 2015

Ignoring the tradition of non-intervention in licensing negotiations undermines support for strong patents, which are critical to economic growth and innovation. So when the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) formally accepted new policies that reduce the value of standard essential patents (SEP), they discouraged involvement by innovative companies in IEEE standard setting.

The new policy greatly undermines incentives to make patents available for use in IEEE standards. Several of the new IEEE patent policy's key features include:

• In order to have its patents included in an IEEE standard, a patent holder will have to provide the IEEE with a letter of assurance waiving its right to seek an injunction against an infringer. This eliminates a great deal of leverage that SEP holders have to get infringers to the negotiating table quickly.
• An analysis of comparable licenses for purposes of determining a F/RAND royalty can consider only licenses for which the SEP holder relinquished the right to seek and enforce an injunction against an unlicensed implementer.
• An SEP holder cannot condition granting a license on receiving reasonable reciprocal access to non-SEP patents held by the other negotiating party. As a result, businesses might shy away from developing patents that could be used to improve the quality of standard setting.
• Royalty negotiations involving an SEP holder must be based on the value of the "relevant functionality of the smallest saleable compliant implementation that practices the essential patent claim." This provision would create an artificially low upper limit on potential SEP royalties and prevent SEP owners when they engage in negotiations.

Because the new IEEE policy essentially micromanages contractual negotiations among large numbers of firms that often compete among themselves, it may raise questions under U.S. antitrust law, which prohibits contracts that unreasonably restrain trade.
 

Rubio/Lee Tax Reform Bill : A Middle Class Helping Hand

Sound like a plan - it benefits the 'middle class' that the progressive democrat proclaim to have always be on the side of those that have to carry the water for everyone else. This bill is something that the democrats can support if they are really serious about who the claim to be and who the say they support.

But if history is any indication for the present and the future, we know the democrats are lying about the 'middle class', they don't now or in the past have ever cared what happened to the 'middle class' citizens as long as they were kept stupid enough to vote for them.

The bottom line is the democrats are all about the democrats and how they gain power, even if they have steal it from uninformed and the brain dead.

Need more proof - Mr Obama how is threatening to raise taxes with an executive order. What this does is guarantee a Constitutional crisis in America. This is the meaning of being a democrat and explains who they are.

Rubio-Lee Tax Reform Plan: Good but could be Better
Source: Daniel J. Mitchell, "Grading the Rubio-Lee Tax Reform Plan," Cato Institute, March 4, 2015.

March 6, 2015

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Mike Lee (R-UT) recently introduced the Economic Growth and Family Fairness Tax Reform Plan in an effort to incrementally reform the U.S. tax system. The plan is not without its problems.

To begin with, the top tax rate will be 35 percent, down only from 39.6 percent. Even worse, the 35 percent tax rate will be levied against any taxable income above $75,000 for single tax payers and $150,000 for married taxpayers. As a result, a significant number of taxpayers will face higher marginal tax rates.

On the bright side, Rubio and Lee's proposal does include attractive pro growth features. They include:

• The corporate tax rate will be reduced from 35 percent (The second highest rate in the world) to 25 percent;
• Elimination of the capital gains tax, the double tax on dividends and the second layer of tax on interest;
• Elimination of punitive deprecation rules that force businesses to overstate their income in ways that discourage new business investment;
• Elimination of the death tax;

Under the Rubio-Lee plan, the economy could grow faster, more jobs will be created and workers could enjoy higher wages.
 

Calvin & Hobbes : We Miss You

I sure miss this cartoon series - why did this creative person decide to hang up his talent and insight?

Hillary and Bubba When Everything Was Free

WOW - so this how it all got started - just a couple of wild and free guys on the town - let the fun begin.

Hillary Fighting on Two Fronts : Bubba Makes It Tough

I wonder how much of an asset Bubba will be to Hillary? Still, given all of the nasty things he did to so many women, a one man war on women, and he's still a rock star, so maybe Hillary can survive as well.

Are the Clintons really this bullet proof?

Hillary Brings Histories Baggage : Hillary is Histoy, Again

My goodness, Hillary is coming clean in these cartoons. Apparently there isn't any other way to find out who she is as the main stream media is late coming to the fight.

FOX News on it but the real thing to watch is how the progressive democrats are conflicted on just who they want as their candidate. If history is any lesson, Hillary is done.

Cash Market for Medial Care : British Cash System Works

Cash is king - especially when it comes to ObamaCare that is and will destroy heath care in America as we knew it. It didn't seem to matter that 92% population had insurance that was acceptable but Mr Obama didn't want this as he wanted control all heath care, not just for those that couldn't afford it, which amounted to less the 3% of the population, the other 6% didn't want it or need it.

Cash is always king especially when Washington is out of control stealing everything that they can get their collective hands on which includes health care and our personal freedoms.

Like most other attempts to regulate an acceptable institutions like health care, there will be people that will find a way to serve the needs of the people and make a profit at the same time. Unfortunately our socialist government will attack the innovators and their families like they did with tax supported agencies like the IRS attacked 292 Conservatives and Republicans organizations seeking tax exemptions before the national election in 2012. Not one was approved!

The socialists know no limit to their ideology. But no matter, ObamaCare is all about taking control of the population, forcing the people to do the bidding of a progressive socialist liberal democrat over reaching government. That there isn't any money to make this work is of no importance. When the government can't afford to take care of every one, then the death panel will kick in and make the hard decisions of who get treated and who doesn't.

Oh no, can't happen here, right? Sorry about this but it's already here. All that needs to happen is for everyone except the fact individual freedom to chose is going away, and the majority of the population doesn't know it or they don't care enough to stand up and say enough, that is until it's too late.

Gruber is right, the population is stupid - why else would they elect Mr Obama and his progressive socialist ideology twice even when they are personally living the nightmare. Go figure.

The United States Could Learn from Britain's Cash Market for Medical Care
Source: Linda Gorman, "Guess Where Fair and Transparent Hospital Prices Exist?" National Center for Policy Analysis, March 2, 2015.

March 6, 2015

Britain has long had an active cash market for medical care provided by private hospitals, which helps people get around the long waits in the National Health Service, and also serves people from abroad.

Nuffield Hospitals advertises firm, fixed, all-inclusive prices good for 60 days after an initial consultation. For more complex procedures, one pays for the initial consultation and the hospital develops the price from that. The Nuffield price generally includes post-operative care, rehab, and required readmissions.

Like Walmart, Nuffield will match competitor prices under reasonable conditions — "If you find an alternative private hospital in your local area offering a better price for the same surgical intervention, sold with the same service conditions, we'll lower our price to equal it." The conditions require the other private hospital be within 15 miles of the Nuffield hospital, exclude NHS private patient prices and require a written quote.

The international healthcare group, Bupa, offers private insurance, elder care, and private hospitalization. Beneficiaries of its Health Cash Plan pay providers, send Bupa the bill and receive the Bupa contract amount in cash. Bupa advertises no pre-authorizations to see specialists and 24/7 phone consultation with nurses and GPs.

In the US, Obamacare, Medicare and Medicaid set arbitrary prices. Medicare outlaws price negotiation, short-circuiting the pricing mechanism that transmits vital information about what customers want and what suppliers can provide. Without that information, even the most well intentioned regulators will fail in their quest for price transparency and efficient service bundles.
 

Parallel Parking : Women Under Attack? (Fun Humor)

Okay, this might piss off some female drivers but sometimes it is therapeutic to have your problems brought out in the open like this for all to see otherwise there can't be any way to resolve difficult situations like driving a car.  heh 

I'm taking heat right now but it's still fun to tweak your life's partner when ever possible -

(Author Unknown)
Back and forth .  Back and forth . In and out .  In and out . . . .

A little to the right .  A little to the left . . . .

 

She could feel the sweat on her forehead, between her breasts and, trickling down the

small of her back . . . .

She was getting near to the end.

 

He was in ecstasy with a huge smile on his face as she moved . . . 
Forwards then backwards. Forward then backward.

Again and again . . . .Her heart was pounding now . . . .
Her face was flushed. She moaned . . . . softly at first, then began to groan louder. Finally, totally exhausted she let out a piercing scream . . . .

 
She shouted:  "OK, OK, you smug bastard, I can't parallel park. You do it!"  

 

Good & True Friends @911 : Dogs Saving the Day

What a great story and as I have Golden Retrievers, it's even more pure - but is it true? I don't know, but I hope and believe it just might be as they are truly here to serve us. How lucky can we get to be so privileged to have such good and true friends.                                                           DAISY   I didn't hear any tribute given to this wonderful creature when the credits were given out during the televised launching of the 911 museum in New York . Didn't know this : James Crane worked on the 101st floor of Tower 1 of the World Trade Center .. He is blind so he has a golden retriever named Daisy. After the plane hit 20 stories below, James knew that he was doomed, so he let Daisy go, out of an act of love.  She darted away into the darkened hallway. Choking on the fumes of the jet fuel and the smoke James was just waiting to die. About 30 minutes later, Daisy comes back along with James' boss, who Daisy just Happened to pick up on floor 112. On her first run of the building, she leads James, James' boss, and about 300 more People out of the doomed building.  But she wasn't through yet, she knew there Were others who were trapped. So, highly against James' wishes she ran back in the building. On her second run, she saved 392 lives. Again she went back in. During this run, The building collapses.  James hears about this and falls on his knees into tears. Against all known odds, Daisy makes it out alive, but this time she is carried by a firefighter. "She led us right to the people, before she got injured" the fireman explained. Her final run saved another 273 lives. She suffered acute smoke inhalation, Severe burns on all four paws, and a broken leg, but she saved 967 lives. Daisy is the first civilian Canine to win the Medal of Honor of New York City.

 

ObamaCare Lottery Letter : You Just Got Scewed, Again

 What's going here? This sound a lot like ObamaCare. Oh wait, this is ObamaCare. Who are these people?

I won a Nigerian lottery according to an email from a Nigerian prince.

He holds the sum of ONE MILLION DOLLARS in my name

and he wants to send it to me FREE!

 

All I have to do is give him my bank account numbers and

send him $500.00 US dollars cash, to show my good faith

so he can transfer the money!

 

And then I got ANOTHER email.

It's from a KENYAN prince who wants to give me FREE

healthcare for life!

 

 

 All I have to do is give him:

my BANK ACCOUNT NUMBERS,

 

MY SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER

 

MY CONFIDENTIAL HEALTH INFORMATION

 

and pay $700 per month for a policy with only a $10,000 deductible.

 

Then he can make it happen!