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I had several hundred (over 1000) HTML files in a directory. They were unfortunately encoded in Windows-1252 and I wanted them all converted to UTF-8, but I was not willing to open the files one by one or feed their names to a script (there’s too many) so I needed a script that would operate on the whole directory and spit out the converted files in one fell swoop.

If you’re not familiar with encodings the visual problem one sees is that Firefox displays little black diamonds with question marks inside them for characters it doesn’t understand (I think they’re mostly tabs, spaces, and em-dashes in this case.)

With help from friends and the internet I learned about the GNU/Linux command-line tool iconv which handled this perfectly. Here’s the bash script I used that made it work on the entire directory at once:

#/bin/bash
LIST=`ls *.html`
for i in $LIST;
do iconv -f WINDOWS-1252 -t UTF8 $i -o $i.”utf8″;
mv $i.”utf8″ $i;
done

It seems that iconv requires a new name for the output file, so the above script temporarily names them *.utf and then moves them back over the original .html files. Hopefully this helps someone else.

I hate it when I can’t easily find an opinion online: Google, Inc. v. American Blind & Wallpaper Factory, Inc., (N.D. Cal. Apr. 18, 2007).

The Final Report of the National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works (The CONTU Report) was conveniently scanned to pdf by Digital Law Online. However, they provide it as seventeen different pdf downloads, without providing a single pdf containing the entire report with all appendices. I’ve combined them all in one 162-page pdf here: CONTU.pdf

Interesting CNET article,

A United Nations agency is quietly drafting technical standards, proposed by the Chinese government, to define methods of tracing the original source of Internet communications and potentially curbing the ability of users to remain anonymous.

The U.S. National Security Agency is also participating in the “IP Traceback” drafting group, named Q6/17, which is meeting next week in Geneva to work on the traceback proposal. Members of Q6/17 have declined to release key documents, and meetings are closed to the public…

In December 2007, over 2,000 American Muslims were asked what they would wish to say to the rest of the world. This is what they said. A music video for Kareem Salama’s “A Land Called Paradise.” (Winner of LinkTV’s 2007 One Nation Contest’s Grand Prize):

In the beginning there was NCSA Mosaic, and Mosaic called itself NCSA_Mosaic/2.0 (Windows 3.1), and Mosaic displayed pictures along with text, and there was much rejoicing…

History of the Browser User Agent String.

It was inevitable. One can now run the entire Debian distribution (ARM port) on the Openmoko Neo Freerunner. Slashdot previously covered the July 4th launch of this GNU/Linux-based smartphone, which is open down to its core, with the company providing CAD files and schematics for the phone. Openmoko released an update to their software stack earlier this month, called Om2008.8, which is still a work in progress. But now one can use these instructions on the Debian wiki to open up the possibility of using apt-get to access Debian’s more than 20,000 applications–on your phone, which due to integration with freesmartphone.org efforts, can also actually be used as a phone. There were previously efforts to run Debian on the predecessor product to the Neo FreeRunner, the Neo 1973, but with the wider adoption of the Neo FreeRunner and the hard work of many Debian developers at the ongoing DebConf8, carrying Debian in your pocket has just gotten a lot easier.

07-11357-013-AmendedComplaint
07-11357-029-MemoISOMotToDismiss
07-11357-034-MemoOppMotToDismiss
07-11357-039-ReplyMemoISOMotToDismiss

Interesting TM decision out from the D.C. Circuit today, Aktieselskabet v. Fame Jeans Inc.

The D.C. Circuit joins the 1st and 7th Circuits who have now all held that a party may introduce new issues in a § 21(b) district court action that were not brought before the TTAB.

The Court also addresses pleading standards under Twombly at length, concluding that the Twombly decision has not altered or heightened traditional notice pleading standards.

Bestseller has sold jeans outside the U.S. since 1990 under its Danish TM for “Jack & Jones” jeans. Fame Jeans filed a U.S. intent-to-use application for that mark in January 2004, with Bestseller applying for the mark in the U.S. in December 2004, but not having any clear sales in the U.S. before January 2004.

Bestseller contested Fame’s application on likelihood of confusion grounds and the Court concluded that under § 2(d), an intent-to-use applicant (e.g., Fame) prevails over any opposer who began using a similar mark (in the U.S.) after the intent-to-use filing date. Bestseller’s confusion claim, however, withstands a motion to dismiss because it adequately alleged use analogous to TM use within the U.S.

Bestseller also adequately alleged a claim that Fame lacked a bona fide intent to use the mark.

However, Bestseller cannot allege common law fraudulent misrepresentation by Fame where it only alleges that the PTO relied on Fame’s misrepresentations and not that Bestseller itself so relied.

First, from this opinion, the TTAB looks like a practice run and one can apparently always call “do over” and try out new arguments before the district court. That seems like an unfortunate waste of time and money for those trying to resolve things before the TTAB. Second, the factual background of this case strongly suggests that Fame knew exactly what they were doing and that it was simply a cheap trick by a competitor. Do they really think anyone believes that they just happened to come up with the name “Jack & Jones” for jeans and had no idea that name was already in use internationally on jeans? What’s a little surprising is how far Fame has gotten with this tactic and how narrow Bestseller’s options are now. The moral may be that if you’ve got a mark outside the U.S. and you think you’ll ever want to move into U.S. sales you should quickly proceed to make a few U.S. sales, document them well, and get your U.S. TM application on file ASAP. Otherwise, any competitor can just adopt your mark for its products in the U.S. and you’ll have a long hard road to stopping them.

Interesting opinion out from the Second Circuit today, Ehrenfeld v. Mahfouz, No. 06-2228-cv (2d Cir. Mar. 3, 2008). The Court had certified to the New York Court of Appeals

whether New York’s long-arm statute confers personal jurisdiction over a person (1) who sued a New York resident in a non-U.S. jurisdiction; and (2) whose contacts with New York stemmed entirely from the foreign lawsuit and whose success in the foreign suit resulted in acts that must be performed by the subject of the suit in New York.

The New York Court of Appeals answered the certified question in the negative and so the Second Circuit affirmed the district court, which had dismissed the case for lack of personal jurisdiction.

Query whether there is now a circuit split between the Second and Ninth Circuits when one also considers Yahoo! Inc. v. La Ligue Contre Le Racisme et L’antisemitisme (9th Cir. 2006)?