Trolls Identification within an Uncertain Framework

The web plays an important role in people's social lives since the emergence of Web 2.0. It facilitates the interaction between users, gives them the possibility to freely interact, share and collaborate through social networks, online communities forums, blogs, wikis and other online collaborative media. However, an other side of the web is negatively taken such as posting inflammatory messages. Thus, when dealing with the online communities forums, the managers seek to always enhance the performance of such platforms. In fact, to keep the serenity and prohibit the disturbance of the normal atmosphere, managers always try to novice users against these malicious persons by posting such message (DO NOT FEED TROLLS). But, this kind of warning is not enough to reduce this phenomenon. In this context we propose a new approach for detecting malicious people also called 'Trolls' in order to allow community managers to take their ability to post online. To be more realistic, our proposal is defined within an uncertain framework. Based on the assumption consisting on the trolls' integration in the successful discussion threads, we try to detect the presence of such malicious users. Indeed, this method is based on a conflict measure of the belief function theory applied between the different messages of the thread. In order to show the feasibility and the result of our approach, we test it in different simulated data.Comment: International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence - ICTAI , Nov 2014, Limassol, Cypru

Non-Practicing Entities & Patent Reform

The patent system is designed to promote innovation and supply a blueprint for innovative minds to improve upon, but the behavior of some patent owners is contrary to these principles. Non-practicing entities obtain patent rights, and rather than produce the product claimed in the patent, they assert their exclusionary rights broadly and aggressively against businesses producing similar products in order to induce settlement or licensing payments. These assertions account for a significant percentage of infringement claims and threaten a potentially innocent business with expensive litigation. The actions of these entities have a substantial effect on the patent system and have been the motivation behind reform and recent Supreme Court decisions. Each of the three branches of government has significant influence over the patent system, and each has the potential to promote change to reduce the impact of non-practicing entities on the United States patent system and on the United States economy

A legal version of the Nanoworld

Article à paraître dans le numéro spécial "Nanotechnologies" des comptes-rendus de l'académie des sciences 2011Nanosciences and nanotechnologies come into a pre-existing legal system. Their arrival, and how they are received are worthy of analysis. Such an effort shall at first include simply lexical considerations, in order to penetrate, via their origins, the traces of these specific objects into the territory of law. The goal of this article is to explore the effects of "nanos" in various legal fields, including their relevance to the principle of precaution, patent law, and the applicable laws for chemical substances

How and why physicists and chemists use blogs

This study examined how and why chemists and physicists blog. Two qualitative methods were used: content analysis of blog and “about” pages and in-depth responsive interviews with chemists and physicists who maintain blogs. Analysis of the data yielded several cross-cutting themes that provide a window into how physicists and chemists use their blogs and what value they receive from maintaining a blog and participating in a blogging community. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for supporting scientists’ work

Patent Troll: The Brewing Storm of Patent Reform in the United States of America, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 63 (2015)

“Patent trolls” have been a problem in the U.S. for many years, creating a storm of patent reform in all three branches of the U.S. government. The modus operandi of these companies (known as non-practicing entities “NPEs” or Patent Assertion Entities “PAEs”) is to acquire patents with no intention of practicing the invention or developing their products and with the sole purpose of licensing them aggressively or instituting lawsuits against infringers. This practice has been criticized as being anti-competitive as it curbs economic growth and technological development and stifles competition. The U.S. Congress’ first attempt to control the patent troll crisis was the passing of the America Invents Act in 2011. However, the need to address the explosion of patent litigation initiated by NPEs in America gave birth to the Innovation Act in February 2015 and the Protecting American Talent and Entrepreneurship (PATENT) Act in April 2015, both of which are currently pending. The present paper aims to study the implications of the various attempts of the United States to combat patent trolls, as dealt herein

A study of patent thickets

Report analysing whether entry of UK enterprises into patenting in a technology area is affected by patent thickets in the technology area

Three horizons:A pathways practice for transformation

Global environmental change requires responses that involve marked or qualitative changes in individuals, institutions, societies, and cultures. Yet, while there has been considerable effort to develop theory about such processes, there has been limited research on practices for facilitating transformative change. We present a novel pathways approach called Three Horizons that helps participants work with complex and intractable problems and uncertain futures. The approach is important for helping groups work with uncertainty while also generating agency in ways not always addressed by existing futures approaches. We explain how the approach uses a simple framework for structured and guided dialogue around different patterns of change by using examples. We then discuss some of the key characteristics of the practice that facilitators and participants have found to be useful. This includes (1) providing a simple structure for working with complexity, (2) helping develop future consciousness (an awareness of the future potential in the present moment), (3) helping distinguish between incremental and transformative change, (4) making explicit the processes of power and patterns of renewal, (5) enabling the exploration of how to manage transitions, and (6) providing a framework for dialogue among actors with different mindsets. The complementarity of Three Horizons to other approaches (e.g., scenario planning, dilemma thinking) is then discussed. Overall, we highlight that there is a need for much greater attention to researching practices of transformation in ways that bridge different kinds of knowledge, including episteme and phronesis. Achieving this will itself require changes to contemporary systems of knowledge production. The practice of Three Horizons could be a useful way to explore how such transformations in knowledge production and use could be achieved