 | |
| |
TechnologyDaily Mobile
Tech Representatives Join Inaugural Hoopla
by Sarah Lai Stirland
Politicos will celebrate President Bush's inauguration to a second term Thursday at nine official inaugural balls across the nation's capital and a host of other unofficial parties across town. One of the unofficial parties appears to be trying to help technology industry officials in the Washington area relive some of the hoopla and glitz of the dot-com era.
The eNaugural.com Ball will feature entertainers, nine themed party areas, three dance floors, the Washington Redskins Cheerleaders, several tributes to "leaders in technology," a celebration of astronaut, author and entrepreneur Buzz Aldrin's 75th birthday, and interviews with celebrities that the organizers will webcast. The event's guests of honor include Internet pioneer Robert Kahn.
Rich Shea, an event organizer for HiBall Events, expects 1,500 guests at the party, which will be held at the Wyndham Washington hotel. He said his company is confident that techies still will be interested in attending the event because of the resilience of the Washington area's economy. Tickets cost from $149 to $299, and the Web site said the first batch of tickets has been sold.
"The technology companies in this area are strong," he said. "People are hiring and the government is spending."
For those who prefer to attend the official festivities and are willing to pay any cost to attend, some enterprising individuals are offering tickets to several events at the eBay online auction site. On Monday, someone auctioned an inaugural package for $550 that includes tickets to several of the day's events, along with a couple tickets to the Liberty Ball, one of the nine official balls.
The hottest party of the night appears to be the Black Tie & Boots inaugural ball thrown by the Texas State Society at the Wardman Park Marriott Hotel. One eBay auction offers an inauguration package that includes a pair of tickets to the ball at a starting bid of $3,500.
EBay has policies that govern ticket sales and re-sales on its site.
Ex-Trade Official Joins Others At Law Firm
James Jochum, the assistant Commerce secretary for import administration, will join the law firm of Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw next week as a partner in its international trade practice.
He will work on export-control issues and provide clients advice on administrative trade law, among other things, said Peter Scher, a partner in the group.
Jochum joins other former trade officials who served in the administrations of Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. Former Commerce Secretary and U.S. Trade RepresentativeMickey Kantor is a partner at the firm, as is Deborah Lehr, a former deputy chief U.S. trade negotiator for China and Hong Kong and National Security Council director for Asia. Scher was a special trade negotiator under Clinton and also served as a Commerce chief of staff.
Premier Tech Law Firm Disbands
The partners of the law firm of Testa Hurwitz & Thibeault on Friday voted to dissolve the firm. The Boston-based firm is one of the best known and most prestigious that specialized in advising technology company startups and their financial backers through the process of taking companies public. The company will close March 15.
In a statement, the firm said it could not continue to operate after 10 partners left in early December.
The Boston Globe said the firm suffered after its co-founder, Richard Testa, died in 2002 and after the collapse of the technology stock market. The firm also suffered because it boosted its junior attorneys' salaries during the Internet boom, and it had trouble competing with larger, more diversified law firms, which hired away Testa Hurwitz & Thibeault's lawyers.
Transitions In The Private And Public Sectors
The telecommunications services provider XO Communications has named Alan Hill as its director of legislative affairs. Hill is a former legislative director for Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla.
In other industry news, VeriSign announced that it has made Brian Cute its acting vice president of government relations. Cute was previously director of government relations for VeriSign's communications services unit and reported to Tom Galvin. Cute succeeds Galvin, who left earlier this year to launch the public-relations firm 463 Communications.
The FCC, meanwhile, announced that the agency's general counsel, John Rogovin, is leaving to join the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr as a partner. Deputy General Counsel Austin Schlick will serve as acting general counsel.
And the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) announced that Commissioner for Patents Nicholas Godici will retire when his term expires at the end of March. No successor has been named.
While at the PTO, Godici guided the office's transition to electronically processed patent applications, implemented initiatives to improve the patent examination process, oversaw the addition of numerous patent examiners and implemented special programs, such as work-at-home programs that have made PTO a more attractive place to work, the agency said.
Winners Of Public Domain Contest Announced
The Duke University law school's Center for the Study of the Public Domain on Friday announced four winners of a contest that asked filmmakers to create two-minute movies to explain how intellectual property laws are affecting either their art or music businesses.
The "public domain" is a reference to copyrighted works that become available for free to the public after a certain timeframe. Daniel Love, a Duke junior and a public policy major, won first place with "Powerful Pictures." It explains the hurdles Love had to navigate when he wanted to use archival pictures for another short movie commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision against school segregation.
The movie was a contest entry for a public-service announcement that the American Civil Liberties Union wanted to run last year. Love said he almost was prevented from entering the competition because of the obstacles he faced in getting rights to the pictures.
Polish sociology doctoral candidate Alek Tarkowski and his cousin, Kuba Tarkowski, a freelance graphic artist and animator in Warsaw, won second place for "Music for Our Grandchildren," an animated film that discusses U.S. court decisions and legislative efforts on intellectual property, such the impact that a bill against "inducing" copyright infringement could have on the future of cultural production.
"We both believe in the main idea presented in the movie: that making music, [and] culture in general, is fun, and we need law and technology that will allow the fun to continue," Alek Tarkowski said.
Documentary photographer Christopher Sims' "An Army, One by One," and "Stealing Home" by filmmakers Terry Tucker and Andrew Fazekas tied for third place.
Sims' story tells of how he tried -- but failed -- to obtain clearances from major media companies for incidentally capturing various pop-culture items, such as Shrek-related paraphernalia, in the process of shooting a documentary about U.S. Army recruits. The film by Tucker and Fazekas is a tongue-in-cheek piece instructing would-be filmmakers on the basics of obtaining clearances for their works.
"One interesting thing to me is that only one film really looked to the future," said Paul Jones, director of the public digital library ibiblio.org and one of the competition's judges.
NEW FEATURE
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
