News - Print News

Continues suit against Q.I. Press Controls

for deceptive advertising.

QuadTech logo

QuadTech, Inc. has announced that it has asked the U.S. District Court (Eastern District of Pennsylvania) to dismiss one of the lawsuits it filed against Q.I. Press Controls (QIPC), while at the same time continuing legal action on a separate deceptive advertising lawsuit.

"The lawsuit we intend to dismiss is a patent infringement claim that we originally filed in May of 2010," says QuadTech president Karl Fritchen. "Two developments have driven us to make a business decision that the case against QIPC's IDS system is no longer financially worth pursuing.

"First, our patent (U.S. Patent No. 5,412,577) for positioning the camera over a region of interest expired 18 months after we filed the suit.

"Second, QIPC has only recently begun to provide substantial responsive information in the case, and we have concluded that there has been only a single infringing sale in the U.S.-and none since the filing of the lawsuit, meaning that there are relatively minimal damages. With the patent now expired, and given the high cost of patent litigation and the complexities of this case, it is not financially reasonable for QuadTech to continue to pursue this litigation."

In the false advertising lawsuit, QIPC concedes that it has never sold a single markless register control system anywhere in the world. The court recently ordered QIPC to produce evidence that the commercial markless register control system portrayed in its advertising ever existed in the first place. Accordingly, QuadTech is continuing to pursue its false advertising case against QIPC.

http://www.quadtechworld.com/en/

Press release from QuadTech

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Major boost for US soccer fans and the league itself.

nbc-EnglishLeague

NBC's networks have stolen the rights to televise the English Premier League under a $250 million, three-year deal that begins next season.

For US soccer fans this is great news because NBC have confirmed that they will show every match from the Barclays Premier League.

Currently English soccer is broadcast by a combination of Fox and ESPN networks.

With global names like Manchester United, FC Chelsea and Arsenal the English premier league needs this change if it is to make inroads into the States.

Reports from the US have confirmed that NBC outbid its rivals to land the deal.

An interesting note is that NBC which was criticized for using tape delay during the London Olympics because of time differences will not do so with Premier League games. A spokesman for the network said English-language broadcasts will primarily be on cable channel NBC Sports Network, with Telemundo and mun2 used for Spanish coverage.

NBC's English-language networks will televise six live games a week and a number of the company's other cable channels will also be used as well. Other games will be streamed live online.

The company has been seeking to expand the audience of NBC Sports Network recently and soccer is seen as a potential area for growth with most sports broadcast rights currently under contract. NBC has also recently signed a deal with the Formula One auto racing series.

The real reason for the move on the English Premier League is that NBC believes it has acquired a set of assets that's very attractive to advertisers and attractive to cable operators.

Last year the company picked up Major League Soccer and found that it achieved a good response with its soccer broadcasts during this year’s London Olympics.

NBC Sports Network's biggest property in the States is the NHL (National Hockey League), whose season coincidentally runs concurrently with English soccer. The plan is to air live soccer games in the morning and afternoon which will compliment its prime-time NHL broadcasts of hockey.

The previous three-year deal with Fox, where some matches were sublicensed to ESPN, was worth about $80 million. However NBC Sports Network is in about twice as many homes in the U.S. as Fox Soccer so the additional exposure of the English Premier league will be a major boost for both American soccer fans and the league itself.

Global giant undergoing multi-year restructuring programme

Hewlett-Packard has reported a huge loss of $8.85 billion after the company had to write down the value of its services business. A significant amount of this was related to its purchase of Electronic Data Systems Corp (EDS).

The world's largest PC maker said net revenue in the fiscal third quarter fell five per cent to $29.7 billion, just below the average Wall Street estimate of $30.1 billion.

HP took a charge of $10.8 billion, mostly related to the write down, which it had announced earlier this month.

The company which is struggling to offset falling PC sales with services revenue posted a net loss of $4.49 a share in its third quarter that ended July 31st.That compares to a profit of $1.9 billion, or 93 cents a share for the same period last year.

Excluding items such as the write down, it earned $1 a share, slightly beating Wall Street's target of 98 cents.

HP employs more than 300,000 people globally and is undergoing a multi-year restructuring that includes reducing its employee base by eight per cent under Chief Executive Meg Whitman. She has asked investors to be patient as she works to jumpstart revenue and cut costs.

The company said it expected to earn $4.05 to $4.07 per share for fiscal year 2012, which is in the range of Wall Street expectations.

It bought Texas-based technology outsourcing company EDS in 2008 for $13.9 billion.

Actual court cases!!

These are from a book called Disorder in the American Courts, and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters who had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place.

Courts-ScalesATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
WITNESS: No, I just lie there.
_______________________________

ATTORNEY: What is your date of birth?
WITNESS: July 18th.
ATTORNEY: What year?
WITNESS: Every year.
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget.
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?

_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: How old is your son, the one living with you?
WITNESS: Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can't remember which.
ATTORNEY: How long has he lived with you?
WITNESS: Forty-five years.
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
WITNESS: He said, "Where am I, Cathy?"
ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?
WITNESS: My name is Susan.
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: Do you know if your daughter has ever been involved in voodoo?
WITNESS: We both do.
ATTORNEY: Voodoo?
WITNESS: We do.
ATTORNEY: You do?
WITNESS: Yes, voodoo.
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep,
he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
____________________________________

ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the twenty-one-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: Uh, he's twenty-one.
________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Would you repeat the question?
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: Uh....
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: She had three children, right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated? WITNESS: By death.

ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard.
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition
notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead
people?
WITNESS: All my autopsies are performed on dead people.
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?

WITNESS: Oral.
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an
autopsy on him!
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS: Huh?
____________________________________________

And the best for last

ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a
pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you
began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: But could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and
practicing law.

Catherine Moore

This gives a new meaning to the Swear Box

I find this hard to believe. Middleborough in Massachusetts has just passed a law making it illegal to swear in public because the police chief doesn’t like swearing.

SwearingLast Monday night at a town meeting, residents voted 183-50 to approve a proposal from the police chief to impose a $20 fine on public profanity. It’s intended to crack down on loud, profanity-laden language used by teens and other young people in the downtown area and public parks.

Some people are overjoyed with it. Mimi Duphily, a store owner, said after the vote "I'm sure there's going to be some fallout but I think what we did was necessary.". Mimi, who runs a motor parts store, is among the downtown merchants who wanted take a stand against the kind of swearing that can make customers uncomfortable. "They'll sit on the bench and yell back and forth to each other with the foulest language. It's just so inappropriate," she said.

Another local merchant, Robert Saquet, described himself as being unsure about the no-swearing proposal. He compared it to trying to enforce a ban on the seven dirty words of George Carlin, a nod to a famous sketch by the late comedian. "In view of words commonly used in movies and cable TV, it's kind of hard to define exactly what is obscene," said Robert, who owns a downtown furniture store. In saying all that, he’s right. Swearing is used on TV. Are they going to give all the actor’s tickets?

Another thing I find hard to believe is that while Middleborough has a population of about 20,000 people, why did only 233 attend the meeting? That is just over 1% of the population. Is that enough to change a local law in America?

I remember many years ago when I worked as an Industrial Engineering Manager. We had a swear jar in the office for lent. It was ten pencea swear. We invited Don Bewley, the Maintenance Manager into the office. Now, I have to explain: Don used foul language as everyday conversation and he couldn’t talk if he didn’t swear. He was a great guy with a heart of gold. We got Don talking about his least favourite subject: the accountant! One of my guys took out a note pad to keep count. Within five minutes, we got him so riled up that he owed the swear box over a fiver. He refused to pay because he said he was provoked. How would that be treated in Middleborough?

Middleborough has had a bylaw against public profanity since 1968. Officials said that because that bylaw essentially makes cursing a crime it has rarely if ever been enforced because it simply would not warrant the time and expense to bring a case through the courts.

This new law decriminalises public profanity, allowing police to write tickets as they would for a traffic violation. It would also decriminalise certain types of disorderly conduct, public drinking and marijuana use, and dumping snow on a roadway. Did I just say dumping snow onto a road? Why not? We do that here in Ireland!

Middleborough voters approved a $50 fine for littering; a $50 fine for shovelling snow into the street and a $300 fine for smoking marijuana in public. I’ve no problem with the littering fine. In fact I would double it. Shovelling snow onto the street? Please! Let’s be sensible. Smoking marijuana: I thought that was illegal anyway and you’d be thrown in jail. At least you would over here. In fact, wasn’t Ben Dunne done (no pun intended) for possessing 32 grams of cocaine in Orlando in 1992?

Strange laws!

Robert Tallent

Roland DG employees, affiliates, customers and friends from all over the world gathered recently at the company’s headquarters in Hamamatsu, Japan to celebrate three decades of Roland innovation and creativity.

Roland Creative Awards grand prize entry - a tunneling machine prototype milled on the MDX-540The 30th anniversary event was marked by a day of fun and festivities at the company’s headquarters, followed by tours of Kyoto and Tokyo. All eyes however were on the 16 attending regional finalists in the company’s Roland Creative Awards international competition, whose work was drawn from 1,193 competition entries.

The highlight of the celebration event came when the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts in north-eastern China was awarded the contest’s grand prize by Roland DG President Masahiro Tomioka.

Accepting the award were Du Haibin and Jiao Hongwei, industrial design professors at the university. Both men chose a Roland EGX-360 gift engraver as the grand prize for their university.

“Our entry, a scale model tunnelling machine, was part of a transportation-themed project that teaches students how to transform a 2D design into a 3D prototype,” Haibin said. “Winning the Roland award is important to our school as it provides visibility to our efforts and assists us in attaining funding for future projects.”

Grand prize winners L R Jiao Hongwei and Du Haibin of the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts in North Eastern ChinaThe sophisticated winning prototype was produced on a Roland MDX-540 milling machine and is comprised of several sections that were each milled separately from a variety of materials. Along its surface are intricate contours, textures and details achieved using Roland subtractive rapid prototyping technology.

The criteria for The Roland Creative Awards is based on inviting businesses from more than 120 countries worldwide to submit their best work produced on any Roland wide-format inkjet printer, vinyl cutter, engraver, 3D milling machine or any other production tool. Entries spanned industries and applications, and included everything from signage, banners and vehicle wraps to personalised accessories, jewellery designs, decorated apparel and even tattoo art. The entire gallery of entries can be viewed online at www.rolandcreativeawards.com.

More than 75 prizes were awarded throughout the contest, which ran from September 2011 to January 2012. In addition to being a showcase of creativity, the contest was billed as illustrating the breadth of Roland’s technological achievements, developed and advanced over the past 30 years.

“It is a privilege to be part of such a dynamic, accomplished organisation and to be here among friends and colleagues for this very special event,” Tomioka said. “When I look back at the company’s origins, it’s hard to imagine how far we have come and how many lives we have touched. The tremendous work of our customers on display through the Roland Creative Awards really says it all. When you empower creative professionals with innovative tools and technologies, the possibilities are endless.”

For information on Roland Dental Milling Machines visit

www.rolanddental.co.uk

www.rolanddg.co.uk

http://www.rolandcreativeawards.com

A perfect partnership.

Joe McNamara Recently, Link Publishing, the powerhouse behind SignLink and Print Monthly, were given a full, guided tour of the Lotus F1 Team headquarters in Oxfordshire, UK by Joe McNamara, Visual Branding Manager in order to understand the lasting technical partnership between Roland DG and the Lotus F1 Team.

PressOn wraps BLOODHOUND SSC.

PressOn team installing graphics on Bloodhound SSC

UK based PressOn, the large format digital printing company based in Chatham, Kent, were recently asked to be part of a very special event. PressOn wrapped the body and tail fin of the World land speed record attempt car – BLOODHOUND SSC. The car was unveiled in Canary Wharf on 24 September 2015 and shown for the first time in its record attempt configuration.

By Frazer McMenzie.

This time I thought I would share with you “Ten of my favourite Formula 1 Cars” of all time again. There are a few reasons for my various selections. Again these cars may have not been the most successful, but my only Criteria were that they are all Formula 1. I have selected my cars based on personal preference and innervations along with some of my heroes who drove the cars which I love. Please feel free to share your views about these top 10 in the comments section below as I will be researching different cars and teams over the coming weeks.

So let’s see my top ten in reverse order, starting at number 10.

Number 10 BAR Honda - BAR 007, 2005 British American Racing has had far from a successful time in Formula 1 getting only one pole position in 17 races with no wins. So what is so special about this car: BAR tested a modified BAR-Honda 007 car which they intended to use in an attempt to set the land speed record for a car meeting FIA Formula 1 regulations. The four published times recorded in this test were 393 km/h (244 mph), 405 km/h (252 mph), 410 km/h (255 mph) and 413 km/h (257 mph).	BAR Honda - BAR 007
Number 9 Maserati - 250F, 1957 Many people call it the definitive Maserati. I love this car because of its history This is the car Fangio drove at the famous German Grand Prix of 1957.With 22 laps remaining he was 48 seconds behind race leader Mike Hawthorn; and in those laps he broke the lap record at the Nürburgring 10 times, passing Hawthorn on the final lap for victory. What a story and what an amazing machine!	Maserati - 250F
Number 8 Lotus - 79, 1978/1979 Colin Chapman’s "Black Beauty", the lotus 79 with its John Player cigarettes livery. I have seen this car in the flesh and it is magnificent machine. The 79 dominated the 1978 Formula 1 season, taking six victories and securing both the driver’s and constructor’s championships. It is credited for launching Formula 1 into the aerodynamics era and is featured frequently on lists of the most beautiful race cars.	Lotus – 79
Number 7 Tyrrell - P34, 1976/1977 Yes I know a six wheel Formula 1 car? The theory here was that these would increase the total contact patch at the front of the cars, thereby increasing grip, as well as reducing the lift created by standard front wheels. And it worked for a while with drivers Jody Scheckter and Patrick Depailler recording a one-two finish at the 1976 Swedish Grand Prix. However the 1977 car struggled and the concept was dropped for '78.	Tyrrell - P34
Number 6 Brabham - BT46B, 1978 Like the above Tyrrell here is another example of design outside the box. Known as the "fan car," the Brabham BT46b was one of the truly innovative cars in the history of F1. As a counter to the dominant "ground-effect" cars of the era, the BT46B sported a large fan on the back of the car which sucked air from underneath the floor, creating huge down force. It is the only car to have a 100% winning record it entered a race in Sweden Nikki Lauda won, the fan was banned after one race!	Brabham - BT46B
Number 5 Ferrari - 312T, 1975/1976 This car won four constructors' and three drivers' championships across five seasons. I cannot imagine that feat ever being repeated! The 312T was a complete revolution and could be seen as the first car that resembles the basic configuration of a modern F1 car. Personally I believe The Ferrari 312T is one of the most beautiful racing cars ever designed, and along with one of my heroes Nikki Lauda at the wheel, this car has to be in any top ten list of Formula One cars.	Ferrari - 312T
Number 4 Ferrari -F2004, 2004 With the F2004 it was the final year, due to regulations, that teams could run a 3.0litre V10 Engine. Add to that the Aero packages and computer assistance teams were running and you have what many would agree is the fastest Formula 1 car ever! In a 20 race season it won 15 races, set 12 pole positions and 14 fastest laps, many of which still stand 9 years later. Next year Formula One cars will run 1.5litre V6 engines! But at least Turbo Charging returns after a 24 year ban.	Ferrari -F2004
Number 3 Williams - FW14B, 1991/1992 The Williams FW14 was a Formula One car designed by Adrian Newey. The design showed enough promise to tempt Nigel Mansell to shelve his plans to retire from the sport and rejoin Williams from Ferrari. Disbelievers said the car was too technical for its own good. The FW14B was so successful that its successor (the FW15), which was already available mid season in 1992, was never used. It won 17 of the 32 races it ran in.	Williams - FW14B
Number 2 McLaren - MP4/4, 1988 It was designed by American engineer Steve Nichols, with assistance from the team's Technical Director Gordon Murray. This car with Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna at the wheel was virtually unbeatable. Entering 16 races it won 15 set 15 pole positions and 10 lap records powered by a Honda 2.5Litre V6 Turbo. It is one of the most dominant Formula One cars ever built, and a true icon of the sport.	McLaren - MP4-4
Number 1 Tyrrell - 002/003, 1971 The 1971 Tyrrell 003 has won eight Grand Prix races, more than any other individual car. Driven by Jackie Stewart, it debuted at the 1971 Spanish Grand Prix and won at the first attempt. Stewart and team mate François Cevert used different chassis throughout both 1971 and 1972, with Stewart having exclusive use of 003 and Cevert competing with 002. Sadly at Watkins Glen, with Stewart having already clinched his third World Championship, Cevert was killed during the Saturday morning qualifying in the 002 car. Because of Cevert's death, Tyrell withdrew its entry for this GP, and Stewart did not run his final 100th race.	Tyrrell - 003