The computer program exclusion from Article 52 of the European Patent Convention (EPC) proved impossible to uphold as industry moved over to digital technology, and the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Organisation (EPO) felt emboldened to circumvent the EPC in Vicom by creating the legal fiction of 'technical effect'. This...

Making a robot that looks and behaves like a human being has been the subject of many popular science fiction movies and books. Although the development of such a robot faces many challenges, the making of a virtual human has long been potentially possible. With recent advances in various key technologies related to hardware and...

Thank you for picking up this book! We believe that if you are reading this page, you are an individual seeking to gain a greater degree of familiarity with cybercrime and espionage, and more likely than not, believe that the realities outweigh the fear, uncertainty, and doubt associated with these two topics. Our desire in writing this...

Between the frequently recounted events of the Gold Rush and the Great Depression stretches a period of California history that is equally crucial but less often acknowledged. In his fresh, synthetic consideration of these in-between years, George L. Henderson points specifically to the take-off of California's rural juggernaut between...

As a futurist, you can be fascinating at a cocktail party. Instead of dropping names, you drop facts and figures: We are expected to live well intoour 100s; the average age for young adults to marry in America is 30; the single male head of household is the fastest growing demographic group; and the...

One of the enduring concerns of moral philosophy is deciding who or what is deserving of ethical consideration. Much recent attention has been devoted to the "animal question" -- consideration of the moral status of nonhuman animals. In this book, David Gunkel takes up the "machine question": whether and to what extent...

Fabricated tells the story of 3D printers, humble manufacturing machines that are bursting out of the factory and into homes, businesses, schools, kitchens, hospitals, even the fashion catwalk. The magic happens when you plug a 3D printer into today's mind-boggling digital technologies. Add to that the Internet, tiny, low cost...

* Uses over 3000 examples of real, corpus English to illustrate the...