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Tim Ackermann

@timack.bsky.social
275 followers 303 following 1.4K posts

Patent & trademark attorney with over 25 years experience in helping protect businesses' trademark & patent rights. (Former @ntxip on you know where)

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Tim Ackermann @timack.bsky.social · 10h
Looking forward to listening to this discussion of privacy with @kashhill.bsky.social !
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Sky Marchini @sky.skymarchini.net · 11h
that's bait.
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Pope Leo XIV
@Pontifex
·
Oct 2
In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgent to distinguish human art from what machines produce. There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of
Show more
Spectro
@Spectromachina
Pope, would you please shut the fuck up about matters you do not understand? You're not an Ai influencer, no one elected you, and you have absolutely no weight in this debate and you're being used as a mouthpiece to sway public opinion. how many local models do you run?
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
The Pope is elected by cardinals in a Conclave which gathers in the Sistine Chapel.

vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2…
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Context is written by people who use X, and appears when rated helpful by others.  Find out more.
8:26 AM · Oct 2, 2026
·
45.7K
 
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https://x.com/Spectromachina/status/2105997770653839860
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Sophia_Nyx 🐰 @sophianyx.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Name a film quote you use all the time.
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Tim Ackermann @timack.bsky.social · 22h
"... nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to make sure."
static.klipy.com
Sigourney Weaver as Ripley: 'Nuke from Orbit'
Alt: Sigourney Weaver as Ripley: I say we take off and nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to make sure.
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Jared @jaredmcclain.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
A federal district court just held that police use of Flock cameras without a warrant violates the Fourth Amendment. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
constitutionally collect this information about one car-and its driver-by
following that vehicle on public roadways over a month. But this leaves the
question of why is it the government's business where everyone goes all the
time? The government cannot go snooping through our personal lives and
business without an adequate basis to do so. That is what the Supreme Court
has said since its decision in Katz through its decision in Chatrie this year,
nearly sixty years later. It is not too much to draw the line at indiscriminate
mass surveillance.
No doubt, ALPR technology comes with remarkable benefits that the
Court cannot ignore. But the Fourth Amendment requires courts to draw a line when the cost is too great. Alaniz's search in just the ALPR system
provided him with more than 50 individual records of Kyle's whereabouts
across the country for an entire month. The Court finds that because the
ALPR systems Alaniz used to search Kyle's historical location information
intruded on her reasonable expectation of privacy in the whole of her physical
movements, it was a search under the Fourth Amendment. Based on the
information in the record, the only reason Alaniz conducted that search was
because he saw her license plate was from California. That search was not
supported by probable cause, and it was done without a warrant in violation
of Kyle's Fourth Amendment rights. That search also has a nexus to the
remainder of the traffic stop because Alaniz began following Kyle's car while
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Techdirt @techdirt.com · 23h
Koreans Left With Spoiled Food Due To Borked Samsung Firmware Update For ‘Smart’ Fridges I must be getting old, because the concept around most IoT injections into... www.techdirt.com/2026/10/02/koreans…
techdirt.com
Koreans Left With Spoiled Food Due To Borked Samsung Firmware Update For ‘Smart’ Fridges
I must be getting old, because the concept around most IoT injections into otherwise perfectly usable home devices has me wanting to get all these smart-devices off of my lawn. Call me a luddite if you like, but I just don't think my toothbrush needs to be connected to the internet. And if you ask...
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Tim Ackermann @timack.bsky.social · 22h
Remember - the "r" in IoT stands for "reliability"!
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Tim Ackermann @timack.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Pour one out for my kids. Two lawyer parents. 🤷
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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Flock's whole thing is that they argue their system does not need a warrant and they claim this is a settled issue. Very hard to overstate the importance that a federal judge has said this is not the case. Flock's CEO just said it was "pretty cut and dry"
The new decision also immediately invalidates the core argument that Flock’s CEO Garrett Langley has made saying that Flock was not a constitutional issue. “You and I don’t get to pick what’s a constitutional violation and what’s not. We have judges, we have elected officials, there’s a process for that. We follow the law, we follow the Constitution. So far, in our belief and what will be for a long time, the courts have deemed this is not a warrantless search; this is a valid product as it relates to the Fourth Amendment. So I don’t see any change there,” Langley told The Drive in July, adding the issue was “pretty cut and dry.”

Notably, Hill suggested that other courts that have ruled Flock searches do not constitute a Fourth Amendment search were likely wrong to do so, and that they have not considered the widespread and automated context of the AI-powered surveillance system.
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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
BREAKING: A federal judge has ruled for the first time that a Flock search was unconstitutional and violated a woman's Fourth Amendment rights. Oklahoma cop pulled over a woman and searched her in Flock "because he saw her license plate was from California" www.404media.co/federal-judg...
404media.co
Federal Judge Rules a Flock Search Was ‘Indiscriminate Mass Surveillance’ and Unconstitutional
Flock’s nationwide network is quickly “approaching dragnet-type law enforcement practice” and the cop should have got a warrant, the judge wrote.
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Hansi Lo Wang (he/him) @hansilowang.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Eligible voters of the United States, Have you checked your state or territory's deadline for registering to vote or updating your registration for the midterm elections? (SPOILER ALERT: They are coming up fast!) There's a guide for you at npr.org/vote
npr.org
How to register to vote and check your registration status
For the 2026 elections, NPR has collected deadlines and information on how to register to vote — online, in person or by mail — in every U.S. state and territory.
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Ed Timberlake @trademarksaremagic.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
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Tim Ackermann @timack.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I'm really looking forward to specimens of this mark on "grow tents."
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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 02/10/2026
This will never stop blowing my mind. A 12-year sequence of real telescope images of a star 133 lightyears away. And around it, four planets slowly orbiting. Four real exoplanets, each more massive than Jupiter, imaged as they move around their host star.
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Sarah Fackrell @design-law.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Just in case any trademark litigators are thinking about trying this:
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Tim Ackermann @timack.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The Texas Two-Step as a means of shedding liability isn't "next" but comes to mind. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_t...
en.wikipedia.org
Texas two-step bankruptcy - Wikipedia
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Patent Buddy @patentbuddy.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
patentlyo.com/patent/2026/...
patentlyo.com
Clear but Impossible: Satius v. Samsung Moves Inoperable Claims from Indefiniteness to Enablement
Satius v. Samsung: a claim reciting an impossible alternative is definite, but the Federal Circuit holds it invalid for lack of enablement under Amgen.
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Mike Wiser @drmikewiser.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Remember: Darwin's note of "I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everybody & everything" was written on Oct 1 (1861). Thus we are free to celebrate Very Poorly And Very Stupid Hatred Day today.
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evacide @evacide.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Android has rolled out some new features for Advanced Protection, including intrusion logging, which is especially useful for survivors because nearly all commercially-available Android stalkerware is installed by a person with physical access logging in: blog.google/security/and...
blog.google
6 ways Advanced Protection on Android keeps you safe
Discover new Advanced Protection features on Android designed to defend against sophisticated threats and keep your data safe.
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Tim Ackermann @timack.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
So far, man, so far ...
static.klipy.com
Homer Simpson and Bart Simpson Moment
Alt: Homer Simpson and Bart Simpson Moment - "so far..."
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Tim Ackermann @timack.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Sure, use the stochastic parrot as a basis for military action.
In fact, today’s LLMs and the chatbots they power are not poorly understood, nor are they powerful in the sense of being effective tools for this use case. They are systems for generating plausible looking text, built out of enormous, haphazardly collected datasets and then “fine-tuned” (that is, further trained) to be especially appealing to their intended users.
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Nihl L'Amas @nih-llamas.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Bienvenido a octubre.
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Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
New: USPS is to put cameras in its trucks that continuously record. This is to gather data on roads, signage, and to improve "community safety," the agency tells me. The cameras are marketed to capture passing license plates too, but don't run ALPR software www.404media.co/usps-to-put-...
404media.co
USPS To Put Cameras in Trucks That Scan Roads for ‘Community Safety’
USPS says the cameras, put on USPS truck dashboards, will scan roads, signs, and more.
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Tim Ackermann @timack.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
This was the original report in question: www.cnn.com/2026/09/18/p...
Apologies - no alt text b/c CNN did not permit text capture from a screen.
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Tim Ackermann @timack.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Sure, use the stochastic parrot as a basis for military action.
In fact, today’s LLMs and the chatbots they power are not poorly understood, nor are they powerful in the sense of being effective tools for this use case. They are systems for generating plausible looking text, built out of enormous, haphazardly collected datasets and then “fine-tuned” (that is, further trained) to be especially appealing to their intended users.
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
She also adjusted her pace to ensure the injured cub could keep up. By 2008, he was observed hunting on his own & at the age of 20 is King of the Fat Bears, holding his own at the crowded Brook Falls. A story of a mother's love, sacrifice & a little cub who became a champion fat bear. 🥹
discvr.blog
How Bear 89 earned the name Backpack
Discover how Bear 89 became Backpack, why his nickname predates his leg injury, and how his mother Holly adjusted to her cub’s needs.
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Count Melancholia @lillyh.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Screenshot @ncdominie@mastodon.scot
"Great moments in Scottish engineering history. James Watt tries to work out how his phone attaches to his selfie stick"
Image description:
Statue of James Watt. In his right hand he holds a telescopic stick with a frame at the top; in his left he holds a flat object about the size of a large smartphone. He is scowling at the possibly-not-a-smartphone as if he is tempted to yeet it into the sea. On that basis, it probably _is_ a phone.
Sept 28, 2026
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Traces of Texas @tracesoftexas.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
This is a photo of Texas Longhorn superfan Scott Wilson in his longhorn-themed Cadillac. Scott was undoubtedly on his way to a game when this was taken. Before he died last year at the age of 74, Scott had seen 595 longhorn games in a row, without missing a single one. Courtesy Scott's social media.
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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
In a new interview, Bill Gates speaks to the imminent dangers of unregulated AI that could easily result in mass death. He does not hold back. (Gift link to the full interview: www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/o...)
So why is anything needed beyond — and is anything needed beyond? — the simply natural incentives under capitalism and normal corporate reputational management?

Well, I almost can't believe you're asking that. This is the most dangerous thing that humans have ever gone near.
In other areas, do we just say: Hey, release your drugs? There's no F.D.A., there's no airline safety board, there's no requirement that cars use seatbelts. Do we just use the liability laws to try and keep humans safe? You know: Oh, you're shipping opioids. Somebody should just sue you.
I mean, we've created a society that tries to keep people safe not by saying: Oh, we can bankrupt the person who does that.And you say there's filtering. There's no filtering. You can take an open-source model that can create bioweapons and disable any monitoring of any kind, and this exists today.
So no, there is no filtering of any kind.
And so say you kill 100 million people — you want to use a lawsuit?
I almost can't keep a straight face.And part of the reason I'm speaking so loudly — as loud as I can — is that you can't rely on the industry to self-regulate here. I mean, it's just insane.
The only question in my mind is: Do we wait until a cyberattack causes massive damage and a bioattack causes massive damage, and then the monitoring safeguards are required in these models to minimize the chance of that happening many, many more times? Or can we be wise enough to put these things in and require these things to be put in before millions of deaths?
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Tim Ackermann @timack.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
So... any wall with a roughly 1/3 floor-ceiling center panel? I'm *sure* that's novel ...
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Wrong Hands @wronghands.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
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Tim Ackermann @timack.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Could it be that the team doesn't want someone else not under its control to be able to use a mark long associated with that team?
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 29/09/2026
McDonald’s uses “machine-learning algorithms to continually analyze data from millions of daily transactions across McDonald’s nearly 14,000 restaurants and generate what the company calls ‘the optimal price’ at each location for each menu item, from Big Macs ‌to discounted coffee for seniors.”
reuters.com
Inside McDonald’s push to have AI price your Big Mac
McDonald’s is increasingly using artificial intelligence to guide menu prices across the U.S. and some global markets, a plan that aims to boost headquarters’ profit but risks alienating customers and...
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Nihl L'Amas @nih-llamas.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
They kicked people out of their homes so Foxconn could have the land.
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Tim Ackermann @timack.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I grew up just east of this area. Remember reading about this then and thinking "Uh-oh." And yeah, eminent domain - grandfather lost the family farm that way.
To land the project, Mount Pleasant village officials quickly voted to give Foxconn more than four square miles of land, which is the equivalent of the entire size of some Chicago suburbs. They did so by declaring that property -- then-occupied by long-time residents and farmers -- as “blighted.” That allowed those properties to be bought up and taken over by the government through what’s known as “eminent domain.”
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Tim Ackermann @timack.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
So... a defective product?
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Tim Ackermann @timack.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
No, no, judge, it's just your [plainly erroneous] perception.... Yikes
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Tim Ackermann @timack.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
This'll be fun to watch
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Tim Ackermann @timack.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
This is really surprising. *High schools* here have to have immersion tubs / tarps when it's above ~80/82. www.uiltexas.org/health/info/...
The only cooling mechanisms at the workout, the players wrote, were small towels from a cooler, water from squirt bottles and water sprayed from a garden hose onto Mayich for “less than a minute.” No immersion ice tub was present.
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Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Exceptional solidarity from ASU hockey players who have demanded their coach be placed on leave for essentially overseeing the murder of their teammate and have disputed the university’s findings. www.nytimes.com/athletic/764...
Seven Arizona State men’s hockey players asked the university’s president to place the Sun Devils’ coaching staff on administrative leave pending further investigation into the workout that left sophomore transfer Matthew Mayich on life support.

In a 26-page letter sent to ASU president Michael Crow on Monday and obtained by The Athletic, the players disputed numerous findings from the university’s initial review of the Aug. 20 workout, writing that Mayich did not receive water and was provided inadequate medical care after his collapse.
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The obvious conclusion (to me): if you have proprietary research & you upload it into the Plagiarism Nexus, it's not YOUR proprietary research anymore. Behave accordingly.
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Nit Nurse With Wound @dannybirchall.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"Historic England was spending six figures to wrap photographs the taxpayer had already paid for. Then the wrapper died, and the public cannot see them at all."
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Emily Gorcenski @emily.gorcen.ski · 28/09/2026
Here’s the most incredible story you’ll read today. A small plane with four people aboard crashes in a field. Another pilot witnesses it. That pilot happens to be flying a bunch of skydivers. They offer to jump to assist, are given permission. The skydivers happen to be EMTs. Everyone survives.
wisn.com
Skydivers alert emergency crews, assist after plane crashes near East Troy airport
Four people were aboard the single-engine plane when it went down in a cornfield near Carvers School Road in East Troy at about 1:30 p.m.
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Tim Ackermann @timack.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Is it your belief that discovery in litigation does not apply to your own hardware? I have terrible news for you.
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Erin Biba @erinbiba.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Nor’Easter is heading towards the east coast so reminder that if you have any other option DO NOT put your body in flood water. It has raw sewage, gasoline, chemicals, medical waste, radiological waste and more — anything the water touches. People die from infections after contact with it.
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Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Just helping with editing here. These bots aren’t sentient. They’re doing what they’re programmed to do. OpenAI, a private company supposedly bound by laws, committed federal crimes.
Screenshot of BBC article: OpenAI bots (struck through) meddled with multiple US government agency sites
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Tim Ackermann @timack.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"Whatsamatta boss? I put out a basket by them pumpkins, just like you said."
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Kendyl Hanks @kendylhanks.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This is what we call an attractive nuisance
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Tim Ackermann @timack.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
A deep cut, this
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Maryn McKenna @marynmck.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Fake. USDA. Seals. Used by an NC meat processing plant on 83.5 TONS of meat. Produced entirely outside the federal inspection system, according to news reports. We are pretty close to The Jungle (second ed.) now, no? www.scrippsnews.com/life/recalls...
scrippsnews.com
Interactive: Meat recall linked to fake USDA labels
Pork, beef and goat products are being recalled after a company allegedly used fake USDA inspection labels. Explore our interactive guide to see which products are affected and what to look for.
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