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The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is coming to Silicon Valley in hopes of fostering more efficient patent applications in the tech world.

The office announced that it is opening three more satellite offices throughout the country, including one in heart of California's tech hub. The PTO is already set to open a satellite office in Detroit on July 13 as a part of recent patent reform legislation, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act.

Silicon Valley leaders have been lobbying for a satellite office for three years, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The area accounted for almost one … Read more

- Durex Facebook app pairs couples with just the right song...The 404 recommends "True" by Spandau Ballet.

- Do yourself a favor and download Google Chrome for iOS right this second.

- SWAT team throws flashbangs, raids wrong home due to open WiFi network.

- Here's the Braun tape recorder that inspired Apple's new podcast app.

- Don't forget to set your clocks a second faster this weekend.

- Meet up with The 404 at Comic Con 2012 for happy hour (5PM) on Saturday, July 14th! It's … Read more

On October 4, 2004, the idea of incentive prizes hit the mainstream when Burt Rutan and his team at Scaled Composites launched SpaceShip One into orbit for the second time and won the $10 million Ansari X Prize.

Since then, prizes like that have become more and more common, and though the X Prizes are still the gold standard, there are now similar competitions from medical research to science to business, and beyond.

Not long ago, however, the U.S. government got into the business (PDF) of using competitions like these to come up with new ways to solve existing … Read more

NEW YORK -- No one hooted or jeered when Cary Sherman took the stage today at the Personal Democracy Forum 2012.

That's worth noting, because Sherman is CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, the trade group of the top four recording companies, and because the forum crowd was full of politically minded techies that -- it's safe to say -- feel some antipathy for the RIAA. OK, some of these people downright hate the RIAA.

All you have to do to measure the degree of animosity for the RIAA is read the user comments of any … Read more

The two lawmakers who spearheaded a protest in January against controversial antipiracy legislation said today that they want the country to adopt an Internet Bill of Rights.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), said today at the Personal Democracy Forum 2012 in New York that the country needs a way to guarantee citizens their Internet freedoms.

"What we need is a way to measure how we're going to ensure the voice of [Internet] networks is protected," Wyden said during an interview the two lawmakers gave to Andrew Rasiej, an entrepreneur and founder of the … Read more

Now that the Internet isn't flooded with Facebook IPO news, we can move on to more breaking news, like Hollywood finally answering our prayers for a Hook prequel that tells the Rufio origin story.

That's right, the original actor who played Rufio, Dante Basco, recently announced in an interview that a Rufio prequel film is in the works under the directing eye of Rpin Suwannath. Maybe we'll finally get to the bottom of how he got those fabulous red tights.… Read more

In New York state, legislators in both chambers have proposed bills that would force Web sites to police the identities of anonymous commenters. 

Under the proposed Internet Protection Act (S06779), when anyone complains about an anonymous (or pseudonymous) comment, the Web site must make the commenter attach their "real name" to the comment or the anonymous comment would by law have to be removed. 

That's right: if someone doesn't like your comment the Web site will be legally bound to make you reveal your identity. The accused commenter will also be required to verify … Read more

The House Armed Services Committee yesterday approved an amended version of the National Defense Authorization Act that removes language requiring presidential authorization for military offensive operations in cyberspace to defend the country.

Congressional sources working with House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard "Buck" McKeon said the move did not grant the secretary of defense any additional powers and dismissed fears as unwarranted.

"We don't interpret this to mean that Congress is giving the Department of Defense new authorities," said a committee source. "It would all be within the context of the Authorization to Use … Read more

Democrats in Washington are aiming to protect employees being asked to hand over the keys to their Facebook accounts.

A new bill introduced yesterday in the U.S. Senate would seek to stop employers from requesting passwords or access to an employee's account on Facebook and other social networks.

Known as the Password Protection Act Of 2012 (PDF), the bill is the latest response from politicians over the growing trend of employers eager to snoop around their workers' online accounts.

In some cases, current employees are being pressured to allow access to their Facebook accounts. A teacher's aide … Read more