Many people pick their vacation spots based on their ability to experience something different. After all, what’s the point of going if you’re just going to see the same old things you see every day? If this need for variety describes you, if you’re one of the people who want new experiences, a vacation in Los Angeles will suit you just fine.

Los Angeles is a very large, cosmopolitan American city. It’s a great place to visit because it offers its tourists an incredibly wide array of things to see and do. One of the city’s highlights for people who crave something different is its delightful melange of diverse ethnic groups and cultures. Although their influences can be seen throughout Los Angeles, several of these different cultures are centered or showcased in or around the Downtown district. But even if the multicultural nature of Los Angeles doesn’t really appeal, plenty of other Downtown attractions are available, and some of them will most certainly draw your attention. Downtown Los Angeles, offering something different in every direction, is definitely worth a visit.

No matter where your hotel is located, Downtown Los Angeles is easy to get to. It’s the central hub for transportation throughout the city, and freeways, commuter trains, subways, light rail and buses can all take you there. Downtown isn’t all that large, so whether you drive or take public transportation, once you get there you can take a DASH shuttle or set out on foot for your ultimate destination.

Historic Olvera Street, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Grand Central Market, the Disney Concert Hall, the Japanese-American National Museum, several different ethnic enclaves and stunning American and international architecture are just a few of Downtown’s tourist highlights. Olvera Street is in the oldest part of Los Angeles and it forms part of the Downtown area’s El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument. it’s the perfect place to start if you’re looking for Southern California history or the quaintness of an old-style Mexican marketplace. A living museum lined with 27 historic buildings, Olvera Street also hosts a variety of ethnic celebrations that include Mexican-style music and dancing.

A cultural experience of another type, the permanent collections and exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) provide a remarkably varied glimpse into post-1940 art in all media. It’s an invaluable cultural resource that Downtown is rightfully proud of. Walk through it and you’ll soon see why.

Grand Central Market is located on Broadway in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles, within easy walking distance of several other area attractions. Full of brisk and bustling activity, it offers opportunities for people-watching in addition to fresh and already-prepared local and international foods. It’s a great place to take a break from the concrete jungle, and while you’re at it, have a cooling drink or a tasty bite to eat.

The Disney Concert Hall is a striking piece of functional architecture designed by Frank Gehry, an architect acclaimed for his talents throughout the world. The home of the equally-renowned Los Angeles Philharmonic, Disney’s acoustics appropriately are among the best in the world. Beautiful music, beautiful building. Need we say more?

Chronicling 130 years of Japanese-American history and culture, the Japanese-American National Museum provides a fascinating look into the interplay of Asian and American cultures. Its collections include a variety of paintings by Japanese-American artists, but the museum’s perspective on the World War II internment camps is particularly poignant.

Three ethnic districts are located in Downtown Los Angeles: a Mexican enclave, including the already-mentioned Olvera Street; Little Tokyo, home of the Japanese-American National Museum as well as a variety of Japanese shops and restaurants; and Chinatown, primarily centered around North Broadway. Little Tokyo, located near the Los Angeles Civic Center, is one of only three “official” Japantowns in the United States. The cultural focal point for Japanese-Americans in Southern California, this almost unique district is well worth a visit.

Many American cities have Chinatowns, but the Chinese community in Los Angeles, with its wide, busy main street, is somewhat different than the usual warren of narrow streets and lanes found in many cities. Yes, this Chinatown features the typical small shops and Chinese restaurants, but it is most interesting for its open-air marketplace where just about everything for sale is open to haggling.

Variety is the rule of thumb with Downtown Los Angeles dining opportunities, too. Restaurants in every price range, from hot dog stands to fine dining, offer cuisine as varied as the city itself. From early breakfasts to get you started through tasty late night snacks to nosh on, if you’re hungry one of Downtown’s cafés, pubs or restaurants can help you. Downtown also offers taverns, lounges and bars galore, and you may want to take advantage, because many of them offer some pretty fine live entertainment. And if you need a place to stay, Downtown hotels range from the hip and trendy to those offering more than a touch of classic elegance. They cater primarily to business travelers, but vacationers can also take advantage of their prime locations in the city center.

Downtown, much like the entire city, has a number of faces. If you’re looking for something different, downtown Los Angeles has it. There’s enough variety to satisfy even the most demanding traveler.

A dance academy is composed of a group of artists who are dedicated to the art of dancing. They understand deep corners of various dances. Dance schools assist people to learn dances like bollywood dances – New Indian movies dance. Bollywood dances are very famous in India and abroad like in Los Angeles in California.

People are joining dance academy company to learn dance steps such as Kathak Dance. Learning dance is an art and it needs someone’s assistance if you are new to any dance. People in Los Angeles know modern dance well but to learn bollywood style dance they need assistance from a professional bollywood choreographers or any classical dance academy company.

Dancing academies provide dance classes in an approach that it becomes simple for you to understand the dance. They break down the step and beats for you to understand it faster. NDM Dance production studio in Los Angeles in California is the paramount bollywood dance school that provides dance lessons from award winning bollywood choreographers. These are energetic local Indian dancers who perform in various contests and private occasions.

You will find many dance schools providing dancing classes and home learning tuitions as well. Nakul Dev Mahajan is a well known dancer in India and California as well. Recently, four of his students won a Beauty Pageant contest awards. They were skilled and choreographed by Nakul Dev in his studio.

Finding a school according to your requirement is not a straightforward task. Several things need to be considered before choosing a dance academy. Things like where do you live, expertise and experience of choreographers, popularity and professionalism of the dancing academy and so on. You better do a research with your friends or find more information available online to find news to locate best dancing academy in your area. Gather top 5 academies and select one of them to take dancing classes from depending on your requirement and preferences. It will help you to discover the dancing school to your suits.

In a May 12 article in the Los Angeles Times, Barbara Demick began her story about the indictment of Hwang Woo-Suk and five associates with the text: South Korean prosecutors announced today that they had charged scientist Hwang Woo-suk with embezzlement and fraud, saying he misused public funds for his fabricated experiments in human cloning.

The article is interesting for what it didn’t say concerning two areas that might be of relevance to people interested in how Proposition 71 is going to play out in California: the egg donation issue and the multiple fraud issue.

Of egg procurement, the Times article did not mention that Hwang Woo-Suk was also indicted for violating the Korean law on bioethics, adopted in January 2005. He paid money to women to obtain eggs for his research.

In December 2005, a U.S. stem cell researcher in commenting on what he saw as hyperventilation about the egg donation problem in Hwang’s lab, that, “Now that [Hwang] has done his public mea culpa I say the time is to forgive him and let him get back to plying his considerable craft.” The same researcher also wrote: We pay women to donate eggs for infertility treatment, and on the whole the practice has been done reasonably well. Donation for ESC research is as important. As long as full information, coverage, etc. are there, there is no reason per se why some financial compensation is not provided.

South Korea had adopted a strong legal framework concerning the procurement of human eggs. It was violated almost immediately, and now we have an indictment. Although the Los Angeles Times had written on April 27: [CIRM] also has adopted top-notch standards for research ethics and the protection of potential egg donors, one notes that it takes more than standards to see that people are protected. Embryonic stem cell research requires human eggs, and the pressure for researchers to obtain them is immense. Although it was widely rumored that Hwang Woo-Suk pressured subordinates into donating eggs for his 2004 paper in Science, and later that he paid for eggs, little action was taken at the time.

The theme of pressure is present in the multiple fraud issue in the Hwang matter. Although the May 12 Times article wrote “prosecutors said Hwang and an aide fabricated the data in two landmark papers,” the situation is a bit more complicated. The prosecutors confirmed Hwang’s initial claims that one of his junior researchers, Kim Sun Jong, falsified results of the 2004 and 2005 studies and that Hwang was initially unaware of this falsification. This was not a one-person fraud, or a concerted two-person fraud. Hwang was actually tricked by his subordinate Kim Sun Jong. This is not to say that Hwang did not commit fraud. He did. However, the Hwang saga illustrates how research pressures can cause bad acts, both as to a junior researcher (Kim Sun Jong) and to a team leader (Hwang Woo Suk). Although the May 12 Times article states that Hwang is now “despised as a charlatan,” the current situation, especially in South Korea, is more complex. Hwang wrote many articles which were accurate, and just as he was the perpetrator of fraud, he was also a victim of fraud. And, just as people in California want to believe in the end result of stem cell research, so do people in South Korea.

The story of Kim Sun Jong illustrates another point of relevance to Proposition 71. One of the selling points for state funding of stem cell research, in the presence of limitations in federal funding created by President Bush in 2001, was to forestall a loss of research presence from the United States to other countries. If there were no funding in the U.S., all of the U.S. stars of stem cell research would pack up and go to foreign countries more favorably disposed to stem cell research, and the U.S. would lose its edge in this area of potential high impact. The story of Kim Sun Jong is a counterpoint to this thinking. Working on a team perceived to be the world leaders in stem cell research, Kim Sun Jong, according to Korean prosecutors, falsified research results to obtain exchange fellowships in the U.S. He succeeded in getting to the U.S., specifically to the lab of Gerald Schatten at the University of Pittsburgh, who has obtained the most federal support for stem cell research. Ironically, in following up on leads of fraud done by Hwang, producers for Korean MBC-TV interviewed Kim Sun Jong in Pittsburgh on October 20, 2005, and, quite prophetically for that time, told Kim that both Science papers by Hwang would be retracted.

In summary, in failing to mention the egg procurement issue and the multiple fraud issue, the May 12 article in the Los Angeles Times lost the opportunity to illuminate two issues of high impact in the implementation of Proposition 71. Eggs will be needed to carry out embryonic stem cell research, and the potential for abuse, and disregard of that abuse, in obtaining eggs is a major, foreseeable, problem. Because the abuse in Korea occurred in the face of strong laws, the assertion that CIRM has adopted strong standards as to egg donation is not the final answer to this issue. Pressure on researchers to obtain significant results can lead to fraud. The Hwang matter involved independent frauds by at least two researchers, and does not fit neatly into the “one bad apple” box.

Los Angeles is one of the finest cities in the world, and if you happen to Rent Home in Los Angeles you can experience grand living experience. As one of the most important cities in the state of California, United States, there is a variety of options available. The city has a cosmopolitan ambiance and people from many parts of the world, come and settle down here. You can also be a proud citizen, if you decide to Rent Home in Los Angeles and live here.

However, there are certain things that you have to keep in mind, when you want to Rent Home in Los Angeles. You should know that you can select from a wide range of apartments, which vary from luxury to budget ones. You can contact the various professional real estate agents of the city, who can make your task easier.

The real estate agents based in the city provide you with complete details of the various apartments, which are up for rent. You can fix prior appointments with these agents, who can provide you with a detailed survey of the places that you want to rent. You should always keep in mind that when you Rent Home in this city, they should be well located, communicable and should consist of all the basic facilities you would require. The city of Los Angeles has a very large geographic expansion, and you can live in the uptown, downtown and outskirt areas of the city. The real estate industry of the city has grown considerably over the years, and it provides you with the option of going for various sizes of apartments.

Los Angeles is quite an expensive city to live in the United States, and it provides you with an opportunity of renting apartments, which go up to 1500 $ a month, on an average. The Monroe apartments are one of the places which you can easily choose to live in. Located close to the grand Hollywood area of the city, these apartments provide you with superb Spanish decor. You can find luxurious 2 bed room apartments for 1500$, which stands out to be quite a good deal.

If you want to Rent Home in Los Angeles, the Hyde park area is a good option. These apartments provide you with a gorgeous view of the city skyline. The apartments vary from two to three bed room sizes. You can live here with all the luxury, as all the basic amenities are available for your convenience. Apart from the apartments, you can also go for renting various well furnished houses of the city. You can choose from a variety of luxury houses, like bungalows and condovilles.

Homes for Rent in Los Angeles, which are meant for luxury living, provide you with plenty of scope for indulgence. You can have lavish dinners in the spacious dining rooms, take a bath in the swimming pools, or organize a heart warming party in the garden areas.

You can visit the various blogs written about homes for rent in Los Angeles, and get detailed information about them. These blogs are written by customers or professional real estate agents, who have benefited from the real estate market of the place.

Los Angeles has long been one of the costliest cities in California. Its reputation is such that the real estate media writes about an “affordability crisis” that is brewing in the Golden State. Realty reports show that the California home premium – the difference between California median house prices and U.S. house price medians – doubled in the last four years, from $126,000 in 2011 to $255,000 right now. And prices continue to climb.

The City is also notorious for its growing chasm between rich and poor. Rich manage to snag the homes. Poor crouch on the street. Less poor are regularly evicted from their apartments due to being unable to pay the rent. Buildings are erected – but for commercial use only.

Finally, after pens broken, keyboards clicked, microphones pressed on and off and lots of invitations to attend meetings dedicated to redressing the problem, the City of Los Angeles has come to some sort of solution. It will erect more apartments.

That’s the news for 2016.

Background

Housing prices are steeper than the famous skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles. Rental prices are no better.

The Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) of Harvard University recently showed that in prime areas such as San Francisco and Los Angeles almost 60 percent of renters consumed too much of their income for a roof over their heads. About 58.5 percent of the renters from Los Angeles/Orange County (LA/OC) metro areas use more than 30 percent of their income for rent and losing out on other necessities such as food and healthcare. The JLL calls this “burdened”. As much as 32.8 percent of renters, they said, are “severely burdened” which means that they consume over 50 percent of their income for rent’s payment. Los Angeles, JLL reported, had become the 22nd least affordable city in the country. It has become the place with one of the largest levels of homelessness. Too many renters are evicted due to their failing to pay their rent.

Head-splitting rents

Most people prefer to rent apartments rather than buy. Buying a home in LA is beyond the purse strings of most. The problem is that the level of rent almost approaches that of buying a house. In Los Angeles alone, rents jumped 12 percent in 2015, according to the apartment search site Zumper. Vacancy rates hovered around 3 percent. Researchers at USC predicted that rents will reach more than 8 percent of what they were in 2013 by mid-2016.

Stories are agonizing.

A new Harvard report found that 59 percent of people in metropolitan LA are spending too much of their paycheck on rent – 30 percent or more. The Business and Economy section in the LA radio channel, scpr.org, interviewed one Heather M. O’Brien, an artist and founding member of the Los Angeles Tenants Union, who estimated that she devotes about half of her income to rent. Still, she has not seen the rent hikes other members have because she lives in a rent-regulated apartment. The lucky ones are forced to move or share rooms. The unlucky ones -and there’s daily more of them – drop to the street. Even so-called “Affordable housing” units are still out of reach for many residents.

True, Los Angeles increased its building momentum and mass at the start of 2013. Also true that during 2015 alone, builders brought 5,700 rentals to market, concentrated downtown and in the San Fernando Valley, according to a report by the real estate firm Marcus & Millichap. But how many of these buildings are affordable? Few, if any, according to the Harvard report.

Construction has quadrupled its pace. At the same time, homes have sped out of reach for the regular person (namely lower to middle class individuals). Minorities are especially pressed. In the last few years, many a working- to lower middle-class family has relocated to the closest downtown LA suburbs but prices have escalated there too.

Experts trace climbing prices to a variety of factors.

These include lack of space. Los Angeles is crammed. Skyscrapers step into and make up for housing room. The city sweats to cramp as many people as possible into minimal space. The results remind some of sardines. The basic law of Economics sums up the situation: Lack of space leads to higher prices.

Then there’s the phenomenon of foreign all-cash buyers who flock to this Golden City and buy residential and commercial spots. Just a few days ago (late December 2015), British hotel firm Huxton staked out prime property in the Los Angeles downtown area. So houses are built but they are constructed on scales that appeal to the wealthy. And the less-wealthy working class or middle-class families remain without.

Opponents of the system have spent large amounts of time and money writing about the problem, fielding meetings, even trying to get the government involved. Activists point to the growing chasm between rich and poor and argue that everyone – regardless of fortune – needs a place to call their home.

The activists may have won!

News of new apartments for 2016

Thousands of new apartments are expected to come online in the tight Los Angeles rental market next year. News goes that the city has approved $7 billion in construction in the past year. This is the largest building activity Los Angeles has seen in about three decades.

That’s the good news.

The bad?

Rents are expected to rise.

There’s one small consolation for renters in LA: Compared to other cities, it doesn’t have the highest rents. That would be San Francisco, New York, Boston, Oakland. Los Angeles is down the list at number 8, according to Zumper.

But if you live in LA and are looking for affordable housing that’s minimal consolation.

Meanwhile, the City’s union is hoping to control rents in Los Angeles by advocating that the city’s rent-stabilization law apply to more units than those built before 1978. That may be one solution.

Another may be hard money lenders. These give you loans by focusing on collateral rather than credit. Some borrowers who are shunned by banks turn to them. Interest is high, but terms are flexible and aggressive competition sometimes lowers costs. For more details, see other articles I have written on hard money loans.

There really is no way to “skate” or “slide” (unless your Booty Slidin’) to a head turning lower body other than pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone – beyond easy street. If there were, we would all have whiplash – because we’d spend our entire day gawking at women with great buns and thighs. While your local Chiropractor would love you – the reward of a rocking body wouldn’t be as sweet without knowing you’ve done the work.

So if you are ready to kick it up a notch, check out one of my favorite workouts for staying lean and mean all year round.

Stairs! Stairs! Stairs! Running – lunging – hopping – striding!

CAUTION: Be sure your knees are up to the challenge. It’s not always the going up that can be tough on them – going down can be rough as well.

For this article, I am focusing on running stairs in Los Angeles’ Westside area, which in my humble opinion has some of the best locations for outdoor stair running.

One of my favorites over the years has been the UCLA campus off of Sunset Boulevard. I’ve used these stairs to get in the best shape of my life when training for fitness shows specifically the Ms. Galaxy and Tri-Fitness.

If you are going to head to UCLA here’s a few tips:

– Park for free along Veteran Ave. which is just off of Sunset.

– Pay attention to street cleaning signs.

– Walk up the grass/dirt trail along Sunset. It’s a great 5-10 warm up walk and you will come to the campus entrance and can follow that into the bleachers which you can see as you walk up the hill.

– Meters are available on campus – bring plenty of change – these meters are quarter monsters.

– Definitely bring water and a towel.

Another great set of stairs on LA’s Westside, whether you live in Santa Monica, Brentwood or even in the Palisades are the Santa Monica stairs aka “The Steps”, located just off San Vicente Blvd and 4th St.

These stairs are world famous (seriously) and on any given day you can find some Celebrity or professional athlete getting their “sweat on” running – walking or lunging these stairs. Some tips for heading to the SM stairs:

– There is free parking on 4th Street and also on San Vicente. Just pay attention to the signs in the area.

– Stair etiquette – yield the right of way to faster stair climbers

– Peak times are mornings before 9am and evenings after 5:30pm. So if you want to avoid the crowds and you have the flexibility to do so – I encourage it. Especially if it’s your first time there – it can be overwhelming – navigating the steps and trying to breath at the same time. Just kidding – no – I’m not!

And last but not least, Culver City throws its’ hat into the ring with the stairs at the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook. Now, in all fairness I have not personally run these but hear they are great as part of a mini hike and offer a 360 degree view of Los Angeles and on a clear day you can see the Hollywood sign.

CAUTION: These steps tend to be different heights and some are uneven. Wear appropriate shoes!

The best thing about running stairs is it works so many different parts of your body at once from your butt to your hamstrings to your quads and not to mention your calves. Oh and I almost forgot to mention the cardiovascular benefits. Nope that was on purpose, “heart pounding out of chest” will become a familiar phrase.

Be sure to wear your heart rate monitor – you will probably set a new max HR record. There is no better way to get your cardiovascular fitness in check than running stairs. Truly – even with all the different ways I train to stay fit running stairs can still bring me to my knees… literally.

And the best news is you don’t have to live on Los Angeles’ Westside to take advantage of this workout – you can find a flight or several flights of stairs in an apartment or office building or if you are traveling – hotel stairs are fab! And the stairwells are usually empty since most people never take them! A crime, but that’s a topic for another post.

Here are some of my favorite reasons why running stairs is my number one outdoor workout:

– Great for interval work – run – walk – run – then crawl to the top

– You absolutely will sweat

– Fast way to get your heart rate up

– Buns – Thighs – Calves

– You break out of the “four walls”

– Huge calorie burn

– Mixes things up

So throw on your favorite pair of running shoes, grab water and a towel – go crush the stairs and leave with a butt lift!

When the company I work for moved it’s DBA from Tucson, Arizona to Los Angeles, California, we thought it was going to be very easy to apply for a DBA. Just go to Google and type “file a DBA in Los Angeles.” Well, this was one of the few times that Google has misled me.

I wish I could show you a video of me going from different websites, even websites that looked like the official county of Los Angeles websites but they ended with “.net” that I had to mistrust. Basically, anything that did not end with.gov I thought was a scam. Yet, even after finding official Los Angeles Country websites, there were so many different ones that redirected me from one place to another. I found out the website with.net is an official government website, even though it’s flow is inconsistent and it is poorly designed.

Our company name, Drogobetski Digital Agency, although it has the surname of the owner and some websites said that “we need not file a doing business as” license, we decided to do it anyways because we needed to write checks from an account named after the company, as well as deposit checks in that name.

California

Individuals or entities doing business for profit under a name different from the owner(s) full legal name(s) must file a Fictitious Name Statement with the County Recorder-Clerk’s Office where the business will be conducted. Source: business.gov

DBA Application for LAX

The application and the process is called filing for a “Fictitious Business Name” (FBN). The FBN title — very Hollywood — can throw you off, but that is the way it was named in 1888, and that’s what they use today. The best way to do this is to:

1. Visit http://www.lavote.net/Clerk/Business_Name.cfm and under “Renewals” (yes, it’s there even if you’re not renewing) there is a link to a PDF document titled “Click here for application for fictitious business name statement “
2. Then show up in person to the headquarters at: 12400 Imperial Highway, 2nd Floor, Searches, Room 2207, Filings, Room 2001, Norwalk, CA 90650 (562) 462-2177 Office hours: 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., M-F, except holidays.

Why the Headquarters

Because all other annex agencies won’t be able to answer your official questions as a DBA, like do you need to file with a newspaper? or can you do it online? When do you have to start paying taxes? Do you have to collect sales tax? etc.

Filing to Pay Quarterly Taxes

After about an hour and a half of reading I finally ran into an article that explained that as opposed to filing a DBA (doing business as) license in the state of California or LA, I file a Tax Registration Certificate (TRC) by filling out a Business Tax Application. In Tucson, AZ one filed for an Occupation Certification (as in occupation a room, office or a building) in order to do business there, and they knew that the city would receive certain amount of tax revenue.

How do I apply for a Tax Registration Certificate (TRC)?

You can apply for a certificate by:

• Recommended: Fill out a PDF document (Google for TaxRegistrationV4.pdf) and email the document to them at Finance.CustomerService@lacity.org
• Go there in person at one of their locations. Find that on their website.
• Calling Office of Finance for the City of Los Angeles Customer Service Center at (213) 473-5901 Monday-Friday 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Many people in Los Angeles choose to do their own plumbing repairs. In many cases this may be a good idea, especially if you are handy around the house. When you have a leaky faucet, a toilet that won’t flush properly, or need to install a new garbage disposal or hot water heater, this may be the way to go.

However, if your plumbing repairs are more serious, or you are not sure exactly what needs to be done, you may end up causing a bigger problem than you had to begin with. Then it is time to call in the professionals. Here are some things to remember when deciding whether to do your own plumbing and sewer repairs or to call in a plumbing company.

• Plumbers do this kind of work every single day. Whether you live in a condo, single family residence, or have an industrial or commercial building, plumbers are used to looking for signs of a problem and will be able to fix it quickly.
• Your time is valuable. If you are not used to repairing your own plumbing, call the people who are professionally trained to make these repairs.
• You could end up causing yourself a bigger problem by doing it yourself. There are times when a leaky pipe can end up breaking when you are not sure of what you are doing.
• If you begin to do your own repair work, you could end up damaging your neighbor’s property and become liable for repairs to their plumbing system as well as your own.

Think about this when you begin to make your own repairs. You may just want to call in professional plumbers as soon as you know there is a problem.

In an editorial on the Supreme Court case eBay v. MercExchange, the Los Angeles Times [May 17, B12] stated:

[A]n appeals court [the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, “CAFC”] ruled that MercExchange was automatically entitled to an injunction against EBay.

In a unanimous ruling, the justices disagreed — not only with the appeals court but with a nearly 100-year-old Supreme Court precedent on patent law. That case, which stemmed from a dispute over paper-bag manufacturing techniques, held that an injunction was mandatory in almost all cases of patent infringement.Thus the scales were tilted in favor of patent holders, who could use the threat of an injunction to win disproportionately rich licensing deals.

Of the “nearly 100-year-old” Supreme Court case, Justice Thomas wrote in the unanimous opinion in eBay:

The [district] court’s categorical rule is also in tension with Continental Paper Bag Co. v. Eastern Paper Bag Co., 210 U.S. 405, 422-430, 28 S. Ct. 748, 52 L. Ed. 1122, 1908 Dec. Comm’r Pat. 594 (1908), which rejected the contention that a court of equity has no jurisdiction to grant injunctive relief to a patent holder who has unreasonably declined to use the patent.

The Thomas opinion did not disagree with the Continental Paper case, contrary to what the Los Angeles Times said.

The CAFC did not state that MercExchange was automatically entitled to a permanent injunction. The CAFC did go through the traditional 4-factor analysis for granting a permanent injunction, and disagreed with the findings of the district court. The CAFC erred in suggesting that permanent injunctions will issue absent exceptional circumstances.

The Times editorial also noted:

The patent office is second-guessing itself on some MercExchange patents as well, which points to a fundamental problem that the Supreme Court didn’t address. The system yields too many bad patents, particularly when business methods are concerned. Proposals that would significantly strengthen

the process have been bottled up in Congress. Now that the Supreme Court has started fixing the patent morass, lawmakers need to finish the job.

Of the re-examination matter, I had written in the February 2006 issue of Intellectual Property Today:

One reason eBay furnished to the Supreme Court on the public interest factor in the 4-factor test on injunctions was the uncertain status of the validity of business method patents. In support, the eBay brief noted, that subsequent to the district court decision, the PTO had found claims of US 5,845,265 invalid [In re-exam 90/006,956, filed by eBay under 37 CFR 1.510 on March 5, 2004, after the district court decision of August 6, 2003 in 275 F.Supp.2d 695, the PTO issued a non-final Office Action (signed on Feb. 11, 2005 but mailed March 24,

2005) rejecting claims 26-29 under 102(e) and claims 1-25 under 103 over US 5,664,111, the same art found not invalidating in the CAFC decision of March 16, 2005 (401 F.3d 1323).] To suggest that this was a more pervasive problem, the eBay brief stated that 74% of the time the PTO finds “the patent invalid” or

restricts claims. The eBay brief did not mention that re-examinations occur for only a fraction of a percent of issued patents. The eBay brief also cited Cecil Quillen, 11 Fed. Cir. B. J. 1, 3 for “estimating rate of patent approvals by the PTO to be 97%.” Sadly, Quillen and his co-author Ogden Webster never

estimated the patent approval rate to be 97%. Rather, they placed the Grant Rate in the range 80% to 97%, with the 97% upper bound rendered invalid by their recognition in Footnote 17 that a patent can issue both from a continuing application and the corresponding parent application. Although not mentioned in the

eBay brief, Quillen and Webster corrected their view of estimates of the Grant Rate number the following year (12 Fed. Cir. B. J. 35 (2002), discussed in 86 JPTOS 568 (2004)). In the eBay brief, the 97% number is neither a faithful representation of what Quillen and Webster said nor an accurate statement of the

patent grant rate at the PTO.

An earlier news piece in the Los Angeles Times had said:

The 9-0 decision in the closely watched case reversed a federal

court ruling that said judges must almost always order a halt to ordinary business whenever a company was found to have infringed a valid patent.

The trouble here is that there were only 8 justices voting in eBay v. MercExchange.

The Los Angeles Times got many of the facts wrong on the eBay case, much as it has erred in matters surrounding the embryonic stem cell discussion [Ebert, Lawrence. “Los Angeles Times Article Way Off Base on Stem Cell Issues.” EzineArticles 12 April 2006]

According to California tax law, if the market value of a property is lower than its assessed value on the 1st of January, then the Tax Assessor can review the property and assign the lower property tax value of the two. The assessed value is based on the market value as established in 1975, or when the property was constructed for the first time, or when the property last changed hands. Given below are details of the whole procedure of lowering property tax.

Supporting Information

In order to get a property considered, you should have a decline in value report and request your County’s Tax Assessor for a review. You can request a review for any type of real property, including commercial/industrial buildings, refineries, etc.

Regardless of whether or not the Tax Assessor’s Office requires it, you should submit your case with factual information that supports your claim. The best type of information you can provide is about the sales of similar properties in your area. The value decline report should contain your property’s correct present market value and supporting information about comparable sales in your locality.

Insufficient Information

Providing insufficient information will in the form of news articles or other reports that indicate a decline in property values will not help you lower property tax. This type of information does not justify a reduction in value. A value decline report should be an official report that supports in a factual manner what you say that the assessed property value should be much less on the basis of present market conditions.

Assessed Value

1) Duration

The new value enrolled by the Tax Assessor will last for at least one year; the reduction in value is only temporary. Keep in mind that the assessed value of your property continues to increase annually by no more than 2% (inflation factor) even during the assessment of your property using the value decline report.

The value decline report should be submitted for only the most recent 1st Jan, as the county assessor will not review information from previous years.

2) Disagreement

If you are not satisfied with the tax assessor’s review, you have the option of appealing to either of the following boards: County Assessment Appeals Board, the County Board of Equalization. These boards can help you lower property tax as they are responsible for resolving property evaluation cases between owners and the county assessor.