After telling us what was hot at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and giving us a peek at the future of smart TVs, Frank Gorman and Julie Harada of Gorman & Williams now present their Top 10 gadgets from the expo. Our thanks to Gorman, Harada and Mike Yang for providing us with these dispatches.

The Consumer Electronics Show 2012 launched 20,000 new products.  Selecting the top 10 gadgets out of so many products, even discounting the hype, is a very subjective process.  Our 2012 list contains a wide variety of products, although we gave an edge to several that might have a law practice application.

Lytro Light Field Camera This is a simple, auto-mode camera that captures the light field. It allows you to take a picture and focus after the fact using its touch screen. Pictures can also be viewed in 3D. Winner of the Last Gadget Standing competition at CES.

AirStash Wireless Flash Drive and Media Streamer by Maxell This USB drive has wireless capability that allows storing and transfer of documents and photos and streaming of video to an iPhone, iPad or Kindle Fire. A Wi-Fi environment is not needed, and emails are not necessary for file transfers. It also has a built-in rechargeable battery and still plugs into a USB port on a computer.

IdeaPad YOGA by Lenovo A multi-mode, 13.3-inch notebook with a 360-degree flip-and-fold design that allows four separate usage positions — notebook, tablet, stand and tent. It combines the tablet’s ease of use with the functionality of an ultrabook, the latest generation of the laptop. The cool dual-hinge design is patented.

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Julie Harada joined her colleague Frank Gorman of Gorman & Williams at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Harada writes today about the biggest trend she noticed at this year’s expo. Earlier this week, Gorman and Mike Yang wrote about what’s hot at this year’s show. Later this week, they’ll have their list of the 10 best gadgets from CES.

The most prominent product at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show was the so-called “smart” TV that has built-in web browsers and Wi-Fi connectivity. Television remains the most powerful viewing screen, despite the explosion of mobile devices. Smart TVs were on display last year, but this year they have become even smarter.

Television manufacturers have to provide the viewer with the ability to browse the web, send text and e-mails and  perform other Internet functions, and the standard television remote cannot perform these functions well. Instead, there are apps that allow your tablet or smartphone to become an interactive remote and push any media through your tablet or smartphone to your TV.

Voice and motion control may eliminate the need to connect a tablet or phone to a smart TV, however. With voice control, web browsing on your TV requires no typing. One can perform a web browser search by speaking to the TV, which then converts your voice to text. (It’s similar to the iPhone’s Siri.) With motion recognition, simple hand gestures are all it takes to scroll up and down the on-screen menus. These two features ease the navigation process from one menu to the next, as well as from one web page to the next.

Other smart TV improvements include access to apps. In the Android operating system market, Samsung’s smart TVs provide access to apps. In the Apple or iOS market, access to apps seems to depend on Apple introducing a smart TV.

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Frank Gorman of Gorman & Williams is back in Las Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show. And, just like last year, he’s graciously offered to write a few dispatches about his trip.

The following is an overview of CES, which concludes Friday. Gorman co-wrote this with Mike Yang, counsel to Micro Focus and a former colleague who is also attending CES. (The views expressed below are Yang’s, not those of Micro Focus.)

For attendees, traveling light with comfortable shoes is a must. Over 2,500 companies are showing products and services throughout 1.8 million net square feet of exhibitor space. There are 15 miles of aisles to walk with lots to see and touch.

Propelling most of the innovations are products from a company that is not a CES exhibitor: Apple. The iPhone and the iPad, and to a lesser extent their progeny from other manufacturers, are being used for applications across the board. Companies showing iPad and iPhone-compatible accessories abound, and compatibility with these “smart” devices appears to be a key selling point.

CES also has a variety of educational conferences, covering topics from privacy concerns to copyright infringement to the “spectrum crunch” threatening the expansion of the wireless economy. There are keynote speakers from leading tech companies, such as YouTube and Qualcomm , who assess their industries and predict the future. Steve Ballmer was the kickoff keynote speaker, even though Microsoft announced last month that it will not be back to CES next year.

Here are a few of the product areas that are generating excitement at CES this year:

Automobiles

Six auto manufactures are displaying electronic technologies in their new models — Ford, Audi, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler and Hyundai. (OnStar, a GM subsidiary, has a booth for its service as well, though GM is not showing any of its vehicles.) They are incorporating into the dashboard electronic access to navigation, music, news and information by syncing with the driver’s smartphone with systems supporting both Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems.

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In my Maryland Lawyer story today about spam litigation, I mentioned how appellate court decisions in Maryland and California both upheld the constitutionality of the states’ spam deterrence laws.

But they also provided as part of their opinions the origins of the widely-used nickname for unsolicited commercial email.

SPAM, of course, is the legendary canned meat from Hormel Foods that has become part of popular culture. In 1970, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the legendary British comedy troupe, performed a skit involving a group of Vikings at a restaurant where one ingredient was prominently featured.

The cook and Vikings repeat the word loudly and seemingly nonstop, with the Vikings singing it like a song chorus.

“Thus, in the context of the Internet, ‘spam’ has come to symbolize unwanted, and perhaps annoying, repetitious behavior that drowns out ordinary discourse,” the California appellate court wrote in its decision.

Frank Gorman of Gorman & Williams was in Las Vegas last week for the annual Consumer Electronics Show. On Friday, the intellectual property lawyer offered an overview of the expo. Today, he provides a list of gadgets and products that grabbed his attention.

CES 2011 ended Sunday. More than 130,000 registered attendees walked through 1.5 million square feet of exhibit space looking at a wide range of consumer electronic products. While it is impossible to see everything CES has to offer, each person comes away with a sense of what’s hot, what’s not, what’s unique, and when to pass.

1. LG’s Smart TV. This wall-mounted, flat-screen, high-definition TV incorporates all the streaming entertainment and social networking features of your PC or laptop. The TV has a USB and RJ45 ethernet ports. You can download apps, send e-mails, stream a Netflix-provided movie, etc.

No keyboard is provided, but you could use a wireless keyboard or use an app that makes your iPhone keyboard work on the TV. There were several CES exhibitors promoting these “Smart TVs,” and this term has become generic. Check out LG’s offerings here.

Meanwhile, what happened to 3D TV?  It was the star of CES 2011 and was promoted again this year, especially by Sony, but 3D has not taken off the tarmac.

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Frank Gorman of Gorman & Williams is in Las Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show. It’s Gorman’s first time at CES since 2007, although he attended for most of the Aughts.

The Baltimore lawyer says he goes “to see and keep up with technology,” which helps in his intellectual property practice. He is also an enthusiastic advocate of courtroom technology.

Gorman has graciously offered to write a few dispatches from Vegas. Today is an overview of CES; Monday he’ll have a look at some of the cool gadgets that are the hallmark of the event.

Gadgets aside, the big-picture story at CES 2011 is the increasing competition among the major players in the industry as they use existing technologies to create new products and services.

CES 2011 is big and sprawling, as in previous years. There are more than 2,700 exhibitors with booths in the Las Vegas Convention Center touting an incredible variety of consumer electronic products and services. There is a full array of conferences, presentations, and keynote speakers. There are thousands of registered attendees. Lots of deals will be made. In short, the excitement in Las Vegas this week is the event itself.

CES this year, however, is not a showcase for breakthrough technologies that permit consumers to do things they could not do before. In previous years, the excitement came from dramatic changes: broadband replaces dial-up; streaming digital content from its source eliminates the need for CDs and DVDs; Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) ends the monopoly of keyboarding and permits consumers to communicate over the Internet by voice; wireless frees consumers from cords.

Instead, CES 2011 is the arena for the competing products that have resulted from high-level market competition in the industry. Software giants Google, Microsoft, Apple are each innovating and maneuvering to gain dominance in markets previously dominated by the others.

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Good morning! Here are some law links for your pre-Solstice perusal:

• Judge drops thousands of John Doe porn sharers from industry copyright infringement case.
• In court, come dressed to impress, but remain who you are.
• A Post editorial says the problems in Prince George’s County stem from residents’ “apathy.”
• Tweens fight for their right to show their support for breast cancer research — but school officials say their “I [heart] boobies” bracelets are vulgar.
• A pro cyclist says she was disqualified from racing for taking a supplement that contained a banned substance, but it wasn’t on the label.
• TSA officer used scanners to find and lift travelers’ valuables.
• Security sells.

Paul Allen

Happy Monday! While Danielle tries not to be a hurricane, finding those delicious legal tidbits is up to me. Here we go:

• Law Shucks calls it Paul Allen’s “gift to BigLaw”: the Microsoft founder is suing Google, Apple, YouTube and other Internet giants for patent violations.
• A group of Kansans is arguing the state’s selection and appointment process for Supreme Court justices violates the 14th Amendment because some commission members are only selected by lawyers. (HT: Constitutional Law Prof.)
• Thank you, Legal Marketing Blog.com!
• Meet the lawyer who will be representing Roger Clemens in the star pitcher’s federal perjury case. (HT: WSJ’s Law Blog.)
• Disturbing, potentially devastating news from the Jersey Shore. (I never thought anything could overshadow “That’s one shot!“)

Mike Ertel decided last month not to take legal action against Bill Paulshock, one of his Democratic primary opponents in the Baltimore County Council’s Fifth District, over the allegedly incorrect address Paulshock lists on his voter registration form. Ertel’s campaign manager told me in July that they would “bring the matter to the public’s attention” and allow voters to decide what to do with their allegations rather than file suit.

The Ertel campaign’s new YouTube video on the subject begins with Ertel in front of what he claims to be Paulshock’s true residence in the Third District community of Kingsville. The video then cuts to Ertel standing outside of Bill’s Seafood and Catering Co. on Belair Road in Perry Hall, which is attached to a home that Paulshock has said is his “domicile.”

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It seems like anyone with an e-mail account could’ve seen this one coming.

Last month, a Silver Spring attorney filed suit against the Federal Republic of Nigeria and its National Universities Commission, alleging he had been hired, but not paid, by the NUC to collect nearly $1.9 million of the government agency’s money that had somehow been misplaced when the scandalized Riggs National Bank was taken over by PNC.

Sound familiar? The old “Help me access millions of dollars in some foreign bank account and we’ll share the proceeds. It won’t hurt a bit …” solicitation?

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