Blog Archive

Marie-Louise's picks – January 2009

Here are my picks of the intellectual property news that broke in the blogosphere and internet over the past month and most captured my interest. I also give my pick of the upcoming IP events to pencil into your diary for the month ahead.

Please join the discussion by adding your comments.

Obama-Biden transition site Change.gov content now under creative commons attribution license

This move was met with great support from some. Others cautioned that it is no indicator of the Obama’s administration’s philosophy on copyright and is not such a big concession of rights considering the law provides that federal government content is in the public domain. In any case, the move gives a publicity boost to creative commons. Personally, I think this sets a great example to governments and others to consider the various copyright alternatives available rather than automatically default to the ‘all rights reserved’ model. So too, it can only assist open and unfettered debate. (EFF) (Creative Commons) (Lessig) (Michael Geist) (IPKat) (TorrentFreak) (Techdirt) (Creative Commons) (ReadWriteWeb)

African National Congress loses Cope name challenge

The ANC sought to stop the emerging political party, Cope, from using the name Congress of the People arguing that no person or party should be allowed to appropriate the name of the 1955 Congress of the People, in which the Freedom Charter was adopted. The Pretoria High Court dismissed the ANC’s application with costs. The ANC has harshly criticised the decision and is expected to seek leave to appeal.

I think it is fair to say South African politics are never dull! This has been a heated battle and the story teaches some very interesting South African political history. (I should admit a bias toward South African news as my very lovely husband and his family are South African.)

(Afro-IP) (Afro-IP) (Afro-IP) (Constitutionally Speaking)

‘Shan Zhai Ji’ in Google.cn most searched list

‘Shan Zhai Ji’ refers to bandit (counterfeit) cell phones and other technological gadgets. It is said to have developed into a subculture in China largely found among ‘creative youth, technology geeks and guys’. It is a subculture that appears to be expanding into new markets quickly. An intriguing subculture and headache for brand owners! (IP Dragon)

Event – Supplementary protection certificates seminar

On 28 January, the SPC Blog will be holding its first seminar on supplementary protection certificates looking at hot topics in this area of law and examining the differences in approach of the patent offices of the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

Monday, January 5, 2009 3:00am — GLOBAL IP STRATEGY

3 IP reflections for right now

The year is just getting going again. It's a nice time to reflect on what you're doing and where you're heading.

So, how's your intellectual property strategy going?

Here are 3 things to think about:

1. Why should I / we care about intellectual property. (If you can't think of a reason, stop now, unsubscribe, and thanks for your time.)

2. What does 2009 hold for me, us and the world around us? (Economic woes? / Threats? / Opportunities? / Other?)

3. What do I want other people to be able to say about me and us by the end of the year? (Ie - what would a skeptical, objective bystander be able to say about me / us at the end of the year - this is designed to provoke action and objective achievements.) Here are some examples:

We kicked butt in that patent litigation.
We reduced the incidence of counterfeiting of our goods by 50%.
We substantially reinforced the intellectual property estate covering our brands.
We attracted significant investment with the portfolio we already had at the start of the year.
We redirected our R&D program to much more valuable intellectual property outcomes and significantly increased the value of our company
What would you add?

Now go and do it. Just get it started.

It's the only way.

Photo credit: Fr Antunes

Saturday, January 3, 2009 6:03am — IP THINKTANK GLOBAL WEEK IN REVIEW

Global Week in Review - back 9 Jan

Thanks for your patience, just confirming that IP Think Tank's regular Global Week in Review posts will recommence this Friday 9 January.

Thanks for holding on.

Photo credit: Jef Pozkanzer

Thursday, January 1, 2009 3:00am — IP WARS, GLOBAL IP STRATEGY

Who cares about precedent?

Do you care about precedent? Should you?

In our most recent podcast call, Jeremy Phillips and I discussed precedent.

As Jeremy noted - it doesn't really matter what you call it - people will still take it to have at least some precedential weight.

Even in China, where there is ostensibly no doctrine of precedent, you will final lawyers very carefully analysing the latest judgments from the Courts.

Why?

Because strategically, the more you can understand and predict the way a court is going to react, the more certainty you can bring to bear in planning out and choosing amongst the possible future scenarios. It's part of the Strategic terrain.

Photo Credit: dbking

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 5:12pm — GLOBAL IP STRATEGY

Happy New Year

The team at Duncan Bucknell Company would like to wish each of you a Happy New Year and a successful and fulfilling 2009.