Music Industry Groups In Harmony In Calling For Support From Trump 14/12/2016 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment A wide array of music industry groups, from Christian to classical, rhythm & blues to movie soundtracks, and everything in between sent a letter to United States President-Elect Donald Trump urging him to take their intellectual property rights into consideration when he meets with technology industry leaders on 14 December.
USPTO Director Lee Discusses Importance Of Patent Quality 13/12/2016 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment Opening a conference on patent quality today, United States Patent and Trademark Office Director Michele Lee highlighted efforts of the administration in improving the quality of patents and addressing backlog of patent applications. Patent backlog is down by one-third since the start of the Obama administration, she said.
EU, Canada Meet To Discuss A New Model For Investor-State Trade Disputes 13/12/2016 by Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The European Commission and the Canadian government today and tomorrow are hosting a first meeting for talks on a new multilateral investment court. Such a court could, the European Commission explained in an announcement, become the follow-up mechanism for the existing investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions that are part of 3,200 bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements around the world.
US Supreme Court Declines To Hear Biologic Drug Patent Fight 13/12/2016 by Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a case over whether companies that make copycat versions of biologic drugs must wait six months after winning federal approval before bringing them to the market.
UAEM Targets Accessible Medicines, R&D Financing, Publicly Funded Research 13/12/2016 by Alexandra Nightingale for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment From extracurricular creativity to global campaigns, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) continues in its activities to raise awareness and explore how universities can best direct their research and innovations towards promoting global access to medicines. In the next year, UAEM will extend its national and international campaigns to address the high prices of medicines, continue to gather support for a global agreement on research and development and build on the mapping alternative R&D initiatives.
Open Source Software A Core Competency For Effective Tech M&A 09/12/2016 by Guest contributor for Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments Imagine your company just acquired its competitor for $100 million. Now imagine the company’s most important asset – its proprietary software – is subject to third-party license conditions that require the proprietary software to be distributed free of charge or in source code form. Or, imagine these license conditions are discovered late in the diligence process, and the cost to replace the offending third-party software will costs tens of thousands of dollars and take months to remediate. Both scenarios exemplify the acute, distinct and often overlooked risks inherent to the commercial use of open source software. An effective tech M&A attorney must appreciate these risks and be prepared to take the steps necessary to mitigate or eliminate them.
US High Court Hears Patent Case With Global Trade Implications 08/12/2016 by Dugie Standeford for Intellectual Property Watch Leave a Comment In a first-impression case with implications for international trade, the United States Supreme Court is set to decide whether the US supplier of a single non-infringing article used in an infringing product abroad can be held liable for worldwide damages under US patent law. The case hinges on the meaning of “substantial” and whether US law can extend beyond its borders.
US High Court Muddies Rule On Design Patent Damages 07/12/2016 by Steven Seidenberg for Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment The United States Supreme Court yesterday provided a big victory for Samsung – and common sense, according to many experts. The high court ruled that Samsung need not pay $399 million in damages – all the company’s profits from 11 models of smartphones – simply because one or two tiny components of those phones infringed design patents owned by Apple. But Samsung isn’t out of the woods yet. Because despite the importance of today’s Supreme Court decision, the high court left an even more important issue unresolved.
TPP May Be Dead – But Its Impact Lingers 06/12/2016 by Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments Despite the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) being – to all-intents-and-purposes – dead in the water, pursuit of some of the most egregious objectives of the corporate interests driving the TPP agenda rolls on. Pharma is persisting in its push for countries to adopt not just TRIPS-Plus, but in some cases even TPP-Plus intellectual property rules – presumably groundwork for the later emergence of a ‘son-of-TPP’ agreement, three authors write.
US Patent Office 2016 Humanity Awards Go To Health-Related Inventions 06/12/2016 by Intellectual Property Watch 1 Comment The winners of the 2016 Patents for Humanity Award of the United States Patent and Trademark Office this year are recognised for providing global disease solutions. The inventions relate to malaria, vaccines, a life-threatening pregnancy complication, and meningitis.