#patents

The Novartis Decision: A Tale Of Developing Countries, IP, And The Role Of The Judiciary | Intellectual Property Watch
http://www.ip-watch.org/2013/04/15/the-novartis-decision-a-tale-of-developing-countries-ip-and-the-role-of-th

The worldwide attention received by the Indian SC ruling and its global implications could represent a turning point. For decades, scholars and students from all over the world spent a considerable time studying decisions by judicial authorities in industrialised countries, in particular those of the US Supreme Court. Several of these decisions marked the emergence of new trends and approaches to intellectual property that, in some cases, would be subsequently incorporated into international agreements and would also heavily influence intellectual property legislations in developing countries.

The Novartis decision might be spearheading a world where judicial decisions from countries such as China, India and Brazil have an increasing global reach and contribute to shaping global approaches to intellectual property. It is also more generally reflective of the growing assertiveness of developing countries, particularly emerging economies, in the current global intellectual property landscape. In the past two years, opposition from these countries was an important factor in the broader mobilization that led to the de facto demise of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

Starting today, the US has a ‘first to file’ patent system, so you can leave that prior art at the door - http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/03/16/starting-today-the-us-has-a-first-to-file-patent-system-so-you-can-leave

Count on large firms to allocate a yearly budget for obnoxiously filing anything they can think about, just in case they can milk that later. Small firms and individuals can’t do that, so this system is essentially a great way to entrench major firms as patent trolls.

Video codecs: the ugly business behind pretty pictures - https://www.infoworld.com/print/214525 #patents

Cheap drugs a bitter pill for the West | Mail & Guardian
http://mg.co.za/article/2013-03-08-00-cheap-drugs-a-bitter-pill-for-the-west

The Ugandan government faced an easy choice when it decided to start producing its own version of a key malaria treatment, rather than continuing to rely on expensive imports. Since the country began making its own medicine in 2007, Uganda has produced not only anti-malarials, but also antiretrovirals (ARVs) used to treat HIV. The public-private company, Quality Chemicals, plans to roll out more ARVs, anti-malarials and antibiotics in the coming months and years. 

The venture, a shining example of African pharmaceutical manufacturing, was made possible in part because Uganda is considered a “least-developed country”. As such, it doesn’t yet have to respect international intellectual property laws (...)

But least-developed countries may be running out of time. They have until July to adopt the agreement’s measures into their own laws and a continued extension for pharmaceutical products until 2016.

#pharma #brevets #patents #ldc #paludisme #sida #hiv

Brevets logiciels en Europe

La présidence chypriote trouve que c’est le moment de forcer « un peu » la main au Parlement européen : il y tant d’autres préoccupations plus importantes... Et puis ces sales gamin-e-s doivent comprendre que ce qui compte c’est l’économie donc le business non ?

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Unitary Patent: Council asks Parliament to sign its death certificate in patent law ===================================================================================

Brussels, 21 November 2012 — This monday, the Cypriot Presidency stated in parliament that they are “aware of concerns that the legislator can be deprived of their legislative competence”. In fact the new patent compromise is similar to the “a death certificate in patent law” for the European Parliament, says Benjamin Henrion, president of the FFII.

According to leaks published by PCinpact, the latest compromise seeks to remove the role of the European Parliament and the European Court of Justice from any power in the proposed patent system (articles 6-8).

Benjamin Henrion, president of FFII, warns: “The Council asks basically to the European Parliament to sign their death certificate in patent law. No part of the proposed system will be under the control of an elected legislator. This is a disaster for all the people that believes in the power of the European Parliament.”

All red lines imposed by the Parliament has been broken by the Council
compromise:

the enhanced cooperation (art118), with reference to national law,
still does not create a title of the European Union;
the Parliament is deprived of its legislative competence in patent
law;
the European Court of Justice is forbidden to have a say on patent
law, especially on substantive matters, such as software patents.

The Rapporteur and MEP Klaus-Heiner Lehne has been pushing the “death certificate” proposal to be voted for in the next Plenary at the 10th December, refusing any reopening of the discussions at committee level.

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Links
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Cyprus press release: Unitary patent closer to the finishing line http://www.cy2012.eu/index.php/en/news-categories/areas/competitiveness/press-release-unitary-patent-closer-to-the-finishing-line

FFII: Klaus-Heiner Lehne: software patent legislator and lobbying consultant http://wiki.ffii.org/KlausHeinerLehneEn

PCInpact: Brevet unitaire européen : un compromis veut écarter l’Union européenne ►http://www.pcinpact.com/news/75393-brevet-unitaire-europeen-compromis-veut-ecarter-union-europeenne.htm

Max Planck Institut: The Unitary Patent Package: Twelve Reasons for Concern http://www.ip.mpg.de/files/pdf2/MPI-IP_Twelve-Reasons_2012-10-17_final3.pdf

Permanent link to this press release https://press.ffii.org/Press%20releases/Unitary%20Patent%3A%20Council%20asks%20Parliament%20to%20sign%20its%20de

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Contact
=======

Benjamin Henrion
FFII Brussels
Mobile: +32-484-566109
Email: bhenrion@ffii.org

==========
About FFII
==========

The FFII is a not-for-profit association active in twenty European countries, dedicated to the development of information goods for the public benefit, based on copyright, free competition, open standards. More than 1000 members, 3,500 companies and 100,000 supporters have entrusted the FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions concerning exclusion rights (intellectual
property) in data processing.

_____________________________________________
FFII Press Releases.
(un)subscribe via https://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/news, or contact media@ffii.org for more information.

The Case for Abolishing Patents (Yes, All of Them)
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/09/the-case-for-abolishing-patents-yes-all-of-them/262913

A closer look at the historical and international evidence suggests that while weak patent systems may mildly increase innovation with limited side-effects, strong patent systems retard innovation with many negative side-effects.

#brevets

Samsung Wins a Patent Case Over Apple in Japan - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/01/technology/in-japan-a-setback-for-apples-patent-fight.html

While Apple prevailed over Samsung in the United States, [...] the two companies remain neck-and-neck in legal disputes in almost a dozen countries

#patents

Revealed : How Giant Patent Troll Intellectual Ventures Does Business
http://www.businessinsider.com/revealed-how-giant-patent-troll-intellectual-ventures-does-business

du nouveau sur le #troll à #brevets Nathan Myhrwold

Intellectual Ventures has between 30,000 and 60,000 #patents. That’s a rough estimate. But even the low number makes Intellectual Ventures (IV) the 5th largest patent portfolio of any U.S. company, and 15th in the world. Nearly all of those patents originated elsewhere. IV does very little inventing of its own.
It uses more than 1,200 shell companies.

#Google Wants Huge Royalties Every Time #Apple Sells An #iPhone
http://www.businessinsider.com/google-wants-huge-royalties-every-time-apple-sells-an-iphone-2012-2

As Google is set to acquire #Motorola and the company’s 17,000 #patents, it’s planning on asking for the same 2.25% maximum royalty per unit that Motorola is already demanding for every iPhone sold,

#brevets #téléphonie

#Bill #Gates backs climate scientists lobbying for large-scale #geoengineering | The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/feb/06/bill-gates-climate-scientists-geoengineering

A small group of leading climate scientists, financially supported by billionaires including Bill Gates, are lobbying governments and international bodies to back experiments into manipulating the climate on a global scale to avoid catastrophic climate change.

The scientists, who advocate geoengineering methods such as spraying millions of tonnes of reflective particles of sulphur dioxide 30 miles above earth, argue that a “plan B” for climate change will be needed if the UN and politicians cannot agree to making the necessary cuts in greenhouse gases, and say the US government and others should pay for a major programme of international research.
(...)
“We will need to protect ourselves from vested interests [and] be sure that choices are not influenced by parties who might make significant amounts of money through a choice to modify climate, especially using proprietary intellectual property,” said Jane Long, director at large for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US, in a paper delivered to a recent geoengineering conference on ethics.
(...)
Pressure to find a quick technological fix to climate change is growing
(...)
As well as Gates, other wealthy individuals including Sir Richard Branson, tar sands magnate Murray Edwards and the co-founder of Skype, Niklas Zennström, have funded a series of official reports into future use of the technology.
(...)
Analysis of the eight major national and international inquiries into geoengineering over the past three years shows that Keith and Caldeira, Rasch and Prof Granger Morgan the head of department of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University where Keith works, have sat on seven panels, including one set up by the UN. Three other strong advocates of solar radiation geoengineering, including Rasch, have sat on national inquiries part-funded by Ficer.
(...)
“Regarding my own #patents, I have repeatedly stated that if any patent that I am on is ever used for the purposes of altering climate, then any proceeds that accrue to me for this use will be donated to nonprofit NGOs and charities. I have no expectation or interest in developing a personal revenue stream based upon the use of these patents for climate modification.”.

Linus Torvalds: Software and Process Patents Don’t Make Sense | Muktware
http://www.muktware.com/news/2866

Linus Torvalds on Oracle-Google dispute
Swapnil: What is your opinion about the whole Oracle Google court battle over Android?
Linus: I don’t really know all that much about that and that is another example of lawsuits not being all that great. It seems to be completely bogus and it is kind of embarrassing. One of the defenses that Google was using was the posting by Jonathan Schwartz’s blog entry saying that he was so happy that Google is using their technology and then the fact that company, after being sold a few years later, turns around and sues Google for using their technology — that kind of tells you that "OK, there is something wrong going on”.

I don’t actually know the details. I mean Java I really don’t care about. What a horrible language. What a horrible VM. So, I am like whatever, you are barking about all this crap, go away. I don’t care.

#java #oracle #google #patents #dalvik #legal #torvalds

Brazil Drafts An ’Anti-ACTA’ : A Civil Rights-Based Framework For The Internet | Techdirt
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111004/04402516196/brazil-drafts-anti-acta-civil-rights-based-framework-internet.shtml

That’s no accident: #ACTA is the last-gasp attempt of the US and the EU to preserve their intellectual monopolies – #copyright and #patents, particularly drug patents – in a world where both are increasingly questioned.
Much of the challenge to the old order is coming from the BRICS group of emerging countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – none of which has been involved in ACTA. Of those, the one in the vanguard of adopting innovative approaches to making knowledge widely accessible in the Internet age is Brazil.
(...) here’s some positive news coming out of the country, in the shape of a draft of a bill for a civil rights-based framework for the #Internet:

Internet companies : Attack of the clones | The Economist
http://www.economist.com/node/21525394

dès qu’on a une bonne idée quelqu’un vous la pique, c’est pas juste !

the clone wars will get bloody.
One battleground will be #China. There, opaque rules have kept many American firms at bay, leaving the field open for Chinese ones to develop similar services. Diandian, for example, resembles Tumblr, an American blogging platform. Zhihu, a question-and-answer service, looks a bit like Quora, an American firm.
Another battleground will be #Germany, where three brothers, Alexander, Oliver and Marc Samwer, have become the copycat kings of Europe. The brothers have a knack for spotting good business models in Silicon Valley, and then quickly starting something similar in Europe. They later sell these “clones”, sometimes to the firms on which they were modelled.

#brevets #patents #internet via @opironet

Official #Google Blog : When patents attack Android
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/when-patents-attack-android.html

la guerre des #brevets dans la téléphonie mobile

Android’s success has yielded something else: a hostile, organized campaign against #Android by #Microsoft, #Oracle, #Apple and other companies, waged through bogus #patents.

They’re doing this by banding together to acquire Novell’s old patents (the “CPTN” group including Microsoft and Apple) and Nortel’s old patents (the “Rockstar” group including Microsoft and Apple), to make sure Google didn’t get them; seeking $15 licensing fees for every Android device; attempting to make it more expensive for phone manufacturers to license Android (which we provide free of charge) than Windows Phone 7; and even suing Barnes & Noble, HTC, Motorola, and Samsung. Patents were meant to encourage innovation, but lately they are being used as a weapon to stop it.

A smartphone might involve as many as 250,000 (largely questionable) patent claims, and our competitors want to impose a “tax” for these dubious patents (...)

This anti-competitive strategy is also escalating the cost of patents way beyond what they’re really worth. The winning $4.5 billion for Nortel’s patent portfolio was nearly five times larger than the pre-auction estimate of $1 billion. (...)

(...) We’re encouraged that the Department of Justice forced the group I mentioned earlier to license the former Novell patents on fair terms, and that it’s looking into whether Microsoft and Apple acquired the Nortel patents for anti-competitive means. We’re also looking at other ways to reduce the anti-competitive threats against Android by strengthening our own patent portfolio.

Who’s Suing Whom In The Telecoms Trade?
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/whos-suing-whom-in-the-telecoms-trade
#patents #informatique #graphs