Ten years on from the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement, Australia is entering another round of negotiations towards the new and controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership. In this Free Trade Scorecard series…
Wigan was home to a thriving soul scene in the 1970s.
mtarvainen
Some good news for soul music lovers from an unlikely source: a recent trademark decision by the UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) sent a strong message that the iconography of the “northern soul…
Few would argue piracy is not changing the industry, but is it really killing it?
r5d
While legal sales of recorded music continue to suffer from widespread music piracy, the popularity of live music appears to be enjoying an unprecedented boom, particularly in the UK where new stadiums…
This isn’t trademar-geddon but the Redskins trademark cancellation is going to have serious long-term effects.
EPA/ Larry W. Smith
On Wednesday the US Patent and Trademark Office cancelled the US trademark registration for the Washington Redskins football team. This is a big victory for Native American groups, and an important development…
English and French clubs are sprinting away from the rest.
Joe Giddens/PA
The Heineken Cup, European rugby union’s premier competition, faces an uncertain future. English clubs continue to woo teams from France and Wales into a rival competition, with promises of increased revenue…
It seems there is no end to the smartphone litigation saga. A long-running US court case just reappraised Samsung’s violation of Apple patents. Apple has now been awarded almost US$930m in the dispute…
The leaked IP chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations reflects a highly prescriptive set of rules that if adopted would prove harmful to Australia.
voteprime/Flickr
Trade Minister Andrew Robb has responded to last week’s leak of the intellectual property chapter negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, arguing Australia won’t agree to anything that would “force…
Artists see very little of the “millions” of dollars paid to major record labels for the right to stream content.
Blixt A. via Flickr
Streaming services like Spotify and Pandora pay many millions of dollars each year for the rights to the music they play. But how much of this ends up back with artists and songwriters? The answer: not…
Some 95 years after the last Sherlock Holmes story was published, several parties are locked in a landmark US litigation case.
Flickr/Tom Margie
Sherlock Holmes faces his greatest challenge – since his fight to the death with Professor James Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls. Who owns Sherlock Holmes, the world’s greatest detective? Is it the estate…
The character of Superman has had a storied intellectual property history, having spawned countless imitations and emulations in comic books, films and popular culture.
Wikimedia Commons
Who is Superman’s greatest threat? Evil genius Lex Luthor? General Zod from the Phantom Zone? The doppelganger Bizarro? Super-villain Brainiac? Kryptonite? Or is it intellectual property law? In 2013…
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is being negotiated as we speak, but inventors and internet users look to lose out.
Ian.Go
Free trade: it sounds good for innovation, doesn’t it? Well, not necessarily - and here’s why. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a free trade agreement under negotiation among various Pacific Rim…
How serious an issue is the theft of intellectual property, and who does it affect?
ALERAI
If ideas are currency in a knowledge-driven industry such as scientific research, why is intellectual property (IP) so often taken without consent? The majority of ideas generated through scientific endeavour…
As the Indian delegate said, ‘If we don’t get cheap technology we will never be able to adapt to climate change’. But Doha was reluctant to discuss the matter.
Danish Wind Industry Association.
In November 2001, Doha hosted trade talks over intellectual property and public health. The discussions resulted in the landmark Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health. The Doha Declaration…
Rio+20 has backtracked on many intellectual property measures put in place by Agenda 21.
David Foote/AAP
The Rio+20 summit has raised a number of difficult questions about law and technology: what is the relationship between intellectual property and the environment? What role does intellectual property play…
Elinor Ostrom, the only woman to have won a Nobel prize for economics, was most famous for challenging the idea of the “tragedy of the commons”: that in the absence of government intervention, people will overuse shared resources.
acschweigert
The grand philosopher of the Commons, Elinor Ostrom, passed away on the 12th June 2012. She was a brilliant, creative polymath; a theoretician of fine precision and great intellectual power; a deviser…
Lightbulb moments come at any time – but how do we protect them?
Adriano Agulló
The concept of protecting ideas and innovation by legal means dates back to antiquity. But many of our existing laws are under strain, their suitability and ultimate purpose called into question. Here…
Debates about online copyright protection have been particularly heated of late.
marfis75
IDEAS AND OWNERSHIP: The concept of protecting ideas and innovation by legal means dates back to antiquity. But many of our existing laws are under strain, their suitability and ultimate purpose called…
A US court has recognised Myriad Genetics’ patent for an isolated gene, which plays a role in breast cancer.
Mel Rowling
The recent US Federal Court of Appeals decision relates to the patent law status of inventions based on the discovery that particular mutations in BRCA genes predispose women to breast and ovarian cancer…
Professor of Intellectual Property and Innovation Law; Director Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Managament (CIPPM), Bournemouth University, Bournemouth University