Posts in IPWatchdog Articles

EU Reaches Copyright Reform Agreement But Opposition Remains

Have European Union legislators finally agreed on the substance of a new Copyright Directive? That was the claim made in a statement by the European Commission on February 13. The Commission announced that it, the EU Council (which represents member state governments) and the European Parliament (comprising 751 elected members) had reached a “breakthrough” on controversial proposals that have been hotly debated for the past six years. The Commission explained that the three bodies had found a “political agreement to make the copyright rules fit for [the] digital era in Europe and bring tangible benefits to all creative sectors, the press, researchers, educators, cultural heritage institutions, and citizens”. However, it did not publish the text that had been agreed.

Qualcomm, Google, Verizon and Industry Reps Gather for Women’s High-Tech Coalition Women of Wireless Dialogue

On February 13, global policymakers and technology company representatives gathered in Washington, D.C. at Google’s offices for the Women’s High-Tech Coalition (WHTC) Third Annual “Women of Wireless” dialogue. The speakers represented companies including Google, Verizon, and Qualcomm, as well as major industry organizations such as the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) and the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), and discussed the various infrastructure, policy, and privacy challenges facing the industry in the race to 5G-implementation. With a record number of women elected to the 116th Session of the U.S. Congress and recent White House Executive Orders on technology issues— including this month’s “Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence (AI),” an expected executive order on 5G technology, and likely Congressional briefings and hearings focused on wireless innovation—the WHTC is an integral network of stakeholders to discuss these issues and to develop opportunities for strategic partnerships and shared initiatives.

Don’t Be Fooled by His Patent Purge: Elon Musk is Just Another Hypocritical Tech Billionaire

In 2014, Elon Musk made Tesla’s patents available for anyone to use for free, stating that “technology leadership is not defined by patents.” Earlier this month, Musk announced again that he had released all of Tesla’s patents, promising the company “will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology.” Musk believes patents only serve “to stifle progress” and that by releasing his patents he can help get progress moving again—and that progress will somehow win the fight against climate change. But do patents stifle progress, and will releasing patents really have this result? Patents are a trade with a government. The inventor agrees to disclose the invention to the public in exchange for a limited exclusive right to the invention. No one else can make, use, sell or import the invention without the inventor’s permission. The public interest is served because the invention is publicly disclosed, so anyone can improve the invention and patent that advancement. And anyone can design around it and patent that invention. If the invention has commercial value, no doubt many people will jump in and do one or both.

U.S. Cannabis Inventions on the Rise As Legal Marijuana Market Grows

The shifting status of marijuana from an illegal controlled substance to regulated medicinal product to, in some jurisdictions, legalized recreational activity has created a market that promises to be incredibly valuable in the years to come. An April 2018 report from Grand View Research predicted the global market for legal marijuana products to exceed $146 billion by the year 2025. A 2018 cannabis report by Deloitte forecast Canada’s cannabis market to reach $7.17 billion in total sales during 2019, including $4.34 billion in sales of legal marijuana products. In the U.S., 2017 sales of legal recreational and medicinal marijuana products resulted in revenues of up to $6.6 billion, a fraction of the estimated $50 billion to $55 billion of total U.S. demand for recreational cannabis products. Last year, Reuters reported that the USPTO issued 39 patents containing the word cannabis during 2018 through late November. The USPTO only issued 29 such patents during 2017 and 14 during 2016.

If We Don’t Develop Best Practices Ourselves, the Government Will

I recently delivered a keynote address at a special session of the AUTM Annual Meeting, where the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) released its new University Technology Transfer Best Practices Guide. Following is a transcript of that speech.

The Newest Patent ‘Rocket-Docket’: Waco, Texas

Marshall, Texas has been, and will likely continue to be, one of the major patent litigation cities in the United States. But, Waco, Texas is quickly becoming the new mecca for patent infringement lawsuits due to recent case law and the arrival of a patent-savvy district judge. In the world of patent litigation, we all know Marshall, Texas. The Eastern District of Texas—which includes the Marshall Division—is known to be one of the largest as far as numbers of patent litigation lawsuit filings in the U.S. The economic impact on the region has been significant, as service industries such as hotels, temporary offices, restaurants and catering companies grew to serve the regular flow of litigators and their clients coming to Marshall for hearings and trials from around the country. Several national and regional law firms specializing in patent litigation opened satellite offices in and around Marshall to serve their frequent needs for access to the busy courthouse.