Pirate Bay Sues Anti Piracy Group

Ironic things are happening with patent infringements lawsuits these days. Pirate bay is a file sharing websites that allows people to illegally download movies, music, and software illegally. All of their business is based on infringing copyrights and patents. They are suing CIAPC, a Finnish anti-piracy group. These opposite ideals are going at each other in court. Pirate bay claims that the Copyright Information and Anti-Piracy Centre (CIAPC) infringed on “parody” laws, as they copied imaging features on Pirate Bay’s site. Companies like pirate bay should not be given a chance of presenting their case and possibly winning money in court, as they are openly disregarding the law. There are other cases and people who deserve to be heard by the court.

On a sweeter note, Pirate Bay claims that if they win any money, then it will be used to buy a new laptop for 

the 9 year old girl whose laptop was confiscated by the police for piracy last year.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-20/macy-s-rex-titanic-pirate-bay-intellectual-property.html

Patents for Genetically Engineered

Have you ever though about making a patent on biological life? Very few people actually consider putting a patent on a living thing, like a specific cell or even a plant. These patents falls under the category of “biotechnology” and governments around the world are protecting these technologies with patents. However, these laws are a new system that even the U.S judiciary is still trying to figure out, as putting patents on living things is a new idea. For example, after the U.S patent office blocked GM’s patent on a bacteria that reduces water pollution, the Supreme Court over ruled the patent office’s decisions and allowed the patent to be implemented.

Now rising countries like Brazil are also protecting biological engineered patents. They put rules on what can be patented.  For example, it must be something that is novel, genetically altered;  non existent in nature, and will be used for industrialization. This patent also needs to be filed with the Brazilian patent office and put in a safe international depository for biologically engineered substances and organisms. These laws are impressive for a developing country as they are now implementing the same laws as the Budapest treaty, which is an internationally recognized treaty that Brazil did not sign in 1997. One thing the treaty put into place is an international depository in order to reduce biologically modified material and which Brazil is now also doing.

http://www.mondaq.com/x/222950/Patent/General+Overview+On+Patenting+Of+Microorganisms+In+Brazil

UN Working to Rid llegal Pharmaceutical drugs

Millions of people around the world purchase illegal pharmaceutical drugs from illegal drugs manufacturers who infringe on drug patents. As much as thirty percent of pharmaceutical drugs in Asia, Africa, and Latin America are illegal. Many of these drugs are not properly made or are completely fake and they have proven to be toxic. So, the UN office of drugs and crime (UNODC) is trying to minimize the amount of illegal pharmaceutical drugs in the world.They are working to have drug information easily accessible to all countries and to have more drug enforcement offices around the world.

Will taking down these illegal drug organizations help the people in these countries? The truth is that most of these illegal drug manufacturer are there compete with the high prices of pharmaceutical drugs. Plus, most people in these countries are already living in poverty and cannot afford these drugs, so they buy the cheap illegal ones. Maybe the hype about the illegal drugs being dangerous has been blown out of proportion by the pharmaceutical companies who would benefit from stopping the distribution of these drugs. If this is the case then it would be ideal if UNODC continues to stop the illegal drugs that are causing harm, while also working with pharmaceutical companies and countries to minimize prices.        

Government Protecting Trade Secrets From Going Abroad

Last week I spoke about how the government should help organizations protect their trade secrets and not just through patents, because the information of a patent is free to the public. This has proven to be a consistent problem in the financial industry. For example, last years a financial analyst for Goldman Sachs stole a complete trading program from the company, sent it to Germany in order to sell, and then erased it from his computer. When he was caught he was not convicted because the law was not written for that specific situation.Since the software was still being developed and it was only for assisting in international commerce. So it is unfortunate that he got away with stealing such valuable software.
Well a few months later Congress stepped up to protect our trade secrets. They recently added trade secret protection policies for more industries and raised the penalty for stealing trade secrets with two new acts. First, Theft of trade Secrets Clarification Act of 2012, which added into law the wording that stealing a product or service with the intention of using it in a foreign economy. This now includes stealing software from financial institutions. Second the Foreign and Economic Espionage Penalty Enhancement Act of 2012 which raised the maximum monetary penalty by 10 times, from $500,000 to $5 million for committing economic espionage. So it now penalizes someone who steals a product or service with intention of selling it overseas to another company or government. Thankfully, Congress has done something to protect U.S intellectual property.

Copyright personal info on Facebook?

Most people have seen disclaimers from friends on Facebook or emails saying that the information they post cannot be used or transferred. This disclaimer is basically someone trying to copyright what they share online. However, it is really pointless because Facebook has the right to do what it wishes with the information that you share. That means they have the right to share your info with advertising companies and transfer your information to other sources. This is basically a friendly reminder that these companies know everything about you and they can do what they wish with that info. Do not be alarmed they are probably just running data about your age, sex, keywords you use, and sharing it as a stat with potential advertisers. However, they have the right to do this and a simple disclaimer at the end will not stop your info from being shared with others.   

http://gizmodo.com/5963210/that-facebook-copyright-notice-is-worthless

Military Intellectual Property

People usually do not think much about the patents in the military. However, look at countries like China and Russia you can see thousands of products and factories based off of patent infringement. However, patents in the military are usually kept by other nations to an extent. Even countries like Russia and China have not directly copied military patents. These countries try to build similar weapons, but not exactly alike. They can use reverse engineering, but that can also be too expensive for some countries. However, what really holds the difference in these advanced weapons is the trade secrets that the military engineers hold. So countries such as Iran, China, and Russia may try to create fighter jets and military ships but the weapons will not be as strong or compatible as the weapons they copy. So, they usually resort to copying many similar features and cannot copy exactly the same thing.
In the future, hopefully there will be some international rules and enforcers  of patents. So they can constitute the grounds for international patent infringements  Plus, the real worry of patent infringements comes from the increasing amount of cyber attacks on "intelligent offices," like the White House and Pentagon. Where the hackers can steal blueprints of billion dollar military engineer projects and then create the exact same thing somewhere else.

http://thediplomat.com/flashpoints-blog/2013/02/06/intellectual-property-meets-military-tech/

Google alert "intellectual property"

Why this class?

I am interested in new technology that change the world and businesses today. Technological advnaces that affect people today are almost always patented. Because no one wants to have their intellectual property used for someone else's profit. So, I want to follow and learn about patents which will in turn teach me about the technologies that could affect todays business world. In particular, how to value these patents.

Additionally, this past winter break I went to Israel where I visited tens of brilliant  high tech companies. They all had patents to protect their products and businesses. Some companies were in the process of battling patent infringements in other countries like China and Korea. So, another thing that I am interested in learning is the big question of how to protect patents internationally and not just nationwide.

  

A little about me

Hello everyone,
My name is Dove, like the delicious chocolate. I am a Junior business student who started a small produce delivery business in the past and is trying out the financial services industry now. I transferred in the beginning of fall from Santa Monica College (SMC). I have lived my whole life in the city of Los Angeles right near Hollywood Blvd. where all the dead celebrities have their hands imprinted on the floor.
In general, I like people who are motivated, caring, and funny. Plus I enjoy  meeting people, discussing solutions, traveling, being in nature, and drinking lightly.
I enjoy being outdoors, being active, and playing all different sports. Since the age of 9 I have been playing basketball on teams and still play Intramural (IM) today. Plus, I love to snowboard and bring my GoPro camera which is the witness of the crazy things that I do in the mountains.