Since my last blog post (two years ago) a lot has changed. The technology of 3D-printing has made great progress. And the world of Intellectual Property has started to react to the challenge posed by 3D-printing. Which, in turn, has caused a surprise reaction by the 3D-printing community. 1. What is 3D-printing? Although 3D-printing Read more …
Tag Archives: innovation
Why criminalizing IP infringement does not work
Criminal law demands high standards of evidence and due process. IP infringement cases repeatedly fall short of those standards. Using criminal law to protect private monopolistic interests is counter effective. Japan has recently issued a new draconian law criminalizing “illegal” downloads. A single download can get you 2 years in jail, or fines up Read more …
Three insights into how Intellectual Property can benefit an innovative business.
All technology businesses innovate. It is what they do. They tackle a market opportunity by innovating. But innovation can happen at any level. It can be inventing a new technology, it can be process or method based, it can be through applying existing ideas in a novel way, or in many other ways. A key Read more …
Do IP rights actually promote innovation? A review of the recent US DoC report.
Are stronger IP rights good or bad for innovation? There is very little empirical evidence. A recent report by the DoC claims to provide this evidence. Unfortunately, even a first reading demonstrates that the report is worse than worthless, it is downright misleading. Introduction What is the effect of IP rights on the economy Read more …
A solution to patent warfare (and trolls)
Intellectual Property Rights (“IPRs”) are hot in the media these days. Headlines about patent trolls, the great patent bubble, patent warfare, pirate parties and the broken patent system appear almost daily. This is good, because there are obvious problems with our IPR system. It seems that most observers are agreeing that the current IPR system risks Read more …
Characteristics of a new copyright system (ctd)
In my three previous posts, I explained why I believe the current copyright system is broken, what the requirements of a new system would be, and what the characteristics of a new system could be. That last post only addressed part of the characteristics – here’s the rest. 1. The platform will become a social Read more …
Characteristics of a new copyright system.
In the two previous posts, I explored the problems with the current copyright system, by examining the wrong (19th century) assumptions on which the current system is based, and I made an attempt at trying to describe the requirements of a new copyright system. In this third post, as well as the next one, I Read more …
Requirements of a new copyright system.
As I explained in my previous post, the current copyright system is highly dysfunctional. It doesn’t even come close to achieving its twin goals of promoting and protecting creativity. The main reason is that its underlying principles reflect a 19th century reality, rather than a 21st century one. In this post, I will take a Read more …
End of the App story?
Do you know Pokki? Neither did I, until I read about in the FT. Apparently, Pokki allows developers to create software as Apps, using HTML5 (the next generation of website/internet development language). The really interesting bit in the blog was this: through use of this new technology, anyone could develop any App for the Apple Read more …
So who owns data?
Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) can help us to protect (“own”) new technology and innovation. It’s not really ownership in the same way as ownership of physical goods, but IPRs do give their holders exclusive rights. All fine and dandy, but there’s also tremendous value in data. So what about data? Who owns them? Is it Read more …