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 …
With the explosion of data, IPRs are under threat. IPRs aim to create artificial scarcity, but the growth of data under IPR protection is vastly inferior to the growth of non-protected (“open”) data. Because of their characteristics, IPRs are not able to tackle the growth of Big Data, and will therefore probably drown in a Read more …
Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) are curious beasts. They are, in essence, negative rights: they give the right to block other people from doing something. Unlike normal property rights, they are not positive rights: it’s not because you have a patent on a technology, that you’re actually allowed to use it – that’s not what a Read more …
In an earlier post (read it here) I wrote about self-driving cars, and how they have the potential to change our society a lot. No more people dying on the roads, no more traffic jams, important reduction of CO2 exhaust, but also massive job losses for car insurance people, taxi drivers, etc. I concluded by Read more …
Open Source hardware is the next step in the development of “open” licenses; A review of the most important OS hardware licenses show them to be a combination of known techniques, like creative commons, and “covenant not to sue” for patents or design rights; Their validity and enforceability seem somewhat weaker than the software Open Read more …
At TEDx Brussels recently, Paul Rojas made a presentation (you can see it here) about a car driven by a computer. The project has been very successful; from a technology point of view, a human driver is, today, no longer necessary. That got me thinking – would it be a good idea to abolish human Read more …
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 …
When your local newspaper devotes a full page to how patents are now preventing, rather than promoting innovation, you know something is up. Sure, it’s the middle of August and everyone is on holiday, but there is a financial meltdown going on, so no lack of potential copy. But they are not the only ones. Read more …
Have you also noticed how new technologies seem to spring up all around us? In a series of blogs, I’m going to look at how they could affect Intellectual Property Rights, and how this, in turn impacts business models around innovation. Today, I’ll write about 3D-printing. What is 3D-printing? It is a process of manufacturing Read more …
It is probably fair to say that most people know Lego, the little building block toys. Most of us played with them as children. I remember that I didn’t actually like to construct the things Lego wanted me to make. Rather, I used to come up with the most bizarre and absurd constructions. My father, Read more …