Posted by ipeg on October 19th, 2012
The Economist Intelligence Unit – sponsored by Qualcomm – published 5 years ago, in 2007, a White Paper on how European companies approach IP and more importantly, how they value Intellectual Property Management. Based on interviews and surveys of major EU companies questions were asked about the major threats they face in their corporate strategy as far as IP is concerned.
The main findings at the time were:
● The strategic importance of IP is growing rapidly. As Europe’s industrial base has declined, so
the continent...
Posted by ipeg on June 4th, 2012
The luxury cruise ship “Rule of Law” has hit a new reef, called the unenforceability of intellectual property rights. This article by Prof. Feng Xiang argues that instead of the often misnamed and misunderstood scapegoat, the “China model”, it is two global trends, the internet and outsourcing, that have led to the historical clashing and overcoming of the law. As a result, important revisions to our conception and use of the law and a new faith in universalism must be contemplated.
Intellectual property is demising. Or at least,...
Posted by ipeg on January 14th, 2011
India’s government has recently voted through a new directive on the application of open standards in e-Government. Barely a year after China’s SAC (Standardization Administration of China) drafted its proposal on a Standardization Policy (see our earlier blog: “China drafts all-out national standards IPR policy“) and defined what is meant by a FRAND-licensing approach concerning standard essential IPRs in their opinion (i.e. royalty free or at least marginal royalties for patents included in standards) also India jumps...
Posted by ipeg on January 6th, 2011
At the 3rd Global Forum on Intellectual Property held in Singapore today and tomorrow Prof Peter Williamson of the Judge Business School, Cambridge, UK, presented his interesting view[1] on Chinese costs innovation and how that challenges the main stream, mostly Western, concept of innovation. Prof. Williamson’s thesis is that although we have considered the Chinese threat mainly to be one of low-cost manufacturing, the more apparent threat is he calls “cost innovation”: the ability to exploit their low costs in radically new ways...
Posted by ipeg on December 14th, 2010
In Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad of December 11 Oscar Garschagen wrote[1] about massive fraud in Chinese academia. NRC cites Fang Shimin, a freelance writer and self-appointed watchdog of research misconduct who was recently brutally attacked, initiated by Professor Xiao Chuanguo, one of China’s most well known urologists. The magnitude of fraud reported is consistent with a survey administered by China’s Ministry of Science and Technology, showing that one third of 6,000 scientists surveyed admitted to “plagiarism, falsification,...
Posted by ipeg on October 20th, 2010
No Patent law existed in China until 1985, and the country has a deserved reputation for trampling on intellectual-property rights. But that could be changing. Anxious to promote domestic innovation, the Chinese government has created an ecosystem of incentives for its people to file patents (1).
Professors who do so are more likely to win tenure. Workers and students who file patents are more likely to earn a hukou (residence permit) to live in a desirable city. For some patents the government pays cash bonuses; for others it covers...
Posted by ipeg on May 16th, 2010
Roche, the Swiss drug maker, lost its antiviral drug patent for Valcyte in India patent widely used by AIDS patients. The assistant controller of patents and designs, said that the patent covering Valcyte (valganciclovir hydrochloride) lacks inventive step and does not demonstrate significantly improved efficacy over previous compounds. Section 3(d) of India’s Patent Act[1], which sets out the limitations of patentable subject matter, says “the mere discovery of a new form of a known substance which does not result in the enhancement...
Posted by ipeg on May 4th, 2010
When we hear about China and intellectual property we like to think China is predominantly a source of counterfeit. China is still among the 5 countries where most seized counterfeited goods originate from[1]. More than 80 per cent of seizures originated from only ten countries: China 32 per cent, Thailand 13 per cent, Korea 9 per cent, Hong Kong (China) 8 per cent, Chinese Taipei 4 per cent, then Turkey, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines and Pakistan. China continues to have some of the highest piracy rates in the world, while representing...
Posted by ipeg on November 25th, 2009
China’s standard setting organization (Standardization Administration of China, or SAC) posted a draft new patent regulation (“Regulations for the Administration of the Formulation and Revision of Patent-Involving National Standards (Interim) (Exposure Draft)”. Industry concerns, mostly from outside China have been expressed. Especially the provisions of the articles 8, 9 and 13 cause concerns that companies have to licence their IP below market value. …
Posted by ipeg on June 28th, 2009
“Invent, Invent, Invent” is today’s op-ed column of Thomas L. Friedman in the New York Times. Can’t be more true. Monday Note gives an interesting overview of the inventions made during recession times: 1975, in the middle of a recession, The Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) introduces the Alto, a computer featuring the first graphic user interface with windows, menus, and mouse. Four years later, Steve Jobs tours Xerox PARC and “inhales” the features we later saw into the Lisa and the Macintosh (other examples, see LayLow...
Posted by ipeg on April 17th, 2009
Chinese utility model holder Chint completed its major victory at the Zhejiang High People’s Court in Chint v. Schneider over French competitor Schneider through an unprecedented $ 23 million settlement (RMB 157 million), approximately half the damages awarded two years ago by the Wenzhou Intermediate People’s Court.
Interestingly, in a 2007 publication, Harold Wegner and Sharon R. Bamer explain the details of the lower court proceeding and the practical implications of Chinese utility model law protection. …
Posted by ipeg on March 31st, 2009
The “Did You Know” video clip created by Karl Fisch, and modified by Scott McLeod, on globalization and the information age, got massive attention in blogs and on YouTube. The reason, I guess , is that old-school thinking must make room for out-of-the-box action on how to turn things around for the future. Yet another, TechFutures also provides us with mind sharpening ideas on how to turn things around for the better.
Posted by ipeg on March 10th, 2009
Sadly, the IP community has for long failed to go out telling the non-IP world – not least the top management of companies and governments alike – in simple, understandable terms what crucial role IP plays and how underestimated its potential in international trade and economic growth is. And how we must change this.
Here is an example. Technology development and technology transfer between the “have’s” and the “have-not’s” are key in obtaining global economic growth in …
Posted by ipeg on December 30th, 2008
How can innovation and IP contribute to weather Europe through a severe economic downturn? China, and other Asian countries will not sit on their hands while developing high tech industries to fight recession and to keep up economic activity and demand. A very exemplary situation is the recent approval and backing Korea and China gave to an initiative to set up a new joint development project in Korea (KCIID) where Chinese companies are provided by Korean and Chinese governments with land, knowledge, tech transfer facilities as well as...
Posted by ipeg on July 30th, 2008
Everyone still thinks of China being intellectual property right (IPR) pirates. However things change, fast. Faster then we think and by doing so also emulating the bad IPR habits of the West. Forget about the copy shops stealing Gucci, Prada and other Western fashion symbols. That will keep on going, for sure, so does Europe (ever been to Florence, London, even Paris, where street vendors on every corner of the street sell fashion mark knock offs?).
Some bad copyright practices in Europe China now emulates. Take this recent article on...
Posted by ipeg on June 12th, 2008
Evalueserve commented on our earlier blog “Europe’s Patent Demise” which appeared on the former blog website. As we moved to the IPEG website (from Blogger) it is worth mentioning the comments of Evalueserve and its white paper on China Patent Trends. The comment read as follows:
I read this article on your blog and found it very interesting and informative. Since your article deal with Patents and Intellectual Property, I think you will also be interested in a recent study that we conducted on the China patent landscape....
