One of the largest and most closely-watched intellectual property disputes in the United States right now is the lawsuit that Viacom, a major media company, filed in 2007 against Google. This is a copyright case, not a patent case, but it has major implications for the types of technologies that will be valuable in curbing copyright infringement in the digital age. Many such technologies had their core patents granted ten or more years ago, and many of the patentees went through periods of trying to sell their technologies but...

Is “independent invention” a cure against trolls in that it can be argued that infringement cannot be established in case of an “independent invention”? No it is not. A  lot of confusion, misunderstandings, half-truths, nonsensical quasi-lawerly talk exists around the term “independent invention“. The term is often “spittered” about as means against patent infringement actions by NPEs or patent trolls, but has no basis in patent law and lacks a common understanding and agreement on what it means...

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...