Lucchi, Nicola, Internet Content Governance & Human Rights (May 1, 2013). Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law Vol. 16, No. 3 (2013). Available at SSRN

Via LLRX.com - Copyrights, Fundamental Rights, and the Constitution - The recent Supreme Court decision, Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, addresses fair use and the “first sale” doctrine, upon whose protection libraries, used-book dealers, technology companies, consumer-goods retailers, and museums have long relied. Professor Annmarie Bridy's commentary focuses on the position that intellectual property rights in general and copyrights in particular are important, and when their scope is circumscribed to ensure the existence of a robust public domain, they benefit society. However important IP rights are, though – and reasonable people disagree pretty vigorously about that – they are not fundamental in the Constitutional sense.

Administration Strategy on Mitigating the Theft of U.S. Trade Secrets, February 2013: "The Administration will utilize trade policy tools to increase international enforcement against trade secret theft to minimize unfair competition against U.S. companies. The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) will make additional efforts to promote adequate and effective protection and enforcement of trade secrets. These Administration efforts will include:

• Deeper cooperation with trading partners that share U.S. interests with the objective of promoting enhanced trade secret and other intellectual property protection in ways that are consistent with U.S. approaches and helpful in curbing trade in goods and services containing stolen trade secrets;
  
• Targeting weaknesses in trade secret protection through enhanced use of the annual Special 301 process, including the Special 301 Report, action plans and related tools to gather and,
  where appropriate, act upon information about the adequacy and effectiveness of trade secret protection by U.S. trading partners;
  
• Seeking, through USTR-led trade negotiations such as the Trans Pacific Partnership, new provisions on trade secret protections requiring parties to make available remedies similar to those provided for in U.S. law; and
  
• Continuing to raise trade secret protections as a priority issue in all appropriate bilateral, regional, and multilateral trade discussions and appropriate trade and IP-related forums, including the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Council and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, informed by interagency and stakeholder input regarding partners and issues of concern."

CRS - Internet Domain Names: Background and Policy Issues. Lennard G. Kruger, Specialist in Science and Technology Policy. January 3, 2013

An Information Approach to Trademarks, Deven R. Desai. Georgetown Law Journal, Vol. 100, No. 6, (2012) via SSRN

"Implementing the Hargreaves review: In May 2011 Professor Ian Hargreaves published his Independent review of IP & growth. The 10 recommendations were broadly accepted in the Government's response document issued on 3 August 2011. We will be using this page to provide updates, data, consultation information and progress reports on the work we’re doing and where we are making progress.
Progress to date July 2012 Government Policy Statement: Consultation on modernising copyright. 2 July 2012, the Government published a policy statement on modernising copyright licensing document in light of the recent consultation. The Government also published updated impact assessments on each of the three proposals in the policy statement. The Government intends to legislate as soon as possible to:

• allow schemes to be introduced for the commercial and non-commercial use of ‘orphan’ copyright works and voluntary extended collective licensing of copyright works, subject to a number of important safeguards, and
  
• to create a backstop power to require collecting societies to adopt codes of conduct based on minimum standards..."

Ars Technica: "In a newly approved patent, an economics professor hopes to bring to the academic publishing world what seems to be forthcoming in the video game industry—new restrictions that would seemingly eliminate a secondary market for digital goods and prevent legal borrowing. Last week, the 2006 patent for a “Web-based system and method to capture and distribute royalties for access to copyrighted academic texts by preventing unauthorized access to discussion boards associated with copyrighted academic works” was approved by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The patent was granted to Joseph Henry Vogel, a professor at the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras."

"The AAUP is pleased to issue this comprehensive draft report, Recommended Principles and Practices to Guide Academic-Industry Relationships, for public comment...This is one of the longest reports that the AAUP has ever produced. It deals with issues that are in the news every week and that are having a critical impact on higher education in the United States and across the world. The days when industry-funded research was concentrated in a limited number of universities have passed. Every type and size of institution is now faced with both the opportunities and the responsibilities that such research relationships entail. The report opens with a summary of recommendations regarding the principles that colleges and universities should adopt, as appropriate, in their governing and advisory documents and in their contracts with outside funders. The main body of the report follows, beginning with an overview of the history and current state of engagement between industry and the academy. The balance of the report discusses each of fifty-some recommendations and guidelines in much greater detail, offering not only rationales for them, but also documentation and qualification. Those involved in reviewing, adopting, and implementing these recommendations should benefit from the detailed information provided. An appendix summarizes sources for each of the recommendations and notes those that are new to this report or modified from other sources."

"Patents, trademarks, and copyrights are the principal means for establishing ownership rights to inventions and ideas, and provide a legal foundation by which intangible ideas and creations generate tangible benefits to businesses and employees. Intellectual property (IP) protection affects commerce throughout the economy by: providing incentives to invent and create; protecting innovators from unauthorized copying; facilitating vertical specialization in technology markets; creating a platform for financial investments in innovation; supporting startup liquidity and growth through mergers, acquisitions, and IPOs; making licensing-based technology business models possible; and, enabling a more efficient market for technology transfer and trading in technology and ideas.

Follow up to previous postings on the Google Book Search project litigation, this posting via The Public Index Blog, Class Certification Granted, by James Grimmelmann [Thursday, May 31, 2012] "Today, Judge Chin issued an opinion granting class certification. The Authors Guild lawsuit will proceed as a class action on behalf of:

Via FindLaw: "Apple has responded to the United States' antitrust complaint arising out of supposed collusion between Apple and book publishers to fix the price of e-books appearing on Apple's iBooks store. The tech company calls the complaint "fundamentally flawed," arguing that Apple's entry into the marketplace actually broke Amazon's de facto monopoly on e-books."

Via LLRX.com - A Technical Examination of SOPA and PIPA - The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) are the subject of this Infographic, by Spencer Belkofer, Lumin Consulting. See also his related Infographic on the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA).

• Agency Operations - Agencies Must Continue to Comply with Fiscal Laws Despite the Possibility of Sequestration, GAO-12-675T, Apr 25, 2012
• Aviation Safety - FAA Is Taking Steps to Improve Data, but Challenges for Managing Safety Risks Remain, GAO-12-660T, Apr 25, 2012
• Medicaid - Federal Oversight of Payments and Program Integrity Needs Improvement, GAO-12-674T, Apr 25, 2012
• Missile Defense - Opportunities Exist to Strengthen Acquisitions by Reducing Concurrency and Improving Parts Quality, GAO-12-600T, Apr 25, 2012
• Patent and Trademark Office - New User Fee Design Presents Opportunities to Build on Transparency and Communication Success, GAO-12-514R, Apr 25, 2012
• U.S. Postal Service - Field Offices' Role in Cost-Reduction and Revenue-Generation Efforts, GAO-12-506, Apr 25, 2012

Via LLRX.com - SOPA’s Evil Twin Sister – CISPA: Well known graphic artists Jake O'Neil and Spencer Belkofer created this infographic out of a sense of urgency to visualize the salient information with as many communities as possible. This bill, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011, has not garnered the media coverage of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), but its high impact implications target key legal issues involving privacy and intellectual property.

• Hydraulic Fracturing and Safe Drinking Water Act Issues, Mary Tieman, Specialist in Environmental Policy; Adam Vann, Legislative Attorney - April 10, 2012: "Its application, along with horizontal drilling, for production of natural gas (methane) from coal beds, tight gas sands, and, more recently, from unconventional shale formations, has resulted in the marked expansion of estimated U.S. natural gas reserves in recent years. Similarly, hydraulic fracturing is enabling the development of unconventional domestic oil resources, such as the Bakken Formation in North Dakota and Montana. However, the rapidly increasing and geographically expanding use of fracturing, along with a growing number of citizen complaints and state investigations of well water contamination attributed to this practice, has led to calls for greater state and/or federal environmental regulation and oversight of this activity.
• Hydraulic Fracturing: Chemical Disclosure Requirements, Brandon J. Murrill, Legislative Attorney; Adam Vann, Legislative Attorney, April 4, 2012: "Chemical disclosure laws or proposals at the state level vary widely. Of the 11 current laws and three proposals examined in this report, only a few require direct public disclosure of chemical information by mandating that parties post the information on the FracFocus chemical disclosure website. The level of detail required to be disclosed often depends on how states protect trade secrets, as these protections may allow submitting parties to withhold information from disclosure at their discretion or to submit fewer details about proprietary chemicals, except, perhaps, in emergencies. Even if a disclosure law does not protect information from public disclosure, other state laws, such as an exemption in an open records law, may do so. States also have varying laws regarding the timing of these disclosure requirements."

Ben Kersey: "Microsoft and AOL ...signed a deal that would see MSFT pick up 800 of AOL’s patents for around $1 billion in cash. The deal is expected to close at the end of 2012, with Microsoft being able to leverage AOL’s remaining 300 patents under a non-exclusive license. As it turns out, there was an undisclosed term to the deal, and AllThingsD reports that Microsoft has picked up part of Netscape."

FAQ: "The Art Project is a collaboration between Google and 151 acclaimed art partners from across 40 countries. Using a combination of various Google technologies and expert information provided by our museum partners, we have created a unique online art experience. Users can explore a wide range of artworks at brushstroke level detail, take a virtual tour of a museum and even build their own collections to share. With a team of Googlers working across many product areas we are able to harness the best of Google to power the Art Project experience. Few people will ever be lucky enough to be able to visit every museum or see every work of art they’re interested in but now many more can enjoy over 30,000 works of art from sculpture to architecture and drawings and explore over 150 collections from 40 countries, all in one place. We’re also lucky at Google to have the technology to make this kind of project a reality."

Via WSJ Law Blog: "Two lawyers are taking on legal database providers Westlaw and LexisNexis with what appears to be a novel interpretation of copyright law. Edward L. White, a Oklahoma City, Okla., lawyer, and Kenneth Elan, claim WestLaw and LexisNexis have engaged in “unabashed wholesale copying of thousands of copyright-protected works created by, and owned by, the attorneys and law firms who authored them” — namely publicly filed briefs, motions and other legal documents."

Business Use of Intellectual Property Protection Documented in NSF Survey by John E. Jankowski1, February 2012

Wired Campus by Josh Fischman: "Elsevier, the global publishing company, is responsible for The Lancet, Cell, and about 2,000 other important journals; the iconic reference work Gray’s Anatomy, along with 20,000 other books—and one fed-up, award-winning mathematician. Timothy Gowers of the University of Cambridge, who won the Fields Medal for his research, has organized a boycott of Elsevier because, he says, its pricing and policies restrict access to work that should be much more easily available. He asked for a boycott in a blog post on January 21, and as of Monday evening, on the boycott’s Web site The Cost of Knowledge, nearly 1,900 scientists have signed up, pledging not to publish, referee, or do editorial work for any Elsevier journal. The company has sinned in three areas, according to the boycotters: It charges too much for its journals; it bundles subscriptions to lesser journals together with valuable ones, forcing libraries to spend money to buy things they don’t want in order to get a few things they do want; and, most recently, it has supported a proposed federal law (called the Research Works Act) that would prevent agencies like the National Institutes of Health from making all articles written by its grant recipients freely available."

Follow up to previous posting on ALA - PIPA, SOPA and the OPEN Act Quick Reference Guide, via the White House, Combating Online Piracy while Protecting an Open and Innovative Internet

Print libraries, book collections, book shops - targets of fiscal austerity, the growing impact and power of e-books, social media, pay walls, e-commerce structures, and changing values about print media itself - are increasing disappearing. Regardless of the application of specific determining factors, the results are increased thresholds to open access to "knowledge." There is also a corresponding assault on the lifespan of websites, blogs, databases, metadata and web enabled content such as documents and emails, as users with no notice discover information simply going offline. There is however a cadre of official and unofficial guardians of the written word, photos, databases and other archival materials. This article by Matt Schwartz, with reporting by Eva Talmadge, in Technology Review, provides insight into the work of some individuals with a mission is to salvage the "intellectual" property of millions of web users whose terabytes of words, work and documents are disappearing despite quick, creative and technologically adroit efforts to save what can be called modern internet "history" on a global scale. This article documents some of the challenges in the struggle to manage massive data loss, the folks who are data defenders, and how truly valuable libraries collections are in serious danger. Variable associated with digitizing collections (copyright, cost, shear volume of the task, and global conflict to name just a few), continue to impact this dynamic problem.

The Song of the Sirens: Google Book's Project and Copyright in a Digital Age, Clarice Castro and Ruy De Queiroz, September 1, 2011

News release: "Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd. announced the results of a new report revealing 48 percent of enterprises surveyed have been victims of social engineering, experiencing 25 or more attacks in the past two years, costing businesses anywhere from $25,000 to over $100,000 per security incident. The report, The Risk of Social Engineering on Information Security, shows phishing and social networking tools as the most common sources of socially-engineering threats – encouraging businesses to implement a strong combination of technology and user awareness to minimize the frequency and cost of attacks. Socially-engineered attacks traditionally target people with an implied knowledge or access to sensitive information. Hackers today leverage a variety of techniques and social networking applications to gather personal and professional information about an individual in order to find the weakest link in the organization. According to the global survey of over 850 IT and security professionals, 86 percent of businesses recognize social engineering as a growing concern, with the majority of respondents (51%) citing financial gain as the primary motivation of attacks, followed by competitive advantage and revenge."

CRS - Illegal Internet Streaming of Copyrighted Content: Legislation in the 112th Congress, Brian T. Yeh, Legislative Attorney, August 29, 2011

News release: "LexisNexis® Risk Solutions today unveiled the HPCC Systems Alliance Program, which is a collaboration of partners to stimulate innovation and accelerate market adoption of the newly open sourced HPCC Systems, an enterprise-proven, open source solution to help large organizations process “Big Data”. Built on a high performing computer cluster technology, HPCC Systems is an alternative to Hadoop. Interest in processing and managing Big Data is growing rapidly among enterprise and service provider customers. LexisNexis collaboration with innovative leaders will help customers navigate options for addressing large data sets, reduce overall infrastructure costs, and improve business agility and data insight. Products and solutions from these partners will help deliver fully integrated, turnkey solutions."

News release: "The National Music Publishers Association announced it has reached a resolution with YouTube in a copyright infringement lawsuit filed in 2007. As a result of this resolution, music publishers will have the opportunity to enter into a License Agreement with YouTube and receive royalties from YouTube for musical works in videos posted on the site. HFA's licensing and rights administration expertise was instrumental in making this opportunity possible. HFA will administer the license agreements which will be available to all music publishers regardless of affiliation."

G8 Summit of Deauville - May 26-27, 2011: "We discussed new issues such as the Internet which are essential to our societies, economies and growth. For citizens, the Internet is a unique information and education tool, and thus helps to promote freedom, democracy and human rights. The Internet facilitates new forms of business and promotes efficiency, competitiveness, and economic growth. Governments, the private sector, users, and other stakeholders all have a role to play in creating an environment in which the Internet can flourish in a balanced manner. In Deauville in 2011, for the first time at Leaders' level, we agreed, in the presence of some leaders of the Internet economy, on a number of key principles, including freedom, respect for privacy and intellectual property, multi-stakeholder governance, cyber-security, and protection from crime, that underpin a strong and flourishing Internet. The "e-G8" event held in Paris on 24 and 25 May was a useful contribution to these debates."

EUROPA press release: "Intellectual property rights (IPR), which comprise patents, trademarks, designs and geographical indications, as well as copyright (authors' rights) and rights related to copyright (for performers, producers and broadcasters), have been around for centuries. Often, without our even realising, they affect our daily lives: they protect the technology we use (cars, mobile phones, trains), the food we eat and the music we listen to or the films we watch. But in the last few years, technological change and, in particular, the growing importance of online activities, have completely changed the world in which IPR operate. The existing mix of European and national rules are no longer adapted and need to be modernised. That is why the Commission has adopted today a comprehensive strategy to revamp the legal framework in which IPR operate. Our objective is to enable inventors, creators, users and consumers to adapt to the new circumstances and to enhance new business opportunities. The new rules will strike the right balance between promoting creation and innovation, in part by ensuring reward and investment for creators and, on the other hand, promoting the widest possible access to goods and services protected by IPR. Getting this balance right will make a real difference to businesses (from the individual artist working alone to the big pharmaceutical companies) by encouraging investment in innovation. This will benefit the EU's growth and competitiveness which is delivered through the single market. Consumers will benefit from wider and easier access to information and cultural content, for example online music. The strategy deals with many issues to ensure IPR are covered comprehensively - from the patent a business needs to protect an invention to tackling the misuse of such inventions via a proposal also adopted today which will strengthen action on counterfeiting and piracy. Among the first deliverables of this IPR overall strategy are today's proposals for an easier licensing system for so-called "orphan works" that will allow many cultural works to be accessible online, and for a new regulation to reinforce customs actions in fighting trade of IPR infringing goods."

News release: "It's been almost a year since Mozilla, Opera, Xiph.Org, Matroska, Google and over 40 other partners launched the WebM Project with the goal of developing a world-class, open source media format for the web. The open development model has led to rapid quality improvements in WebM, and the format is now supported in HTML5-capable browsers including Firefox, Opera, Chrome and Internet Explorer. Leading silicon vendors are adding WebM support to their chipsets,and some hardware implementations are already on the market. A key measure of success for WebM is a diverse range of contributors. For example, we are already seeing a growing number of code contributions from independent developers as well as independent implementations. We are pleased to now offer another way to contribute, through a licensing initiative that allows the community to help further support the WebM Project. Google, Matroska and the Xiph.Org Foundation make the components of WebM openly available on royalty-free terms. Today we're announcing the formation of the WebM Community Cross-License (CCL) initiative with 17 founding members. Organizations that join the CCL agree to license patents they may have that are essential to WebM technologies to other members of the CCL."

Computerworld: 'Google is shedding some of the secrecy around its data center practices, with a new video that shows extensive security measures and the destruction of old hard drives to prevent leakage of customer data. Google "rigorously tracks the location and status" of each hard drive, destroying failed hard drives with a multistep process before gathering the mangled bits in boxes to send off to recycling centers. "One device that is used to destroy old hard drives is known as the crusher," the narrator of a Google video says. "A steel piston is pushed through the center of the drive and the platters are deformed, making them unreadable."

Rethinking Music: A Briefing Book Compiled and Presented By The Berkman Center for Internet & Society At Harvard University, April 2011.

The Triangle Research Libraries Network’s Intellectual Property Rights Strategy for Digitization of Modern Manuscript Collections and Archival Record Groups, January 2011 - Laura Clark Brown, Judy Ruttenberg, and Kevin L. Smith, J.D.

2010 U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Annual Report on Intellectual Property Enforcement, U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, February 2011

The Risky Business of Information Sharing: Why You Need to Care About Copyright: Copyright is an essential tool in the spread of new ideas, and the workplace has become ground zero for infringement. Ask employees up and down the corporate hierarchy, and they'll tell you that whisking information electronically to co-workers is integral to their jobs. Their employers will emphatically agree. But unauthorized swaps of information also carry enormous potential risk: Ordinary office exchanges, so natural to the digital world, can easily violate the copyright rights of others and bring costly lawsuits or settlements. Now the same technology that has dramatically defined the Internet age is drawing a new roadmap to compliance, with software tools that simplify adherence to copyright requirements.

News release: "Today, the Federal Communications Commission grants—with conditions and enforceable commitments—approval of the assignment and transfer of control of broadcast, satellite, and other radio licenses from General Electric Company (GE) to Comcast Corporation. The approval will allow GE and Comcast to create a joint venture involving NBC Universal, Inc. (NBCU) and Comcast. An Order further explaining the Commission’s reasoning and the conditions and commitments will be issued shortly. The Commission's decision is based on a thorough review of the record, which includes extensive data and voluntary commitments from the applicants, as well as thousands of comments from interested parties and public input received at a public forum held in Chicago. Based on this review, the Commission has determined that granting the application, with certain conditions and contingent upon enforceable commitments, is in the public interest."

Stakeholders' Platform Launches Project to Facilitate Access by VIPs to Published Works: "An unprecedented initiative to facilitate access to published works by the visually impaired and the print disabled was announced on October 23, 2010, in New Delhi, India at the 5th meeting of WIPO’s Stakeholders’ Platform. The Platform approved the launch on November 1, 2010, of TIGAR – the trusted intermediary global accessible resources project – which will enable publishers to make their titles easily available to trusted intermediaries. These intermediaries will create accessible formats and share them amongst each other and with specialized libraries. This site is a platform for initiatives in the intellectual property (IP) field aimed at facilitating access to information and cultural content by the blind, visually impaired, and other reading-impaired persons (VIPs). An objective of the IP system is to promote creativity and culture, while returning value to creators and providing widespread, affordable access to content for the public. Digital information technologies add a new dimension to the need for balance between protection of rightholders on the one hand, and the needs of specific user groups to benefit from reasonable exceptions to rights, on the other. Such users include more than 160 million VIPs around the world."

"Participants in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations announced today that they have finalized the text of the Agreement, after resolving the few issues that remained outstanding after the final round of negotiations in Tokyo...Participants in the negotiations include Australia, Canada, the European Union (EU) and its Member States, represented by the European Commission and the EU Presidency (Belgium), Japan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States of America. ACTA aims to establish a comprehensive international framework that will assist Parties to the agreement in their efforts to effectively combat the infringement of intellectual property rights, in particular the proliferation of counterfeiting and piracy, which undermines legitimate trade and the sustainable development of the world economy. It includes state-of-the-art provisions on the enforcement of intellectual property rights, including provisions on civil, criminal, border and digital environment enforcement measures, robust cooperation mechanisms among ACTA Parties to assist in their enforcement efforts, and establishment of best practices for effective IPR enforcement."

News release: "Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz [November 4, 2010] announced the appointment of Edward W. Felten as the agency’s first Chief Technologist. In his new position, Dr. Felten will advise the agency on evolving technology and policy issues. Dr. Felten is a professor of computer science and public affairs and founding director of the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University. He has served as a consultant to federal agencies, including the FTC, and departments of Justice and Defense, and has testified before Congress on a range of technology, computer security, and privacy issues. He is a fellow of the Association of Computing Machinery and recipient of the Scientific American 50 Award. Felten holds a Ph.D. in computer science and engineering from the University of Washington. Dr. Felten’s research has focused on areas including computer security and privacy, especially relating to consumer products; technology law and policy; Internet software; intellectual property policy; and using technology to improve government."

Patented in China II: The Present and Future State of Innovation in China, by Eve Y. Zhou, Ph.D., and Bob Stembridge - Thomson Reuters.October 2010.

• Defense Acquisitions: DOD Needs to Reassess Joint Cruise Missile Costs before Starting New Production Phase, GAO-11-112, October 13, 2010
• Intellectual Property: Agencies Progress in Implementing Recent Legislation, but Enhancements Could Improve Future Plans, GAO-11-39, October 13, 2010
• Military Personnel: Sustained Leadership and Oversight Needed to Improve DOD's Prevention and Treatment of Domestic Abuse, GAO-10-923, September 22, 2010
• Medicare Advantage: CMS Actions Regarding Plans' Health Reform Communications, GAO-10-953R, September 20, 2010

"The Federal Trade Commission today announced that it will require The Coca-Cola Company to restrict its access to confidential competitive business information of rival Dr Pepper Snapple Group as a condition for completing Coca-Cola’s proposed $12.3 billion acquisition of its largest North American bottler, which also distributes Dr Pepper Snapple carbonated soft drinks. Under a settlement with the FTC, Coca-Cola will set up a “firewall” to ensure that its ownership of the bottling company does not give certain Coca-Cola employees access to commercially sensitive confidential Dr Pepper Snapple marketing information and brand plans. In a complaint filed with the settlement, the FTC charged that access to this information likely would have harmed competition in the U.S. markets for carbonated soft drinks. On February 26, 2010, the FTC approved a proposed settlement order in which PepsiCo agreed to set up a similar information firewall after acquiring its two largest bottlers and distributors (see press release)."

News release: "WIPO has launched IP Advantage, a new database which profiles the intellectual property (IP) experiences of inventors, creators, entrepreneurs, and researchers. This tool aims to promote a better understanding of how IP is created and protected, and how inventors, creators and society at large benefit from the IP system. The IP Advantage database is a fully searchable one-stop gateway to the wealth of case study material available on WIPO’s website. The case studies featured in the database demonstrate how IP works in the real world and how IP rights - such as patents, marks and copyright - can be used to promote innovation in both developed and developing countries. The case studies are presented in a standard format reflecting the various steps of the innovation cycle: innovation – IP protection – exploitation – further innovation. They feature a variety of actors from across the globe and cover a range of topics, including branding, financing, partnerships and research and development (R&D). Various case studies also highlight the different ways in which the IP system can support the development of solutions to the challenges of climate change, food security and public health. IP Advantage is free, user-friendly and currently features over 100 case studies covering 48 different countries – a majority being developing countries. The database offers an intuitive interface that allows for searches to be made according to type of IP, the object of protection (inventions, commercial names, artistic works) and/or the focus of the case study (branding, IP management, R&D, etc.)."

"Commerce's United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) launched a beta version of the USPTO Data Visualization Center. This tool will give the public access to important data covering USPTO patent operations in a convenient dashboard format. The patents dashboard provides more refined pendency information than was previously available, as well as other critical indicators such as the number of applications in the backlog, production, staffing and more. This information will help the entire intellectual property (IP) community to better understand the USPTO’s processes, and enable applicants to make more informed decisions about their applications, especially as the USPTO develops more opportunities for applicants to control the timing at which their applications are examined. The new dashboard, which will be updated monthly, will also be used internally by the USPTO to analyze and improve its examination process and to track the effectiveness of its improvement efforts. The USPTO also plans to add relevant data to track progress in other areas such as Trademarks and worksharing with global IP offices."

• Statement of the Librarian of Congress on the Anticircumvention Rulemaking, July 26, 2010
• Determination of the Librarian of Congress and Text of the Regulation (to be published in Federal Register Tuesday, July 27, 2010
• The Recommendation of the Register of Copyrights: "The Librarian of Congress has announced the classes of works subject to the exemption from the prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works. Persons making noninfringing uses of the following six classes of works will not be subject to the prohibition against circumventing access controls (17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1)) until the conclusion of the next rulemaking."

"Checking out digital versions of books that are automatically returned after two weeks is as easy as logging onto the Internet Archive’s Open Library site, announced digital librarian and Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle. By integrating this new service, more than seventy thousand current books – best sellers and popular titles – are borrowable by patrons of libraries that subscribe to Overdrive.com's Digital Library Reserve. Additionally, many other books that are not commercially available but are still of interest to library patrons, are available to be borrowed from participating libraries using the same digital technology. According to Kahle, "Digital technologies promise increased access to both old and new books. The Internet Archive, through its OpenLibrary.org site, is thrilled to be adding the capacity to lend newer books over the internet, in addition to continuing to provide the public with all access, free downloadable older materials.” He added, "We expect the number of books in the digital lending library to grow annually."

2010 Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement (June 2010):

News release: The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) has voted to institute an investigation of certain portable electronic devices and related software. The products at issue in this investigation are portable electronic devices that utilize certain power management methods and may incorporate hardware and software for telephone directories within mobile telephone systems. The investigation is based on a complaint filed by HTC Corp. of Taiwan on May 12, 2010. The complaint alleges violations of section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 in the importation into the United States and sale of certain portable electronic devices and related software that infringe patents asserted by HTC. The complainant requests that the USITC issue an exclusion order and a cease and desist order. The USITC has identified Apple Inc., a/k/a Apple Computer, Inc., as the respondent in this investigation."

• Intellectual Property: Observations on Efforts to Quantify the Economic Effects of Counterfeit and Pirated Goods, GAO-10-423, April 12, 2010
• U.S. Postal Service: Strategies and Options to Facilitate Progress toward Financial Viability, GAO-10-455, April 12, 2010
• Information Security: Agencies Need to Implement Federal Desktop Core Configuration Requirements, GAO-10-202, March 12, 2010
• Information Security: Concerted Effort Needed to Consolidate and Secure Internet Connections at Federal Agencies, GAO-10-237, March 12, 2010

New York Times: "Electronically produced drafts, correspondence and editorial comments, sweated over by contemporary poets, novelists and nonfiction authors, are ultimately just a series of digits — 0’s and 1’s — written on floppy disks, CDs and hard drives, all of which degrade much faster than old-fashioned acid-free paper. Even if those storage media do survive, the relentless march of technology can mean that the older equipment and software that can make sense of all those 0’s and 1’s simply don’t exist anymore. Imagine having a record but no record player. All of which means that archivists are finding themselves trying to fend off digital extinction at the same time that they are puzzling through questions about what to save, how to save it and how to make that material accessible."

Official Google Blog:

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission today sued Intel Corp., the world’s leading computer chip maker, charging that the company has illegally used its dominant market position for a decade to stifle competition and strengthen its monopoly.In its complaint, the FTC alleges that Intel has waged a systematic campaign to shut out rivals’ competing microchips by cutting off their access to the marketplace. In the process, Intel deprived consumers of choice and innovation in the microchips that comprise the computers’ central processing unit, or CPU. These chips are critical components that often are referred to as the “brains” of a computer."

• Financial Audit: Office of Financial Stability (Troubled Asset Relief Program) Fiscal Year 2009 Financial Statements, GAO-10-301, December 09, 2009
• Intellectual Property: Enhancements to Coordinating U.S. Enforcement Efforts, GAO-10-219T, December 09, 2009
• International Trade: Observations on U.S. and Foreign Countries' Export Promotion Activities, GAO-10-310T, December 09, 2009
• State Department: Challenges Facing the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, GAO-10-290T, December 09, 2009
• Surface Coal Mining: Characteristics of Mining in Mountainous Areas of Kentucky and West Virginia, GAO-10-21, December 09, 2009
• Drug Safety: FDA Has Begun Efforts to Enhance Postmarket Safety, but Additional Actions Are Needed, GAO-10-68, November 09, 2009

National Law Journal: "The economy has employers extra jittery about company secrets getting out, so nervous that they're hiring staff just to monitor outbound e-mails. That's the conclusion of a recent study by Proofpoint, an Internet security and data loss prevention company, which found that 38 percent of large U.S. employers are monitoring outbound e-mail to prevent data leaks, up from 29 percent in 2008."

• Emergency Preparedness: Improved Planning and Coordination Necessary for Development of Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, GAO-09-1044T, September 30, 2009
• Intellectual Property: Enhanced Planning by U.S. Personnel Overseas Could Strengthen Efforts, GAO-09-863, September 30, 2009
• International Food Assistance: Key Issues for Congressional Oversight, GAO-09-977SP, September 30, 2009
• International Trade: U.S. Agencies Have Taken Some Steps, but Serious Impediments Remain to Restricting Trade in Burmese Rubies and Jadeite, GAO-09-987, September 30, 2009
• Medicaid: Fraud and Abuse Related to Controlled Substances Identified in Selected States, GAO-09-1004T, September 30, 2009
• Military Airlift: DOD Should Take Steps to Strengthen Management of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet Program, GAO-09-625, September 30, 2009
• Nuclear Waste: Uncertainties and Questions about Costs and Risks Persist with DOE's Tank Waste Cleanup Strategy at Hanford, GAO-09-913, September 30, 2009
• Vocational Rehabilitation Funding Formula: Options for Improving Equity in State Grants and Considerations for Performance Incentives, GAO-09-798, September 30, 2009
• Ryan White CARE Act: Health Resources and Services Administration's Implementation of Certain Provisions Hampered by Lack of Timely and Accurate Information, GAO-09-1020, September 29, 2009
• Emergency Preparedness: Improved Planning and Coordination Necessary for Modernization and Integration of Public Alert and Warning System, GAO-09-834, September 09, 2009
• Medicaid: Fraud and Abuse Related to Controlled Substances Identified in Selected States, GAO-09-957, September 09, 2009
• Disaster Housing: FEMA Needs More Detailed Guidance and Performance Measures to Help Ensure Effective Assistance after Major Disasters, GAO-09-796, August 28, 2009

Terms of Service - "These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the services and Twitter’s websites (the “Services”), and any information, text, graphics, or other materials uploaded, downloaded or appearing on the Services (collectively referred to as “Content”). Your access to and use of the Services is conditioned on your acceptance of and compliance with these Terms. By accessing or using the Services you agree to be bound by these Terms...Your Righst: You retain your rights to any Content you submit, post or display on or through the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through the Services, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute such Content in any and all media or distribution methods (now known or later developed)."

IBM Patent Application: Platform for Capturing Knowledge, September 10, 2009: "A platform used for capturing knowledge. More specifically, a framework configured to capture expert knowledge (e.g., of trained and/or skilled workers) for future instructional purposes (e.g., training of a younger, or less experienced, workforce). The platform comprises a knowledge recorder, instructional design tool, standardized XML, and gaming engine. The knowledge recorder is configured to capture knowledge of a user, which is transferable using a standardized XML format. The instructional design tool is configured to visually model a gaming scenario in order to expose and define logical situations based on the captured knowledge."

TradeMarkia - Search for a trademark by: name (here is the result for beSpacific), filing date(s), category, goods & services, company name, status [via Google Blogoscoped]

"CDT filed a "friend of the court" brief in the Southern District of New York [September 4, 2009] requesting that key privacy requirements be included in the Court's approval of the class-action settlement that would dramatically expand Google Book Search. CDT previously released a report in July analyzing the privacy implications of this settlement and is urging the judge to guarantee strong privacy safeguards for the exciting new services Google will be able to offer. The brief asks that the court approve the proposed settlement of the copyright infringement lawsuit between Google and authors and publishers, but to retain oversight in order to monitor implementation of a privacy plan."

• CDT's Amicus Brief in Google Books settlement
  
• CDT's Report on Google Book Service
  
• Related postings on Google Book Search
  
• New York Times: Google Book Project Coolly Received in Europe
  
• WSJ: Google Curtails Europe Book Plan

"UK Music fans are turning their backs on regular file-sharing in favour of streaming and other ways of sharing music, especially amongst teens, according to the latest survey by The Leading Question, the specialist media and technology research agency. Following the recent Digital Britain Report which set out the UK Government’s stance on how to curb file-sharing, the annual survey of more than 1000 music fans from The Leading Question, in conjunction with Music Ally, shows that the nature of the file-sharing threat is already changing."

News release, July 9, 2009: "On the day that Commissioner Viviane Reding unveils her strategy for a Digital Europe during the Lisbon Council, and as the European Commission's consultation on the Content Online Report draws to a close this week, senior members of the publishing world are presenting to Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding and Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy, a landmark declaration adopted on intellectual property rights in the digital world in a bid to ensure that opportunities for a diverse, free press and quality journalism thrive online into the future."

TIME: "In a complex settlement agreement, which took three years to hammer out and spans 135 pages excluding attachments, Google will be allowed to show up to 20% of the books' text online at no charge to Web surfers. But the part of the settlement that deals with so-called orphan books — which refers to out-of-print books whose authors and publishers are unknown — is what's ruffling the most feathers in the literary henhouse. The deal gives Google an exclusive license to publish and profit from these orphans, which means it won't face legal action if an author or owner comes forward later. This, critics contend, gives it a competitive edge over any rival that wants to set up a competing digital library. And without competition, opponents fear Google will start charging exorbitant fees to academic libraries and others who want full access to its digital library. "It will make Google virtually invulnerable to competition," says Robert Darnton, head of the Harvard University library system."

Follow up to previous postings on GM bankruptcy and auto industry, this press release: "Penske Automotive Group, Inc., an international automotive retailer, announced today that is has signed a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") with General Motors regarding the Saturn brand. Under the terms of the MOU, if the transaction is completed, Penske Automotive Group would obtain the rights to the Saturn brand, acquire certain assets including the Saturn parts inventory, and have the right to distribute vehicles and parts through the Saturn Dealership network. General Motors would continue to provide Saturn Aura, Vue and Outlook vehicles, on a contract basis, for an interim period."

Competitive Intelligence - A Selective Resource Guide: Sabrina I. Pacifici's completely revised and updated pathfinder focuses on leveraging selected reliable, focused, free and low cost sites and sources to effectively profile and monitor companies, markets, countries, people, and issues. This guide is a "best of list" of web, database and email alert products, services and tools, as well links to content specific sources produced by governments, academia, NGOs, the media and various publishers.

News release: "Starting today, The eBook Store from Sony will provide access to more than a half-million public domain books from Google optimized for current models of the Reader. At Sony’s eBook store (ebookstore.sony.com), a button on the front page leads to the books from Google, which people can transfer to their PRS-505 or PRS-700 Reader at no cost. The process is seamless for Reader owners who have an account at the store. Those new to the store will need to set up an account and download Sony’s free eBook Library software. To start, people can access more than a half-million public domain books from Google, boosting the available titles from the eBook Store to more than 600,000."

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission announced the fourth in a series of public hearings exploring the evolving market for intellectual property. These hearings, to be held April 17, 2009, in Washington, DC, will explore how corporations, inventors, and patent intermediaries value and monetize patents, strategies for buying and selling patents, and the role of secondary markets for intellectual property. Some of the most significant recent changes in markets for intellectual property have occurred through the emergence of new business models involving the buying, selling and licensing of patents. The April 17 hearing also will showcase some of the recent academic scholarship about the development and functioning of markets for intellectual property and the policy implications surrounding them."

• Financial Audit: American Battle Monuments Commission's Financial Statements for Fiscal Years 2008 and 2007, GAO-09-293, February 27, 2009
• Access to Arts Education: Inclusion of Additional Questions in Education's Planned Research Would Help Explain Why Instruction Time Has Decreased for Some Students, GAO-09-286, February 27, 2009
• Tax Gap: IRS Could Do More to Promote Compliance by Third Parties with Miscellaneous Income Reporting Requirements, GAO-09-238, January 28, 2009
• Overseas U.S. Government Personnel Involved in Efforts to Protect and Enforce Intellectual Property Rights, GAO-09-402R, February 26, 2009
• Defense Acquisitions: Perspectives on Potential Changes to Department of Defense Acquisition Management Framework, GAO-09-295R, February 27, 2009
• Veterinarian Workforce: The Federal Government Lacks a Comprehensive Understanding of Its Capacity to Protect Animal and Public Health, GAO-09-424T, February 26, 2009

Researching Intellectual Property Law In The Russian Federation: Julian Zegelman's updated and revised research guide is intended to assist its users with research of Russian intellectual property law by a) describing the primary sources of intellectual property law in the Russian Federation; and b) listing a number of secondary sources that interpret and comment on intellectual property law in the Russian Federation.

Ahead of the Curve: In 2009, Your Lawyers Are Your Best Knowledge Management Resource - Gretta Rusanow outlines her recommendations on why this year presents an excellent opportunity to work on those long-desired collections of models, best practice documents, sample clauses and know how files.

Follow up to previous postings on the Google Book search project, from the New York Review of Books, Google & the Future of Books, by Robert Darnton

News release: "Acting U.S. Trade Representative Peter Allgeier announced today that a World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement panel has found important aspects of China’s intellectual property rights (IPR) regime to be inconsistent with China’s obligations under the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement). The United States brought claims against China because of serious concerns about several shortcomings in China’s legal regime for protecting and enforcing copyrights and trademarks on a wide range of products."

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission today announced the second in a series of public hearings exploring the evolving market for intellectual property (IP). These hearings, to be held February 11 and 12, 2009 in Washington, DC, will examine remedies for patent infringement...The February 11 hearing will address patent damages, including the standards that govern such assessments, the application of these standards in court proceedings, and the impact of the resulting awards on business activity, including licensing and innovation. The hearing on February 12 will focus on permanent injunctions in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s eBay decision and willful infringement. Panelists will consider, among other issues, the criteria courts have considered in deciding whether to grant or deny an injunction and the effect of these legal doctrines on innovation and business strategies. An agenda for the hearings is available here."

You’re Leaving a Digital Trail. What About Privacy? by John Markoff: "Propelled by new technologies and the Internet’s steady incursion into every nook and cranny of life, collective intelligence offers powerful capabilities, from improving the efficiency of advertising to giving community groups new ways to organize. But even its practitioners acknowledge that, if misused, collective intelligence tools could create an Orwellian future on a level Big Brother could only dream of. Collective intelligence could make it possible for insurance companies, for example, to use behavioral data to covertly identify people suffering from a particular disease and deny them insurance coverage. Similarly, the government or law enforcement agencies could identify members of a protest group by tracking social networks revealed by the new technology."

Hitwise Intelligence - Heather Hopkins - US: "This week we are publishing a report on online brand protection. This issue is huge for marketers with our research showing that more than 1 in 10 US Internet searches for leading brands is led away from the brand owner's website. When you search for a brand in the phone book, you don't find that brand's competitors listed. But when you search online, that brand's fiercest competitors often appear in the sponsored listings. Online businesses need to be aware of the extent of the problem and to understand the best ways to deal with threats."

Courthouse News: "Thomson Reuters demands $10 million and an injunction to stop George Mason University from distributing its new Web browser application, Zotero software, an open-source format that allows users to convert Reuters' EndNote Software. Reuters claims George Mason is violating its license agreement and destroying the EndNote customer base."

Department of Commerce Office of Inspector General - United States Patent and Trademark Office, The Overseas Intellectual Property Rights Attaché Program Is Generally Working Well, but a Comprehensive Operating Plan Is Needed, Final Report IPE-19044/July 2008.

News release: "U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of International Trade announced today that the domestic value of counterfeit and pirated products seized by CBP and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement increased by 2.7 percent in mid-fiscal year 2008 to $113.2 million compared to $110.1 million in mid-FY 2007.

The number of large-scale seizures also increased: rising from 296 IPR seizures with a domestic value equal to or greater than $100,000 in 2008 compared to 266 such seizures in mid-FY 2007. The first half of the fiscal year extends from Oct. 1 to March 28. (IPR Seizure Statistics)

• Defense Infrastructure: High-Level Leadership Needed to Help Communities Address Challenges Caused by DOD-Related Growth, GAO-08-665, June 17, 2008
• Intellectual Property: Leadership and Accountability Needed to Strengthen Federal Protection and Enforcement, GAO-08-921T, June 17, 2008
• Long-Term Fiscal Outlook: Long-Term Federal Fiscal Challenge Driven Primarily by Health Care, GAO-08-912T, June 17, 2008
• Millennium Challenge Corporation: Independent Reviews and Consistent Approaches Will Strengthen Projections of Program Impact, GAO-08-730, June 17, 2008

Intellectual Property: Federal Enforcement Has Generally Increased, but Assessing Performance Could Strengthen Law Enforcement Efforts, GAO-08-157, March 11, 2008: "Five key agencies play a role in IP enforcement, and their enforcement functions include seizures, investigations, and prosecutions. While IP enforcement is generally not their highest priority, IP crimes with a public health and safety risk, such as production of counterfeit pharmaceuticals, is an IP enforcement priority at each agency. Determining agencies' IP enforcement resources is challenging because few staff are dedicated to this area, and not all agencies track staff time spent on IP enforcement.

Agencies carry out some enforcement actions through their headquarters, but significant enforcement takes place in the field. Federal enforcement actions generally increased during fiscal years 2001-2006, but the key agencies have not taken key steps to assess their achievements. For example, most have not systematically analyzed their IP enforcement statistics to inform management and resource allocation decisions, collected data on their efforts to address IP crimes that affect public health and safety, or established IP-related performance measures or targets to assess their achievements. Also, Customs and Border Protection's enforcement of exclusion orders, which stop certain IP-infringing goods from entering the country, has been limited due to certain procedural weaknesses. The National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, an interagency mechanism created to coordinate federal investigative efforts, has not achieved its mission and staff levels have decreased. Currently, only one agency participates in the center's activities, which focus on private sector outreach. Agencies have lacked a common understanding of the center's purpose and agencies' roles. The center's upcoming move to a new location presents an opportunity to reconsider its mission."

Press release: "U.S. Coordinator for International Intellectual Property Enforcement Chris Israel released the administration’s Annual Report to the President and Congress on Coordination of Intellectual Property Enforcement and Protection today. The Annual Report conveys the yearly accomplishments and establishes priorities for the upcoming year for the federal agencies responsible for protecting and enforcing American intellectual property (IP) rights, both domestically and abroad."

Information Economy Report 2007-2008 (386 pages, PDF): "The Information Economy Report 2008 - Science and technology for development: the new paradigm of ICT, analyses the current and potential contribution of information technology to knowledge creation and diffusion. It explores how ICTs help generate innovations that improve the livelihoods of the poor and support enterprise competitiveness. The report examines how ICTs affect productivity and growth and reflects on the need for a development-oriented approach to intellectual property rights in order to enable effective access to technology. ICT has also given rise to new models for sharing knowledge and collective production of ideas and innovations, known as "open access" models, which often bypass the incentive system provided by intellectual property rights."

The Threat Posed By Inflated Statutory Damages, Comments on the January 25, 2008 Meeting Hosted by the Copyright Office: "The PRO IP Act (H.R. 4279) proposes to weaken the long-established “one work” rule, which today imposes a measure of certainty on how copyright statutory damages are calculated. Under current law, a copyright plaintiff may seek up to $150,000 per work infringed. In the case of compilations, the one work rule recognizes that the compilation is being marketed as one work, although it may in fact consist of multiple components. Section 104 of the PRO IP Act seeks to undo a central underpinning of statutory damages: ensuring that the damages award for infringement of a compilation does not result in catastrophic multiple awards through a separate award for each component of that compilation. For example, current law authorizes a statutory damages award of up to $150,000 for a single infringement of a magazine containing 100 photos, or a software application containing 100 modules. The proposed changes in Section 104 would allow a plaintiff to claim up to $15 million for the same act of infringement."

Follow up to December 27, 2007 posting Mandate for Public Access to NIH-Funded Research Now Law, see this press release: "The Association of American Publishers [January 3, 2008] criticized a controversial new NIH research publication policy that was enacted as part of the omnibus appropriations package for 2008, and reaffirmed that journal publishers who have opposed the policy will continue to pursue their concerns with Congress regarding the policy’s negative impact on science publishing and the protection of related intellectual property rights. Publishers will also urge NIH to conduct a rulemaking proceeding, with opportunity for public comment, before implementing the new policy."

US State Department's Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) Activity Report: November 2007

"The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative today presented to Congress the statutorily-mandated annual report on China’s compliance with its World Trade Organization accession obligations. The report highlights the status of China's ongoing efforts in such areas as intellectual property rights, industrial policy, agriculture, and services."

Press release: "In an effort to strengthen laws protecting creative and intellectual property, leaders of the House Judiciary Committee today introduced bipartisan legislation to improve federal agency enforcement efforts and provide more resources to those efforts. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-TX), Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA), and Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Tom Feeney (R-FL), Darrell Issa (R-CA), Steve Chabot (R-OH), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Ric Keller (R-FL), Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), and Robert Wexler (D-FL) introduced the "Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (“PRO IP”) Act of 2007" to combat what they say is an increasing problem...The bipartisan PRO IP bill is supported by both labor unions and industry groups because of the increasing global economic cost of counterfeiting and piracy - which is currently between $500 and $600 billion/year in lost sales and approximately 5% - 7% of global trade. It costs the United States between $200 and $250 billion/year in lost sales, including 750,000 jobs."

Press release: "The new, non-proprietary, open standard, ACAP (Automated Content Access Protocol), is set to put an end to publisher-search engine legal clashes was unveiled and showcased in New York today, 29 November 2007 at a conference opened by World Association of Newspapers President, Gavin O’Reilly and addressed by keynote speaker AP CEO Tom Curley. ACAP has been developed at the initiative of the World Association of Newspapers, the International Publishers Association and the European Publishers Council in close collaboration with search engines to protect the intellectual property of anyone wishing to make content available on the worldwide web. ACAP is the result of an intense 12-month pilot project which has resulted in a unique communications tool that will open the door to more and more high level content, giving all content owners the confidence to make their content available on the worldwide web. From today, publishers globally will be encouraged to implement ACAP version 1 which will allow publishers, broadcasters and indeed any other publisher of content on the network to express their individual access and use policies in a language that search engine robots and similar automated tools can read and understand. ACAP is set to become a universal standard. Click here for instructions on how to implement ACAP."

Press release: "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Committee member Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) Wednesday introduced bipartisan legislation to strengthen U.S. government efforts to combat copyright infringement and counterfeiting at home and abroad. The Judiciary Committee Wednesday also held a hearing today, Examining U.S. Government Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights. The Intellectual Property Enforcement Act introduced Wednesday by Leahy and Cornyn would strengthen law enforcement capabilities and resources in thwarting copyright theft. The bill [Section-By-Section Analysis] would give civil copyright enforcement powers to the Attorney General and the Department of Justice, and it would authorize additional funding to investigate and prosecute intellectual property crimes involving computers and the Internet. The bill also requires the Federal Bureau of Investigation to assign a minimum of 10 agents to work on intellectual property crimes, and it classifies both the importation and exportation of pirated works as infringement."

Rising Journal Costs Limit Scholarly Access, Emory University:
"Are publishers getting rich publishing your research? A Bear-Stearns evaluation of Reed-Elsevier (one of the world's largest publishers of scholarly journals) recently rated the company, which earns profits of almost 40% annually, "a stockholder's dream." Should private publishers be getting rich selling information generated by research that is funded by academic institutions and the public? What's happening and how does it affect scholars? This article looks at one university’s experience."

Follow up to September 6, 2007 posting, Backgrounder on H.R. 1908, the Patent Reform Act of 2007, Bloomberg News report, House Passes Bill to Curb Suits by Patent Owners: "The House approved the most sweeping changes to United States patent law in more than half a century on Friday...The measure passed by the House would change the rules at the Patent and Trademark Office so patents would go to the first person to file an application, not necessarily the first inventor."

Press release: "The College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland is pleased to announce the launching of the Center for Information Policy and Electronic Government (CIPEG). CIPEG is a multidisciplinary research and educational center that focuses on the intersections between public policy and law, ethics, and trust as they affect the uses of information in society by individuals, organizations, and governments. Originally established in 1998 as the Center for Information Policy (CIP), CIPEG is jointly sponsored by the College of Information Studies and the School of Public Policy of the University of Maryland. The Center principals are Director Dr. Paul T. Jaeger, Associate Director for Educational Programs Stephen Hannestad, and Assistant Directors Dr. Ken Fleischmann and Dr. Jennifer Golbeck. The Center also has more than twenty members from within the University community. CIPEG draws on the expertise of its members in areas such as archival science, computer and information science, education, international relations, knowledge management, public policy, and science and technology studies. Research at CIPEG spans six key areas - Information Policy, Electronic Government, Information Ethics, Social Networks, Emergency Response and Recovery, and Equal Access to Information. Center faculty and staff have researched and published extensively in these areas. Research at CIPEG is grant-based, with Center principals having received funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Archives and Records Administration, the Department of Defense, the Information Security Oversight Office, the American Library Association, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among others. [beSpacific author Sabrina I. Pacifici is an adjunct professor with CIPEG]

Intellectual Property Management in Health and Agricultural Innovation: A free resource from MIHR and PIPRA. [thanks to Warren Leary]

WSJ free feature: Policing Web Video With 'Fingerprints' - Sharing Sites Say Technology Could Help Them Identify, Remove Unauthorized Clips: "Proponents of fingerprinting technology say it can help spot TV shows and films that are posted on video-sharing sites such as Google Inc.'s YouTube without their owners' permission, so the sites can remove them or share advertising revenue."

Press release: "The Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF's) European Office today announced a broad coalition aimed at fixing a poorly drafted intellectual property enforcement proposal that could make criminals of thousands of people in the European Union. The Second Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED2) -- set for vote in the European Parliament early next week -- makes "aiding, abetting, or inciting" intellectual property infringement on a "commercial scale" a criminal offence. However, IPRED2 defines criminal offences so vaguely that creators of legitimate websites, Internet service providers, and even librarians could be investigated by the police and face criminal records as well as fines of hundreds of thousands of euros. The coalition battling against IPRED2 includes the Brussels-based European Consumers Organisation (BEUC), the European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations (EBLIDA), the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), and the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII). The group sent an open letter to the European Parliament today, urging members to support amendments that would protect consumers, innovators, and researchers."

Tech//404® Data Loss Cost Calculator: "Data loss resulting from network security breaches and identity theft has become a regular occurrence. While the number of affected records can vary widely in any given data loss scenario, a recent study by the Ponemon Institute found that the average number was roughly 99,000. For recent examples and media reports, visit the data loss archive. Darwin created the Tech//404® data loss cost calculator as a tool to demonstrate the scope of negative financial impact an organization may face as a result of a data breach or identity theft data loss scenario. The calculator will automatically generate an average cost, and a plus/minus 20% range, for expenses associated with internal investigation, notification/crisis management and regulatory/compliance if the incident were to give rise to a class action claim."

Antitrust Modernization Commission Report and Recommendations, April 2007.

Press release: "...the Department of Commerce's United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) released a report that concludes that the distributors of five popular filesharing programs repeatedly deployed features that they knew or should have known could cause users to share files inadvertently. The report, Filesharing Programs and "Technological Features to Induce Users to Share, identifies five features in recent versions of five popular filesharing programs that could cause users to inadvertently distribute to others downloaded files or their own proprietary or sensitive files. "Computer programs that can cause unintended filesharing contribute to copyright infringement, and they threaten the security of personal, corporate, and governmental data," noted Jon Dudas, under secretary of commerce for intellectual property-the Bush Administration's point person on copyright policy."

"Counterfeiting and piracy costs U.S. companies between $200-$250 billion a year and roughly 750,000 jobs to date. Nearly all industries are being affected, from apparel and footwear, high-tech industrial goods, medicines, autos and auto parts, food and beverages, and cosmetics to copyrighted works, including entertainment and business software, movies, music, and books. The U.S. Chamber through its National Chamber Foundation has launched a broad initiative to effectively thwart the growing global threat of counterfeiting and piracy to the U.S. economy, the global business community, and consumers."

New Drug Development: Science, Business, Regulatory, and Intellectual Property Issues Cited as Hampering Drug Development Efforts, Full text GAO-07-49, and Highlights, November 17, 2006.

Press release: "Attorney General Bill Lockyer today announced Hewlett-Packard (HP) will finance a new law enforcement fund to fight violations of privacy and intellectual property rights, and adopt corporate governance reforms, under a $14.5 million settlement that resolves allegations the firm used false pretenses – or pretexting – to unlawfully access phone records during its probe of boardroom leaks to the media." [see this FTC Factsheet on Pretexting]

Follow up to September 18, 2006 - posting Belgian Court Rules Against Google in Copyright Dispute:

Levine, David S., "Secrecy and Unaccountability: Trade Secrets in Our Public Infrastructure". Florida Law Review, Forthcoming. [via SSRN]

2006 Report to the President and Congress on Coordination of Intellectual Property Enforcement and Protection (168 pages, PDF): "The report sets forth the actions and initiatives that the U.S. government has taken over the past year to combat the rising tide of global counterfeiting and piracy, and notes the importance of these efforts because of the critical role intellectual property (IP) plays in the country's economic strength and the health and safety of consumers." [link to press release]

CDT press release: "Evaluating DRM: Building a Marketplace for the Convergent World" tackles the complicated subject of copyright protection technology, offering a clear set of metrics for consumers and product reviewers to consider when evaluating DRM-protected devices and services. The goal of the paper is to educate users about what questions to ask to determine how various DRM applications may affect their ability to use movies, music, games and other media."

Reclaiming Pieces of Camelot - How NARA and the JFK Library Recovered Missing Kennedy Documents and Artifacts, by James M. Roth: "Among the more celebrated individuals suspected of misappropriating presidential and federal documents is Evelyn Lincoln, former secretary to President John F. Kennedy. Through the efforts of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library staff, the National Archives general counsel, and the U.S. Department of Justice, many of these documents and items apparently taken by Lincoln have now been returned to their rightful place. This is the story of how that happened...Finding aids for the papers are online at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum web site."

Press release: U.S. Sentencing Commission votes to promulgate emergency guideline amendment regarding intellectual property crimes.

Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia -- hearing -- STOP!: A Progress Report on Protecting and Enforcing Intellectual Property Rights Here and Abroad [Links to witness testimony]

Matwyshyn, Andrea M., "Technoconsen(t)sus" (May 2006). Posted July 19, 2006 [Link to download]

Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus 2006 Watch List: "...the Caucus announced they will focus on China and Russia as high priority countries, due to the scope and depth of their piracy problems. The Caucus will also closely monitor the serious problems of copyright piracy in the following countries: Mexico, Canada, India and Malaysia."

Madrid System for the International Registration of Marks: WIPO Marks E-Renewal System

Circumventing Competition: The Perverse Consequences of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (PDF, 28 pages), by Timothy B. Lee

From the Economic Research Service, USDA: Government Patenting and Technology Transfer, by Paul W. Heisey, John L. King, Kelly Day Rubenstein, and Robbin Shoemaker, Economic Research Report No. (ERR15) 60 pp, March 2006.

Managing Cybersecurity Resources: A Cost-Benefit Analysis "details guidelines for using sound and measurable principles of cost-benefit analysis, as a compliment to gut instinct, to efficiently allocate and manage cybersecurity resources within your organization. Written by two globally acknowledged leaders in the increasingly critical area of cybersecurity (Lawrence A. Gordon and Martin P. Loeb), this comprehensive exploration presents:

Following up on a controversial demand made by DOJ to major search engine companies for extensive database records, Google this afternoon posted the following response on their official blog: "In August, Google was served with a subpoena from the U. S. Department of Justice demanding disclosure of two full months' worth of search queries that Google received from its users, as well as all the URLs in Google's index. We objected to the subpoena, which started a set of legal procedures that puts the issue before the Federal courts. Below is the introduction to our response to the Department of Justice's motion to the court to force us to comply with the subpoena. You can find the entire response here. (This is a 25-page PDF file.)"

Press release: "Today, U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman unveiled the results of a top-to-bottom review of U.S.-China Trade Policy at a news conference. The report, U.S. - China Trade Relations: Entering a New Phase of Greater Accountability and Enforcement (29 pages, PDF), is the first comprehensive statement of U.S. trade policy towards China since it joined the WTO in 2001. The report was provided to Congress this morning with a cover letter (2 pages, PDF) from Ambassador Portman to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means Committees. In this letter, he outlined his objective of closer collaboration with Congress on U.S.-China trade policy."

Related documents:

Declan McCullagh reported that Judge James Ware, US District Court, Northern District of California, has calendered Gonzales v. Google, Inc. for February 27, 2006.

In a shift from previous responses to and commentary about DOJ's subpoena for Google's search data, this New York Times article, In Case About Google's Secrets, Yours Are Safe, recasts the probe with a focus on protecting corporate trade secrets, not preserving user privacy.

Related commentary on Google:

Will Fair Use Survive? Free Expression in the Age of Copyright Control (76 pages, PDF), by Marjorie Heins and Tricia Beckles, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, Free Expression Policy Project, December 2005.

Press release: "HarperCollins Publishers today announced they will create a digital warehouse for all of its content and will issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) this month as part of an effort to develop the necessary technical infrastructure to broadly exploit its content digitally. The plan is the first step in satisfying the demands of the marketplace, which is increasingly requiring that content be made available online and in numerous formats, while allowing the publisher to remain in control of its digital files and intellectual property."

Leggo My Ego, GooglePrint and the other culture war, by Tim Wu.

Descriptive metadata for copyright Status, by Karen Coyl:

Following up on my July 27, 2005 posting, Web Archives Provide Sources for Discovery, see this Article of the week from Lawyers Weekly USA: Lawyers Are Turning To Old Websites For Evidence, available free. [note: this article will be archived one week after publication date].

Researching Intellectual Property Law In The Russian Federation,
by Julian Zegelman.

Press release: "The Department of Commerce's United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has launched a Web site dedicated to small businesses and protecting their intellectual property (IP), both in the U.S. and abroad. Specifically designed to answer common questions of small businesses so they can better identify and address their protection needs, the new online resources are part of a nationwide awareness campaign to help educate small businesses on IP protection." [d.c.]

Whose Work Is It, Anyway? - "The use of 'orphan works' of art and literature, whose creators cannot be identified, puts scholars and artists at odds over changes in copyright law."

Related references:

Today's Wall Street Journal featured a front page article ($), Lawyers' Delight: Old Web Material Doesn't Disappear - Wayback Machine and Google Archive Billions of Pages, Including Deleted Ones, which is worth review. It focuses on how old web pages available from the Internet Archive and cached pages from Google can be of particular value in cases involving domain name disputes.

White House press release, July 22, 2005: "The President intends to appoint Christian Israel, of Virginia, to be Coordinator for International Intellectual Property Enforcement at the Department of Commerce."

Keeper of Expired Web Pages Is Sued Because Archive Was Used in Another Suit

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios v. Grokster, LTD., Argued March 29, 2005, Decided June 27, 200. Opinion author: Souter

Intellectual Property: U.S. Efforts have Contributed to Strengthened Laws Overseas, but Significant Enforcement Challenges Remain GAO-05-788T, June 14, 2005. Highlights:

IP Theft Surges To 36% Of Global Counterfeiting.
"Intellectual property theft (brands, trademarks and copyrights) surged to
36% of global counterfeiting during the month of February 2005."

"The Strategy Targeting Organized Piracy (STOP!) is the most comprehensive initiative ever advanced to smash the criminal networks that traffic in fakes, stop trade in pirated and counterfeit goods at America's borders, block bogus goods around the world, and help small businesses secure and enforce their rights in overseas markets." [Link]

The Shadow Internet - "They start with a single stolen file and pump out bootleg games and movies by the millions. Inside the pirate networks that are terrorizing the entertainment business."

This Wired article profiles the recently launchedIPac, whose mission is described as follows:

Sometimes the internet goes out of its way to let other people get their hands on your intellectual property, says Simon Moores.

The multi-talented Robert Ambrogi (lawyer, author, blogger, Director of WritersforLawyers), published a new column, Web Watch: Intellectual Property Blogs (in Law Technology News, reg. req'd), which he then promptly updated on his blog.

Report of the Department of Justice's Task Force on Intellectual Property (October 2004, 96 pages, PDF):

Prepared Statement of Attorney General John Ashcroft - Digital Gridlock, Wednesday, August 25, 2004:

Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, Oversight Hearing, "Derivative Rights, Moral Rights, and Movie Filtering Technology," May 20, 2004:

From the Union for the Public Domain (UPD), a non-profit citizens group since 1996, whose goal is "to protect and enhance the public domain in matters concerning intellectual property," news of this Survey of National Government Representatives Regarding the WIPO Broadcasting Treaty, "being used by volunteers to collect information about national positions on the proposed WIPO Broadcasting Treaty. The results you collect will be posted on the Web so that citizens in your country and around the world can act appropriately to protect the public domain."

The New Surveillance, by Sonia Katyal, Case Western Law Review, Vol. 54, No. 297, 2004.

Attorney General John Ashcroft's Remarks Regarding Operation Fastlink and Internet Piracy (4-22-04):

"The Center for Information Policy (CIP), University of Maryland, is a multidisciplinary research center that analyzes and provides solutions to current policy issues relating to the convergence of information and technology...Privacy, intellectual property and information security are just a few of the areas where CIP offers independent, unbiased quality analysis, advice and proposals for action."

From today's New York Times, Europe Moves to Strengthen Piracy Laws.

The Third Draft Agreement (November 21, 2003) of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) includes an extensive section on Intellectual Property Rights. According to the advocacy group IP Justice, the "expanded copyrights...endanger civil liberties and competition....and one of the most controversial sections of the IPR chapter requires countries to outlaw the circumvention of technological restrictions." [Link] The group is sponsoring an "online petition calling for the deletion of the entire chapter on intellectual property rights in the FTAA Treaty." (Thanks to Andrew Sitzer)

As a follow-up to my August 14 posting, Publisher Sues Financial Services Firm for Copyright Violation, this news from Reuters, Legg Mason told to pay $20 mln in copyright suit.

The House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property Committee on the Judiciary, Joint Hearing with the Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection Oversight, Hearing on the Discussion Draft, H.R. ____, The Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act of 2003, held Tuesday, September 23, 2003:

Amazon wins tussle over lookalike site:

Scalable Exploitation of, and Responses to Information Leakage Through Hidden Data in Published Documents, by Simon Byers, AT&T's Research Labs.

From Boston.internet.com: "In a blow for chipmaker Intel, the California Supreme Court Monday found that senders of spam e-mails cannot be sued under state law forbidding property trespass. The 4 to 3 ruling reversed a lower court injunction preventing former Intel engineer Ken Hamidi from sending e-mails critical of Intel to thousands of its employees." See my previous posting, California Supreme Court Reviews E-Mail Case, which links to numerous resources on this case.

National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program: An Interview with Laura Campbell, Associate Librarian for Strategic Initiatives Library of Congress.

June 17, 2003 - Legislative hearing on H.R. 2344, the Intellectual Property Protection Restoration Act of 2003 (to restore Federal remedies for infringements of intellectual property by states), Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property.

Professor Pamela Samuelson, School of Information Management and Systems, University of California at Berkeley, published a new article, The Constitutional Law of Intellectual Property After Eldred v. Ashcroft, 50 J. Cop. Soc'y (forthcoming 2003). Link via A Copyfighter's Musings, which reviews the article, and its significant citations from other forthcoming articles.

Today the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation held a hearing on Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Reauthorization. Testimony was presented on the agency's work in the areas of competition and consumer protection, and future plans for programs that respond to the challenges from the wide range of consumer fraud conducted via the Internet, along with high-profile issues in the news such as personal data collection and web privacy, unsolicited commercial e-mail, IP and competition and antitrust enforcement.

From the American Library Association Washington Office Newsline: "The U.S. Supreme Court on June 2 issued its opinion in Dastar Corp. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. (case no. 02-428), in which ALA participated as a "friend of the court" in support of Dastar Corporation. The Court has ruled unanimously 8-0 (Justice Breyer did not participate in the case) in favor of Dastar, ruling that the company did not act illegally when it repackaged and distributed a television documentary which had entered the public domain. The reasoning of the court is extremely helpful to supporters of balanced intellectual property laws."

Related documents include:

Via Internet Law Blog, this "table listing the monetary awards that companies have received because they were either victorious in an IP infringement lawsuit, or they negotiated deal in the absense/presence of a infringement lawsuit, or related technology litigation such as antitrust," by Gregeory Aharonian. The chart organizes the information according to the following categories: Amount, Year, Parties, Legal Action, Technology, and Reference. The date range for the cases is 1969 to present.

From Duke University School of Law, the Winter/Spring 2003 issue of Law & Contemporary Problems has 13 full-text articles on public domain issues, including Mapping the Digital Public Domain: Threats and Opportunities and Reconciling What the First Amendment Forbids with what the Copyright Clause Permits: A Summary Explanation and Review. The articles and essays in the issue result from the Conference on the Public Domain, Duke Law School, November 9—11, 2001.

From Eyeteeth, this interview with professor and author Siva Vaidhyanathan, whose books include The Anarchist in the Library, which details the impact of peer-to-peer networks on the dissemination of information, and Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How It Threatens Creativity.

His comments about libraries and the Patriot Act include the following: "What we’re doing though is making librarians choose among their values. Librarians believe very strongly in recordkeeping and in maintaining archives. It’s part of the historical record; that’s half of what they do. But the other half of what they do is serve and protect their patrons. The federal government has made librarians choose between retaining records that might be useful, for instance in budgetary discussions not to mention historical research, and protecting their patrons, so their patrons don’t feel intimidated by the books they choose to read or by the potential of oversight of the books they choose to read. There are a lot of librarians around the country right now who are taking a very noble and strong stand against this situation, and I think we need to celebrate them and support them in this effort."

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) announced the availability of a new book, Intellectual Property - A Power Tool for Economic Growth, to coincide with World Intellectual Property Day (April 26, 2003). A 21 page overview of the book is available here in html, and here in pdf.

Via Copyfight, this link to The Media Institute's "new online forum for the discussion of the many issues surrounding copyright and intellectual property in the digital age," the Copyright Colloquium.

This month SBC Communications Inc. launched an effort to actively protect its patents on a "structured document browser," U.S. patent No. 5,933,841 and No. 6,442,574.

SBC sent a patent infringement notice to information education products website Museum Tour indicating that "any website which has static, linked information (top banners, menus, bottom banners) which are displayed while other sections of the page are displayed as non-static (the area where products appear on most websites) infringes upon the patents they hold.

Museum Tour has posted a web page with links to SBC's 34 page infringment notice here. As a related resource, see Dan Gillmor's blog associated with his column on SBC's patent claims. He is seeking instances of prior art, and is updating this blog with pertinent information on what will no doubt remain a newsworthy story for some time.

"IP Justice is a new non-profit organization that works to promote balance in global intellectual property law and protect freedom of expression with digital media." An interview with Executive Director Robin D. Gross, an IP attorney formerly with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, was conducted by CNet.

The National Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordination Council Report 2001-2002 (in PDF) to Congress is a joint effort by DOJ, USPTO, State Dept., U.S. Trade Representative, Commerce, and the Copyright Office. "The mandate of the Council is to coordinate domestic and international intellectual property law enforcement among federal and foreign entities." See also the DOJ site cybercrime.gov, for details on prosecutions involving computer piracy cases.

On January 3, 2003, Supreme Court Justice O'Connor lifted the stay she ordered on December 26, 2002 in DVD Copy Control Association v. Matthew Pavlovich (S 100609), and upheld the California Supreme Court decision that Pavlovich (a Texas resident who does not do business in California) cannot be forced to stand trail in that state for publishing DVD descrambling source code.

Also see articles at News.com, InfoWorld and this EFF press release.

Yahoo and NCR (founded in 1884 as National Cash Register Company) are battling over computer patents and associated licensing fees in the District Court in San Francisco. On December 13, Yahoo filed suit against NCR (4:02-cv-05813, Yahoo! Inc. v. NCR Corporation
Saundra Brown Armstrong, presiding) claiming it is not infringing NCR's patents.

This New York Times article reports on the anticipated trail in the Western District of Washington that pits the 50 person Lindows.com against the Microsoft behemoth in an effort to revoke the Windows trademark and protect against Microsoft's claims of copyright infringement.

Judge John C. Coughenour's March 15, 2002 30 page ruling in this ongoing battle between the two companies stated "..the Court finds that Lindows.com has met its burden of proof in rebutting the validity of the Windows trademark..." To review the text of pre-trail documents, court rulings and press on this case, you can visit this Lindow's page.

On December 26, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor issued an order granting a temporary stay in DVD Copy Control Association v. Matthew Pavlovich (S 100609), pending receipt of further documentation relevant to the case. The DVD Copy Control Association has been fighting a three-year long battle to protect the Content Scramble System (CSS), a program that prevents users from accessing DVD content on "unauthorized devices." The CSS is covered under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). See the California Supreme Court decision in Pavlovich, filed November 25, 2002, here.

In this Law.com article, a litigation partner from NY's Paul Weiss reviews what he considers the top 12 IP cases of 2002.

Public Knowledge (PK) is a relatively new advocacy group whose agenda is to maintain free and open public access to digital data. According to President and co-founder Gigi B. Sohn, PK seeks to "promote a balanced approach to copyright policy that reflects the "cultural bargain" intended by the framers of the constitution - creators and innovators get incentives to create, which results in a robust public domain of shared knowledge."

The site boasts an excellent design that clearly identifies the range of resources that the organization is providing to the public. These include: press releases, news headlines and news archive, commentary, many topical links to papers, articles, speeches and books, links to related advocacy groups, and historical information on patents.

The House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, held an oversight hearing on "Piracy Of Intellectual Property On Peer-to-Peer Networks," September 26, 2002. The Statement of Gigi B. Sohn, President, Public Knowledge, is here. The Statement of Hilary Rosen, Chairman and CEO, Recording Industry Association of America, is here.

The Information Society Project at Yale Law School (ISP) hosts several resources focused on how the Internet, intellectual property and telecommunications impact our civil liberties. The site posts working papers and information about policy initiatives. In addition, the project sponsors a provocative, insightful, and informative searchable weblog, LawMeme, with commentary on legal-tech issues provided by law students.

The Commission on Intellectual Property Rights (CIPR) an international organization, disbanded with the publication this month of their final report, Integrating Intellectual Property Rights and Development Policy. The group's interest was strongly focused on developing countries and their access to the services afforded by technology to the world's prosperous nations.

This ZDNet article summarizes the key proposals in the report, which include eliminating shrink wrap licenses and a call for global support of open source software.

Today the GAO released the following report: Intellectual Property: Information on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Past and Future Operations. GAO-02-907, published August 23, 2002. Revenues, already booming for this agency, will be even higher as their proposed Strategic Plan calls for an increase in overall fees of 51% for large entities, and 67% for small entities.