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09. 6.2007

Asian IP News Roundup

On the changing strategies of Indian generics.

An oped on Thailand and TRIPS.

And Novartis in Thailand.

Continue reading Asian IP News Roundup . . .

posted by Solveig Singleton @ 9:42 AM | Big Tent , Books , Markets: Business, Investment & Innovation , Media: Video, Music... , Pharma

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06.25.2007

Loser Pays. Thank you, Judge.

The chap who sued the dry cleaner for millions for losing his pants has been ordered to pay costs.

Loser pays is a good idea for patents, too. (The law & econ literature critiquing it is off base).

posted by Solveig Singleton @ 12:15 PM | Big Tent , Patents

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06.18.2007

If It Ain't Broke

Don't Fix It. No, really. Really, really don't.

posted by Solveig Singleton @ 10:53 AM | Big Tent , Patents , Pharma

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05.17.2007

Welcome to the Copyright Alliance

A new organizaton announced itself this morning -- the Copyright Alliance, "a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization dedicated to the value of copyright as an agent for creativity, jobs and growth."

The CA membership consists of 29 major content producers, and its Executive Director is Patrick Ross, former VP of PFF.

It also has the endorsement of Harold Berman, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property of the House Committee on the Judiciary, who spoke at the kick-off event, and other Hill powers. In assessing the future focus of the Alliance's activities, the fact that the kick-off was held on Capitol Hill provides a pretty good clue.

posted by James DeLong @ 2:18 PM | Big Tent

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05.16.2007

Tech Labor Issues Loom Again, Sadly

Two senators seek to investigate the use of H1B visas for skilled workers. At the level of very basic interest-group

Continue reading Tech Labor Issues Loom Again, Sadly . . .

posted by Solveig Singleton @ 3:26 PM | Big Tent , International , Legislation and Legislators , Markets: Business, Investment & Innovation

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Property, Artists, Liberty (& a Smidgeon of GPLv3)

An email from Alec van Gelder of the International Policy Network:

[The Economist article on Mstislav Rostropovich] was a tremendous insight into an economic system where the liberty afforded to artists through property rights is taken away through force and government intervention - and how far artists will go to express their creativity.
Property rights aren't just about profit awarded to corporations: Rostropovich wasn't primarily motivated by profit when he fled the Soviet Union - as evidenced by the amount of time he stayed in his own country and suffered the consequences of its brutality - to perform his music elsewhere. But the fact that property rights facilitate the means to profit gives all artists the liberty to be as creative as they like, without running the risk of clashing with their, in this particular case, sole supporters.

I think that a significant cause of the opposition to IP rights by the copyleft is political -- if creators are forced to rely on a government-run system of payments for their livelihoods, then only art regarded as politically correct by the authorities will be produced.

Continue reading Property, Artists, Liberty (& a Smidgeon of GPLv3) . . .

posted by James DeLong @ 8:12 AM | Big Tent , Software

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05.10.2007

Brush Up Your Hula!

The State Policy Network is sponsoring the 2007 Pacific Rim Policy Conference, Wed. May 23 - Thurs May 24 in Honolulu, including panels on both intellectual property and global capital, and an address by financial guru John Rutledge.

From the program:

Continue reading Brush Up Your Hula! . . .

posted by James DeLong @ 11:31 AM | Big Tent

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05. 3.2007

Property Rights Alliance

The next meeting of the Property Rights Alliance Hill Working Group will be on Thursday, May 10, from 09:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m., in Room 121 Cannon HOB.

To put a topic on the agenda, contact slaganga@propertyrightsalliance.org.

posted by James DeLong @ 2:47 PM | Big Tent

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04.26.2007

Big Tent

At the Tenth Annual National Conference on Private Property RIghts, held by the Property Rights Foundation of America in Oct. 2006, the closing address was by Lawrence A. Kogan of ITSSD, on "U.S. Private Property Rights Under International Assault."

It is a good piece, weaving together consideration of issues of physical and intellectual property, and of domestic and foreign affairs. Sample:

I am very troubled by the extent and seriousness of the current campaign that left-leaning foreign governments, activists and academics are waging against the American free market, private property and science and economics-based regulatory systems. I am even more offended, however, that many opponent-critics come from within our own midst i.e., there are many Americans (politicians and academics) now working alongside these zealots internationally and domestically in order to overhaul the American engine of economic freedom, innovation, growth and prosperity in the image of common-good oriented socialism. I believe that, such persons are either misguided or ideologically opposed to private property rights and free markets if they wish to see these U.S. systems replaced.

He does not discuss recent EU actions with respect to Microsoft, Qualcomm, Apple, etc., but he provides a broadened context for understanding these.

posted by James DeLong @ 2:13 PM | Big Tent

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04. 6.2007

Property Rights Alliance

The next meeting of the Property Rights Alliance Hill Working Group will be on Thursday, April 12th from 11:00am-12:00pm, in Room 120 Cannon HOB.

To put a topic on the agenda, contact slaganga@propertyrightsalliance.org.

posted by James DeLong @ 9:37 AM | Big Tent

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04. 5.2007

World Intellectual Property Day

posted by James DeLong @ 11:03 AM | Big Tent