Securing Innovation

Renew America Says GE's Chairman & CEO

blog@ip.com (IP) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:49:16 -0500

Last week, GE's Chairman and CEO, Jeff Immelt, delivered a speech at the Detroit Economic Club that was discussed on the Harvard Business Review Editors' Blog. We retweeted it earlier this week @ipdotcom when we first saw the speech mentioned on Twitter @GuyKawasaki.

But this speech is more than interesting. It's important. So we hope you'll find time to watch or listen, at work if that's where you're expected to think seriously about what it's going to take for your company to be part of the renewal of American industry.

GE announced the opening of an Advanced Manufacturing and Software Technology Center just outside of Detroit that will bring more than 1,100 scientists, technologists and engineers to the hard-hit Michigan industrial sector.

"Great companies must be a part of the American renewal," says Jeff Immelt, GE's' Chairman & CEO, "so we're ready to begin that work, today."

Technology Transfer by Universities

mdidas@ip.com (Mark Didas) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:04:05 -0500

Technology Transfer and patent licensing by universities has come a long way in the forty years since IP Hall of Fame inductee Niels Reimers first established the Office of Technology Licensing (OTL) at Stanford.

Since then, many academic institutions and laboratories have established some form of Technology Transfer Office, or TTO, as they're generally called, or have designated someone to manage the marketing and licensing of technology invented at the university. There's even a specialty publication dedicated to providing the latest information and best practices, titled Technology Transfer Tactics.

Technology Transfer Tactics is independent and unbiased. It is not affiliated with any organization, government agency, or foundation, or with any vendor or supplier. It is entirely funded by subscription revenue, and accepts no advertising.

For the current issue of the Technology Transfer Tactics monthly newsletter, Cameron J. McCoy of the University of Oklahoma was interviewed about their Intellectual Property Management Office (IPMO), which we've also written about here on our corporate weblog, in connection with the implementation there of IP.com's InnovationQ workflow management software.

You can read the article here and, if you're interested in the latest tactics for technology transfer and licensing, you might want to subscribe to the newsletter of Technology Transfer Tactics.

In addition to the article about the University of Oklahoma's IPMO, the June 2009 Issue of Technology Transfer Tactics has interesting pieces with these headlines:

TTOs take part in mad scramble for research dollars.
Examine COI policies as big pharmas take bigger stake in early-stage research.
Model for patent protection at Virginia Tech speeds up commercialization process, but challenges remain.
TTO uses technology to target IP management/marketing gains.
‘Trolls’ have a thing or two to teach TTOs about patent protection.
Florida start-ups to double with integrated statewide program.

Click here to subscribe to the Technology Transfer Tactics monthly newsletter

Each issue targets specific challenges in recognizing, protecting, and “marketing” potentially valuable research results, moving the discovery from the sheltered world of the laboratory to successful wide utilization, funding these challenges, and ensuring proper division of recognition and resultant monies. Our editors and writers report expert advice, successful case histories, legal perspectives, and other information that will enable hurdles to be surmounted efficiently and with prudent use of limited resources.

Here's a link to the current issue of Technology Transfer Tactics.

IP Hall of Fame Inductees on YouTube

blog@ip.com (IP) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:37:34 -0500

At the IP Business Congress in Chicago this week, inductees into the IP Hall of Fame for 2009 were interviewed by IAM Magazine reporter Sara-Jayne Adams. This series of video interviews, including inductees Dolores Hanna, Michael Kirk, and Niels Reimers, whose interview is embedded below, can now be seen on YouTube.

Born and raised in Carmel, California, Niels Reimers studied mechanical engineering at Stanford University and Oregon State University. After stints in the U.S. Navy, Anplex Co., Ltd., and Ford Aerospace, Reimers returned to Stanford University, where in 1968 he established a research management office and in 1969 the Office of Technology Licensing (OTL). The successful launching of these two offices led to his hiring by universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of California at San Francisco, all of which were seeking to establish their own offices for technology transfers.

A cofounder of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), Reimers has served as chairman of the Licensing Executive Society (U.S. and Canada) (LES). Reimers has also served as a consultant, advising universities around the world planning to open or operate their own technology transfer offices.

Blawg Review #217 on Father's Day 2009

tcolson@ip.com (Thomas J. Colson) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:54:58 -0500

"For many of us, our father is a hero, an inspiration, a teacher, a role model, a mentor, a friend. Long after our father may pass away, or even after we leave the roost and start our own family, our father continues to influence many of our lives in both large and small ways." - Robert W. Zinnecker, The Faculty Lounge.

As if a foreshadowing of our special Father's Day presentation of Blawg Review, John Hochfelder of the New York Injury Cases Blog touched us with a heartfelt tribute to his father, a WWII hero who survived the battle of Iwo Jima. Blawg Review #209 is a wonderful read, again, on Father's Day.

This Father’s Day it’s important to give your dad something he’ll appreciate. For many fathers, this could simply mean helping him to access a variety of services that can improve his quality of life and save him time and money. Henry Allingham, the oldest man in the world at 113 years young, has other ideas.

In other news this Father's Day weekend, reports that Walter Cronkite is "gravely ill" have been "overstated" says his spokeswoman. Uncle Walter is just 92, and both his parents lived to be 100.

During the past 13 years, Father's Day has taken on a new, special meaning to me.

Before, it was a day to honor my own dad, and thank him for a lifetime of support, sacrifice, and guidance. As a kid, I would prepare for Father's Day like every other kid. I would make something, or get my mom to buy something from me to him. Then, on the big day, I would race to give him my gift first (I would be racing against my four brothers and sisters who were trying to do the same thing). My siblings and I would then do everything we could to make it a great day for our dad (mostly, refrain from fighting).

But, even though I did the whole gift thing and the make-the-day-great-for-my-dad thing, I never really saw the unique value of my dad. He always seemed like a great dad, but he didn’t seem much different from all the other great dads in my neighborhood. I had an awakening about my dad, though, during my 4 year career as an Assistant District Attorney. It was then that I began to see the outcome of bad fatherhood. Most criminals I prosecuted were the product of a home without a dad, or a home with a really bad dad. Seeing this, seeing the outcome of children raised with bad fathers or no fathers, I began to appreciate the importance of being a great father.

Thirteen years ago, I became a father.

At that time, I made the decision to become more than a good father. I decided to become a great father to my children. I decided to become a mentor, life coach, and ally, providing them with tools and skills necessary to meet life’s challenges. And since I believe that success has a lot to do with planning, I decided to use Father's Day as my planning day.

Since then, I have invested a few hours every Fathers’ Day building my Fatherhood Plan for the upcoming year; setting goals, tactical plans, and reviewing my successes from the previous year. One Father's Day I had planned to create a series of children’s books to empower my own children and help them to believe they could accomplish any goal; to believe that they could do anything. Because of that plan, my children and I have created a series of children’s books about A Girl Named Pants and have sold over 6,000 books. In doing this, my children have not only gained confidence about what they can achieve in this world, but they have built valuable business skills.

During another Father's Day, I had planned to begin teaching my children how to speak Mandarin (a challenge made more challenging by the fact that I don’t speak Mandarin). I believed (and continue to believe) that being bilingual is a valuable tool, and in light of the direction of the world, it seems that Mandarin would be the most valuable second language for my children. Since then we have completed almost 30 units of Pimsleur’s Mandarin Chinese program; fifteen minutes per day per kid, four-five days per week. My children are not only speaking some Chinese, but building more confidence in the process.

Last Father's Day, I planned to help my children build public speaking skills. These young girls are now implementing our “POP” program every time they speak in public (Passion, Organization, Practice). Two weeks from now, my children and I will be launching the first-ever “A Girl Named Pants” public speaking camp for 8-11 year-olds.

I don’t know what my Fatherhood plan will look like for the upcoming year, but I know that I will invest a few hours this Father's Day thinking about it and creating it.

'What Every Woman Should Know" is a series on American Women’s History at The New Agenda: the new “feminism,” improving the lives of women and girls. There, on Father's Day, Anna Belle writes, "a father’s impact on a daughter cannot be overstated." She begins:

Fathers’ Day, like Mothers’ Day, was invented by a woman. Ann Jarvis is responsible for Mother’s Day, an effort she began in 1912, which she later came to despise, as she thought that the holiday had become what she called a “Hallmark Holiday.” Sonora Smart Dodd is officially credited with starting Father’s Day in 1910, though her effort was not taken very seriously for many years. Woodrow Wilson signed Mothers’ Day into law, and Lyndon B. Johnson signed Fathers’ Day into law.

Mothers and fathers throughout history have often been the biggest influence on a child’s life, and the same is true today. There is no greater opportunity to have an impact in this world than to direct your children in your own values. Since today is Fathers’ Day, I thought I’d share with you how some fathers have had an impact on some of the famous daughters I’ve covered in this series.

Is it Father's Day or Fathers' Day? Future Lawyer takes a grammarian view of the spelling and insists it's Fathers' Day. Wikipedia explains the spelling of Father's Day:

Although the name of the event is usually understood as a plural possessive (i.e. "day belonging to fathers"), which would under normal English punctuation guidelines be spelled "Fathers' Day", the most common spelling is "Father's Day", as if it were a singular possessive (i.e. "day belonging to Father"). Dodd used the "Fathers' Day" spelling on her original petition for the holiday, but the spelling "Father's Day" was already used in 1913 when a bill was introduced to the US Congress as the first attempt to establish the holiday, and it was still spelled the same way when its creator was commended in 2008 by the U.S. Congress.

Just in time for Father's Day this weekend, a San Diego lawyer and the Oakland A's have settled a controversial class-action lawsuit over a Mother's Day giveaway in 2004, reports the ABA Journal.

In preparation for Blawg Review, we received submissions and recommendations of some of the best law blog posts from the past few weeks that might be fitting for our Father's Day presentation. Let's begin with the President of the United States of America, a lawyer, and a father first.

'We Need Fathers To Step Up' wrote President Barack Obama, in Parade Magazine.

Good fathers get a puppy for their kids, and while it's a high honor to be the First Dog, it's even greater, perhaps, to be "King" and have a park named after you, like Stephanie West Allen's dad's dog.

Eric Turkewitz at the New York Personal Injury Law Blog reports the the New York Court of Appeals recently tossed out a personal injury case premised on a violation of a local leash law.

R. David Donoghue, shown with his father and son in the photograph of three generations watching the Blackhawks, wrote on the Chicago IP Litigation Blog about a recent case where it was held that color trademark infringement is a question of fact for the court to determine. Dave will be at the IP Business Congress in Chicago this week and has arranged a venue for conference attendees and orgainisers to Meet the Bloggers at the Billy Goat Tavern. No doubt, the conference will be all atwitter about President Obama's announcement of his intent to nominate David J. Kappos as the next Director of the Patent and Trademark Office, also known as Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property. Kappos is currently IBM's Vice President and Assistant General Counsel, Intellectual Property. Joff Wild, Editor of Intellectual Asset Magazine has written extensively on the IAM Blog about the Kappos nomination, concluding,

For my part, I think he will do an excellent job. He knows the issues; he has a strong IP background; he comes from an industry in which IP is hugely important; he knows all the major players; he has long management experience; and he thinks deeply about IP and its role in society. Frankly, I cannot think of anyone better to do the job. He is not perfect, but who is? President Obama has made a good choice.

Like I did this week, Jay Shepherd visited an Apple retail store and noted how different its acclaimed business methods are from typical law firm behavior.

Jammie Thomas-Rasset's federal retrial concluded last week as a jury found her liable for willful copyright infringement, awarding the record labels $1.9 Million, or approximately $80,000 for each of the 24 songs illegally downloaded. The retrial and verdict have been covered in detail at ars technica. Ron Coleman at Likelihood of Confusion considers this an award of "Infinity Dollars" for copyright infringement of music. Fred von Lohmann at the Electronic Frontier Foundation wonders if the jury award in this case is unconstitutional.

New York Criminal Defense Attorney Scott Greenfield, a humble father shown here with his son in a vintage sports car, bears a striking resemblance to a younger Graham Nash in the YouTube video above. This week, he discusses FCC v. Fox Television, the "fleeting expletives" case of which much was made of the Court's use of "F-word" and "S-word" in the decision rather than the actual word spoken. In a blog post titled "The Language of the Law" Scott Greenfield writes,

While I've no doubt that somewhere in this vast land there are people who have never uttered either word, I've never met one. Both words are, for better or worse, rather common. I've taken the liberty of having both my children, at a tender age, speak the words aloud to get them over the taboo and to teach them, as Wasserman does, that they are mere words and carry no greater weight than others. But I then explain that people find the words jarring, particularly out of the mouths of children, and will think poorly of them for using such words. I explain further that the language has many other words that can be used to express their thoughts, and that these words aren't needed to make their point clear. Curses won't hurt them, but won't help them either.

First Amendment lawyer Marc Randazza, who uses all the words of the English language at The Legal Sartyricon, discusses the Catsouras photos, privacy, and privilege. For those who don’t know, Nikki Catsouras was a beautiful young girl who made a terrible error in judgment, and it cost her dearly.

Lawyer of the Day at Above the Law is appropriately named. "From the sound of this story, this Indiana lawyer could probably hold down the name Larry Wildest." According to The Indiana Law Blog, Wilder apologized for any embarrassment he caused. "I apologize to my children more than anyone," he said.

Our company blog is Securing Innovation, and IP.com publishes the Prior Art Database, so we were interested in the innovation reported on Lowering the Bar, British Manufacturers Offer Pointless Anti-Stab Knives.

Colin Samuels, shown in the photo on the right with his daughter all dressed up to go to a "Rock Star"-themed Daddy-Daughter dance, has probably talked to her about tattoos and branding.

Jason Voiovich explains how a portfolio of enforceable patents and trademarks failed to result in a commercially successful product, owing to poor branding, and the resulting problems don't have an easy legal solution for a composite screw maker which is more-or-less screwed.

After blogging exclusively about substantive patent law for more than five years, J. Matt Buchanan has lauched a new site as a home for his thoughts and writings that relate to a completely different side of his practice – helping organizations build inventive cultures and idea friendly environments.

Alex Harris is critical of the bureaucratic export control laws and, noting the high costs of compliance for businesses, writes that "too little attention has been paid to these costs on doing business internationally when passing feel-good “anti-terrorism” and “anti-proliferation” laws and regulations."

Dan Harris concedes that he is "paranoid about my clients registering their trademarks in China, pretty much before they do anything else" and that when the "anything else" comes to naught, the costs and trouble incurred in trademark registration are largely wasted, but he suggests that that's a small downside considering the larger costs of overcoming a lost trademark.

Fernando Rivadeneyra offers excellent advice about doing business in Mexico.

Michael Atkins discusses trademark enforcement and jurisdiction in those nations within our nation -- tribal nations.

The revolution will not be televised; it will be on Twitter. Sort of.

Frank Pasquale at Balkinization asks if there's a duty to tweet. "Is Web 2.0 really becoming a "technology of freedom" via social software like Facebook and Twitter? If so, do defenders of liberty have some moral duty to be part of these networks?"

Frank Pasquale on Concurring Opinions discusses why the "public/private" distinction might need to be revisited and privacy restrictions currently applicable to government be extended to private entities which provide information to the government.

Evan Brown discussed a keystroke-capture case which suggests that the scope of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act may not be as narrow as previously believed.

Ken at the Popehat blog comments on a seemingly overreaching and unnecessarily privacy-invasive requirement by the City of Bozeman, Montana that city job applicants provide account names and passwords for all websites where they comment, blog, or post status updates. It may not directly implicate fathers for purposes of this Father's Day Blawg Review, but there's a definite hint of Big Brother at work there.

Familoo at the Pink Tape blog notes that in the UK one group's privacy is well protected -- "Judges found guilty of misconduct or who have been reprimanded." She's understandably perplexed.

Also in the UK this week, a judicial decision has effectively stripped anonymous/psudonymous bloggers of protection for their identities; the "logic" of the decision, that blogging is an essentially public activity and the use of a nom-de-blog (or no nom at all) does not make one's true identity more private and deserving of protection from publication, would seem to bode poorly for anonymous blog commenters as well as the bloggers themselves. "Jack of Kent" and "Jailhouse Lawyer" (AKA John Hirst) reproduced the decision itself. "Tufty the Cat" suggested that the decision would essentially chill speech by those who suspect their heretofore anonymous speech could be counterproductive to their personal or professional interests if their identities were known. "Charon QC" offered the most extensive and compelling analysis of the ruling and its likely effects. Don't you find it ironic that some of the best coverage of this important decision was provided by four writers who blog either exclusively or primarily under pseudonyms?

DNA testing might be a tangential topic to include in a Blawg Review celebrating fatherhood; Lyle Denniston had an excellent post discussing the impact of the recent SCOTUS Osborne decision. Grrl Scientist questions the decision...and justice for all?

Bridget Crawford and Lolita Buckner Inniss discussed whether the term "baby daddy" had racial overtones and whether its use by whites amounted to "twenty-first century blackface minstrelsy".

Ah, Father’s Day — filled with neckties, golf clubs and Brut soap on a rope. But there’s more to this important day than gift-giving and cookouts; it’s really about honoring and remembering your father. So Texas Lawyer asked some attorneys to reflect on the lessons they learned from their lawyer-dads.

Vickie Pynchon, an intellectual property law mediator and one of the Blawg Review "sherpas" who researched and recommended several of these law blog posts for Father''s Day, recently published a very thoughtful post about her father, also a lawyer, on his birthday and the one-year anniversary of his death.

The new Sports Law Handbook For Coaches and Athletic Administrators by William H. Glover, Jr., is dedicated to his 86 year old father, Coach William H. Glover of Jackson MS.

Georgia Attorneys point to an article on ESPN about a very special Father's Day for Atlanta Falcons Linebacker Stephen Nicholas who very nearly lost his son, but for a heart transplant for the infant boy.

One ongoing part of my annual Fatherhood Plan specifically relates to my son.

Colin was born in July of 1996; my first and only son. As a two-year old he contracted a rare disease called Protein Losing Enteropathy (PLE). PLE is a rare disease that kills virtually every child it meets. Colin survived with PLE for five months. When Colin died, I decided that the one remaining thing I could do for him as his father would be to find a cure. It hasn’t been easy, and I still haven’t found a cure. But, every year, seeking a cure for PLE is part of my Fatherhood Plan.

In 1998, we formed the Children’s Hearts Fund (a fund within Children’s Hospital of Buffalo foundation). Since then, we have raised almost $1Million for PLE research. We have hosted two international symposiums in an effort to bring together great brains throughout the world to investigate PLE. The Burnham Institute in San Diego has become our research partner. Together we have discovered a mouse-model and we are investigating two specific treatment options that could save the lives of thousands of PLE children. And, a few months ago, because of our efforts, the Burnham Institute received a $1 Million NIH grant for PLE research. We have a long way to go in finding a cure, but curing PLE will remain a part of my Fatherhood Plan until we do.

As I think about my 13 years as a father it occurs to me that there is no other relationship quite like the one between a parent and a child. And while fatherhood is a lot about teaching children, it's even more about learning from them. My children have taught me about the vulnerability and fragility of life, the depth of love, the intensity of joy, the weight of responsibility, and, at times, the burden of sadness. My children have even taught me about God and made that relationship more real to me. Because of my children, I have become more than a man...I have become a father.

Blawg Review has information about how to submit your law blog posts and recommend others for next week's presentation by our neighbor here in Buffalo, Adrian Dayton, a lawyer and father who is working to achieve work/life balance by putting family first.

Tweet of the Week @rdd

blog@ip.com (IP) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:53:38 -0500

R. David Donoghue of the Chicago IP Litigation Blog responds to this thankyou on Twitter @blawgreview and @ipdotcom thanking him for being among the first to send in for Blawg Review #217 a photo depicting fatherhood for him.

Fathers' Day, this Sunday, June 21st, Blawg Review #217 will be hosted here on the Securing Innovation blog by Tom Colson, CEO of IP.com Inc.

Blawg Review is the blog carnival for everyone interested in law, a weekly roundup of the best recent law blog posts on a variety of topics, often presented with a topical theme. As part of the theme for Fathers' Day, Tom plans to include photos submitted to blog@ip.com by followers of Blawg Review, and readers of our corporate blog, that show their family relationships as fathers or with fathers.

Because of the Fathers' Day theme, submissions and recommendations will be accepted until 3:00 p.m. EST on Sunday to allow inclusion of any great law blog posts that are posted on Fathers' Day that should be included in Blawg Review #217, which will be published later that day.

This week, Blawg Review is honoring fathers on Securing Innovation, our company blog. Make this special Blawg Review #217 a part of your Fathers' Day celebrations.

IPBC 2009: IP Business Congress in Chicago

blog@ip.com (IP) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:35:41 -0500

Consisting of two days of high-level, practical discussion and real-time IP monetisation in action, the inaugural IP Business Congress, held in June 2008 in Amsterdam, was an event unlike any other in the IP calendar.

Bringing together over 400 leaders from the intellectual property community around the world, the Congress focused on why so many people describe intellectual property as the pivotal business asset of the 21st century.

Building on that success, the next IP Business Congress, organised and hosted by Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) magazine, will be held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago between 21st and 23rd June 2009. No one who has an interest in high-level IP value creation strategy will want to miss this event, which will include the CIPO Summit and the IP Hall of Fame gala dinner. The event will honor the following inductees to the IP Hall of Fame:

Jane Ginsburg
A highly influential academic and teacher who has written some of the most important IP-related books of modern times.

Francis Gurry
The Director-General of the World Intellectual Property Organization and a key figure in the development of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre.

Dolores Hanna
The first female president of the International Trademark Association and a highly influential figure in the development of trademark law and practice across the world.

Michael Kirk
The former Executive Director of the American Intellectual Property Law Association and an outstanding advocate for IP both in the US and internationally.

Niels Reimers
A former director of Stanford University's Office of Technology Licensing who developed the "marketing model", the predominant strategy used by US academic technology transfer enterprises.

The gala dinner will be one of the highlights of the IPBC 2009, which has brought together an impressive number of speakers, including:

Marshall Phelps, Corporate VP for IP Policy and Strategy, Microsoft
Ruud Peters, CEO, Philips IP & Standards
Carl Horton, Chief IP Counsel, GE
Scott Frank, President and CEO, AT&T Intellectual Property
Todd Dickinson, Executive Director, AIPLA
Ciarán McGinley, Head of the Controlling Office, European Patent Office
Beatrix de Russé, Executive VP of IP and Licensing, Thomson
Keith Bergelt, CEO, Open Invention Network
Sherry Knowles, Senior VP and Chief IP Counsel, GlaxoSmithKline
Marcella Watkins, Managing Counsel, IP, Shell Oil Company
Don Merino, General Manager Acquisitions, Intellectual Ventures
Damon Matteo, Chief IP Officer and VP IP, Palo Alto Research Center

Wrapping up the event on Tuesday, from 5:00 p.m., bloggers from the intellectual property community around the world will gather for Meet the Bloggers at the famous Billy Goat Tavern. Peter Zura, Duncan Bucknell, and David Donoghue are among those expected to be there, as well as Joff Wild, the editor of IAM Magazine, who also blogs about Intellectual Asset Management for the magazine's online edition. Leave a note in the comments below, if you're planning to attend, and we'll update this post with new information.

IP.com Hosting Blawg Review Fathers' Day

tcolson@ip.com (Thomas J. Colson) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:30:28 -0500

We're pleased to be hosting Blawg Review #217 on Fathers' Day 2009.

This is the second time IP.com has hosted Blawg Review on our corporate weblog, Securing Innovation, the first being Blawg Review #179 to mark the anniversary of the invention of the ballpoint pen. A good theme, we thought, for a company blog about managing intellectual property, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets.

But the opportunity to host on Fathers' Day touches many of us here at IP.com, our clients, and readers of this blog in a far more personal way. As the father of three wonderful little girls, it will be a privilege for me to present some of the best law blogs, or blawgs (as they're sometimes called) of this week, with a Fathers' Day theme.

This presentation on Fathers' Day is for all of us, those of us men who are blessed with children, those of us, men and women, who honor our fathers on this day, and women who share parenting with dads of their children, all of whom are invited to contribute to the celebration of fatherhood in Blawg Review #217.

Our presentation will cover a wide range of topics from law blogs, bringing you the best of the best blogs we think you'll find interesting. Befitting the theme for Fathers' Day, we will give special attention and focus on those blog posts that touch on what it means to be a father, or have a father, in our lives.

We're excited about this special opportunity, and look forward to everyone's enthusiastic participation to make this a memorable Blawg Review. To help us put this presentation together for Fathers' Day, we encourage those with law blog posts to submit, with their recommendations or suggestions, a personal photo depicting their own relationships as, or with, a father.

For this presentation, please send to blog@ip.com your own digital images showing what fatherhood means to you, or include a photograph with your post by email following the submission guidelines, and we'll do our best to include all in this special Fathers' Day Blawg Review.

Perhaps you're new to Blawg Review, the carnival of law blogs for everyone interested in law. If you have arrived here to our corporate blog, Securing Innovation, because you share our interests in Intellectual Property, you might be interested in looking at Blawg Review as it has been presented by some of the leading IP law bloggers you are familiar with already.

Stephen Albainy-Jenei hosted Blawg Review #19, #77, and #161 at Patent Baristas.

Steve Nipper hosted Blawg Review #146 at The Invent Blog.

Vickie Pynchon hosted Blawg Review #171 at the IP ADR Blog.

Doug Sorocco hosted Blawg Review #34 at PHOSITA.

Duncan Bucknell hosted Blawg Review #185 at IP Think Tank.

R. David Donoghue hosted Blawg Review #133 and #173 at the Chicago IP Litigation Law Blog.

I'm sure we've missed a few, but no list of noteworthy presentations of this carnival of law blogs by Intellectual Property attorneys would be complete without drawing attention to Colin Samuels, an in-house counsel, who hosted four Blawg Review of the Year award-winning presentations, #35, #86, #137, and #189 at Infamy or Praise. Quite deserving of the praise, everyone agrees.

The bar for these presentations has been set very high by our colleagues in the Intellectual Property community. With their help this time, we'll try our very best to make #217 worthy of the collaboration in a presentation of Blawg Review for Fathers' Day.

Let's make it special.

A Banner Year for IP Newsflash

blog@ip.com (IP) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:37:35 -0500

It's been a great year for IP Newsflash, since Rolf Claessen redesigned his popular intellectual property news aggregator and added a lot of new features and tools. Handy stuff. IP Newsflash is an IP meta-information portal that browses your information channels for you and presents only relevant, recent and customizable IP information on a single page. Accolades for IP Newsflash have been rolling in since the redesign. See what some of the leading intellectual property bloggers have been saying about IP Newsflash.

When Rolf Claessen launched his new and improved meta-information portal, we added links to it in the sidebar of the Securing Innovation blog and on the homepage of IP.com, which quickly became one of the top sites sending visitors to IP Newsflash. We learned that our readers, and customers and clients of IP.com, were very interested in accessing the latest information and news about intellectual property. So, as we always do, we're giving them more of what they need.

Recently, we added a banner graphic to the home page of IP.com, providing visitors with easier access to IP Newsflash. Great internet real estate, we know. It reflects the value we see in aggregating the latest news and information about intellectual property for our readers, our clients, and ourselves, as IP professionals. We've also added a large banner to the sidebar of this blog (scroll down) pointing to IP Newsflash, which is a helpful reminder to us and an easy link for our readers to find the latest breaking news about intellectual property.

Tom Colson, the CEO of IP.com Inc. has written here about the good chemistry with Rolf Claessen, and we were pleased to find our high regard and warm feelings were mutual when we met in person at the INTA annual meeting in Seattle recently. There, we decided to continue to build more bridges to strengthen our good relationship and provide even stronger links between our sites for the benefit of our readers, who have shown they appreciate what we have to offer.

Swimsuit Innovation & World Oceans Day

blog@ip.com (IP) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:46:07 -0500

For DuPont, Neal Marshad photographed and directed "In the Beginning, God Created the Swimsuit", a comprehensive television documentary around the history of the swimsuit.

Considered the definitive film on swimwear history, "In the Beginning" was seen on MTV and later won a Gold Award at the International Film and TV Festival of New York, and is viewable here on YouTube where the creator and owner of the copyright in the work has uploaded the movie and enabled it to be embedded here.

Obviously, there's a connection between the invention of the swimsuit, the innovations in materials, design, and technology shown in this documentary, and the topics regularly discussed here on Securing Innovation -- managing intellectual property, patents, trademarks and trade secrets. That's clear. But we're posting this film about the history of the swimsuit today for another good reason that should have everyone's attention.

In 2008, the United Nations General Assembly decided that, as from 2009, 8 June would be designated by the United Nations as “World Oceans Day”. Many countries have celebrated World Oceans Day following the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, which was held in Rio de Janerio in 1992.

The oceans are essential to food security and the health and survival of all life, power our climate and are a critical part of the biosphere. The official designation of World Oceans Day is an opportunity to raise global awareness of the current challenges faced by the international community in connection with the oceans.

The theme of the inaugural observance of the World Oceans Day by the United Nations in 2009 is “Our Oceans, Our Responsibility”. Here's an excerpt from the Secretary General's message, today.

The first observance of World Oceans Day allows us to highlight the many ways in which oceans contribute to society. It is also an opportunity to recognize the considerable challenges we face in maintaining their capacity to regulate the global climate, supply essential ecosystem services and provide sustainable livelihoods and safe recreation.

Indeed, human activities are taking a terrible toll on the world’s oceans and seas. Vulnerable marine ecosystems, such as corals, and important fisheries are being damaged by over-exploitation, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, destructive fishing practices, invasive alien species and marine pollution, especially from land-based sources. Increased sea temperatures, sea-level rise and ocean acidification caused by climate change pose a further threat to marine life, coastal and island communities and national economies.

...

The theme of World Oceans Day, “Our oceans, our responsibility”, emphasizes our individual and collective duty to protect the marine environment and carefully manage its resources. Safe, healthy and productive seas and oceans are integral to human well-being, economic security and sustainable development.

Please take care of our oceans, without which the swimsuit might be extinct.

Cooperate or Compete

rcantrell@ip.com (Robert Cantrell) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 09:28:46 -0500

Considering that an overriding motivational goal in strategy is to maximize your capacity for independent action, and considering that you want to succeed on your own terms, you can now assess whether it is to your advantage to compete or cooperate. Always keep in mind, however, that both competition and cooperation can help and hinder your company’s goals.

To illustrate the tight link between competition and cooperation, consider Michael Jordan of basketball fame, thought by many to the one of the greatest athletes of all time. His capacity for independent action on the court depended on the mutual cooperation of at least four other competent basketball players on his team. It also depended on having five other competent basketball players as competitors on the court. Opponents on the basketball court cooperated in the sense that they played and abided by the same set of rules, and through their efforts, Jordan could then showcase his superior prowess.

Jordan could not have been as successful if not for the interaction of both his teammates and his competition, and the patent strategist is just as unlikely to succeed without both. In business, the assessment of whether to cooperate or compete is rather straightforward; managing both to your advantage is more of a challenge. In short,

Cooperate when the benefits of cooperation exceed the constraints imposed by cooperation, and seek to do so on your terms.
Compete when the benefits of independence exceed the constraints imposed by independence, and seek to use the competitor to improve your performance.
Do not look at cooperation and competition as a black-and-white issue; you will often cooperate and compete with the same entity at the same time.

Marshall Phelps, who heads Microsoft’s IP effort, states that, “Companies are partners, customers, and competitors at the same time.” This statement encapsulates the shades of gray we discussed earlier, because while some companies may lean more toward cooperation or competition than others, any attempt to make a black-and-white distinction between the two can lead to problems. For example, viewing a relationship as purely cooperative could cause you to relax your protocols for sharing ideas that you have not yet properly protected through a nondisclosure agreement. This could lead to a loss of a trade secret or lost patentability for disclosed inventions. Viewing relationships as purely competitive could cause you to shun a potential customer for your own products. So these three axioms bring forward questions about constraints that make any given relationship cooperative or competitive, and they are situation-specific more than they are organization-specific.

What are the constraints associated with cooperation? What are the constraints associated with independence?

Starting with cooperation, we usually see constraints as restrictions imposed by the contract to work together, compromises on how to do important activities, or restrictions imposed by agreed-on transfers of wealth between the two parties. Thus when the benefit of producing a patented product exceeds the licensing fees required to produce the product, or when both parties receive balanced enough value in cross-licensing arrangements, it encourages cooperation. If the licensing fees are too high, restrictions on use too binding, or contributions to the effort are unsuitably balanced, then it discourages cooperation.

Restrictions on independence that foster competition usually involve the scarcity of needed resources. It takes money to invent and protect inventions in the patent legal system. Money alone is a key driver of many relationships, and the glue that keeps them together even when parties may prefer to go their own way. So abundant or alternative resources that offer less restrictions to independence can foster completion since entities do not need the other entities to access those resources. If you have superior research and development resources, then you may also decide you can do best by competing in order to get a greater share of the wealth that develops. While setting up a joint venture, along with the possible sharing of intellectual property that goes into and comes out of the joint venture, often proves to the best option, retaining your freedom of action can be worth more than the resources a partner could deliver. It all depends. Business is ultimately about gaining and retaining good customers. Competitive decisions, even in patent strategy, ultimately need to take measure of the customers for which either or all would like to do business.

How have you cooperated regarding patents with other organizations, including competitors, to improve your capacity for independent action? When and why have your chosen to compete rather than cooperate? What precipitated a change from competition to cooperation or from cooperation to competition?

This blog post is excerpted from my new book, Outpacing the Competition: Patent-Based Business Strategy. Marshall Phelps, Corporate Vice President for IP Policy & Strategy, Microsoft, who peer-reviewed the first draft of the final manuscript, was kind enough to comment, for the dust jacket of the book, "Outpacing the Competition provides a useful IP management framework for rapidly evolving and inherently unpredictablee R&D environments where companies are partners, customers, and competitors at the same time."

Tweet of the Week @blawgreview

tcolson@ip.com (Thomas J. Colson) — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:43:13 -0500

It's interesting to see that the world-famous intellectual property blog, IPKat, will be hosting Blawg Review on World Intellectual Property Day -- next April, 26, 2010.

Charon QC, the blawg, is hosting Blawg Review #214 this week. It's quite a tome, reviewing what looks like well over a hundred legal blog posts from around the world. If that's the new standard for Blawg Review, Jeremy Phillips would be well advised to get started on his presentation -- and enlist the help of everyone on the team at IPKat.

We hosted Blawg Review #179 here on Securing Innovation, to mark the anniversary of the invention of the ballpoint pen, so we have some idea the work ahead of us in the few weeks before our next opportunity to host the carnival of law blogs.

Securing Innovation will be hosting Blawg Review #217 on June 22nd this year and I'm already making plans for a Fathers' Day presentation that, as the father of three wonderful little girls, is something I'm really looking forward to.

IP.com's Blog Among Top Patent Blogs

blog@ip.com (IP) — Wed, 27 May 2009 23:03:26 -0500

The executives of IP.com Inc. found their company blog, Securing Innovation, today listed among some of the best patent blogs in the world wide web. While it gives us a good measure of pride to be included among those being considered the top patent blogs, it's humbling to be in the company of some of the giants of the intellectual property community, whose blog links are listed below in alphabetical order.

Gene Quinn, at IP Watchdog.com, has painstakingly analyzed the objective rankings by Technorati and Alexa to find these 50 noteworthy patent blogs and is now looking to add the subjective perspective of the intellectual property community, IP blog authors and readers, who are now being given the opportunity for input to help refine the ranking of the top patent blogs on this list by voting here.

Understanding that such a web-based voting procedure has its own limitations and is subject to vagaries, it is still a very commendable thing that Gene Quinn has undertaken, and we applaud his initiative. We share the hope that this friendly "competition" amongst patent bloggers will be of benefit to all in the intellectual property community by shining light on some of the very best of the blogosphere.

If you'd like to copy and paste the list and links from this post and add commentary on your own blog, we'd encourage you to do so. The more blog readers who see this list of patent blogs, the better. We trust that your readers, like ours, will appreciate the links from your blog as well, as we all do. Now go vote!

The Strategy Paradox

rcantrell@ip.com (Robert Cantrell) — Fri, 15 May 2009 00:46:38 -0500

A balance between surviving and thriving is a key element for determining where the real risk in business lies. To illustrate, Michael Raynor's book, The Strategy Paradox, shows that while companies with a high degree of focus appear to outperform their more generalist rivals, these same single-minded companies also have the highest number of business failures. Since the failures are no longer business entities, they drop from the performance statistics, giving the appearance that a high degree of focus is a better strategy for success. So when business consultants take measure of hte most successful companies and compare what they do differently from average performers, the consultants may not take into account the full picture.

A recommendation to overly focus efforts in business could be akin to recommending that a person quit his or her job, fly to Hollywood, and start a career in acting. Successful movie stars certainly make much more than the average person, but considering the high failure rate among movie star hopefuls, is this truly a wise recommendation? Raynor's idea carries over into patents, considering that while focused companies may score big-time with a hit product in their chosen field, they will also have diminished flexibility to address changing environments. The focused companies have less diversity in their patent portfolio to draw from should the environment change. In a world of opposites, between being completely focused or totally diverse, a healthy in-between position needs to exist in most organizations.

This blog post is excerpted from my new book, Outpacing the Competition: Patent-Based Business Strategy.

Fear of Catastrophic Loss

rcantrell@ip.com (Robert Cantrell) — Thu, 14 May 2009 00:12:52 -0500

The fear of catastrophic loss is one of the important tools available to the strategist who seeks to keep potentially dicey situations under control. On the one hand, if an adversary can be made to fear a catastrophic loss out of proportion to its actual probability, then the strategist can influence the behavior and therefore the performance of that adversary with comparatively little investment of resources that would be necessary to make the probability of a catastrophic loss a reality. One well-executed and publicized lawsuit, for example, can prevent the need to launch many more lawsuits in the future.

The fear of catastrophic loss is another strategic element that needs to be managed and employed well, because as much as it can work for you, it can also work against you if your competitor does not have a suitable orientation. A capable adversary that does not fear catastrophic loss--either from ignorance, overconfidence, or a mental framework that allows him or her to accept catastrophic consequences that may happen--becomes a danger that must be addressed in as efficient a manner as possible. This is especially so when the collateral costs of your adversary's catastrophic result, or the means from which it is created, put your own position in jeopardy. Many lawsuits, for example, create two losers. This adversary needs to be combated, avoided, or in some other way educated to appreciate and respect the gravity of the situation.

This blog post is excerpted from my new book, Outpacing the Competition: Patent-Based Business Strategy.

Sun Tzu and the Prior Art of Patent War

rcantrell@ip.com (Robert Cantrell) — Wed, 13 May 2009 09:57:31 -0500

Sun Tzu, the famous Chinese strategist from 2,500 years ago, wrote The Art of War. His book is still revered by strategists to this day and was even quoted in the 1987 Oliver Stone movie, Wall Street, considered by many movie buffs to be a modern classic.

Gordon Gekko, the master strategist investor who mentors the movie's protagonist, Bud Fox, said, "I don't throw darts at a board. I bet on sure things. Read Sun Tzu, The Art of War. Every battle is won before it is ever fought." Interpretations of this quote are wide and varied. Hollywood's Gordon Gekko interpreted it as having inside information, legal issues aside, so as to know which way a security will go before he invested.

Our real life patent strategists could emulate this ideal through thorough legal research. For example, I've heard on many occasions, and have seen more than enough evidence to believe in its truth, that 90% of patents can be invalidated, in whole or in part, if someone is willing to invest in finding the prior art.

Armed with convincing invalidating prior art, a patent strategist could effectively win a patent litigation case before it is actually tried in court if his or her opponent has anchored that case on the now invalidated art.

This blog post is excerpted from my new book, Outpacing the Competition: Patent-Based Business Strategy. And Understanding Sun Tzu on the Art of War was my first book.

Is Microsoft Good for Innovation?

rcantrell@ip.com (Robert Cantrell) — Tue, 12 May 2009 14:20:23 -0500

Ideas come to mind where they choose. We have all probably had an important idea come to us early in the morning when in bed, while in the shower, or perhaps while staring at a sedan that won’t get out of our lane. So should it be a surprise that somewhere out in the deep blue sea, while photographing a 16 foot tiger shark and her two slightly smaller companions, it would pop into my mind that Microsoft is actually good for hi-tech innovation for everyone? Bear in mind that I do not work for Microsoft. The only stake I have in Microsoft is a couple hundred shares of its stock. So why did this thought come to mind?

I realized that everything around me on that dive, including my own behavior, had been shaped by these tiger sharks, and more importantly, everything around me was healthier as a result. The sharks had eaten anything that was not healthy long ago. Just as sharks have shaped their underwater environment, there is no doubt that Microsoft has shaped the hi-tech world. It holds a dominant place in critical software markets, and the rest of the hi-tech world has found a way to be compatible with Microsoft, compete with Microsoft, or both. Any company not healthy enough to do so – remember Netscape, for example – has fundamentally died off if not been outright “eaten.” This result has not actually stifled competition, as some people would contend. Like all the other species that have evolved to succeed in a shark shaped ocean, it has actually required people to be highly innovative to thrive and survive in a Microsoft shaped world where consumers, to all of our benefit, can share their software produced data and creations across IT platforms more often than not.

What would happen if Microsoft went away, as many people I have talked to, from programmers to politicians, seem to wish would happen? Our tiger sharks offer an answer to that too. Whenever fishermen wipe out shark populations, an unfortunately all too frequent occurrence this decade in a rush to fill Asian soup bowls, fish populations have plummeted and other fisheries have collapsed. Without the top predators shaping the seas, chaos ensues, and the fish further down on the food chain eat their way into starvation and out of existence. The oceans become barren. Such would be the case with hi-tech innovation if Microsoft suddenly went away. Without this powerful influence of Microsoft to shape the IT markets, the legions of programmers set free to do as they wish would innovate themselves into a chaos of non-compatibility. True business-improving innovation would plummet, and an innovation desert would develop. This would be so even with Linux as an open alternative, because the whole foundation of how Linux exists as an open software platform is shaped by the presence of Microsoft. Without Microsoft, that foundation would fall apart.

So while you may individually rue the day that your enterprise finds itself at the business end of a competitive Microsoft effort, Microsoft’s presence is a natural and important part of the health of the IT space as a whole. Should Microsoft falter or be legislated out of its role some day, innovation in the IT space will experience chaos and decline until some other giant evolves to fill Microsoft’s necessary role. If you are not Microsoft, then your innovation, and the way you protect and market that innovation, will need to be healthy and creative enough to survive and thrive in the presence of Microsoft. The odds are that the innovation and the business model you create, provided you survive, will be stronger and healthier than it would be if no Microsoft was around to put you to the test.

IP.com Opens Its Asia Pacific Office

tcolson@ip.com (Thomas J. Colson) — Sun, 03 May 2009 14:38:56 -0500

As CEO of IP.com, Inc. it gives me great pleasure to announce the opening of IP.com's Asia Pacific office in Hong Kong, SAR, China to expand and better service our rapidly growing Asia and Asia Pacific clients. Hong Kong has been selected due to its ideal location and solid legal infrastructure for international commerce.

The Asia Pacific region, especially China, is undergoing massive changes in all aspects of economic might, including the cornerstone of Intellectual Property (IP) governance. China and the greater region are making great contributions to innovation and development of new technology to better humanity worldwide.

The nation’s innovation and intellectual property mandate has become the centerpiece of discussions at conferences and in boardrooms throughout China. The Chinese commitment to building infrastructure for innovation is as deep as its commitment to building roads, bridges, and skyscrapers. And to see the depth of that commitment, one needs only to spend a day in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, or any other Chinese city. At IP.com, we are more than pleased to be working with Chinese business and government leaders in building this infrastructure.

IP.com landed in China more than three years ago, and we have been on the ground there almost every day since. We have worked with law firms, universities, businesses, and the Chinese government, and we look forward to growing our Chinese presence and involvement. At the beginning of this year, we relocated our EVP, Asia Pacific, Johnson Kong, to China. This will be of great value not only to IP.com, but to me personally, as I will be spending 25% of 2009 in China…now I will have a place to call my own…or my home away from home.

On a personal note, not only am I placing an IP.com bet on China, but for the past two years I have been placing a family bet on China as well. Two years ago, I started learning Mandarin with my three daughters, and we continue with our Chinese studies together as a family activity almost every evening. So, we're pleased to express our best wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year for our many friends throughout China.

Gōng Xǐ Fā Cái.

The IP.com Hong Kong Office is located within driving distance from Shenzhen, a ferry distance to Macau, and a short flight to Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Shanghai and Beijing are also easily accessible from the IP.com Hong Kong office.

Johnson Kong, Executive Vice President and Head of Asia Pacific, has graciously taken on the personal challenge of relocating his family on our behalf. Mr. Kong is passionate and committed to our Chinese and Asia Pacific business growth initiatives.

IP.com is in the business of providing software and services for innovation management. In his current role, Mr. Kong assists clients in creating and implementing innovation management and intellectual property strategies to advance business goals. He has held several positions from sales & marketing to executive management with leading industries across Asia Pacific, and has become an expert in the creation and implementation of innovation management and intellectual property strategies. Mr. Kong has invented software and business methods associated with the analysis and management of intellectual property.

The new Asia Pacific office of IP.com is located at:

One Harbour View Street
1 IFC
33 Floor, Suite 16
Central
Hong Kong, SAR, China
T: 852-3960-6391
F: 852-2166-8999

For more information, call our US headquarters at 1-716-362-4562 or visit www.ip.com. You can read our company blog, Securing Innovation, where we write about Intellectual Property, not only in English but also in Chinese on matters of interest to our readers in China. You can read, in Chinese, some of the posts by Johnson Kong if you click on this link.

Robert L. Cantrell Joins IP.com

tcolson@ip.com (Thomas J. Colson) — Fri, 01 May 2009 13:09:25 -0500

It's not every day we get the chance to hire someone who's cool, calm, and collected, when swimming with sharks. So, recently, I seized the opportunity to add to IP.com's team a leading patent strategist who's also a recognized shark photographer.

Robert L. Cantrell, one of the founding executives of IP.com, has returned to IP.com, Inc. as a Senior Director of Business Development. His focus will be to develop straight-forward product solutions for companies that are looking for advanced tools to compete using their IP by means other than a traditional patent arms race.

Robert Cantrell is a professional strategist and the author of a recently-published book, Outpacing the Competition: Patent-Based Business Strategy. Robert has managed multiple solution sales and IP consulting engagements across a wide range of technology sectors that include communications, electronics, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, energy, and consumer goods fields. He is also a faculty member of Patent Resources Group (PRG), the leading provider of advanced patent education to the legal and business communities.

Robert's core expertise is in classical strategy, which he carried over from his military experience as in infantry officer with the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army. His first book, Understanding Sun Tzu on the Art of War, received critical acclaim and has been selected by the Department of Defense as text for the National War College in Washington DC.

We think you'll enjoy Robert Cantrell's writing here on IP.com's corporate blog, Securing Innovation, and you can follow his thoughts on Twitter @RobertLCantrell, as well. We're really looking forward to working closely with Robert again at IP.com.

World Intellectual Property Day 2009

blog@ip.com (IP) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:19:55 -0500

On the occasion of World Intellectual Property Day (26 April), which focuses this year on ‘green innovation', the European Patent Office (EPO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) have announced their agreement to undertake a joint project to examine the role of patents in the development and transfer of environmentally sound technologies (EST), in particular in the field of energy generation.

This initiative, part of a wider effort to examine the link between patents and EST, will produce several studies and provide input into ongoing discussions on technology transfer in the context of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Ideally, this should result in concrete recommendations for countries negotiating a post-2012 climate agreement at a December 2009 summit in Copenhagen (COP15), the follow-up to the 2007 Bali conference.

The joint project, launched this past week with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the three organisations, will deliver objective data and analysis on patent trends and their impact on access to EST.

"The IP system is essential for the development and effective dissemination of the new technologies that will be needed to address climate change," said EPO President Alison Brimelow. "We need to ensure that the IP system promotes, rather than hamstrings, the transfer of environmentally-friendly technology. We are looking at how the patent system should be designed to meet the needs of innovators in the field of eco-innovation," she added. "To this effect, our efforts to ensure patent quality will be of central importance."

"There is an urgent need for evidence based analysis to inform current discussions on the role of IPRs in the transfer of EST, bearing in mind the different perspectives on these issues," said ICTSD Chief Executive Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz. "We are confident that this joint project, drawing on the work and expertise of each organisation involved, will be a valuable input towards a better understanding of these issues with a view to contributing substantially to enhanced transfer and diffusion of EST, particularly to developing countries," he added.

Hussein Abaza, Chief of the UNEP Economics and Trade Branch, added that "the relationship between intellectual property rules and trade in climate-friendly technologies is currently a hotly debated topic within both trade and climate change communities. We need to ensure the best available information is provided to policymakers so their debate is well-informed and results in policies that support the development of, and trade in, climate-friendly technologies."

The project will run in several phases and rely on input from all relevant stakeholders, in particular industry and business associations that focus on environmentally sound technologies.

For more information, please contact:

Rainer Osterwalder
Director, Media Relations
EPO

Earth Day & Eco-Patent Commons

blog@ip.com (IP) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 05:18:02 -0500

Today is Earth Day, "a time of year when the voice of the environmentally conscious is at its loudest. It's a time to a talk about the state of the planet, energy innovation and what all of us in the mainstream can do to help curb climate change."

Earth Day Network is a driving force steering environmental awareness around the world. Founded by the organizers of the first April 22 Earth Day in 1970, Earth Day Network promotes environmental citizenship and year round progressive action worldwide. Through Earth Day Network, activists connect change in local, national, and global policies. Earth Day Network’s international network reaches over 17,000 organizations in 174 countries, while the domestic program engages 5,000 groups and over 25,000 educators coordinating millions of community development and environmental protection activities throughout the year. Earth Day is the only event celebrated simultaneously around the globe by people of all backgrounds, faiths and nationalities. More than a half billion people participate in Earth Day Network campaigns every year.

Earth Day seems as good a day as any to note the contributions of leading corporations that have joined together in partnership with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development to make their patents available for the common good.

Eco-Patent Commons, launched by IBM, Nokia, Pitney Bowes and Sony in partnership with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), was founded on the commitment that anyone who wants to bring environmental benefits to market can use these patents to protect the environment and enable collaboration between businesses that foster new innovations.

Since the launch of the Eco-Patent Commons in January 2008, almost a hundred eco-friendly patents have been pledged by nine companies representing a variety of industries worldwide: Bosch, DuPont, IBM, Nokia, Pitney Bowes, Ricoh, Sony, Taisei and Xerox.

We hope more companies join in the Eco-Patent Commons and that this important initiative expands beyond patents to include technical disclosures of innovations that would be helpful to the environment and the future of planet earth, making every day "earth day."