How IPR Policies of Telecommunication Standard-Setting Organizations Can Effectively Address the Patent Ambush Problem

Peer reviewe

Harmonization Without Consensus: Critical Reflections on Drafting a Substantive Patent Law Treaty

In this Article, we contend that the World Intellectual Property Organization\u27s proposed Substantive Patent Law Treaty (SPLT) is premature. Developing countries are struggling to adjust to the heightened standards of intellectual property protection required by the TRIPS Agreement of 1994. With TRIPS, at least, these countries obtained side payments (in the form of trade concessions) to offset the rising costs of knowledge products. A free-standing instrument, such as the SPLT, would shrink the remaining flexibilities in the TRIPS Agreement with no side payments and no concessions to the catch-up strategies of developing countries at different stages of technological advancement. More controversially, we argue that a deep harmonization would boomerang against even its developed country promoters by creating more problems than it would solve. There is no vision of a properly functioning patent system for the developed world that commands even the appearance of a consensus. The evidence shows, instead, that the worldwide intellectual property system has entered a brave new scientific epoch, in which experts have only tentative, divergent ideas about how best to treat a daunting array of new technologies. The proposals for reconciling the needs of different sectors, such as information technology and biotechnology, pose hard, unresolved issues at a time when the costs of litigation are rising at the expense of profits from innovation. These difficulties are compounded by the tendency of universities to push patenting up stream, generating new rights to core methodologies and research tools. As new approaches to new technologies emerge in different jurisdictions, there is a need to gather empirical evidence to determine which, if any, of these still experimental solutions are preferable over time. Our argument need not foreclose other less intrusive options and measures surveyed in the Article that can reduce the costs of delaying harmonization. However, the international community should not rush to freeze legal obligations regarding the protection of intellectual property. It should wait until economists and policymakers better understand the dynamics of innovation and the role that patent rights play in promoting progress and until there are mechanisms in place to keep international obligations responsive to developments in science, technology, and the organization of the creative community

Why It Is Time to Eliminate Genomic Patents, Together with Natural Extracts Doctrine That Have Supported Such Patents

The constitutional purpose of intellectual property is to “promote the progress of science and useful arts.” Given the utilitarian basis of patents, it is critical that policies and laws must be continually adjusted to reflect the needs of new technologies. When the law tries to shield itself from rather than confront the realities of underlying technologies, patents end up actually subverting rather than promote technological progress. This paper explores why the natural extracts doctrine belongs to the class of doctrines that subvert progress. The doctrine, established over a century ago to enable the patenting of purified compounds for use as drugs, represent codification of old, outdated science, by allowing genes to be patented. While this paper does not give a whole scale solution regarding the policies that best incentivize biotechnological innovations, it does show how the natural extracts doctrine and the genetic patents it has spawned can impede innovations in the biotechnological context. It ends by offering a glimpse of how eliminating the natural extracts doctrine can remove not only some of unnecessary wrinkles in current patent law but more importantly the many current and future patent shackles to biotechnological innovations

Framework for future technology relationships with Japanese businesses

Includes bibliographical references.Richard L. Thurston

Technical Standards, Standards-Setting Organizations and Intellectual Property: A Survey of the Literature (with an Emphasis on Empirical Approaches)

Important theoretical work relating to standards has been done in the areas of SSO dynamics, firm behavior, market effects of patents, and royalty pricing. This work has been supplemented by a significant body of research and empirical data on the acquisition and disclosure of patents within SSOs, particularly in the ICT sector. Several important catalogs and analyses of SSO patent policies now exist, together with rich databases of SSO membership and policy data. Despite this large body of literature, there are numerous areas at the confluence of intellectual property and standardization that warrant further investigation. These include: the influence and internal organization of consortia and other informal standards groups; the prevalence and market impact of de jure and de facto royalty-free standards; the effect of patents on standardization in growing fields outside of ICT including clean technology, medical devices and automotive infrastructure; the interaction of technology standards with open source software; the impact of product certification and certification marks on technology products and markets; and the institutional, legal and policy landscape of standardization outside of North America and Europe, particularly in China and other Asian economies. In addition, more public data is needed regarding patent licensing and royalty rates for standardized technologies. The data that currently exists is gleaned largely from public sources such as litigation records, government licenses and public securities filings. This data, however, represents only the tip of the iceberg. The largest and most meaningful accumulation of data concerning patent licensing is locked within the files of private firms, subject to strict confidentiality restrictions, and beyond the reach of researchers, policy makers, enforcement agencies and courts. Greater public access to this data has the potential to lower licensing transaction costs, reduce the number of disputes regarding FRAND royalty rates, improve the accuracy of judicial damages determinations, inform agency enforcement decisions, and improve policy making. As such, it is in the interest of all participants in the standardization ecosystem to contribute to the growing public data resources in this important area of economic activity

ICT-driven technological and industrial upgrading in Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan : current realities and opportunities

The paper analyses the recent technological performance of Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (AKT) and identifies opportunities for technological and industrial upgrading in the context of current global technological trends. It develops a three-pronged technological and industrial upgrading strategy along five core value chains based on the existing mining, energy and agricultural sectors, and discusses government policies in support of technological modernization. Information and communication technologies (ICT) can enable AKT to insert their firms into global value chains and benefit from technology and knowledge transfers within these chains

Why Is FRAND Hard?

There are many reasons why FRAND is a complex topic. The first four challenges offer low-hanging fruit that could clarify FRAND issues by paying less attention to systemic holdup, jettisoning unsupported positions, not letting industry funding replace reasoned debate, and being aware of the role played by patent trolls. The remaining four challenges pose levels of difficulty that increase from modest (clear SDO rules or facts) to medium (SDO history, industry characteristics, unclear licensee willingness) to significant (determining “fair and reasonable” and “nondiscriminatory”) to extraordinary (global litigation). While not all of these challenges can be addressed with simple solutions, an awareness of the types of challenges presented by FRAND could prove helpful in the years ahead

Japan's Foreign Direct Investment Experiences in India: Lessons Learnt from Firm Level Surveys

Though economic relations between India and Korea have been strengthening, the current size of trade and investment between the two countries is relatively low compared to the size and structural complementarities of the two economies. In this context, the present paper analyses trade and investment relations and explores future areas of potential co-operation between India and Korea. We find that the increase in merchandise trade between the two countries has been mainly because of the changing demand structure and comparative advantages of both the economies in complementary sectors in recent years. The Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) analysis, at both the aggregated and disaggregated levels, shows that while Korea has been specialising in a few, high value-added manufacturing products, India's exports have been more diversified. The analysis also indicates that both the countries have comparative advantages in different products in the same industry, revealing the opportunity for intra-industry trade (IIT). Moreover, the increasing trade complementarity index (TCI) shows that Indian and Korean trade gradually has become more compatible over time, indicating that any agreement between the two countries is likely to enhance trade flows. The trade intensities between the two countries reveal that Korea is doing much better and there is scope for India to improve its export intensity with Korea. The study also suggests the areas where there is huge scope for increased investment and technological collaboration between the two countries. Further, there is huge potential for trade in services in areas such as information technology, science and technology, pharmaceutical industry, broadcasting, tourism, healthcare and human resource development. Removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers, especially sector specific barriers, will give a major boost to bilateral trade and investment relations.Foreign direct investment, Japanese multinational corporations, strategies,obstacles in operations.

Public Standards and Patent Damages, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 199 (2015)

Some markets require legislation in order to exist. The products and/or services offered by those markets may be covered by one or more letters patent. In certain of those markets, a situation arises in which a private party owns a right to exclude others from participating in that publicly-enabled market. These situations may be referred to “public standards.” Like their cousins in the private sector, public standards require special consideration when it comes to determining potential compensation to the patentee from its competitors. Following the lead of the Western District of Washington, this paper recommends a modification of the traditional Georgia-Pacific reasonable royalty formulation for a patent damages calculation. Specifically, this paper recommends that calculating damages for public standard patents should require an explicit, thorough consideration of the public interest in addition to the patents themselves and the relationship of the involved parties. Only then will the interests of the public be adequately protected

New Trends in Development of Services in the Modern Economy

The services sector strategic development unites a multitude of economic and managerial aspects and is one of the most important problems of economic management. Many researches devoted to this industry study are available. Most of them are performed in the traditional aspect of the voluminous calendar approach to strategic management, characteristic of the national scientific school. Such an approach seems archaic, forming false strategic benchmarks. The services sector is of special scientific interest in this context due to the fact that the social production structure to the services development model attraction in many countries suggests transition to postindustrial economy type where the services sector is a system-supporting sector of the economy. Actively influencing the economy, the services sector in the developed countries dominates in the GDP formation, primary capital accumulation, labor, households final consumption and, finally, citizens comfort of living. However, a clear understanding of the services sector as a hyper-sector permeating all spheres of human activity has not yet been fully developed, although interest in this issue continues to grow among many authors. Target of strategic management of the industry development setting requires substantive content and the services sector target value assessment