International harmonisation of designs law: the case for diversity

Industrial design is a hybrid, it lies at the intersection of art and utility. Design refers to aspects of pure and high art, and design is also a feature of the most utilitarian of objects. Design is therefore an essential component of aspects of art and craft, and also of a wide range of consumer and industrial products. In design policy, there is a continuing tension between the desire to protect and promote competition in the commercial arena, and the desire to promote art, creativity and culture

Novelty and Theater, November 17, 2014

This is the concert program of the Novelty and Theater performance on Monday, November 17, 2014 at 8:00 p.m., at the Boston University Concert Hall, 855 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts. Works performed were Charleston Capers by George Green, Kvadrat by Vinko Globokar, Speak Softly by David Little, Table Music by Thierry de Mey, Natural Resources, or What to do till the Power comes on by Ann Southam, and Serving Size 4 Bunnies by Carl Schimmel. Digitization for Boston University Concert Programs was supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund

Work in progress: a novel method of creating an academic content repository

This paper outlines a project aimed at addressing the issue of the scalability of online academic support. This project is being run during the Autumn semester at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) Toowoomba Australia, in conjunction with the Australian Digital Futures Institute. The study attached to the project will use Design-Based Research to evaluate the effectiveness of a simple, but innovative academic content and metadata creation tool referred to as Academic Assist. Academic Assist has been recently developed at USQ as a plug-in block for the moodle-based Learning Management System employed at USQ for its several hundred online subjects. The pilot project and associated study now extends over nine subjects, including three consecutive subjects in computer engineering; and covers faculties of Engineering, Education, Business, Science and Arts. Some preliminary results are presented here. Complete results of the study including acceptance surveys, expert reviews and usage statistics will be presented at FIE 2009

Introducing Inventiveness into the Patent System: Submission to the Review of the National Innovation System

Because of the potential impact of the patent system on innovation diffusion, particularly on continuous and/or incremental innovation, patent policy should be of central importance to the review of the national innovation system. Substantial empirical evidence shows that most industrial innovations are not induced by the patent system. Even in very large markets, such as the USA, only a minority of patents are likely to be induced by the patent system. To the extent that patents do induce innovations, it is the inventiveness of the innovation which gives rise to possible social benefits (externalities, mainly in the form of knowledge spillovers) which may offset the costs of a patent system and thus give rise to a net economic benefit. On the basis of this evidence about the inducement effect of the patent system, and evidence on the current very low inventiveness standard for patent grant, policy proposals are put forward to re-introduce inventiveness into the patent system, thus making it potentially welfare-enhancing. These proposed changes would also have a major impact in ameliorating the negative impact of the patent system on continuous/incremental innovation

IMF-Related Announcements, Fundamentals, and Creditor Moral Hazard: A Case Study of Indonesia

Previous tests of creditor moral hazard cannot distinguish between two types of investor behavior: expectations of implicit guarantees or better future economic fundamentals due to a prospective IMF program. The novelty of our approach lies in the inclusion of the forward foreign exchange rate in the empirical tests of creditor moral hazard, which reflects investors’ expectations about the country’s future fundamentals and allows us to separate the effects of fundamentals from those of moral hazard. Using Indonesian financial markets as a case study, we first conduct tests of creditor moral hazard in the Indonesian bond and stock markets. Then, we use the forward exchange rate to confirm the interpretation of the bond and stock market results. Our results show that IMF-program related news, especially, the announcement of program negotiations, brings about higher stock returns and lower bond spreads, even though the bath sells at a forward discount on the same day. These results suggest creditor moral hazard in the Indonesian bond and equity markets.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40066/3/wp680.pd

Egyptian Goddess, Inc. v. Swisa, Inc.: A Dramatic Change in the Law of Design Patents?

[Excerpt] “On September 22, 2008, the Federal Circuit, sitting en banc, handed down the most important decision in design patent law in nearly twenty-five years. Egyptian Goddess, Inc. v. Swisa, Inc. (Egyptian Goddess III) abolished the point-of-novelty test first set out in Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Talge and adopted by the Federal Circuit in Litton Systems, Inc. v. Whirlpool Corp. The point-of novelty test required patent holders to prove that an accused design appropriated the element which sets the patented design apart from the prior art—in addition to the ordinary-observer standard’s requirement of having substantially the same appearance—in order to prove infringement. The point-of-novelty test proved difficult to apply and often rendered valid design patents unenforceable. Additionally, the test had no basis in Supreme Court precedent. In place of the rigid point-of novelty test, the Federal Circuit announced a more malleable ordinary-observer standard that gives factfinders more leeway in evaluating infringement. Egyptian Goddess has been hailed as a major victory for owners of design patents, but this Note argues that the actual effect will be much more muted. After giving an overview of design patents, this Note will analyze the cases that preceded the Federal Circuit’s adoption of the point-of-novelty test in Litton Systems. Additionally, this Note will discuss some of the cases decided during the reign of the point-of novelty test to demonstrate the problems inherent in it. After covering Egyptian Goddess in depth, the Note will then argue that Egyptian Goddess’s effect will be limited.

Bringing History into Evolutionary Economic Geography for a Better Understanding of Evolution

The paper tries to construct the historical methodology for evolutionary economic geography. I elevate history to the methodological foundation of evolutionary economic geography, on which concrete research methods should be based. I explore how to evolution in economic geography by placing history in historical time and historical contexts. Accordingly, the concepts of path creation and path dependence should be used together in historical study. More important, the concept of path interdependence, which stresses the importance of the circumstances under which different processes and events are likely to occur, opens a new window on the temporal aspects of the world.Organizational ecology, fashion industry, creative industries, clusters, institutional lock-in

Absorbing new subjects: holography as an analog of photography

I discuss the early history of holography and explore how perceptions, applications, and forecasts of the subject were shaped by prior experience. I focus on the work of Dennis Gabor (1900–1979) in England,Yury N. Denisyuk (b. 1924) in the Soviet Union, and Emmett N. Leith (1927–2005) and Juris Upatnieks (b. 1936) in the United States. I show that the evolution of holography was simultaneously promoted and constrained by its identification as an analog of photography, an association that influenced its assessment by successive audiences of practitioners, entrepreneurs, and consumers. One consequence is that holography can be seen as an example of a modern technical subject that has been shaped by cultural influences more powerfully than generally appreciated. Conversely, the understanding of this new science and technology in terms of an older one helps to explain why the cultural effects of holography have been more muted than anticipated by forecasters between the 1960s and 1990s