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

Analytical fitting model for rough-surface BRDF

A physics-based model is developed for rough surface BRDF, taking into account angles of incidence and scattering, effective index, surface autocovariance, and correlation length. Shadowing is introduced on surface correlation length and reflectance. Separate terms are included for surface scatter, bulk scatter and retroreflection. Using the FindFit function in Mathematica, the functional form is fitted to BRDF measurements over a wide range of incident angles. The model has fourteen fitting parameters; once these are fixed, the model accurately describes scattering data over two orders of magnitude in BRDF without further adjustment. The resulting analytical model is convenient for numerical computations

Segmentation of Laser Range Images with Respect to Range and Variance

Segmentation is a first step towards successful tracking and object recognition in 2-D pictures. Mostly the pictures are segmented with respect to quantities as range, intensity etc. Here a method is presented for segmentation of 2-D laser range pictures with respect to both range and variance simultaneously. This is very useful since man-made objects differ from the background in the terrain by their smoothness. The approach is based on modeling horizontal scans of the terrain as piecewise constant functions. Since the environment has a complicated and irregular structure we use multiple models for modeling different segments in the laser range image. The switching between different models, i.e., ranges belonging to different segments in a horizontal scan, are modeled by a hidden Markov model. The method is of relatively low computational complexity and the maximal complexity can be controlled by the user. Real data is used for illustration of the method

Segmentation of Laser Range Images with Respect to Range and Variance

Segmentation is a first step towards successful tracking and object recognition in 2-D pictures. Mostly the pictures are segmented with respect to quantities as range, intensity etc. Here a method is presented for segmentation of 2-D laser range pictures with respect to both range and variance simultaneously. This is very useful since man-made objects differ from the background in the terrain by their smoothness. The approach is based on modeling horizontal scans of the terrain as piecewise constant functions. Since the environment has a complicated and irregular structure we use multiple models for modeling different segments in the laser range image. The switching between different models, i.e., ranges belonging to different segments in a horizontal scan, are modeled by a hidden Markov model. The method is of relatively low computational complexity and the maximal complexity can be controlled by the user. Real data is used for illustration of the method

Coherent Laser Radar for Vibrometry : Robust Design and Adaptive Signal Processing

A coherent laser radar system based on semiconductor laser technology has been designed and built. The compact design and the absence of adjustments makes the system mechanically robust and easy to use. The present system has an output power of 50 mW and a line width of 280 kHz (HWHM). The laser radar system has been used in vibrometry measurements. For vibrometry of moving objects, adaptive signal processing is required in order to obtain the vibration signature. Especially for unresolved objects, interference between different vibrating parts will complicate the analysis. Modelbased estimation techniques are used to obtain the parameters which determine the dynamics of the reflecting object

Three-dimensional hyperspectral imaging technique

Hyperspectral remote sensing based on unmanned airborne vehicles is a field increasing in importance. The combined functionality of simultaneous hyperspectral and geometric modeling is less developed. A configuration has been developed that enables the reconstruction of the hyperspectral three-dimensional (3D) environment. The hyperspectral camera is based on a linear variable filter and a high frame rate, high resolution camera enabling point-to-point matching and 3D reconstruction. This allows the information to be combined into a single and complete 3D hyperspectral model. In this paper, we describe the camera and illustrate capabilities and difficulties through real-world experiments

Four-parameter model for polarization-resolved rough-surface BRDF

A modeling procedure is demonstrated, which allows representation of polarization-resolved BRDF data using only four parameters: the real and imaginary parts of an effective refractive index with an added parameter taking grazing incidence absorption into account and an angular-scattering parameter determined from the BRDF measurement of a chosen angle of incidence, preferably close to normal incidence. These parameters allow accurate predictions of s- and p-polarized BRDF for a painted rough surface, over three decades of variation in BRDF magnitude. To characterize any particular surface of interest, the measurements required to determine these four parameters are the directional hemispherical reflectance (DHR) for s- and p-polarized input radiation and the BRDF at a selected angle of incidence. The DHR data describes the angular and polarization dependence, as well as providing the overall normalization constraint. The resulting model conserves energy and fulfills the reciprocity criteria

Coherent laser radar for vibrometry: Robust design and adaptive signal processing

A coherent laser radar system based on semiconductor laser technology has been designed and built. The compact design and the absence of adjustments makes the system mechanically robust and easy to use. The present system has an output power of 50 mW and a line width of 280 kHz (HWHM). The laser radar system has been used in vibrometry measurements. For vibrometry of moving objects, adaptive signal processing is required in order to obtain the vibration signature. Especially for unresolved objects, interference between different vibrating parts will complicate the analysis. Modelbased estimation techniques are used to obtain the parameters which determine the dynamics of the reflecting object. Key words: coherent laser radar, vibrometry, modelbased signal processing 2 INTRODUCTION Coherent laser radar (CLR) systems have been investigated over several decades primarily for military applications. In order to receive a more general industrial acceptance, compact, robust, cost-effective ..

Demonstration Of A Corner-Cube-Interferometer Lwir Hyperspectral Imager

An interferometric long-wavelength infrared (LWIR) hyperspectral imager is demonstrated, based on a Michelson corner-cube interferometer. This class of system is inherently mechanically robust, and should have advantages over Sagnac-interferometer systems in terms of relaxed beamsplitter-coating specifications, and wider unvignetted field of view. Preliminary performance data from the laboratory prototype system are provided regarding imaging, spectral resolution, and fidelity of acquired spectra. © Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009