I had no idea ebay did this. Makes sense I guess. I found this blog concerning ebay's retraction of someone's item since it could not be authenticated. The fact that ebay can pull any item or listing they wish is a very savvy business policy considering the liabilities they might entail with their global presence. Here, someone was trying to sell shoes on ebay but got their listing pulled because ebay was worried they might be fakes.
With all the fraud that goes on these days it's nice to finally see that someone is looking out for your best interest. Of course, I'm sure this probably arose out of a worry for liability. There must be ceratin types of items that they regularly apply this policy of authentication to. In the body of the blog, one person goes on to say that ebay has a third party which takes on this duty. I'd imagine items that are often faked fall into the category for ebay review like shoes, watches, perfumes, etc. But, I wonder how many of these go unnoticed. I buy regularly on the website and see misrepresentation all the time. I guess it could be worse...
Dave
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Gibson vs. Guitar hero
Here's an interesting one. It appears Gibson was just a little off the mark in terms of interpreting customer needs when they filed this patent.
Gibson patent
The invention disclosure in this granted patent has all the intended spirit of the guitar hero game. It involves putting an audio/video headset on, and then playing an actual musical instrument along with music and video playing on the headset. The intended result is a virtual concert experience. This might still have potential as a good product for actual musicians with a little more development and marketing.
Gibson filed an infringement case against Activision, inventors of the famous Guitar hero, claiming that the video game was in direct violation of the patent rights granted to Gibson. The court ended up declaring that there was no infringement since the guitar hero game didn't actually make any noises in and of itself, but rather the digital vido game played the music. If there were no existing claims, perhaps Gibson could have worded their claims a little more broadly to include what the guitar hero game ended up becoming.
Gibson patent
The invention disclosure in this granted patent has all the intended spirit of the guitar hero game. It involves putting an audio/video headset on, and then playing an actual musical instrument along with music and video playing on the headset. The intended result is a virtual concert experience. This might still have potential as a good product for actual musicians with a little more development and marketing.
Gibson filed an infringement case against Activision, inventors of the famous Guitar hero, claiming that the video game was in direct violation of the patent rights granted to Gibson. The court ended up declaring that there was no infringement since the guitar hero game didn't actually make any noises in and of itself, but rather the digital vido game played the music. If there were no existing claims, perhaps Gibson could have worded their claims a little more broadly to include what the guitar hero game ended up becoming.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
History of Intellectual Property...
So I tried to think of something out of the ordinary that was new and unique, but came up with zilch. Then I thought, what about the oldest recorded examples for each type of IP we've talked about in class...here ya go, all via the infamous wikipedia.
Oldest Patent:
In 500 BC, in the Greek city of Sybaris (located in what is now southern Italy), "encouragement was held out to all who should discover any new refinement in luxury, the profits arising from which were secured to the inventor by patent for the space of a year." [22]
Patents in the modern sense originated in 1474, when the Republic of Venice enacted a decree by which new and inventive devices read more...
Oldest copyright:
The concept of copyright originates with the Statute of Anne (1710) in Britain. It established the author of a work as the owner of the right to copy that work and the concept of a fixed term for that copyright. It was created as an act "for the encouragement of learning" read more...
Oldest trademark:
Zildjian, the cymbal and gong company, owns the oldest continuously used U.S. trademark -- it should be noted, however, that the first two hundred years of the use of the Zildjian trademark were in Turkey as the family moved to the United States. Venetian glass blowers are thought of as using the longest continuously used trademarks. Wieliczka, a salt mine in Poland, is reported to be the source of the oldest known trademark (circa 1241 A.D.) -- even though this trademark read more...
History of Trade secrets in a legal context:
Legal development to protecting trade secrets
A relatively recent development in the United States is the adoption of the UTSA, the Uniform Trade Secrets Act, which has been adopted by approximately 45 states as the basis for trade secret law. Another significant development in U.S. law is the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 read more...
One we've talked about in class, but named a little different here in the wiki...trade dress:
Industrial design rights are intellectual property rights that protect the visual design of objects that are not purely utilitarian. An industrial design consists of the creation of a shape, configuration or composition of pattern or color, or combination of pattern and color in three dimensional form containing aesthetic value. An industrial design can be a two- or three-dimensional pattern used read more...
Oldest Patent:
In 500 BC, in the Greek city of Sybaris (located in what is now southern Italy), "encouragement was held out to all who should discover any new refinement in luxury, the profits arising from which were secured to the inventor by patent for the space of a year." [22]
Patents in the modern sense originated in 1474, when the Republic of Venice enacted a decree by which new and inventive devices read more...
Oldest copyright:
The concept of copyright originates with the Statute of Anne (1710) in Britain. It established the author of a work as the owner of the right to copy that work and the concept of a fixed term for that copyright. It was created as an act "for the encouragement of learning" read more...
Oldest trademark:
Zildjian, the cymbal and gong company, owns the oldest continuously used U.S. trademark -- it should be noted, however, that the first two hundred years of the use of the Zildjian trademark were in Turkey as the family moved to the United States. Venetian glass blowers are thought of as using the longest continuously used trademarks. Wieliczka, a salt mine in Poland, is reported to be the source of the oldest known trademark (circa 1241 A.D.) -- even though this trademark read more...
History of Trade secrets in a legal context:
Legal development to protecting trade secrets
A relatively recent development in the United States is the adoption of the UTSA, the Uniform Trade Secrets Act, which has been adopted by approximately 45 states as the basis for trade secret law. Another significant development in U.S. law is the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 read more...
One we've talked about in class, but named a little different here in the wiki...trade dress:
Industrial design rights are intellectual property rights that protect the visual design of objects that are not purely utilitarian. An industrial design consists of the creation of a shape, configuration or composition of pattern or color, or combination of pattern and color in three dimensional form containing aesthetic value. An industrial design can be a two- or three-dimensional pattern used read more...
My paper topic...
My topic was intellectual property surrounding human embryonic stem cell research. So maybe this is cheating a little bit, but I ran across some pretty interesting stuff while doing research for my paper. There's such a huge difference between Europe and the United States when it comes to stem cell patentability and, particularly, the ethics surrounding each patent offices positions. The united states basically just relies on precedence for determining whether or not they should allow patents in this field- "case law"-type history drives the majority of the decisions made in the US. However, the EPO takes a much different approach in that they predominantly refer to their choices as a matter of ethics. More interestingly, the end result in what is patentable and what is not is really not that different in either patent offices' jurisdiction. Below are two links describing US and EUR stem cell patent positions:
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/health/genetics/charts.htm
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/law/StemCellProject/project.report.pdf
On the legislative front, things get even more complicated as most statesin the US, and countries in Europe, have their own unique positions on appropriate laws which regulate this field. Here in north america, the individual states usually have guiding criteria that help steer the legality in the correct moral direction such as source of origin, how long the cells have been allowed to divide, etc. While technically the federal law may allow companies and institutions residing in these states to be granted patents in these areas, it becomes hard to do so if you can't work with them in the first place.
http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v25/n4/full/nbt0407-419.html
Dave
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/health/genetics/charts.htm
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/law/StemCellProject/project.report.pdf
On the legislative front, things get even more complicated as most statesin the US, and countries in Europe, have their own unique positions on appropriate laws which regulate this field. Here in north america, the individual states usually have guiding criteria that help steer the legality in the correct moral direction such as source of origin, how long the cells have been allowed to divide, etc. While technically the federal law may allow companies and institutions residing in these states to be granted patents in these areas, it becomes hard to do so if you can't work with them in the first place.
http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v25/n4/full/nbt0407-419.html
Dave
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