Showing posts with label US. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Computer Love: Beijing Court Finds AI-Generated Image is Copyrightable in Split with United States ; Lexology, December 4, 2023

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP - Keith Kelly and Zach Dai, Lexology; Computer Love: Beijing Court Finds AI-Generated Image is Copyrightable in Split with United States 

"In a decision issued[1] November 27, 2023, a Chinese court ruled that AI-generated content can enjoy protection under copyright law. The finding, the first of its kind in China, is in direct conflict with the human authorship requirement under U.S. copyright law and may have far-reaching implications."

Thursday, August 10, 2023

Prosecraft has infuriated authors by using their books without consent – but what does copyright law say?; The Conversation, August 9, 2023

 Associate Professor, University of New South Wales, UNSW Sydney , The Conversation; Prosecraft has infuriated authors by using their books without consent – but what does copyright law say?

"In amending its laws, Australia legislated that parody or satire could form the basis of a fair dealing exception. A specific transformative use exception was not created. 

So, it is significantly less clear as to whether the use contemplated by Prosecraft or Shaxpir would be considered fair dealing in Australia. 

Australia has either missed a trick or dodged a bullet by failing to include transformative use as a fair dealing exception. It depends where you stand in the ongoing conflict between AI tech and human authors. But Australia’s laws are less AI-friendly than the US.

For the moment, published human authors are banking on the idea that if they can knock out the shadow library, they can hobble the reach of AI tech."

Saturday, June 24, 2023

US cyber ambassador says China knows how to steal its way to dominance of cloud and AI; The Register, June 23, 2023

 Simon Sharwood, The Register; US cyber ambassador says China knows how to steal its way to dominance of cloud and AI

"China has a playbook to use IP theft to seize leadership in cloud computing, and other nations should band together to stop that happening, according to Nathaniel C. Fick, the US ambassador-at-large for cyberspace and digital policy.

Speaking at an event hosted by think tank Hudson Institute, Fick said 30 years ago democratic nations felt they had an "unassailable global advantage in telecoms" thanks to the strength of outfits like Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Bell Labs, Alcatel and Lucent.

But he feels those titans became complacent, governments stopped watching the tech develop, and "I don't think we appreciated or acted on the reality that these technologies were going to be central to our geopolitical standing."

But China noticed. And it "executed a deliberate strategy of IP theft and government subsidies."

Monday, March 13, 2023

Patents, spy balloons and outcompeting China: What our leaders are missing; The Hill, March 12, 2023

PAUL R. MICHEL AND MATTHEW J. DOWD, The Hill; Patents, spy balloons and outcompeting China: What our leaders are missing

"For all of U.S. history, patents have provided the needed incentives. Without reliable patent protection, few corporate decision-makers or venture capital leaders would make the investments to support the breakthroughs.

And now, more breakthroughs are exactly what America needs to counter China’s accelerating technology surge. Think computer chips, genetic and personalized medicine, clean energy, artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies of the 21st century.

But we’re starting to lag behind China, which is devoting untold resources toward becoming the global leader. A recent Harvard Kennedy School report warned that China is set to overtake the United States, if U.S. policy does not change."

Wednesday, March 8, 2023

ASML chief warns of IP theft risks amid chip sanctions; Financial Times, March 8, 2023

Financial Times ; ASML chief warns of IP theft risks amid chip sanctions

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The head of ASML, the chip toolmaker that is Europe’s biggest tech company, said he was guarding against intellectual property theft more fiercely than “ever before”, as a geopolitical tussle forces China to bolster its homegrown semiconductor industry. Peter Wennink said growing restrictions imposed by the US on China’s ability to source cutting-edge chips and semiconductor equipment had raised the stakes for the company’s security efforts. “It’s like 1973, it’s like the oil crisis,” Wennink told the Financial Times, pointing to increasing efforts by the US, Europe and Japan to bolster their domestic chipmaking capabilities. “Oil was always there until it wasn’t, and it was a strategic commodity. Fast forward to 2020 and it’s the same thing with chips.”"

The Daring Ruse That Exposed China’s Campaign to Steal American Secrets; The New York Times Magazine, March 7, 2023

, The New York Times Magazine ; The Daring Ruse That Exposed China’s Campaign to Steal American Secrets

"Although China publicly denies engaging in economic espionage, Chinese officials will indirectly acknowledge behind closed doors that the theft of intellectual property from overseas is state policy. James Lewis, a former diplomat now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, recalls participating in a meeting in 2014 or so at which Chinese and American government representatives, including an officer from the People’s Liberation Army, discussed the subject. “An assistant secretary from the U.S. Department of Defense was explaining: Look, spying is OK — we spy, you spy, everybody spies, but it’s for political and military purposes,” Lewis recounted for me. “It’s for national security. What we object to is your economic espionage. And a senior P.L.A. colonel said: Well, wait. We don’t draw the line between national security and economic espionage the way you do. Anything that builds our economy is good for our national security.” The U.S. government’s response increasingly appears to be a mirror image of the Chinese perspective: In the view of U.S. officials, the threat posed to America’s economic interests by Chinese espionage is a threat to American national security.'

Like China’s economy, the spying carried out on its behalf is directed by the Chinese state. The Ministry of State Security, or M.S.S., which is responsible for gathering foreign intelligence, is tasked with collecting information in technologies that the Chinese government wants to build up. The current focus, according to U.S. counterintelligence experts, aligns with the “Made in China 2025” initiative announced in 2015. This industrial plan seeks to make China the world’s top manufacturer in 10 areas, including robotics, artificial intelligence, new synthetic materials and aerospace. In the words of one former U.S. national security official, the plan is a “road map for theft.”"

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Industrial espionage: How China sneaks out America's technology secrets; BBC, January 16, 2023

 Nicholas Yong , BBC News; Industrial espionage: How China sneaks out America's technology secrets

"It is part of a broader struggle as China strives to gain technological knowhow to power its economy and its challenge to the geopolitical order, while the US does its best to prevent a serious competitor to American power from emerging.

The theft of trade secrets is attractive because it allows countries to "leapfrog up global value chains relatively quickly - and without the costs, both in terms of time and money, of relying completely on indigenous capabilities", Nick Marro of the Economist Intelligence Unit told the BBC.

Last July FBI director Christopher Wray told a gathering of business leaders and academics in London that China aimed to "ransack" the intellectual property of Western companies so it can speed up its own industrial development and eventually dominate key industries

He warned that it was snooping on companies everywhere "from big cities to small towns - from Fortune 100s to start-ups, folks that focus on everything from aviation, to AI, to pharma"."

Sunday, January 22, 2023

PUBLIC DOMAIN: A BELATED STEP FORWARD, TWO HUGE STEPS BACK; Walled Culture, January 16, 2023

GLYN MOODY, Walled Culture; Public domain: a belated step forward, two huge steps back

"Nor is Canada alone in its folly. Another post on this blog last year noted that New Zealand too has decided to extend its copyright term despite the moral and economic arguments against it. Once more, the reason was a trade deal – with the UK – one of whose requirements was this unnecessary strengthening of copyright. What this means in practice is that for the next 20 years, neither Canada nor New Zealand will see any published works enter the public domain on the first of January. This creates a massive historical void in those countries’ culture, for no good reason.

Although we can celebrate the wonderful works that have finally entered the public domain in places like America after being locked up behind copyright’s walls for so long, we should be outraged that two countries have just taken a massive step backwards in this respect.

Featured image created with Stable Diffusion."

Wednesday, December 7, 2022

US court sentences Chinese spy to 20 years for stealing trade secrets; The Guardian, November 16, 2022

Staff and agencies, The GuardianUS court sentences Chinese spy to 20 years for stealing trade secrets

"A US federal court has sentenced a Chinese intelligence officer to 20 years in prison after he was convicted last year of plotting to steal trade secrets from from US and French aviation and aerospace companies.

Xu Yanjun was accused of a lead role in a five-year Chinese state-backed scheme to steal commercial secrets from GE Aviation, one of the world’s leading aircraft engine manufacturers, and France’s Safran Group, which was working with GE on engine development.

Xu was one of 11 Chinese nationals, including two intelligence officers, named in October 2018 indictments in federal court in Cincinnati, Ohio, where GE Aviation is based."

Wednesday, August 10, 2022

AI’s Role in Modernizing Intellectual Property and Bolstering National Security; U.S. Chamber of Commerce Technology Engagement, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, August 1, 2022

Michael Richards Director, Policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Technology Engagement, U.S. Chamber of Commerce ; AI’s Role in Modernizing Intellectual Property and Bolstering National Security

Here are six recommendations for how the U.S. can lead on AI from the U.S. Chamber's fifth and final AI Commission hearing in Washington, D.C. on July 21, 2022.

"The U.S. may lose its position as a global leader in artificial intelligence (AI) if we do not modernize our intellectual property system and bolster our national security strategy. That emerged as the key theme at the U.S. Chamber’s fifth and final AI Commission field hearing, hosted in Washington, D.C. last week. Experts from civil society, government, academia, and industry gathered to discuss this and other important issues related to the use and regulation of AI. 

U.S. Chamber President and CEO Suzanne Clark opened the hearing by noting several challenges ahead, such as cooperation between Russia and China to compete against the U.S., intellectual property (IP) theft, and regulation from abroad. With regard to the Commission’s forthcoming policy recommendations, she noted, “You can count on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to do something with this. You can count on us to not just produce a white paper but to really turn it into action, into work.” 


Here are six recommendations for how the U.S. can lead on AI:..."

Friday, April 22, 2022

AI and Copyright in China; Lexology, April 15, 2022

 Harris Bricken - Fred Rocafort, Lexology; AI and Copyright in China 

"In the landmark Shenzhen Tencent v. Shanghai Yingxun case, the Nanshan District People’s Court considered whether an article written by Tencent’s AI software Dreamwriter was entitled to copyright protection. The court found that it was, with copyright vesting in Dreamwriter’s developers, not Dreamwriter itself. In its decision, the court noted that “the arrangement and selection of the creative team in terms of data input, trigger condition setting, template and corpus style choices are intellectual activities that have a direct connection with the specific expression of the article.” These intellectual activities were carried out by the software developers.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has distinguished between works that are generated without human intervention (“AI-generated”) and works generated with material human intervention and/or direction (“AI-assisted”). In the case of AI-assisted works, artificial intelligence is arguably just a tool used by humans. Vesting of copyright in the humans involved in these cases is consistent with existing copyright law, just as an artist owns the copyright to a portrait made using a paintbrush or a song recorded using a guitar. The scenario in the Tencent case falls in the AI-assisted bucket, with Dreamwriter being the tool." 

Tuesday, March 8, 2022

"Finding Owners of Copyright"; Indiana University Bloomington Libraries

From IU Libraries: "Finding Owners of Copyright...

The online database Writers, Artists, and Their Copyright Holders is a guide run by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Reading to identify owners and contact information of copyright holders.  For example, it reveals that Sylvia Plath's copyrights are owned by her estate, which is represented by the London publisher of Faber & Faber."

Sunday, January 2, 2022

‘Pooh,’ ‘Sun Also Rises’ among works going public in 2022; Associated Press, December 31, 2022

 Associated Press; ‘Pooh,’ ‘Sun Also Rises’ among works going public in 2022

"“Winnie the Pooh” and “The Sun Also Rises” are going public. 

A.A. Milne’s beloved children’s book and Ernest Hemingway’s classic novel, along with films starring Buster Keaton and Greta Garbo are among the works from 1926 whose copyrights will expire Saturday, putting them in the public domain as the calendar flips to 2022. 

Poetry collections “The Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes and “Enough Rope” by Dorothy Parker will also turn 95 and enter the public domain under U.S. law. 

The silent films “Battling Butler” starring and directed by Buster Keaton, “The Temptress” starring Greta Garbo, “The Son of the Sheik” starring Rudolph Valentino, and “For Heaven’s Sake” starring Harold Lloyd are also becoming public property. 

And under 2018 legislation by Congress, sound recordings from the earliest area of electronic audio will become available."

Monday, November 22, 2021

E-commerce and China: Strategies for fighting online counterfeits, Part 2; United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), December 2, 2021

United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO); E-commerce and China: Strategies for fighting online counterfeits, Part 2

December 2, 2021 9 AM - 10:30 AM ET

"E-commerce now accounts for nearly 14% of all retail sales, and continues to grow at a healthy rate. But U.S. businesses engaged in e-commerce, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), face a number of challenges in protecting their intellectual property (IP) on e-commerce platforms.

Register now for this free program to learn proven strategies for protecting and enforcing your IP rights when selling on e-commerce platforms.

Part 2 of the two-part series will focus on administrative and judicial mechanisms for enforcing IP rights and combatting the sale of Chinese counterfeits on e-commerce platforms in China. The program will feature presentations by senior United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) IP attorneys with extensive China IP experience and experts from Mattel, Specialized Bicycles, and Amazon.

Topics to be covered include: 

  • overview of administrative, civil, and criminal IP enforcement
  • strategies for collaborating with e-commerce platforms
  • industry perspectives and experiences
  • establishing a criminal case"


Friday, July 17, 2020

Russia Is Trying to Steal Virus Vaccine Data, Western Nations Say; The New York Times, July 16, 2020

, The New York Times; Russia Is Trying to Steal Virus Vaccine Data, Western Nations Say

"Chinese government hackers have long focused on stealing intellectual property and technology. Russia has aimed much of its recent cyberespionage, like election interference, at weakening geopolitical rivals and strengthening its hand.

“China is more well known for theft through hacking than Russia, which is of course better now for using hacks for disruption and chaos,” said Laura Rosenberger, a former Obama administration official who now leads the Alliance for Securing Democracy. “But there’s no question that whoever gets to a vaccine first thinks they will have geopolitical advantage, and that’s something I’d expect Russia to want.”"

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

In a first, China knocks U.S. from top spot in global patent race; Reuters, April 7, 2020

Stephanie Nebehay, Reuters; In a first, China knocks U.S. from top spot in global patent race

"China was the biggest source of applications for international patents in the world last year, pushing the United States out of the top spot it has held since the global system was set up more than 40 years ago, the U.N. patent agency said on Tuesday.

The World Intellectual Property Organization, which oversees a system for countries to share recognition of patents, said 58,990 applications were filed from China last year, beating out the United States which filed 57,840.

China’s figure was a 200-fold increase in just 20 years, it said. The United States had filed the most applications in the world every year since the Patent Cooperation Treaty system was set up in 1978. 

More than half of patent applications - 52.4 % - now come from Asia, with Japan ranking third, followed by Germany and South Korea."

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Singaporean named to head intellectual property agency; AP via The Washington Post, March 4, 2020

Jamey Keaten | AP via The Washington Post; Singaporean named to head intellectual property agency

"A Singaporean official defeated a candidate from China in a leadership contest for the U.N.’s intellectual property body, which was swept into a rift between Washington and Beijing over claims of Chinese theft of technological know-how.

Daren Tang, 47, the CEO of Singapore’s intellectual property office, won a crucial nomination to become the next director-general of the World Intellectual Property Organization over China’s Wang Binyang, a veteran at the agency.

The “coordination committee” handed a 55-28 victory to Tang in a final round of voting that began Wednesday with five candidates vying to replace the agency’s outgoing chief, Francis Gurry of Australia...

WIPO’s general assembly has final say in May, but it has never rejected a committee nominee since the 192-country agency was created in 1967."