Intellectual Property 101; United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), December 1, 2023

 United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO); Intellectual Property 101

"Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Kathi Vidal, and Regional Outreach Director of the USPTO Eastern Regional Office, Elizabeth Dougherty, joined as special guests for the Tory Burch Foundation’s Small Business webinar series, where they spoke about the significance of protecting intellectual property to help businesses succeed in a competitive marketplace."

The future of open educational resources; Community College Daily, April 27, 2023

James Glapa-Grossklag is dean of educational technology, learning resources and online education at College of the Canyons (California).

Una Daly is director of the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) at Open Education Global, Community College Daily; The future of open educational resources

"The future of OER is that it will not be the next big thing, but rather that OER will be a common way for students to freely access information, a tool in the enrollment management toolkit, and a commitment to equitable outcomes and collaborative teaching."

Will Online College Courses Help Reduce Textbook Prices?; Forbes, August 7, 2020

Robert Farrington, Forbes; Will Online College Courses Help Reduce Textbook Prices?

"Sympathetic professors often don’t even require textbooks at all, or they make it easy for students to access materials online — and this was even before the pandemic took hold. 

Movement To Open Educational Resources (OER)

Schools who planned to transition online this year due to Covid-19 had the entire summer to figure out ways to present their materials, whether that includes Zoom meetings, message boards, their own platforms, or the many other options available. It’s likely that some of them will have moved a lot of their course material entirely to the web, which could eliminate the need for physical textbooks altogether for some classes. 

But there was a major move toward free college textbooks that predates the pandemic, according to Brian Galvin, the Chief Academic Officer for Varsity Tutors. Galvin says that the biggest lever colleges have to pull is the popularity of the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement, which has seen professors choose to teach courses using e-textbooks that are essentially "open-source" and made available by nonprofits that aim to reduce the cost of learning."

Intellectual Property and Education in the Age of COVID-19; Research Symposium, QUT Faculty of Law via infojustice.org, July 29, 2020

Matthew Rimmer, Research Symposium, QUT Faculty of Law via infojustice.org; Intellectual Property and Education in the Age of COVID-19

"Overview

This event will consider the relationship between intellectual property and higher education in the age of the public health crisis over the coronavirus COVID-19. It will bring together scholars, experts, and practitioners in law, business, and education, and examine this topic from a range of disciplinary perspectives.

Universities and educational institutions will play a key role in our local, national, and global response to the public health crisis of the coronavirus COVID-19. Professor John Shine — the President of the Australian Academy of Science — has stressed: ‘As a repository of knowledge, networks, infrastructure and smart, agile people, university science has the capacity to address global challenges.’ Shine suggests: ‘People trained by university science and working within the research sector are the people whose expertise will deliver on this global challenge.’ He has concluded: ‘It’s the capacity to innovate in our university science that will bring us through this crisis.’

This symposium will consider the role of universities and educational institutions as creators, intermediaries, and users of copyright work. It will also examine how universities rely upon trade mark law, branding, marketing, and Internet Domain Names. This symposium will explore the role of universities in respect of research, development and deployment of patented inventions in key fields — including agriculture, biotechnology, medicine, and clean technologies. This event will also consider the tension between the open access culture of universities, and the push towards the protection of trade secrets and confidential information. It will look at recent concerns about the cyber-hacking of universities, educational establishments, and research institutions.

This symposium will also provide an Australian launch of Professor Jacob Rooksby’s Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer (Edward Elgar, 2020) — which includes a contribution from a QUT researcher on intellectual property, 3D printing, and higher education."

Proposals for Copyright Law and Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic; infojustice, June 9, 2020

Emily Hudson and Paul Wragg, infojustice; Proposals for Copyright Law and Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic

"Abstract: This article asks whether the catastrophic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic justifies new limitations or interventions in copyright law so that UK educational institutions can continue to serve the needs of their students. It describes the existing copyright landscape and suggests ways in which institutions can rely on exceptions in the CDPA, including fair dealing and the exemption for lending by educational establishments. It then considers the viability of other solutions. It argues that issues caused by the pandemic would not enliven a public interest defence to copyright infringement (to the extent this still exists in UK law) but may be relevant to remedies. It also argues that compulsory licensing, while permissible under international copyright law, would not be a desirable intervention, but that legislative expansion to the existing exceptions, in order to encourage voluntary collective licensing, has a number of attractions. It concludes by observing that the pandemic highlights issues with the prevailing model for academic publishing, and asks whether COVID may encourage universities to embrace in-house and open access publishing more swiftly and for an even greater body of material."

Online Teaching During Pandemic Raises Copyright Concerns; Bloomberg Law, April 3, 2020

Matthew Bultman, Bloomberg Law; Online Teaching During Pandemic Raises Copyright Concerns

"The sudden shift to online teaching is raising a host of copyright questions for educators...

Allaying Teacher Fears

Hoping to provide guidance, a group of copyright specialists at colleges, universities and other organizations last month wrote a statement on fair use that was signed or endorsed by more than 200 experts. It has circulated among grade school educators as well. 

Making course materials available to students during the pandemic will “almost always be a fair use,” the group wrote in the statement. Showing full-length movies or television shows can be more tricky, and the group encouraged instructors to use video through licensed services whenever possible. 

“One of the reasons that this statement was put together was to address and allay some of the fears that faculty, students, and librarians are facing when rapidly shifting to moving their courses online,” said Sara Benson, a copyright librarian and assistant professor at the University of Illinois.

The group also put together a list of video and other content that publishers have made available for free—called “Vendor Love In The Time Of Covid”—during the outbreak. Copyright specialists have also held informational “Virtual Copyright Office Hours” on Zoom. 

“We want to make copyright the least of your concerns,” Courtney said. “Be worried about your students, their health, their welfare, because that’s most important.”"

Internet Archive offers 1.4 million copyrighted books for free online; Ars Technica, March 28, 2020

Timothy B. Lee, Ars Technica; Internet Archive offers 1.4 million copyrighted books for free online

Massive online library project is venturing into uncharted legal waters.

""The Internet Archive will suspend waitlists for the 1.4 million (and growing) books in our lending library by creating a National Emergency Library to serve the nation’s displaced learners," the Internet Archive wrote in a Tuesday post. "This suspension will run through June 30, 2020, or the end of the US national emergency, whichever is later."

The Tuesday announcement generated significant public interest, with almost 20,000 new users signing up on Tuesday and Wednesday. In recent days, the Open Library has been "lending" 15,000 to 20,000 books per day.

“The library system, because of our national emergency, is coming to aid those that are forced to learn at home,” said Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle. The Internet Archive says the program will ensure students are able to get access to books they need to continue their studies from home during the coronavirus lockdown."

Reflections of John Cabeca, USPTO Silicon Valley Regional Director; United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), December 12, 2019

United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO);

Reflections of John Cabeca, USPTO Silicon Valley Regional Director

Blog by Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the USPTO Laura Peter

"Recently, I spoke with John Cabeca, USPTO Silicon Valley Regional Director in San Jose, California, about his experience at the USPTO and what’s next for him. John is a 30-plus year veteran of the USPTO. He served in numerous key leadership roles throughout his tenure and has dedicated much of his career working with significant customers of the USPTO on IP matters and through outreach and education programs to help small and large businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs. Over the years, he served the USPTO in important roles, including in the Office of Patent Legal Administration, the Office of Governmental Affairs, and most recently in the Office of the Under Secretary as Regional Director of the Silicon Valley. 

LP: How long has the USPTO had a Silicon Valley Regional Office (SV USPTO) and what is its purpose?

JC: The Silicon Valley office formally opened in October 2015 in the San Jose, California City Hall building. The purpose of the USPTO Silicon Valley Regional Office, and, in fact, all of our regional offices, including Detroit, Denver, and Dallas — is to foster and protect innovation. The regional offices carry out the strategic direction of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO, and are responsible for leading the USPTO's regional efforts in their designated regions of the United States. As Regional Director, I actively engage the western region’s unique network of industries and entrepreneurs, and tailor the USPTO’s initiatives and programs to their needs. The regional office serves as a hub of outreach and education and offers services and programs readily accessible to inventors, entrepreneurs, and businesses. We also work closely with IP practitioners, community and business leaders, and academic institutions, as well as with federal, state and local governments, to advance the IP needs of the innovation ecosystem throughout the region at all levels.

LP: What states does the SV USPTO cover?
 
JC: The west coast region includes Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington State. Comprising seven states, this is the largest region covering over 1.1 million square miles, as well as some of the most innovative businesses and innovators in the country. In 2019, the west coast region originated more than 37% of all domestic patent applications and 28% of all trademark registrations by U.S. registrants.

LP: How does the public at-large including inventors, entrepreneurs, and brand owners benefit from the SV USPTO?

JC: We are here to help them. We hold events from learning the basics about patents and trademarks, to patent and trademark search workshops, to drafting patent claims, to protecting your IP abroad, to even more advanced IP programs as a CLE provider in the State of California. We welcome walk-ins to our office, will come and speak and educate the public any chance we get about IP, and also have the ability to hold virtual examiner interviews and trial and appeal board hearings in our space. The regional office pages of the USPTO website are constantly updated with new opportunities to visit our offices."

How Did ‘Copyright Piracy’ Language Get Into ESSA, the K-12 Law?; EdWeek Market Brief, August 11, 2017

Sean Cavanagh, EDWeek Market Brief; How Did ‘Copyright Piracy’ Language Get Into ESSA, the K-12 Law?

"The Every Student Succeeds Act is meant to accomplish many things. Hold schools accountable for more than test scores. Unleash new strategies to fix struggling schools. Offer new, more flexible funding to districts.

But language included in the sweeping, 400-page-plus law also lays out another, less expected goal: informing students and parents about “the harms of copyright piracy.”

Wording that urges school officials and parents to explain the importance of preventing the illicit use of copyrighted material is improbably found in a couple sections of the law, alongside more predictable school policy language on literacy, professional development, and student achievement.

Which raises the obvious question: How did it get in there?"

SCORE: Trademark basics for small business owners; Traverse City Record-Eagle, May 21, 2017

Ed Ketterer, Traverse City Record-Eagle; 

SCORE: Trademark basics for small business owners

"To learn more about trademarks, visit the USPTO website (www.uspto.gov) where you’ll find detailed information and links to helpful resources. You’ll also want to attend SCORE’s free workshop “Intellectual Property 101: Trademarks, Copyrights, Patents and Internet Law” on Tuesday, June 13, 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Traverse Area District Library Woodmere branch. To reserve your seat, visit www.upnorthscore.com"

The TPP wasn't killed by Donald Trump – our protests worked; Guardian, 11/28/16

Evan Greer, Tom Morello, and Evangeline Lilly, Guardian; The TPP wasn't killed by Donald Trump – our protests worked:

"As more and more people learned about what the TPP really meant for them and their families, it became politically toxic, to the point that no major party candidate for president could openly support it.

This was a sign that the TPP was on its deathbed, but with the threat of a last-minute push during the “lame duck” session after the election, we needed to be sure. So we targeted undecided lawmakers with protests and flew inflatable blimps outside their offices. We harnessed the power of music to draw huge crowds across the country to “Rock Against the TPP” concerts and teach-ins, taking our opposition to the TPP into the cultural mainstream. We tuned out the chorus of voices that told us that corporate power would always prevail in the end. And finally, we claimed our victory.

Now more than ever, it’s crucial that Americans understand how the TPP was really defeated. An organized and educated public can take on concentrated wealth and power and win. With four years of new battles ahead of us, this is a story we must commit to memory, and a lesson we must take to heart."

Local attorney presents class on copyright law for artists and authors; Missoulian, 11/27/16

Ira Sather-Olson, Missoulian; Local attorney presents class on copyright law for artists and authors:

"Artists and authors who want to learn more about copyright are invited to join Sarah J. Rhoades, an intellectual property attorney with Missoula’s Sherwood Law Offices, for a presentation about copyright and copyright registration that occurs at noon on Wednesday, Nov. 30, in the Large Meeting Room. After her presentation, Rhoades will be available to help artists and authors complete a copyright application form, and to answer questions. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own laptops to fill out copyright applications during this class."

Is a picture really worth £1,000?, London Guardian, 11/27/08

Via London Guardian: Is a picture really worth £1,000?
A church and small businesses are just some of those accusing picture agencies of using heavy-handed tactics when pursuing payment:

"Dozens of small businesses and charities tell similar stories. On the online forums run by the Federation of Small Businesses, copyright infringement blows away every other subject. Many of those posting on the federation's forum have tried to do everything right; they aren't arguing about copyright. It's the enforcement tactics they find objectionable...

In the UK they'd struggle to make these amounts stick," he says. "UK law is only concerned with restoring the situation had licensing been correctly obtained. The courts don't like to be used as a means of extortion."

Drake says: "I understand the difficulty companies like Getty have and photographers have - they have a product that needs to be protected. But where is the Getty publicity campaign? Why aren't they issuing press releases and education to remind people that these images are not to be used?"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/nov/27/internet-photography