Tuesday, January 28, 2020

U.S. Accuses Harvard Scientist of Concealing Chinese Funding; The New York Times, January 28, 2020

, The New York Times; U.S. Accuses Harvard Scientist of Concealing Chinese Funding


“Charles M. Lieber, the chair of Harvard’s department of chemistry and chemical biology, was charged on Tuesday with making false statements about money he had received from a Chinese government-run program, part of a broad-ranging F.B.I. effort to root out theft of biomedical research from American laboratories.
 
Dr. Lieber, a leader in the field of nanoscale electronics, was one of three Boston-area scientists accused on Tuesday of working on behalf of China. His case involves work with the Thousand Talents Program, a state-run program that seeks to draw talent educated in other countries.

American officials are investigating hundreds of cases of suspected theft of intellectual property by visiting scientists, nearly all of them Chinese nationals or of Chinese descent. Some are accused of obtaining patents in China based on work that is funded by the United States government, and others of setting up laboratories in China that secretly duplicated American research.”

Kobe Bryant filed 'Mambacita' trademark for his daughter Gianna in December; CBS Sports, January 28, 2020

, CBS Sports; Kobe Bryant filed 'Mambacita' trademark for his daughter Gianna in December

"Kobe Bryant was proud to be a father and was even planning the future of his 13-year old daughter, Gianna, before their deaths. According to People Magazine, Bryant filed to trademark the nickname "Mambacita" for his daughter, and planned to use the nickname on athletic clothing.

The trademark was reportedly filed on Dec. 30, 2019 by Kobe Inc., which was a company that Bryant founded back in 2014. According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Bryant's trademark is still pending.

Of course, "Mambacita" is derived from Bryant's nickname "Black Mamba," which was used as the Lakers legened's alter ego throughout the second half of his NBA career."


The Decade In Trademark Litigation; Above The Law, January 28, 2020

Gaston Kroub, Above The Law;

The Decade In Trademark Litigation


"Considering that we are starting a new decade while continuing to face such questions as “Are We Running Out of Trademarks?,” I thought it would be a good idea to first look at what existing trademark owners did with the trademarks they had last decade. If only because that is easier to quantify for a practitioner than existential challenges to the “assumption that there exists an inexhaustible supply of unclaimed trademarks that are at least as competitively effective as those already claimed.” The latter issue is in the capable hands of Professors Beebe (who I was lucky enough to take Trademarks with in law school) and Fromer, who along with their academic colleagues have contributed mightily to our understanding of where trademark law can and may be going in the near future. But my aims for this column are more prosaic, because I think there is still a lot we can learn from looking at the decade past at a macro level, especially in as fragmented a field as trademark litigation."

Our privacy doomsday could come sooner than we think; The Washington Post, January 23, 2020

Editorial Board, The Washington Post; Our privacy doomsday could come sooner than we think

"The case underscores with greater vigor than ever the need for restrictions on facial recognition technology. But putting limits on what the police or private businesses can do with a tool such as Clearview’s won’t stop bad actors from breaking them. There also need to be limits on whether a tool such as Clearview’s can exist in this country in the first place.

Top platforms’ policies generally prohibit the sort of data-scraping Clearview has engaged in, but it’s difficult for a company to protect information that’s on the open Web. Courts have also ruled against platforms when they have tried to go after scrapers under existing copyright or computer fraud law — and understandably, as too-onerous restrictions could hurt journalists and public-interest groups.

Privacy legislation is a more promising area for action, to prevent third parties including Clearview from assembling databases such as these in the first place, whether they’re filled with faces or location records or credit scores. That will take exactly the robust federal framework Congress has so far failed to provide, and a government that’s ready to enforce it."

Article 13: UK will not implement EU copyright law; BBC News, January 24, 2020

BBC News; Article 13: UK will not implement EU copyright law

"Universities and Science Minister Chris Skidmore has said that the UK will not implement the EU Copyright Directive after the country leaves the EU.

Several companies have criticised the law, which would hold them accountable for not removing copyrighted content uploaded by users, if it is passed.

EU member states have until 7 June 2021 to implement the new reforms, but the UK will have left the EU by then.

The UK was among 19 nations that initially supported the law.

That was in its final European Council vote in April 2019."

Friday, January 24, 2020

America’s Innovators Need Clear Patent Laws; Wall Street Journal, January 23, 2020

Paul R. Michel and Matthew J. Dowd, Wall Street Journal;

America’s Innovators Need Clear Patent Laws

The Supreme Court has muddled the standards for intellectual property, so Congress may have to act.


"America is the world’s leader in technological innovation, and that’s unlikely to change. But in the global economy, information and investments flow instantaneously, and America’s most important asset--intellectual property--is easily copied and counterfeited.

Making matters worse, a string of court decisions have weakened U.S. intellectual property rights."


In serving big company interests, copyright is in crisis; BoingBoing, January 22, 2020

Cory Doctorow , BoingBoing; In serving big company interests, copyright is in crisis

"One of the biggest problems with copyright in the digital era is that we expect people who aren't in the entertainment industry to understand and abide by its rules: it's no more realistic to expect a casual reader to understand and abide by a long, technical copyright license in order to enjoy a novel than it is to expect a parent to understand securities law before they pay their kid's allowance."