IPR in Biotech

Normally I post about creative rights such as music copyright and design rights. I have recently been busy working in the field of intellectual protection with Bio-Pharm. One of the ways that the same tools can be used is in the field of Biotechnology Market Research.

On this site I was able to find a section devoted to market research on Intellectual property within the pharmaceutical industry, but it only contained one report from 2003.

I believe that this situation could be an opportunity for someone willing to spend a bit of time investigating.

How to Register Copyright in the European Union

There is a lot of misinformation about copyright on the Internet with articles on how to copyright songs, copyright photos etc. all based on US law.

In the E.U you do not need to take any action to copyright any original work you create. The second you create it you automatically own the copyright.

The problem arises when you have to prove you were the original creator and that is why it can be useful to file your work with a copyright register.

#  Step 1: Decide if you really need to register the copyright on your original work. You already own the copyright, but registration will help you to prove it. If you are going to distribute your work online then registration may be a good idea.

#  Step 2: Choose a method of registration either offline or online.
–  You can register offline by visiting a lawyer or registered notary in your local community and asking him to store a sealed copy of your work. Make sure you get a signed contract stating the date of handover and that he keeps the sealed work in a secure and private location.

-You can register online at a number of different websites (for example ProveMyCopyrigt.com). Each of these will store your work in digital form and give some kind of certificate that you can use as proof of date. The difference between these registers tends to be whether you pay for an account with the company or pay for each individual piece of work you want to register.
#  Step 3: Sit back and relax. You can now verify that you are the copyright holder on your original works.

*  Learn a little about the Berne Convention on copyright. It gives you the same rights in 163 countries (including the US and all of Europe) as you do in your home country.
*  If you choose to register online with a company that offers an account based model, upload your work as you are making it, i.e drafts and work in progress as this tends to provide better proof that you are the original creator. It won’t cost you any more.

Intellectual Protection in Software

An interesting case recently came to the attention of the Intellectual Protection blog regarding a case of alleged copyright infringement by a large software company against a software designer from China.

Although, we don’t really cover intellectual protection in China we thought it would be interesting for our readers to hear the story of Dr. Yue in his own words. Readers can research the case for themselves and are free to make comments to carry out a discussion on the rights and wrongs of this case…

“I request your attention to the following case that may profoundly affect copyright law. My contact information is at the end of the message.

Dr. Yue, an accomplished software developer, sued Sun Microsystems for software piracy in U.S. federal court (C07-05850-JW, ND CAL). The software copyright was registered in Dr. Yue’s personal name. Sun had distributed vast number of pirated copies of Dr. Yue’s software. Evidence included defendants’ sales records and internal emails admitting the wrongdoing. In an email, a manager of Sun even warned that the unauthorized copying might cause trouble for Sun. But Sun and its subsidiary continued the piracy activity for years and even let others make unlimited copies.

The federal court ignored the evidence (including Dr. Yue’s copyright) and entered judgment in Sun’s favor. At a hearing, the presiding judge told Dr. Yue: “I am going to have you taken out if you don’t be quiet” (quoting transcript). The court prohibited Dr. Yue from representing himself, then ordered him to pay $219,949.90 to the Sun for attorney’s fees under the Copyright Act, most of which was generated after the case was terminated, including over $60,000 for Sun’s request for attorney’s fees itself.

The cases have generated a public outcry. Over 200 people from U.S., Europe and China have petitioned the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal to carefully review the lower court’s decisions*. Hundreds of web sites in China had published the story and the court decision.

See http://www.american-justice.org for case information, such as the complaint and evidence, deposition and hearing transcripts, court orders and other record, including Dr. Yue’s point-by-point analysis of the court orders.

Contact: Dr. Don (Dongxiao) Yue”