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Legal protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR): copyright, patents, trademarks
Keep up with IPR news through blogs such as these.
The US Copyright Office offers definitive information on US copyright law. Cornell University’s Legal Information Institute has a guide to US copyright legislation plus the Berne Convention which underpins international agreement on copyright. There is more information on US copyright on Stanford’s Copyright and Fair Use website.
A series of plain English books on IPR by Nolo includes:
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Patent, Copyright & Trademark: An Intellectual Property Desk Reference by Richard Stim (~US$31 from Amazon)
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The Copyright Handbook: What Every Writer Needs to Know by Stephen Fishman (~US$24 from Amazon)
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Trademark: Legal Care for Your Business & Product Name by Stephen Elias and Richard Stim (~US$25 from Amazon)
The principle of copyright has a long history and is respected across most of the
globe. WhatIsCopyright.org is an excellent, easily digested source of basic information on copyright.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) website has some very
useful resources relating to copyright, patents and other aspects of IPR and IP protection. Their paper on IPR and SMEs covers the main issues from a small
business perspective, and their IPR case studies would be handy for security awareness sessions.
A good source of information on US patent law includes FAQs.
Licensing one’s 
patents can provide an extremely valuable income stream, offsetting the legal and administrative costs incurred in defending patents. Amazon and IBM
locked horns in a patent dispute, charging each other with patent infringement and
counterclaiming that various patents are invalid or unenforceable. Microsoft was ordered to pay $1.5 billion (!) to Alcatel-Lucent in a patent dispute over the MP3
audio technology used in Windows. If anyone still doubts the true economic value of intellectual property, Amazon’s out-of-court settlement of a $40m claim by a patent
holder should be a salutary lesson. The patents relate to Internet shopping processes used by Amazon ... and Gap ... and presumably many other eCommerce-enabled
companies. Amazon has deeper pockets than most but 40 mill is 40 mill. The writing is on the wall for those who flagrantly ignore patent infringements.
The UK government is considering a report by former newspaper editor Andrew Gowers re
garding possible changes to copyright law including tougher enforcement measures. “[Gowers] said piracy and counterfeiting was probably the biggest
challenge the intellectual property (IP) system faced. The report estimates 20% of the entertainment industry’s turnover was lost to illegal copying and says tougher enforcement is a vital part of reform.”
Some BBC DJs have been illegally copying and using digital copies of music despite a music licensing scheme in the UK and of course the Copyright Act.
Patent junky IBM has legally pledged to release 500 of its US technology patents to the open source movement. According to the press release, this “represents a major shift in the way IBM manages and deploys its intellectual property (IP) portfolio.” although a cynic might note that IBM registered over 3,000 new US patents in 2004 alone.
The Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) website carries news of video seizures in the UK and other anti-piracy/enforcement items.
Bitlaw has a useful set of information resources on the legal protection of intellectual property in an IT context, and here is the FindLaw collection of IP papers.
While Cornell University’s guide to patent law covers the US legislation, patent law is more variable than copyright across the globe. There are numerous government departments governing intellectual property around the world e.g. US UK India Japan Australia and here is a much more complete directory of patent office websites.
Software licensing and piracy
A hacker claimed to have broken AACS (Advanced Access Copy System), a copy protection scheme designed to control the playing and copying of protected DVD/video content used by the competing standards HD-DVD and Blu-ray.
The Chinese have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to ‘receive lists of products to be protected from copyright infringement and information about instances of detected copyright violation’ [whatever that means].
Let’s hope that the owner of this home CD/DVD duplication facility is familiar with copyright law!
Some of the most well-known industry groups representing software vendors in the fight against piracy are the BSA (Business Software Alliance), ESA (Entertainment Software Association), and FAST (Federation Against Software Theft). These groups offer advice and assistance to organizations or individuals who wish to comply with software licenses, such as free software audit utilities.
Intellectual property and the Internet
Commerce One’s bankruptcy proceedings attracted the interest of major-league software companies due to the fire-sale of its web services patents. A mystery buyer scooped the lot for $15.5m, leaving the prospect that they may be able to recover significant royalties from companies using the patented inventions.
A US-CERT cybersecurity tip on avoiding copyright infringement offers sensible advice for computer users who would like to use materials obtained from the web, amongst other things.
Plagiarism of digital materials is a serious problem on the web since there is such a vast quantity of source material available and it is so easy to cut-and-paste text, images etc. Plagiarism.org is a fascinating project using computer technology (“document source analysis” or digital fingerprinting and cross-matching) to identify plagiarized written materials submitted as original coursework by cheating students. The somewhat blurry distinction between fair use and plagiarism may let culprits some off the hook but the technology takes some account of simple changes such as word substitutions, insertion and deletion of text etc. to give an indication of originality. Copyscape helps identify website content plagiarists.
Technical and legal copyright controls such as encryption can of course be used to protect copyright materials published on the web. We use the encryption features of Adobe Acrobat, for example, to apply digital signatures and other controls on the sample NoticeBored materials on this website. Watermarks can be used to put the originator’s mark on audiovisual and textual information, much like ranchers might use a branding iron to scorch logos on their livestock.
The Copyright Website has information and practical advice on using copyright to protect website materials, and notes some well-known legal cases relating to theft and protection of electronic intellectual property.
Related NoticeBored links collections
Compliance, privacy & data protection, accountability and confidentiality
NB: we do not necessarily endorse or agree with the third party websites accessible through the links. Use at your own risk. Please let us know about new or broken links.
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Copyright © 2012 IsecT Ltd.