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  • What China’s new bullishness about IP means for its economic future

    It wasn’t that long ago that China had an unflattering reputation for being a copier of intellectual property. But that perception has been changing fast as the country’s economy has grown by leaps and bounds over the past decade. Along the way, many of its technological innovations from social media to payments platforms have been ahead of the global curve.
    And now, going by the recently rele

  • Harvard University vs Harvard Jeans

    The following article by Erwin V. Zamorawas was first published here by Bengzon Negre Untalan (BNU), a Philippines-based law firm focused on the practice of intellectual property law. It is re-published here with BNU's permission. 
    In 2011, Fredco Manufacturing Corporation (Fredco) filed before the Bureau of Legal Affairs of the Philippine Intellectual Property Office a Petition for Cancellatio

  • The disputed IP of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Met Gala dress

    The annual Met Gala is a signature fundraising event for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York City. Celebrities who attend always dress to impress, and this year, one of the most talked-about outfits was worn by politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Popularly known as AOC, she is the U.S. Representative for New York's 14th congressional district, and made her debut at the

  • Emmy winner Michaela Coel shines a light on how she has protected her IP

    It’s been a busy month for actor, writer and director Michaela Coel. In September, she won her first Emmy for writing the limited series I May Destroy You, and released her first book, Misfits: A Personal Manifesto.
    Both the series and the book are related to the way this talented UK creative views the issue of intellectual property. When she started to pitch the idea for I May Destroy Youin 2

  • Who owns ideas pitched during job interviews — the company or the job candidate?

    Have you ever pitched an idea at work, only to see your boss present it later as his own idea?
    While that must sting, imagine how much worse you would feel if your idea was pitched during a job interview, and you didn’t even get the job, much less the credit for the idea and any share of the financial benefit it generated.
    That’s what one job applicant says happened to her. In August 2016,

  • 7 ways innovators can protect their IP

    A new song; a new character; a new algorithm — in the 21st century, any of these, and many more kinds of new ideas, could make their creator’s name and fortune. That’s the way the creative economy works.
    As author John Howkins put it in his 2001 book The Creative Economy: How People Make Money from Ideas, the creative economy refers to the economic potential of activities that centre on creati

  • Dealing with onerous IP clauses in tender documents

    From design agencies to training providers, entrepreneurs and small businesses across various industries often throw their hat in the ring when organisations send out Invitations To Quote (ITQ) for upcoming projects.
    These documents set out the requirements for a project, and enables a potential vendor to assess how much to charge for its goods and/or services. But beyond noting the nature and

  • The sound of victory: Music-makers fight to reclaim their IP rights

    Earlier this month, soul icon Anita Baker sent out a tweet that radiated joy: “All My Children Are Coming Home.” The accompanying photo showed five of her albums, all released by Elektra Records in the 1980s and 1990s. The news she was announcing with this tweet was momentous — she was finally regaining ownership of her master recordings.

    Another icon, pop star Taylor Swift, responded to t

  • The IP of designer fonts

    No matter what service or product a company is selling, chances are they are using some kind of font in their marketing materials. While many people assume that fonts can be used freely, font programmes and their underlying typefaces are actually intellectual property protected by copyright.
    In 2009, Font Bureau, an American type foundry, sued NBC Universal for failing to secure the rights to a

  • What a longer copyright term means for creators

    As the saying goes, time is money. And when it comes to IP matters, time is an important factor for creators. A recent change to IP laws in Uzbekistan serves as a useful example of how time plays a crucial role when it comes to protecting one’s innovations.
    Uzbekistan has expanded the general term of copyright protection from 50 years to 70 years, following the death of the author. This change

  • Who gets paid when a superhero story succeeds?

    This month sees the release of yet another Marvel superhero movie, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. However, a lot of attention is still on the previous entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Black Widow, due to an ongoing lawsuit.
    Due to the uncertainties of relying solely on the traditional theatrical release model during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, that movie was released si

  • AI-generated voices are troubling news for voice actors

    When Roadrunner, a documentary about the late travel show host Anthony Bourdain was released recently, 45 seconds of narration in the film soon got everyone talking.

    Director Morgan Neville revealed that three lines in the documentary that sounded like they were spoken by Bourdain were actually generated by AI. These lines had been written by Bourdain, but he had never said them out loud. “

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