Celebrating the Lunar New Year in China is an old tradition, but in recent years, it has also become an occasion for using new technology, most notably through the gifting of digital hongbaos (the name for red paper packets containing money) using different e-wallet platforms.
This year, the enterprising fintech innovators of China have come up with yet another new way to mark the festive seas
Twenty years ago, American entrepreneur Sara Blakely launched a business selling shapewear that was more comfortable and more effective than anything else on the market at the time. She called the brand Spanx. And in 2021, she sold a majority share of this business to investment company Blackstone, bringing her net worth to over US$1 billion.
Blakely couldn’t have grown her business without tre
Wordle is the new sensation sweeping the Internet, and it all boils down to its resolutely simple rules. This word game is hosted on an ad-free website, you can only play it once a day, and the creator has no intention of making the game addictive or viral. There isn’t even an app version — at least not an official one.
Still, this game of guessing a different five-letter English word each day
Here’s a subject close to the hearts of all innovators whose livelihoods depend on successfully pitching their original ideas to potential clients — what are some key guidelines that can make productive working relationships more likely?
To address this issue, the Association of Advertising and Marketing Singapore (AAMS) and global marketing consultancy R3 have developed a Pitch Best Practices
Founded in 2008, Chinese fast-fashion online retailer Shein is known for its high frequency of refreshed inventory featuring the latest trends, and very low prices — so low, in fact, that it has been giving fast-fashion Forever 21 and H&M a real run for their money in recent years.
But Shein has also drawn attention for negative reasons, and alleged rampant plagiarism is one of them. Brand
Being named a UNESCO World Heritage Site can help to catalyse tourist interest, and thus generate value for a country’s economy. As these sites are regularly reviewed to assess whether their conservation status qualifies them for a continued place on this list, it also incentivises governments to prioritise the protection of their countries’ historical architecture and infrastructure. If one views
In a 2016 lawsuit, beauty company Avon admitted liability for infringing on Rea.deeming Beauty’s intellectual property rights. The object in question was a hot pink make-up sponge that Avon had named “Beauty Blender”. And as all make-up buffs know, the most famous Beautyblender (yes, that’s how it’s officially spelled) was invented by Rea Ann Silva, the founder of Rea.deeming Beauty.
Let’s sta
Much of the world may still know Jessica Simpson as a 1990s pop star turned reality show personality. But since 2005, she has also been a retail entrepreneur, and a very successful one at that, having steered the Jessica Simpson Collection with different business partners. And now, after years of problems with her most recent licensing partner, she has bought back full ownership of the label that
A landmark visual art exhibition is taking place in Singapore’s National Gallery museum right now — the first comprehensive institutional survey of Nam June Paik’s work in Southeast Asia.
This South Korea-born artist was a major figure in the avant-garde movements of the 20th century, and is widely recognised as a pioneer of video art.
That aspect of his work is very much evident in Electro
The following article by Sophie Goossens was first published here by global law firm Reed Smith. It is re-published here with Reed Smith's permission.
Ownership, a legal concept almost as old as humanity, is being tested by the advent of the metaverse - an always-online, persistent, spatial 'second' world. The staggering rise in popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) demonstrates how mu
From pop culture IP news to outrage over recipe plagiarism, these were the stories our readers loved this year.
1. Creator of Netflix sensation Squid Game accused of plagiarism
Shortly after Squid Game became a global streaming blockbuster, the show's creator-director Hwang Dong-hyuk was accused of plagiarising As The Gods Will, a 2014 Japanese movie.
2. By creating her own IP, model-t
The continued growth of e-commerce means that counterfeit products which were once sold on the streets in the dark of night can now be purchased on the world’s most popular retail platforms. Bharat Kapoor – Vice-President, Online Brand Protection, for authentication and information services firm Authentix – shares more about how to tackle this problem.
This conversation with PitchMark managing
The Copyright Bill tabled in Singapore’s Parliament on July 6, 2021, came into force in November. What were the factors that spurred these amendments, and what do they mean for creators and their clients? Lam Chung Nian – who heads the Intellectual Property, Technology & Data Group at Singapore’s WongPartnership law firm – shares more.
This conversation with PitchMark managing partner Mark
John Eastwood – founding partner of Eiger Law and head of the firm’s intellectual property and technology practice – has extensive experience counseling clients on IP matters and more, both within Asia and on both sides of the Strait in Greater China. As chair of the European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan Intellectual Property Rights Committee, he has also worked closely with the European Commission,
Michael Williams heads the intellectual property group at Australian law firm Gilbert + Tobin, and played an instrumental role in advocating for the introduction of site blocking under Australian copyright law.
In this conversation with PitchMark legal advisor Frank Rittman, he elaborates on how Australian legislation deals with Internet service providers whose networks are used by their custom
Counterfeit products are the bane of many industries, and most of these products are manufactured in and distributed from Asia. What can companies do to protect and enforce their intellectual property rights?
Andrew Bradshaw is the President of the Asian Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy, an organization that coordinates IP investigations for some of the world’s leading brands, and h
The implementation of the European Union’s 2019 Digital Single Market Directive, which is the new legislative act adopted by the European Union to adapt copyright to the evolving digital environment, remains in varying states of implementation among its 27 member nations.
In this discussion, Ted Shapiro – partner and head of the Brussels office of Wiggin, a law firm that specializes in media,
A partner and head of IP at TSMP Law Corporation, Adrian Tan brings a unique perspective to the field of IP law, since he first made his name as a creator of IP. As a young man in Singapore, he wrote the best-selling novels The Teenage Textbook and The Teenage Workbook. Through these early book deals, he began to understand intellectual property.
As a lawyer, Adrian now helps others protect th
Artificial intelligence – and facial recognition technology in particular - has become an essential component of law enforcement due to its increased efficiency in identifying suspected criminals and missing persons using enhanced imaging data.
In this conversation, Jay Jhaveri – Managing Director, Asia-Pacific, of Captis Intelligence – discusses ongoing pace of rapid developments in AI technol
The Sex and the City franchise is set for yet another go at the zeitgeist via a 10-episode series titled And Just Like That. Leading ladies Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis are reprising their roles, while Kim Cattrall is not returning this time. But while this core four are probably most associated with Sex and the City these days, it is author Candace Bushnell who made this
