(via Cedric Manara) The European Court of Justice has decided on a case in which it calls for a balance to be struck between intellectual property rights and the protection of personal data. Enter Case C-275/06, Productores de Música de España v Telefónica de España. This is your average P2P Read more…
Back in November2007 I briefly commented on a case making its way to the High Court of England and Wales dealing with software patents. We now have a decision, and it may prove to be quite an important shift in the practice at the Intellectual Property Office. The case is Read more…
On Friday 25 January I attended an expert meeting discussing the European Union Public Licence (EUPL). This is the latest member of the growing open source licence ecology, and if I must say so, it is quite a nicely drafted document (biased opinion warning, as I helped in checking the Read more…
Luca Rubini from the University of Birmingham informed us about this event, which we reproduce for interested readers. The Microsoft Case: The IT industry and the Future of EC Competition Law Friday 16 May 2008 (4:30 – 6:30 pm) The case: A 2004 Commission Decision and a 2007 Court of Read more…
(via Oscar Monezuma) Peru and Chile have been involved in all sorts of disputes over te years, including war, territorial claims, football, and most importantly, pisco. Now a Peruvian woman has added to the often friendly animosity between the two countries by obtaining IP rights in Chile over “la marinera”, Read more…
I attended a workshop on Friday in Turin, where I was attending the COMMUNIA workshop entitled Technology and the Public Domain. COMMUNIA is a European thematic network funded under the Econtentplus framework, which “aims at becoming a European point of reference for theoretical analysis and strategic policy discussion of existing Read more…
Times Online has a report on new office surveillance software being designed by Microsoft. The software will monitor worker’s performance by wireless sensors that measure “heart rate, body temperature, movement, facial expression and blood pressure.” Even more interesting is the fact that the technology is the subject of a patent Read more…
Everyone seems to be talking about the MacBook Air, although you will not see me parting from my 160HDD GB MacBookPro. Incidentally, why do some of Apple’s new devices feel like a downgrade? The 16GB iPod Touch has nothing on my 60GB iPod. Anyway I digress. One of the less Read more…
Domain name disputes against cybersquatting are at an all-time high according to data collected by WIPO. I must admit that I found this information rather surprising, as it was my understanding that after an initial period of healthy dispute settlements using ICANN’s Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), the Read more…
This topic has little to do with IT Law, but it is part of my growing interest in the use of science for policy-making. This video on YouTube has to be seen to be believed. There is an assumption that growth is good, our economic system relies entirely on steady Read more…