The Mind Trap

Independent Memory IP To Take Off

Independent memory intellectual property market to generate $410.4 mln in 2009 by ZDNet's ZDNet -- The worldwide market for independent memory intellectual property (IP) will reach $410.4 mln in 2009, for a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.3% from 2004 to 2009, according to In-Stat. Whether the IP is licensed from an independent provider, a design services company, or an independent device manufacturer (IDM), it now represents the foundation [...]

The Basics of Copyright Law & IP Due Diligence

The Empire Journal: Annoyed by repeated breaches of its copyright the journal has published an article about the basics of copyright written by Ann Dunn Wessberg of the Minneapolis law firm of Faegre & Benson LLP. Worth a read to get a general gist of the issue.

LocalTechWire: Investors need to invesitgate the intellectual property of a company they are thinking about investing in, but many patents are too technical or complex to allow for easy investigation. This article gives some ideas on what needs to be done...

Corante: Judge Patel has dismissed the claims by the recording industry against the investors in Napster, but issues still remain.

Microsoft Trades Licences For Equity

ZDNet: Microsoft is targeting start-up companies with software apps -- instead of licensing the software for straight cash Microsoft is going for equity or royalty deals (or both). When start-ups sign up with Microsoft IP Ventures they don't just get the technology but several months assistance from Microsoft engineers who came up with the software..."You can't just throw some patents and technologies over a wall". I can see the benefit for the start-ups, which get access to technology and expertise that might otherwise be beyond their reach, and I can definitely see the benefit for Microsoft in a revenue stream that is likely to be extremely lucrative, at least in a few cases. Sure, many companies will fall by the wayside but a few will make it big...

Mobile Video Rights Clearinghouse Needed

Media Release: Analysts Frost & Sullivan have suggested the need for a clearinghouse for mobile video rights. "Though content providers may have already assigned rights to established distributors in specific countries and regions, obtaining amendments to existing licensing agreements remains a much complicated process for content aggregators. In some cases, content providers assign exclusive distribution rights to established distributors in these regions, which further complicates the process of introducing video services over mobile networks..."While the whole rights issue is not a deterrent in itself, the industry can surely benefit from the presence of a single organization that could act as a clearinghouse for mobile video rights clearance," notes Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst Vikrant Gandhi. "This presents an opportunity for organizations to specialize in such clearance." (via Moconews)

Voluntary Collective Licensing of Music File Sharing

p2pNet: Raymond Blijd has critiqued the voluntary collective licensing of music as proposed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The scheme has many of the benefits of a "hardware tax" (where things that can possibly store music are taxed with the proceeds going to the music industry) and less drawbacks. The idea is that people using p2p software voluntarily pay a monthly fee (the suggest amount was $5) for their activity to be legal. This bypasses the fact that everyone pays the "hardware tax" even if they don't use it for music.

Blijd is blogging on a three hour long debate on the subject at Cornell University, and has links to the video of the debate. His main argument against the scheme rests on the premise that once money is involved problems are created over the distribution of it...

GPL As Economic Imperialism

Sun president Jonathan Schwartz on Tuesday proclaimed ardent support for the open source software realm but criticised the GPL. Schwartz claims that the GPL provision that source code may be mixed with other code only if the resultant code also is governed by the GPL imposed "a rather predatory obligation to disgorge all their IP back to the wealthiest nation in the world", meaning the USA, where the GPL originated. While it's true that GPL code developed in India (for example) can benefit coders in the USA, the reverse is true that GPL code written in the USA can help coders in India.

"Economies and nations need intellectual property (IP) to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. I've talked to developing nations, representatives from academia and manufacturing companies that had begun to incorporate GPL software into their products, then... found they had an obligation to deliver their IP back into the world," Schwartz said.

I agree that IP is an important way for developing nations to improve the standard of living of their citizens, and developers in those countries should therefore be educated on the difference licences and what they all mean. The government technical developers in the Mexican state of Morelos have told me they are very selective about which open source software they use based on whether the resultant coded is intended to be released for free or not.

The attacks come as Sun touts its Open SOlaris project, claiming its licence doesn't restrict companies from using the code and releasing proprietary software. However, the project has come under criticism that it's not actually open. Also, a ZDNet article pointed out that if someone wants to use GPL code in a proprietary way they can license the code from the original writers under a closed licence -- but doesn't indicate how far back along the coding tree they'd have to go.