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HOT TOPICS IN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW Robert Miller Principal, Electrical Team Spruson & Ferguson...
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Transcript of HOT TOPICS IN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW Robert Miller Principal, Electrical Team Spruson & Ferguson...
HOT TOPICS IN
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW
Robert MillerPrincipal, Electrical Team
Spruson & Ferguson1 September 2003
2
Hot Topics in Intellectual Property Law
Intellectual property law and competition law
Technical standards and patents
Harmonisation and patent law – Substantive Patent Law Treaty
Copyright – parallel importation
Copyright – circumvention devices – the PlayStation case
The UNIX/AIX/Linux battle!
3
Basic Principle I: IP laws are good
4
Basic Principle II: Competition is good
5
Intellectual propertyversus
competition law
6
Proposition:Competition law must not stand in the way of IP rights
7
IP rights are exploited by:
Enforcement
and/or Licensing
8
Comparison
EP: European Treaty, Articles 81(1) and (3) US: Sherman Act Japan: Antimonopoly Law 1947 – Article 21 Australia: Trade Practices Act – section
51(3)
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Trademark flooding
case
Japan
10
Software (copyright licences)
Japan
11
Patent pool by Pachinko machine manufacturers
Japan
12
European Community
VCR (1987)
13
European Community
APS (1993)
14
MPEG-2 pool and
MPEG-LA+5 pool
3G Mobile Equipment
European Community
15
United States
VISX/Summit Technology for performing laser eye surgery
16
Dell – VL-bus
United States
17
Technical standards & patents
Technical standards that coexist with patents without restriction:
NONE
18
Technical standards bodies that have looser arrangements regarding patents:
Technical standards & patents
19
Technical standards bodies that co-exist with patents with licensing obligations (as a minimum):
Technical standards & patents
20
Technical standards & patents
Technical standards bodies that are anti-patent:
21
Harmonisation of patent law
Challenges:
Delays in search and examination
Building a Patent Office from scratch
22
Harmonisation of patent law
Substantive Patent Law Treaty
How to assess technical character How to access novelty How to assess inventive step How to assess unity of invention Date of invention (US)/grace period vs priority date
(rest of world)
23
Copyright: Parallel importation
The principle:
Genuine goods sold in another country by, or with the permission of the IP rights owner
24
Copyright: Parallel importation
Australia:
Parallel importation is permissible in terms of: Sound recording (1998) Labeling (2000) Software (2003) Books (2003) Periodicals (2003) Sheet music in electronic form (2003)
25
United States: Strongly against parallel importation
European Community: Heading towards “Community exhaustion” regime
Copyright: Parallel importation
26
Copyright: Circumvention devices
The Playstation case
27
The UNIX/LINUX/
AIXbattle!
28
IBM
(AIX)
LINUXDISTRIBUTORS(e.g. RED HAT)
LINUX
USERS
SCO(UNIX
copyright and
patents)
Open source codeSeeks declatory judgment of
non-infringement of copyright
Asks for license fee of US$1399 per processor
Sues for breach of trade secret & contract US$3 billion
Sues for copyright infringement
Sues for patent infringement
Purports to terminate UNIX license