Courts and intellectual property rights
Caught from the Washington Post…and also interesting knowing theTrans Pacific agreements allowing multinational CEOs and firms to sue in domestic courts:
Apple won a sweeping victory in its landmark patent dispute against Samsung when a Silicon Valley jury ruled Friday that a series of popular smartphone and tablet features — from the rounded rectangle shape to the way screens slide and bounce to the touch — are proprietary Apple innovations.
Tokyo court finds no Samsung infringement on Apple patent in latest in global battle
A Japanese court on Friday dismissed Apple’s patent infringement claim against Samsung, a significant legal bounceback for the South Korean tech giant as the rivals wage a global battle over intellectual property. A Tokyo District Court ruled in a preliminary session that Samsung didn’t violate patents with its technology for synchronizing music and video between computers and smartphones or tablets. The ruling, the latest in a series of lawsuits and counter-lawsuits spanning at least nine countries and four continents, comes one week after a U.S. court dealt Samsung a costly defeat that could lead to an injunction against some of its devices. Samsung shares rose after the Friday verdict, helping the company recover from sharp losses earlier in the week, reports Chico Harlan:
Chinese firms put intellectual property lawsuits to work
U.S. companies have long accused the Chinese of stealing their intellectual property. But now some in China are pointing the finger back. In recent months, Apple has been slapped with lawsuits in China alleging that the most valuable company in U.S. history is infringing on patents and trademarks with a range of its products, from the iPhone voice assistant Siri to the Snow Leopard operating system. Many U.S. firms are used to accusing the Chinese of mimicking their products. But the lawsuits being filed in Chinese courts are evidence of a growing awareness in this country that intellectual property can be a valuable tool — for protecting your ideas and for squeezing money out of other companies, too, reports Jia Lynn Yang:
your first link, to dean baker on the TTP (Trans-Pacific Partnership), is something that hasnt received enough coverage…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/27/pacific-free-trade-deal?CMP=twt_gu
baker: “The TPP is an effort to use the holy grail of free trade to impose conditions and override domestic laws in a way that would be almost impossible if the proposed measures had to go through the normal legislative process”
Thanks for the helpful information! I would like to add that the technology sector is a rapidly changing and complex environment that exposes software developers, IT specialists and web designers to risks that most general business liability policies do not cover. You need specialized liability insurance that could protect your company from omissions and errors that could lead to claims of lost revenue or damage to a client.
All the best,
Lee