Archive for the ‘Intellectual Property (IP)’ Category

Intellectual Property Rights: Fiscal Year 2012 Seizure Statistics

Thursday, February 14th, 2013

Intellectual Property Rights: Fiscal Year 2012 Seizure Statistics

Fulltextreports.com quotes this report as saying:

In Fiscal Year (FY) 2012, DHS and its agencies, CBP and ICE, remained vigilant in their commitment to protect American consumers from intellectual property theft as well as enforce the rights of intellectual property rights holders by expanding their efforts to seize infringing goods, leading to 691 arrests, 423 indictments and 334 prosecutions. Counterfeit and pirated goods pose a serious threat to America’s economic vitality, the health and safety of American consumers, and our critical infrastructure and national security. Through coordinated efforts to interdict infringing merchandise, including joint operations, DHS enforced intellectual property rights while facilitating the secure flow of legitimate trade and travel.

I just feel so…. underwhelmed.

When was the last time you felt frightened by a fake French handbag? Or imitation Italian shoes?

I mean, they may be ugly but so were the originals.

I mention this because tracking data across the various intellectual property enforcement agencies isn’t straight forward.

I found that out while looking into some historical data on copyright enforcement. After the Aaron Swartz tragedy.

The question I want to pursue with topic maps is: Who benefits from these government enforcement efforts?

As far as I can tell now, today, I never have. I bet the same is true for you.

More on gathering the information to make that case anon.

Posted in Government, Intellectual Property (IP), Transparency | 3 Comments »

Nobody’s going to steal your idea

Tuesday, November 6th, 2012

Nobody’s going to steal your idea by John D. Cook.

From the post:

When I was working on my dissertation, I thought someone might scoop my research and I’d have to start over. Looking back, that was ridiculous. For one thing, my research was too arcane for many others to care about. And even if someone had proven one of my theorems, there would still be something original in my work.

Since then I’ve signed NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) for numerous companies afraid that someone might steal their ideas. Maybe they’re doing the right thing to be cautious, but I doubt it’s necessary.

A useful reminder from John D. Cook that we should be more concerned with dissemination of ideas than hoarding them out of fear.

The flip side is the wider the implementation of a “good idea,” the more power it has.

Imagine if the HTTP protocol was copyrighted to prevent people from stealing it and only customers of Tim Berners-Lee could use it.

Hoarding a good idea can make it into a trivial idea.

Something to think about.

Posted in Intellectual Property (IP) | No Comments »

Licensing Open Data: A Practical Guide

Monday, May 30th, 2011

Licensing Open Data: A Practical Guide

Lutz Maicher posted a tweet about this guide earlier today.

I would take seriously its suggestion to seek legal counsel if you have any doubts about data you want to use. IP (intellectual property) in any country is a field unto itself and international IP is even more complicated. Self-help, despite all the raging debates about licensing terms and licenses by non-lawyers, is not recommended.

Should not be a problem so long as you are using IP of a client for that client. Is a problem when you start using data from a variety of sources, some of which may not appreciate your organization of the underlying data. Or the juxtaposition of their data with other data, which places them in an unflattering light.

Posted in Intellectual Property (IP), Licensing | 1 Comment »