In “The Slow Death of the American Author,” Scott Turow decries the state of the country’s copyright system. He gets it wrong and hurts the Authors Guild’s standing among potential allies. Read more »
Grumpy Cat is the latest internet meme whose fame is growing by the day. The feline’s fame is valuable and her owners and lawyers have filed trademarks to protect it. Read more »
Huge and expensive patent battles aren’t going away anytime soon– in fact, they’re likely to continue to pick up steam this year. Efrat Kasznik, of Foresight Valuation Group, lays out some of the intellectual property battlegrounds of tomorrow. Read more at GigaOM »
Google exists because, by and large, it is allowed to excerpt web pages without being held liable as a publisher. Now moves in Germany and Australia threaten both of those core facts. Read more »
The European Commission wants to make it easier for digital services to offer content across the bloc’s national borders. Now research examines whether citizens want it as much as operators do. Read more »
The publisher of one-time counter-culture icon The Village Voice is expanding its legal campaign to own the phrase “best of.” Popular user review site Yelp is its latest target. Read more »
Research claims three billion songs were illegally downloaded via torrent between January and June. The problem may remain large, but it is likely shrinking. Read more »
It’s becoming ever easier to copy and share not just computer files but physical objects too. An Economist article reports that the technology could inaugurate a technological revolution — but also give rise to massive new piracy problems. Read more at GigaOM »
South Africa’s government has been urged to get tough with ISPs that refuse to pay royalties and to introduce graduated-response piracy measures against freeloaders, by a report that decries a dysfunctional digital content market. Read more »
Reports say the Apple-Samsung verdict is in. The case has large implications for the smartphone and mobile industry. We will be reporting shortly on whether the jury finds either side infringed the other’s intellectual property. Read more at GigaOM »
Intellectual property is about assigning ownership of brands and ideas. Here are some highlights from a gathering of leading thinkers in the field — in an easy to skim format. Read more at GigaOM »
Apple’s legal tactics are as carefully designed as its products. Here’s a look at Apple’s distinct efforts to wrap its gadgets in a legal forcefield and drive away competitors. Read more at GigaOM »
The European Parliament has delivered a stunning defeat to the controversial anti-piracy treaty ACTA, voting it down by 478 votes to 39. But although campaigners are claiming victory and the proposals are on the canvas, they’re not quite knocked out yet. Read more »
A global trade agreement on anti-piracy measures may need a re-think after the European Parliament was advised to vote against it. Read more »
The judge in the notorious trial between Oracle and Google over Java software declared at the outset that the case was the “World Series” of intellectual property. And no wonder. The two sides have already spent nearly the annual payroll of the San Diego Padres. Read more at GigaOM »
Russia’s government has commissioned the building of a system which would let copyright owners identify unauthorised use of their works online. Read more »
The lawmaker leading Europe’s digital agenda initiatives is hoping France can liberalise its digital copyright regime, after it introduced a policy to warn and disconnect illegal content downloaders. Read more »
The EFF and Anonymous might have overblown the ramifications of the proposed Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011 — calling it SOPA 2.0 — but that doesn’t mean the bill is well-written. However, strong support means it might be hard to stop. Read more at GigaOM »
In a sign the country’s intellectual property laws may be getting out of hand, copyright lawyers are suing patent lawyers for using scientif… Read more »
The FBI today unsealed an indictment that charges file-sharing site Megaupload and its executives with a list of criminal charges, including… Read more »
Twitter has finally laid its hands on trademark rights to the word “tweet,” but the case provides yet another lesson in why companies have t… Read more »
