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Australian Regulatory Compliance Review
Australian Technology and IP Business
Credit Union and Mutual Law
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Wills, Trusts, Super
Mutuals Resource Centre
Commonwealth legislation
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Not-for-Profit links
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Patents are an art form on their own.
So, I’m happy to link to Brisbane patent attorney Barry Eagar’s blog BAZPAT.
Barry covers the latest patent cases in an easy to understand style.
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Nanotechnology research in Australia (see here) is mentioned in the Wired article Let’s get really small.
The article says that " Major breakthroughs are coming at a torrid pace. Earlier this month,
researchers in Texas and Australia reported success on an experiment to
build carbon nanotube sheets they believe could be of use in the
technology industry. Meanwhile, scientists in San Diego and South
Carolina developed nano-scale structures that can function as electrical switches."
It identifies 3 types of potential investments:
" Companies pursuing nanotechnology
can broadly be broken into three distinct divisions, each in a
different part of the value chain, each with its own distinct time line
for commercialization.
The first rung is comprised of companies developing nanomaterials,
the raw materials for finished products. This rung attracts the largest
volume of startups making it perhaps the riskiest place for investors.
Nordan says he sees more promise in companies developing so-called
intermediate products such as memory chips and microprocessors in the
electronics sector and fabrics and coatings for consumer and industrial
products.
The third rung — finished products that incorporate nano-enabled
chips, fabrics and coatings — is an area for the most-patient
investors. From 2010 onwards, Lux expects nanotechnology will become
commonplace in manufactured goods."
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In Keeping the Trust Dr Larry Ponemon identifies the 4 basic questions a company CIO should be able to answer in data security planning:
He also identifies six mistakes that can cause a company’s reputation to tank and gives 8 recommendations for remedial action in the case of a data breach that will let customers know there’s been a breach of their data and help them keep their faith in you. (via BeSpacific)
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The Centre for Media and Communications Law has launched Guidelines for Digitisation to provide staff at cultural institutions with practical
information about key copyright issues relating to the digitisation of
collection material. (via Kim Weatherall)
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Gartner has released its 2005 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies,
assessing the maturity, impact and adoption speed of 44 technologies
and trends over the coming decade. It is intended to be an aid to strategic planners who advise their organisations on
the adoption of emerging technologies.
Gartner says the Hype Cycle’s underlying message is: "Don’t invest in a
technology just because it is being hyped or ignore a technology just
because it is not living up to early over expectations," she said. "If
a technology fits with your overall business strategy you should be
evaluating it from the outset, if you are unsure, wait until more
research is available."
Gartner has identified three key technology themes businesses should
watch as well as highlighting some of the individual technologies in
those areas. Technologies that will enable the development of
Collaboration, Next Generation Architecture and Real World Web are
highlighted as being particularly significant:
Collaboration
A number of key collaboration
technologies designed to improve productivity and ultimately transform
business practices are identified in the Hype Cycle:
Next Generation Architecture
David Cearly, research
vice president at Gartner believes that Next Generation Architecture
will constitute the third big era in the IT industry’s history (the
first having been the hardware era and second belonging to software).
These emerging technologies will form key pillars of the new
architecture:
Real World Web
Ms Fenn believes that adding
networking, sensing and processing to real-world objects and places is
creating a ‘Real-World-Web’ of information that will enhance business
and personal decision-making.
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The latest AGD E-news on Copyright gives details of the progress of implementation of the technological protection measures
(TPM) obligation in Article 17.4.7 of the Australia–United States Free
Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) (in other words, anti-circumvention laws!).
The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs will examine whether there are exceptions additional to US’s TPM liability that would be appropriate for Australia to create.
(see also Kim Weatherall here and here.)
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Professor Kim Weatherall has made public her course notes on Alternative Freedoms: Open Access, Open Source and Open Content Licensing.
They are well organised with up to date links: i hadn’t seen this preview for the documentary Alternative Freedoms. She also links QUT’s videos of the Creative Commons conference I attended in January.
Coincidentally today I also read Cnet’s Unlocking the enterprise for open source on business models (via Slashdot)
Some examples of open content: Open Photo, Creative Commons licensed material search engine,
UNSECO free and open source software portal, the FreeSound Project, Creative Archive Licence Group.
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This week’s ABC Four Corners program Your Money and Your Life on cyber-fraud has raised public consciousness on the issue.
In particular, allegations that personal and financial details of some customers of Switch Mobile were being sold from a call centre in India have resulted in an announcement by the Privacy Commissioner that she will investigate allegations Switch Mobile and One Touch Solutions (Switch’s telemarketer) breached the Privacy Act through the misuse of personal details obtained from their customers.
On the topic of identity theft the Commissioner said:
"Generally, people who are concerned about how to protect their
personal information when conducting business over the phone or on the
internet can consider taking the following steps:
More information about identity theft, how to avoid being a victim,
and what to do if you think you are a victim of identity theft, is
available in the Attorney-General’s Department ID theft prevention kit."
Speaking recently at a conference on a national identity security strategy the Commissioner said
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In Australia business systems can be patented provided they satisfy the usual conditions of patents including novelty. See the recent report of the Advisory Council on Intellectual Property.
But a pure business system patent (without a technology base) has not yet been upheld by a court.
Kim Weatherall recently discussed Grant v Commissioner of Patents [2005] FCA 1100 which refused an appeal from the Commissioner of Patents’ decision to refuse to register a patent application for "a method for structuring a financial transaction, the purported effect
of which is to protect an individual’s assets (presumably against the
lawful claims of the individual’s creditors)". Branson J decided there was no manufacture involved and there was no economic value for Australia in the method.
Previously in Re Innovation Patent No 2004100848 in the name of Peter Szabo and Associates Pty Ltd [2005] APO 24 a lawyer unsuccessfully sought to patent (as an innovation patent) a method for a reverse mortgage (whereby elderly borrowers can borrow on the security of their asset with no payment required until sale or earlier death). He failed as there was no technology involved, only contracts and mathematical formulae.
Professor Weatherall commented that the initial reasons given by the Patents Office (you can’t patent the law) was one that the appeal judge should have supported. I agree.
Lawyers (particularly in financial and estate planning) are more frequently claiming trade marks in the names of their products and claiming copyright over their documents. There is no doubt that a lawyer who has devised a system to deal with a particular problem and has invested time and money in documenting it so that it can be commercially exploited is entitled to protect the product of their knowledge and work. But is it really patentable?
Lawyers who are early to a field may have a window of opportunity which they can consolidate through ongoing work and expertise but I have to agree that the mere application of the law as a business method should not be patentable.
UPDATE: see Kim Weatherall and Warwick Rothnie
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ICANN has released The Domain Name Hijacking Report (pdf). The report was commissioned in response to both
highly publicized hijacking events and a number of lesser publicized
events.
ISANN’s Secxurity Committee found that domain name hijacking incidents are
commonly the result of flaws in registration and related processes,
failure to comply with the transfer policy and poor administration of
domain names.
The report recommends ten key actions including
implementation of improved auditing and compliance measures, and
additional measures to protect registration information from misuse by
would-be hijackers, as well as implementation of emergency procedures
to assist in the urgent restoration of a domain name.
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