Protecting brands on the Internet. A look at approaches taken by the EU, US and Italy

Iposgoode.ca, here. 

It’s time to update online privacy

Politico.com, here. 

On copyright and rights of persons with disabilities: WIPO treaty for the blind

T. Sinodinou, here. 

Information et discussions sur l’étude "Digital Music Comsumption on the Internet"

Hadopi, ici

Google and antitrust: Try it and see

The Economist, here. 

Competition Authority reminder to businesses: resale price maintenance is against the law

Competition Authority (Ireland), here.

OFT issues statement of objections to certain pharmaceutical companies

Oft.gov.uk, here.

Bußgeldbemessung bei Kartellverstößen wird an BGH-Rechtsprechung angepasst

Bundeskartellamt.de, hier. 

The Future of Interoperable E-books: What Libraries Need to Know

Slides from NISO’s Virtual Conference, here. 

Deutscher Bundestag über Softwarepatente

Ifross.org, hier. 

Revendre des fichiers musicaux de “seconde main” par l’entremise de ReDigi: licite ou pas?

A. Strowel, ici.

What Role Should Antitrust Play in Regulating the Activities of Patent Assertion Entities?

J. Wright, here. 

YouTube Again Beats Viacom's Massive Copyright Infringement Lawsuit

Hollywoodreporter.com, here. 

FTC Chair Stuns Advertisers regarding Do Not Track

Adweek.com, here. 

Bruno Lasserre on Competition Policy Attitudes in France

My quick take on the very interesting speech given today in Trento by the Chairman of the French Competition Authority.

-         Sort of schizophrenia between consumers (pro) and citizens (more skeptical) towards competition policy.

-         The glorious days of competition policy in France go back to at least 1791, when guilds (corporations) were suppressed by initiative of the revolutionaries.

-         Before WWII, the attitude in France was generally very positive, at a time in which, by contrast, Germany was much more in favor of cartelizing the economy.

-          After WWII: public intervention into the economy much welcomed by French citizens, competition policy experienced mostly as an external imposition.

-          Leftist reason to support competition during last political election: fight against privilege by birth; “equality of chances” (égalité) still very popular.

-         Governments in general less procompetition than members of Parliament because of economic pressures by big players.

-         French civil servants not believing in competition: 77%; French judges: even more (figure not disclosed).

-          Going ahead,  dramatically important in order to convince citizens of the benefits of competition policy: private/class actions!

-         Draft bill on class actions in France: too narrow.

- Average loss per mobile phone user due to 2005 telecoms’ cartel: 70 Euro per year (cartel’s duration: 2 ½ y.)

A New Test for Anticompetitive Litigation

L. Salgado, R. Pinho de Morais, here. 

Mozilla Will Debut Firefox Mobile OS in Five Countries in June

Allthingsd.com, here. 

CJEU on the Unitary Patent (Enhanced Cooperation)

Joined Cases C‑274/11 and C‑295/11, here. 

International Cooperation in Competition Policy

P. Collins, here. 

The Novartis Decision: A Tale Of Developing Countries, IP, And The Role Of The Judiciary

Ip-watch.org, here. 

Canadian universities square off against copyright group

Cbc.ca, here. 

Speech Engines

J. Grimmelmann, here. 

Exploring the Economics of Personal Data: A Survey of Methodologies for Measuring Monetary Value

OECD, here. 

Analysis of ‘Open Data’ survey commissioned to support the Shakespeare Review into Public Sector Information

Research.yougov.co.uk, here. 

What’s Your Agenda?

J. Wright, here. 

The Oligopoly Problem

T. Wu, here. 

Google and the European Commission: A flavour of utility

TheEconomist.com, here. 

Faculty members on software to detect student plagiarism

Insidehighered.com, here. 

Digital Kirtsaeng: Is the transfer of a file to someone else the real issue?

D. Gervais, here. 

The General Court partially annuls the Commission decision finding anti-competitive conduct on the part of copyright collecting societies

"CISAC", press release here.

« Droit à l’oubli » sur Internet : la fin de la généalogie et des archives ?

Rue89.com, ici. 

Copyright and Competition Policy

A. Katz, here. 

Ebooks made up 23 percent of US publisher sales in 2012, says the AAP

PaidContent.com, here. 

Antitrust complaint against Android is an attack on open source

ArsTechnica, here. 

Competition Issues in Broadcasting and Internet Content - Navigating the Unknown and the Unknowable

A. Fels, here. 

Imagine: Pro-poor(er) Competition Law

E. Fox, here. 

English High Court Dismisses Interim Injunction In Abuse Of Dominance Case Concerning Refusal To Supply In HIV Prescription Medicines Market

Van Bael Bellis, here. 

EBay Opens Up Its Data for Ad Targeting

Adweek.com, here. 

Kabinett verabschiedet Gesetzesentwurf zur Nutzung verwaister und vergriffener Werke (und zum Zweitverwertungsrecht für Wissenschaftler)

Urheberrecht.org, hier.

Apple wins invalidation of 3G 'standard-essential' Samsung patent in Germany

Fosspatents.com, here. 

USPTO roundtables on software-related patents: materials available

Recordings and presentations here.

Antitrust regulators ponder patent trolls—but they need to act

M. Carrier, here. 

Standards-Essential Patents and Injunctive Relief:

JonesDay, here. 

The Economic Impact of Digitization and the Internet on the Creative Sector in Europe

Booz&Co, here. 

India’s Patently Wise Decision

J. Stiglitz, A. Jayadev, here. 

40 Years of Music Industry Change, In 40 Seconds or Less...

Digitalmusicnews.com, here. 

Can you find me now? How carriers sell your location and get away with it

Theverge.com, here. 

Voyage au cœur des smartphones et des applications mobiles avec la CNIL et Inria

Cnil.fr, ici. 

E-Books to be available in UK libraries under Public Lending Right

Futureofcopyright.com, here. 

A Developmental Approach to the Patent-Antitrust Interface

T. Cheng, here. 

My thoughts on Mendeley/Elsevier & why I left to start PeerJ

Enjoythedisruption.com, here.

Abuse Of IP Rights Under China's Antitrust Rules: Recent Cases Have A Potentially Serious Impact

McDermott Will & Emery, here. 

Netherlands: The Tax Deductibility Of European Fines For Cartel Violations: On Borrowed Time

NautaDutilh, here. 

Colleen Chien on Patent Assertion Entities

Antitrust & Competition Policy Blog, here.

Microsoft and others file EU antitrust complaint over Android app bundling

TheVerge.com, here.
---------
Two central allegations, it seems:
I
- Android is the dominating mobile operating system (running in 70% of units shipped at the end of 2012)
-  Android phone makers wanting to include "must-have" Google apps such as Maps or YouTube are required "to pre-load an entire suite of Google mobile services and to give them prominent default placement on the phone"
- Other apps and services providers are disadvantaged
- Google’s Android is put in control of consumer data on a majority of smartphones shipped today.

II
- Google distributes Android open source operating system for free, i.e. below cost
- this makes it difficult for other providers of operating systems to recoup investments in competing with Google’s dominant mobile platform.

Fairsearch's 2011 White Paper indirectly provides some additional background information to the allegations, see e.g. p. 35: Google is also attempting to monopolize mobile search and search advertising through the Android operating system...According to some, Google is “not trying to make a profit on Android or [its web-browser] Chrome . . . .In essence [by giving Android away for free], they are not just building a moat; Google is also scorching the earth for 250 miles around the outside of the castle to ensure no one can approach it"(reference omitted).

An overview of the other competition complaints filed by Google's competitors (source: Fairsearcheurope.eu, here):

Read also Groklaw's take on the allegations, here. 

Content ownership and resale

Toc.oreilly.com, here. 

Conceptual Study on Innovation, Intellectual Property and the Informal Economy

WIPO Secretariat and J. de Beer, here. 

Access and the Public Domain (Fordham IP Talk)

R. Picker, Video (Slide Talk), here. 

One on One: Jason Merkoski and the View of E-Books From the Inside

Bits.blogs.nytimes.com, here. 

Robots, the DMCA, and Patents: Threats, Strategy, and Caselaw in the Aftermarket

C. Hicks, K. Liu, here. 

TPM systems to protect video games and illegal “mod chips” to circumvent them – in the light of a referral to the CJEU

M. Ficsor, Paper here, Presentation here. 

Mobile privacy. A better practice guide for mobile app developers.

Consultation draft, Australian Government, here.

The Single Market for financial services and competition policy

European Competition Forum 2013, Videos here. 

State of Play: Treaty for the Blind negotiations at the World Intellectual Property Organization

Keionline.org, here. 

Letting Down Our Guard With Web Privacy

Nytimes.com, here. 

The IP-Competition Wars: Why is There a Tug of War When We All Share the Same Goal?–An Inventive Competitive Economy

E. Fox, Presentation here. 

Recent Japanese Cases Regarding Standard Essential Patents and FRAND Licensing Declaration

S. Oda, Presentation here. 

Legal Assessment of Patent Settlement Agreements Containing “Reverse” Payments

R. Subiotto, Presentation here. 

The preparation of a WIPO instrument/treaty on exceptions or limitations for the visually impaired in the light of the WIPO-Unesco Model Provisions on the same adoped in the “guided development” period

M. Ficsor, here. 

The Oracle Speaks (UsedSoft)

P. Charleton, S. Kelly, here. 

Papers and Presentations from the Fordham IP Conference 2013

List here.

Comments of Google, Blackberry, Earthlink and Red Hat on Patent Assertion Entities

Here. 

Walking the Data Protection Tightrope: The Google Privacy Policy Investigations

Europeanlawblog.eu, here. 

Not (Necessarily) Narrower: Rethinking the Relative Scope of Copyright Protection for Designs

S. Burstein, here. 

L'Union européenne, colonie du monde numérique ?

C. Morin-Desailly, ici. 

Smokescreen: How Managers Behave When They Have Something to Hide

T. Artiga Gonzalez, M. Schmid, D. Yermack, here.

ReDigi, Digital First Sale...and Star Trek

J. Grimmelmann, here.

The Use of Standard Essential Patents: Competition Policy Issues

S. Vezzoso (this blog's author), Presentation here. 

FOSS in the Italian public administration: fundamental law principles

S. Aliprandi, C. Piana, here. 

Copyleft, -right and the case law on APIs on both sides of the Atlantic

W.van Horst, here. 

MySQL and the forks in the road

H-online.com, here.

FRAND and compulsory license defense – District Court Düsseldorf refers questions on the available remedies for owners of standard essential patents to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU)

Kluwerpatentblog.com, here.

Mark Lemley on FTC V. Actavis Oral Argument

Blogs.law.stanford.edu, here.

The Actavis case before SCOTUS shows that the weak patent issue is system-wide:

Patentprogress.com, here.

ReDigi US District Court Ruling

Here. Capitol Records' Complaint here; ReDigi's answer here. 

Authors Guild warns of monopoly in Amazon’s purchase of Goodreads

PaidContent.org, here.

A Kat's perspective on Kirtsaeng: why is digital different from analogue?

The IPKat, here.

LG Düsseldorf legt dem EuGH vor – SEPs, FRAND und “Orange Book”

Kartellblog.de, hier.

Google pledges not to sue open-source users or developers over specified patents

Computerworld.com, here.

Open software group files complaint against Microsoft to EU

Globalpost.com, here.

Wann ist ein Lizenzangebot FRAND?

Lto.de, hier. 

The Hidden Value of Dell: 3,449 Patents and Other Intellectual Property

Businessweek.com, here. 

Federal Court of Appeal Reminds Government There is No Copyright in Data

Teresascassa.ca, here. 

No Easy Rule on Drug "Pay for Delay"?

Scotusblog.com,here.

The Economic Impact of the Data Protection Regulation in the E.U

L. Christensen, A. Colciago, F. Etro and G. Rafert, here. 

Will the Internet Destroy the News Media?

J. Gans, Video here. 

Dairy Farmers of America to pay $46 million settlement in antitrust lawsuit

Capitalpress.com, here. 

Seconds to go: Reselling media content

The Economist, here. 

The Supreme Court’s Small (But Helpful) Step Towards Copyright Sanity

The Volokh Conspiracy, here. 

Electronic lending and public libraries

The Economist, here.