Thursday, April 18, 2013

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 aheaddramatically 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.)

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

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

Thursday, April 11, 2013

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

Tuesday, April 09, 2013

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

Monday, April 08, 2013

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.