- Email: [email protected]
Other internet development
World Patent Information 23 (2001) 85±88
www.elsevier.com/locate/worpatin
Other Internet developments Information here is intended to provide useful pointers for readers; inclusion here is not to be construed as a recommendation or like endorsement by the editors or publishers. Equally, exclusion does not imply the reverse; the area is so wide and rapidly expanding that this section is necessarily highly selective. Editor
contact the competent authorities, organisations, or private ®rms for more detailed information or for advice on any course of action''. The Editor is grateful for permission to publish the following selection of items from their website, with the same disclaimer as regards this journal and its editors and publishers.
1. News items from the IPR-Helpdesk and IP-Wire
1.2. Le Monde wins dispute on domain name
1.1. 1.2. 1.3. 1.4. 1.5. 1.6. 1.7. 1.8. 1.9.
The French Newspaper Le Monde has won the rights to the Internet address ``www.le-monde.com'' under a U.N. procedure designed to curb ``cybersquatting.'' A WIPO arbitrator upheld a complaint by Le Mondes interactive arm against Elphege Fremy of France, ruling that Fremy had registered the domain name in bad faith.
The IPR-Helpdesk Le Monde wins dispute on domain name Intel acts against Broadcom on violated patents Protect intellectual property by Internet tax WIPO and its domain name policy Madonna wins her domain name back Hyperlinking and database rights BBC wins domain name back Apple applies Amazon.com 1-click technology licence 1.10. Survey of free patent information on the Internet 1.1. The IPR-Helpdesk The IPR-Helpdesk is an intellectual property rights assistance service created by the European Commission DGXIII-D. The newsletter IP-Wire is published monthly on the IPR-Helpdesk website (www.cordis.lu/ipr-helpdesk). The website includes the following disclaimer: ``The aim and purpose of the IPR-Helpdesk is to raise awareness of Intellectual Property Rights and not to give legally binding advice. It is intended to provide any relevant information which may be of assistance to anyone with Intellectual Property queries or concerns. The European Commission and its contractor endeavour to deliver a high level service for this purpose. Notwithstanding this, the European Commission does not guarantee the correctness or completeness of the information given and is neither responsible nor to be held accountable for any loss suered as a result of reliance upon the services of the IPR-Helpdesk. Any information given does not necessarily re¯ect the ocial position of the European Commission. In this regard, it should be noted that the information provided is considered to be of a preliminary nature and users should PII: S 0 1 7 2 - 2 1 9 0 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 1 1 7 - 4
For more information: NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/09/biztech/ articles/05france-domain html WIPO ruling in French http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/d2000 0647.html Le Monde Interactif http://www.lemonde.fr/doss/ 0,2324,2386-1-QUO,00.html 1.3. Intel acts against Broadcom on violated patents Intel has ®led a lawsuit accusing the Broadcom Corporation of ``a carefully crafted plan'' to build its business in cable and high-speed networking products by violating Intel patents. The lawsuit, ®led in the US, stems from an earlier Intel case that accused Broadcom of misappropriating trade secrets. Related links: NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/08/biztech/ articles/31broadcom.html Yahoo http://biz.yahoo.com/fo/000905/mu3376.html 1.4. Protect intellectual property by Internet tax The German government is intending to introduce a tax on the Internet in order to protect intellectual property rights, according to the Berliner Zeitung. The
86
Other Internet developments / World Patent Information 23 (2001) 85±88
new tax would ensure that the authors of cultural products available on the Internet were properly rewarded. Related links: Yahoo http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000906/ wr/germany_tax_dc_1.html Berliner Zeitung (German) http://www.berlinonline.de/aktuelles/berliner_zeitung/ politik/.html/06artik077949.html 1.5. WIPO and its domain name policy The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has been resolving more and more domain name disputes and developing potential new domain name policies in the last months. In addition to its policy making duties as the United Nations agency responsible for intellectual property matters, WIPO serves as one of four accredited domain name dispute resolution providers. It performs these duties under a system established by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a California non-pro®t company that is charged with administering the domain name system. Related links: Globetechnology http://www.globetechnology.com/archive/gam/E-Busi ness/20000824/TWGEIS.html WIPO domain case http://www.globetechnology.com/archive/gam/News/ 20000819/RGRIP.html 1.6. Madonna wins her domain name back Madonna has won her ®ght to use the website address ``madonna.com'' which was being used as a pornography site by a so-called ``cybersquatter''. The UN WIPO has ruled that Dan Parisi, an American entrepreneur, had not registered the name in good faith. For more information: BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/ news id_976000/976047.stm Yahoo http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ws/20001016/en/ madon na_wins_web_site_from_cybersquatter_1.html WIPO decision http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/d2000 0847.html 1.7. Hyperlinking and database rights The Kranten.com and NVM cases, recently gave rise to a debate in the Netherlands on hyperlinking of websites.
The President of the District Court of The Hague has ordered the Dutch newspaper publisher Dagblad De Telegraaf B.V. in summary proceedings to cease oering hyperlinks from its Internet search engine ``El Cheapo'' to the web site of the Dutch Association of Real Estate Agents (NVM). By hyperlinking to the NVM web site through the ``El Cheapo'' search engine, visitors of the search engine were oered the opportunity to extract data about houses for sale from the NVM web site. For more information: Baker & McKenzie (free subscribtion) http://www. bakerinfo.com/elaw/ Database Protection Directive http://www.ipr-helpdesk.org/t_en/i/i_410_en.asp?adt_ id =712&ads=99 Rechtspraak http://www.rechtspraak.nl/uitspraak/ frameset.asp?ui_id=20476 University of Amsterdam http://www.ivir.nl/ rechtspr aak/kranten.com-EN.html El Cheapo http://www.elcheapo.nl NVM http://www.nvm.nl 1.8. BBC wins domain name back The British Broadcasting Corp. has announced that it has won the right to the domain name ``bbcnews.com'' in an international ruling. An arbitrator acting on behalf of the WIPO ruled that the name must be transferred to the BBC from its current holders an American gambling ®rm. For more information: BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/ newsid_957000/957866.stm 1.9. Apple applies Amazon.com 1-click technology licence Lately Apple became the ®rst company to license Amazon.coms ``1-click'' patent turning to the Nets most celebrated retailer to augment its online ordering system. By accepting the ``1-click'' patent of Amazon.com as valid, Apple has for all practical purposes closed the debate about the patents very legitimacy, according to Salon.com. On the other hand, OpenTV, an online shopping company, has stated that it has the patents to corner the market on ``one-click'' television shopping and is planning to enforce those patents. Amazon.coms ®ght to bar rival Barnes& Noble.com from using a patented single-click, online-purchasing method drew a sceptical response from a US federal appeals court, which questioned whether the invention was worth protecting. For more information: Salon.com http://www.salon.com/tech/log/2000/09/20/apple_ama zon/index.html?CP=SAL&DN=660
Other Internet developments / World Patent Information 23 (2001) 85±88
Apple press release http://www.apple.com/pr/library/ 2000/sep/18amazon.html Cable World http://www.cableworld.com/detailnews. cfm?p_news_id=456 Seattletimes http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/tex is/web/vortex/display ?slug=bdig03&date=20001003& query=patent 1.10. Survey of free patent information on the Internet The Technopolis Group has undertaken a study on behalf of the European Commission, under the Innovation and SMEs Programme. This study is aimed at analysing the current availability of free patent information on the Internet, to determine the impact of free patent information and ®nally to formulate recommendations to the European Commission with regard to improving measures. The study will be reported in English. For more information: Technopolis Group http://www.technopolis-group. com/p_survey
2. SurfIP Gary Lim Ah Huat 1 has supplied the following information: SurfIP is a vertical portal where patent attorneys, researchers, inventors can have access to the world's protected ideas. With direct database links to international partners, SurfIP oers access to up-to-date databases at the European Patent Oce (EPO), UK Patent Oce ± esp@cenet, and WIPO. It can be considered as the ®rst patent meta search engine available for free on the Internet. With its ocial launch on 9 November 2000, the new patent databases include Singapore's ePatents and Chinese patents from China Patent InfoNet. SurfIP has also expanded the non-patent sources to include technical & scienti®c sources from industry segments such as ``IT and Computers'', ``Biotechnology'' and ``Wireless and Telecommunications''. The new features released include ``Cross-lingual searching in Chinese'', ``Email a friend'', ``Printer friendly version'', ``Saved Searches'' and ``Bookmark your hits''. The SurfIP website is run by the Intellectual Property Oce of Singapore (IPOS), a department within the Ministry of Law that is tasked with developing, re-
1 E-Business Manager, BIGontheNet, Singapore, 119613. Gary.lim@ BIGontheNet.com.
87
viewing and administering Intellectual Property (IP) laws in Singapore. For more information: SurfIP : http://www.SurfIP.com/
3 USPTO 3.1. Web database now includes all patents since 1790 [from USPTO press release] The US Patent and Trademark Oce (USPTO) has expanded its 2 million patent Web database to include every US patent ever issued, a total of more than 6.5 million patents. The database now oers the public an additional 1.7 terabytes of full-page images for the 4,204,863 US patents issued from 1790±1975. Patents issued from 1790± 1975 are searchable by patent number and current US patent classi®cation; patents issued from 1976 to the most recent issue week are searchable by full-text ®elds that now include current US classi®cation data. To facilitate database searches, USPTO's Manual of Classi®cation has been enhanced to help users ®nd all patents in a particular category of invention. ``USPTO's database, which is updated weekly with the latest in patented technology, represents the history of science and technology that has made the United States economy the strongest in the world,'' said Q. Todd Dickinson, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the US Patent and Trademark Oce. USPTO has also added two additional database web servers and doubled the available Internet bandwidth to accommodate ever-increasing public use of the patent database. The agency has added two terabytes of additional disk storage to the two terabytes previously allocated for Patent Images on the Web.
4. UK Patent Oce 4.1. New web portal oers UK's innovators a helping hand [From UK Patent Oce press release, November 2000] Budding innovators can learn how to make the most of their ideas and protect themselves from counterfeiters thanks to a new IP web site launched by the Minister for Consumer and Corporate Aairs, Dr. Kim Howells. The site provides a comprehensive resource for businesses and inventors, with information on copyright, trade marks, patents and designs. Users will be able to ®nd answers to frequently asked questions, view
88
Other Internet developments / World Patent Information 23 (2001) 85±88
the latest news and link to other IP-related sites. Special sections deal with IP as it relates to business, education and entertainment and there is information on how to pro®t from IP. The site will also help people with concerns about using the property of others, for example by sign-posting them to the correct place to obtain a licence. There is information for both people with little knowledge of IP and more experienced users. In launching the site at a Department of Trade and Industry Conference 2 designed to raise awareness of IP and IP crime issues, Dr. Howells said: ``Invention and creativity have a vital role to play in ensuring the continuing competitiveness of British industry. The Government is keen to help innovation by providing the appropriate tools for businesses to understand and
2
A conference in London in November 2000 with business, consumer and crime organisations, to highlight the problems caused by counterfeiting.
make the most of their intellectual property rights. I hope that creators and users alike will ®nd the new IP portal a useful source of information.'' The idea for the portal came from a report by the Intellectual Property Group of the UK Government's Creative Industries Taskforce, a body set up to make recommendations on ways of improving respect for and understanding of intellectual property. The IP portal is hosted by the Patent Oce, an executive agency of the Department of Trade and Industry. View the portal at www.intellectual-property. gov.uk M.J.R. Blackman 45 Kenwood Drive, Beckenham Kent BR3 6QY, UK E-mail address: [email protected]
www.elsevier.com/locate/worpatin
Other Internet developments Information here is intended to provide useful pointers for readers; inclusion here is not to be construed as a recommendation or like endorsement by the editors or publishers. Equally, exclusion does not imply the reverse; the area is so wide and rapidly expanding that this section is necessarily highly selective. Editor
contact the competent authorities, organisations, or private ®rms for more detailed information or for advice on any course of action''. The Editor is grateful for permission to publish the following selection of items from their website, with the same disclaimer as regards this journal and its editors and publishers.
1. News items from the IPR-Helpdesk and IP-Wire
1.2. Le Monde wins dispute on domain name
1.1. 1.2. 1.3. 1.4. 1.5. 1.6. 1.7. 1.8. 1.9.
The French Newspaper Le Monde has won the rights to the Internet address ``www.le-monde.com'' under a U.N. procedure designed to curb ``cybersquatting.'' A WIPO arbitrator upheld a complaint by Le Mondes interactive arm against Elphege Fremy of France, ruling that Fremy had registered the domain name in bad faith.
The IPR-Helpdesk Le Monde wins dispute on domain name Intel acts against Broadcom on violated patents Protect intellectual property by Internet tax WIPO and its domain name policy Madonna wins her domain name back Hyperlinking and database rights BBC wins domain name back Apple applies Amazon.com 1-click technology licence 1.10. Survey of free patent information on the Internet 1.1. The IPR-Helpdesk The IPR-Helpdesk is an intellectual property rights assistance service created by the European Commission DGXIII-D. The newsletter IP-Wire is published monthly on the IPR-Helpdesk website (www.cordis.lu/ipr-helpdesk). The website includes the following disclaimer: ``The aim and purpose of the IPR-Helpdesk is to raise awareness of Intellectual Property Rights and not to give legally binding advice. It is intended to provide any relevant information which may be of assistance to anyone with Intellectual Property queries or concerns. The European Commission and its contractor endeavour to deliver a high level service for this purpose. Notwithstanding this, the European Commission does not guarantee the correctness or completeness of the information given and is neither responsible nor to be held accountable for any loss suered as a result of reliance upon the services of the IPR-Helpdesk. Any information given does not necessarily re¯ect the ocial position of the European Commission. In this regard, it should be noted that the information provided is considered to be of a preliminary nature and users should PII: S 0 1 7 2 - 2 1 9 0 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 1 1 7 - 4
For more information: NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/09/biztech/ articles/05france-domain html WIPO ruling in French http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/d2000 0647.html Le Monde Interactif http://www.lemonde.fr/doss/ 0,2324,2386-1-QUO,00.html 1.3. Intel acts against Broadcom on violated patents Intel has ®led a lawsuit accusing the Broadcom Corporation of ``a carefully crafted plan'' to build its business in cable and high-speed networking products by violating Intel patents. The lawsuit, ®led in the US, stems from an earlier Intel case that accused Broadcom of misappropriating trade secrets. Related links: NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/08/biztech/ articles/31broadcom.html Yahoo http://biz.yahoo.com/fo/000905/mu3376.html 1.4. Protect intellectual property by Internet tax The German government is intending to introduce a tax on the Internet in order to protect intellectual property rights, according to the Berliner Zeitung. The
86
Other Internet developments / World Patent Information 23 (2001) 85±88
new tax would ensure that the authors of cultural products available on the Internet were properly rewarded. Related links: Yahoo http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000906/ wr/germany_tax_dc_1.html Berliner Zeitung (German) http://www.berlinonline.de/aktuelles/berliner_zeitung/ politik/.html/06artik077949.html 1.5. WIPO and its domain name policy The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has been resolving more and more domain name disputes and developing potential new domain name policies in the last months. In addition to its policy making duties as the United Nations agency responsible for intellectual property matters, WIPO serves as one of four accredited domain name dispute resolution providers. It performs these duties under a system established by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a California non-pro®t company that is charged with administering the domain name system. Related links: Globetechnology http://www.globetechnology.com/archive/gam/E-Busi ness/20000824/TWGEIS.html WIPO domain case http://www.globetechnology.com/archive/gam/News/ 20000819/RGRIP.html 1.6. Madonna wins her domain name back Madonna has won her ®ght to use the website address ``madonna.com'' which was being used as a pornography site by a so-called ``cybersquatter''. The UN WIPO has ruled that Dan Parisi, an American entrepreneur, had not registered the name in good faith. For more information: BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/ news id_976000/976047.stm Yahoo http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ws/20001016/en/ madon na_wins_web_site_from_cybersquatter_1.html WIPO decision http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/d2000 0847.html 1.7. Hyperlinking and database rights The Kranten.com and NVM cases, recently gave rise to a debate in the Netherlands on hyperlinking of websites.
The President of the District Court of The Hague has ordered the Dutch newspaper publisher Dagblad De Telegraaf B.V. in summary proceedings to cease oering hyperlinks from its Internet search engine ``El Cheapo'' to the web site of the Dutch Association of Real Estate Agents (NVM). By hyperlinking to the NVM web site through the ``El Cheapo'' search engine, visitors of the search engine were oered the opportunity to extract data about houses for sale from the NVM web site. For more information: Baker & McKenzie (free subscribtion) http://www. bakerinfo.com/elaw/ Database Protection Directive http://www.ipr-helpdesk.org/t_en/i/i_410_en.asp?adt_ id =712&ads=99 Rechtspraak http://www.rechtspraak.nl/uitspraak/ frameset.asp?ui_id=20476 University of Amsterdam http://www.ivir.nl/ rechtspr aak/kranten.com-EN.html El Cheapo http://www.elcheapo.nl NVM http://www.nvm.nl 1.8. BBC wins domain name back The British Broadcasting Corp. has announced that it has won the right to the domain name ``bbcnews.com'' in an international ruling. An arbitrator acting on behalf of the WIPO ruled that the name must be transferred to the BBC from its current holders an American gambling ®rm. For more information: BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/ newsid_957000/957866.stm 1.9. Apple applies Amazon.com 1-click technology licence Lately Apple became the ®rst company to license Amazon.coms ``1-click'' patent turning to the Nets most celebrated retailer to augment its online ordering system. By accepting the ``1-click'' patent of Amazon.com as valid, Apple has for all practical purposes closed the debate about the patents very legitimacy, according to Salon.com. On the other hand, OpenTV, an online shopping company, has stated that it has the patents to corner the market on ``one-click'' television shopping and is planning to enforce those patents. Amazon.coms ®ght to bar rival Barnes& Noble.com from using a patented single-click, online-purchasing method drew a sceptical response from a US federal appeals court, which questioned whether the invention was worth protecting. For more information: Salon.com http://www.salon.com/tech/log/2000/09/20/apple_ama zon/index.html?CP=SAL&DN=660
Other Internet developments / World Patent Information 23 (2001) 85±88
Apple press release http://www.apple.com/pr/library/ 2000/sep/18amazon.html Cable World http://www.cableworld.com/detailnews. cfm?p_news_id=456 Seattletimes http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/tex is/web/vortex/display ?slug=bdig03&date=20001003& query=patent 1.10. Survey of free patent information on the Internet The Technopolis Group has undertaken a study on behalf of the European Commission, under the Innovation and SMEs Programme. This study is aimed at analysing the current availability of free patent information on the Internet, to determine the impact of free patent information and ®nally to formulate recommendations to the European Commission with regard to improving measures. The study will be reported in English. For more information: Technopolis Group http://www.technopolis-group. com/p_survey
2. SurfIP Gary Lim Ah Huat 1 has supplied the following information: SurfIP is a vertical portal where patent attorneys, researchers, inventors can have access to the world's protected ideas. With direct database links to international partners, SurfIP oers access to up-to-date databases at the European Patent Oce (EPO), UK Patent Oce ± esp@cenet, and WIPO. It can be considered as the ®rst patent meta search engine available for free on the Internet. With its ocial launch on 9 November 2000, the new patent databases include Singapore's ePatents and Chinese patents from China Patent InfoNet. SurfIP has also expanded the non-patent sources to include technical & scienti®c sources from industry segments such as ``IT and Computers'', ``Biotechnology'' and ``Wireless and Telecommunications''. The new features released include ``Cross-lingual searching in Chinese'', ``Email a friend'', ``Printer friendly version'', ``Saved Searches'' and ``Bookmark your hits''. The SurfIP website is run by the Intellectual Property Oce of Singapore (IPOS), a department within the Ministry of Law that is tasked with developing, re-
1 E-Business Manager, BIGontheNet, Singapore, 119613. Gary.lim@ BIGontheNet.com.
87
viewing and administering Intellectual Property (IP) laws in Singapore. For more information: SurfIP : http://www.SurfIP.com/
3 USPTO 3.1. Web database now includes all patents since 1790 [from USPTO press release] The US Patent and Trademark Oce (USPTO) has expanded its 2 million patent Web database to include every US patent ever issued, a total of more than 6.5 million patents. The database now oers the public an additional 1.7 terabytes of full-page images for the 4,204,863 US patents issued from 1790±1975. Patents issued from 1790± 1975 are searchable by patent number and current US patent classi®cation; patents issued from 1976 to the most recent issue week are searchable by full-text ®elds that now include current US classi®cation data. To facilitate database searches, USPTO's Manual of Classi®cation has been enhanced to help users ®nd all patents in a particular category of invention. ``USPTO's database, which is updated weekly with the latest in patented technology, represents the history of science and technology that has made the United States economy the strongest in the world,'' said Q. Todd Dickinson, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the US Patent and Trademark Oce. USPTO has also added two additional database web servers and doubled the available Internet bandwidth to accommodate ever-increasing public use of the patent database. The agency has added two terabytes of additional disk storage to the two terabytes previously allocated for Patent Images on the Web.
4. UK Patent Oce 4.1. New web portal oers UK's innovators a helping hand [From UK Patent Oce press release, November 2000] Budding innovators can learn how to make the most of their ideas and protect themselves from counterfeiters thanks to a new IP web site launched by the Minister for Consumer and Corporate Aairs, Dr. Kim Howells. The site provides a comprehensive resource for businesses and inventors, with information on copyright, trade marks, patents and designs. Users will be able to ®nd answers to frequently asked questions, view
88
Other Internet developments / World Patent Information 23 (2001) 85±88
the latest news and link to other IP-related sites. Special sections deal with IP as it relates to business, education and entertainment and there is information on how to pro®t from IP. The site will also help people with concerns about using the property of others, for example by sign-posting them to the correct place to obtain a licence. There is information for both people with little knowledge of IP and more experienced users. In launching the site at a Department of Trade and Industry Conference 2 designed to raise awareness of IP and IP crime issues, Dr. Howells said: ``Invention and creativity have a vital role to play in ensuring the continuing competitiveness of British industry. The Government is keen to help innovation by providing the appropriate tools for businesses to understand and
2
A conference in London in November 2000 with business, consumer and crime organisations, to highlight the problems caused by counterfeiting.
make the most of their intellectual property rights. I hope that creators and users alike will ®nd the new IP portal a useful source of information.'' The idea for the portal came from a report by the Intellectual Property Group of the UK Government's Creative Industries Taskforce, a body set up to make recommendations on ways of improving respect for and understanding of intellectual property. The IP portal is hosted by the Patent Oce, an executive agency of the Department of Trade and Industry. View the portal at www.intellectual-property. gov.uk M.J.R. Blackman 45 Kenwood Drive, Beckenham Kent BR3 6QY, UK E-mail address: [email protected]