Open Source and the concept of “free”

http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/01/better_than_fre.php

This isn’t a new article – I actually stumbled across it as I was searching for an old email in my inbox.  However, after having made a couple of posts last week about open access it had some renewed relevance to me.  Written by Kevin Kelly, who has the great job title of “Senior Maverick” at ‘Wired’ magazine, the article looks at categories of intangible value we buy when we pay for something that we could get for free.  The “generative” values he lists could help reduce fear in an arena where copies, clones, fakes and counterfeits are commonplace!

WIPO & Ghana – support for IP offices

http://afro-ip.blogspot.com/2008/05/wipo-ghana-sign-ip-plan.html

I was reading on http://afro-ip.blogspot.com/ (a blog that deals with IP law in Africa) that WIPO announced the Republic of Ghana have signed an Intellectual Property Development Plan. http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2008/article_0024.html

The plan aims to build the country’s capacity to utilise IP as a tool for economic growth and development.  Plus, and I found this particularly interesting, another of the aims is that IP offices can have the technical capacity to use their intellectual property system.  Does anyone have any information of how this works in practice?

Harvard Law School – first to commit to open access

http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/2008/05/07_openaccess.php

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/infolaw/2008/05/07/harvard-law-faculty-commits-to-open-access-to-scholarship

The Harvard Law School faculty voted unanimously last week to provide open access to faculty scholarship in an online repository.  The first link is the official release, and the second is from their blog with some useful links for non IP specialist authors regarding copyrights.

Eco-Patent Commons

http://www.wbcsd.org/templates/TemplateWBCSD5/layout.asp?type=p&MenuId=MTQ3NQ&doOpen=1&ClickMenu=LeftMenu

This interesting idea was mentioned on patentbaristas.com today (http://www.patentbaristas.com/archives/2008/05/07/patents-going-green/).  Aim stated is to “unleashing dozens of innovative, environmentally-responsible patents to the public domain”.

“Strong” or “weak” open access?

http://sciencecommons.org/weblog/archives/2008/05/01/new-consensus-for-defining-open-access/

OA means many things to many people.  An article on sciencecommons.org earlier this month talked about some fresh definitions to an old problem.  Have a look at the article for more details, and links to further debate.

Enola bean patent – patent examiner’s decision. Good news – VERY good news!

http://www.ciat.cgiar.org/newsroom/enolabean2008.htm

CAS-IP in the news!  See the link above for the CIAT (www.ciat.cgiar.org) story about the “Controversial Court Patent Case for Simple Yellow Legume has Become Rallying Point for “Biopiracy” Concerns”
CAS was involved with the patent re-examination (http://www.cas-ip.org/?page_id=42).  We will post an update to this case study in due course.