Thursday, April 20, 2006

New Tips for Searching Japanese, Chinese Patent Databases

The EPO has posted new "tips and tricks" for searching Japanese and Chinese patent databases on its FAQ - Far East web site. The site contains information and answers to questions about industrial property information in Japan, China and Korea.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

WIPO Magazine (April 2006)

WIPO Magazine has a new look. The April 2006 edition is now available on the WIPO website at: http://www.wipo.int/freepublications/en/?sub_col=mag. Articles include:

* The Return of the Lion - the battle over rights to the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" between Disney and the children of the original Zulu composer.
* Avian flu drugs and patents
* Using photographs of copyrighted works (IP for business)

Monday, April 10, 2006

Academic IP News

The New York Times reported on April 10 on a new study that found that university scientists who received grants from the National Cancer Institute received a large number of patents and started companies in "surprisingly high numbers."

The study was conducted by economists at Indiana University and the Max Planck Institute of Economics in Germany with the support of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The report is available at www.kauffman.org.

In related news, Research Money magazine reported that revenue from intellectual property created by Canadian universities and hospitals had declined 7.7 percent in 2004. However, the number of invention disclosures increased 19 percent to 1,353, while patented inventions increased 23 percent to 647. These are preliminary statistics compiled by StatsCan from a survey that went to 88 universities and 47 hospitals. The final tally will be published in a working paper later this year.

Friday, April 07, 2006

Univ. of California Receives Most Patents in 2005

Researchers at the University of California received 390 patents in 2005, according to the annual list published Thursday by the USPTO. This is the 12th consecutive year that UC has ranked number 1 among U.S. universities receiving patents. UC has received more than 5,500 U.S. patents since Jan. 1, 1976 and is the designated assignee on more than 1,400 pending applications published since March 2001.

For more information about university patenting and technology transfer, see the Association of Univeristy Technology Managers (AUTM) web site. AUTM regularly publishes reports and surveys on academic patenting and licensing.