Friday, April 19, 2013

WIPO GREEN

WIPO, together with industry partners, has launched the pilot version of a new platform known as “WIPO GREEN”, which seeks to accelerate the development and deployment of green technologies, and thereby facilitate their global dissemination.

WIPO GREEN is designed to improve the knowledge of and access to existing green technologies (or environmentally sound technologies (ESTs)), and help in the search for solutions to specific climate change-related technology challenges, as well as providing additional marketing and partnership opportunities. It achieves this by matching the available technologies, know‑how and expertise of “technology providers” with the expressed needs of “technology seekers”, although its role does not extend to establishing specific agreements for technology transfer – this would be the subject of individually negotiated agreements between the parties concerned, allowing for greater flexibility in business decisions.

WIPO GREEN includes two components:

(1) The WIPO GREEN database which users can access to:
•make available their green technologies for licensing or partnership agreements;
•enter their technology needs;
•search for technologies and needs.


(2) The WIPO GREEN network to:
•obtain advice and services to assist transactions;
•connect with experts worldwide from industry, university, governments, intergovernmental organizations and non‑governmental organizations.


WIPO GREEN’s impact in terms of supporting the exchange and broad dissemination of ESTs hinges, to a great extent, on the active participation of stakeholders, which WIPO would like to encourage. The greater the number of users of the platform there are, the greater will be the chances of successfully matching technology providers with technology seekers to resolve environmental challenges. Please note that use of the WIPO GREEN platform is free of charge.

For further information on this new development, see the WIPO GREEN page on the WIPO website at:

https://www3.wipo.int/wipogreen/en/about/

as well as the article entitled “WIPO GREEN: Facilitating Dissemination of Green Technology” which was published in the June 2012 issue of the WIPO Magazine at:

http://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2012/03/article_0006.html

It is recalled that WIPO has also developed the “IPC Green Inventory,” an on-line tool linked to the International Patent Classification (IPC) system to facilitate searches for patent information relating to ESTs. It is hyperlinked to the PATENTSCOPE Search System to automatically search and display all “green” international applications filed under the PCT. For further information on IPC Green Inventory, see PCT Newsletter No. 10/2010, page 9. - WIPO

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Internatio​nal Survey on Dispute Resolution in Technology Transactio​ns

The Report presenting the Results of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center International Survey on Dispute Resolution in Technology Transactions is available at: http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/center/survey/results.html

The Survey was developed with the support of a number of associations in the area of intellectual property, including the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI), the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), the Fédération Internationale des Conseils en Propriété Industrielle (FICPI) and the Licensing Executives Society International (LESI) and the help of the WIPO Economics and Statistics Division.

The Survey was distributed to companies, research organizations, universities, government bodies, law firms, individuals and other entities involved in technology licensing and technology disputes.

The WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center received 393 responses from Respondents based in 62 countries. In addition to completing the Survey, 63 Respondents gave telephone interviews. Ranging from entities of 1-10 employees to entities of more than 10,000, Respondents are active in different business areas, including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, IT, electronics, telecom, life sciences, chemicals, consumer goods and mechanical.

At pages 3 to 7, the Report provides an Executive Summary of core findings. To highlight just some of these:

- Cost and time are the two principal party concerns in negotiating dispute resolution clauses.

- Court litigation was the most common stand-alone clause (32%) included, followed by (expedited) arbitration (30%) and mediation (12%). Mediation was also included where parties used multi-tier clauses (a further 17% of all clauses).

- Disputes were resolved, in that order, through court litigation, arbitration, mediation, expedited arbitration and expert determination.

- Respondents incurred significantly higher costs and spent more time in court proceedings than in arbitration or mediation.

The Report (Chart 11, page 22) contains positive mention of the comparative use of WIPO clauses in technology agreements. - WIPO

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

RIP Lee Yuke Chin

Lee Yuke Chin, a graduate in Physics, is a registered patent, trademark and industrial design agent in Malaysia. During his career, Lee served as the Chief Patent Examiner when Malaysia introduced the new patent system in 1986 until 1993. He was also the Head of the National Patent Information and Documentation Center (PIDC). He has been involved in a number of international projects including the present WIPO Project on IP Portfolio Management in ASEAN countries and the Project for Establishment of IP Advisory Services and Information Center (IPASIC) in least developed countries (LDCs).

Lee was also the General Manager of the Malaysian Technology Consultants Sdn Bhd, a government-industry joint venture for technology transfer and commercialization of local inventions. He is experienced in providing technology innovation services which involve IP strategy development, technology licensing, business planning and funding mechanism to help inventors and research institutions commercialize their inventions. Lee is one of the founding member of the Malaysian Invention and Design Society (MINDS), in which he is actively involved in the promotion and commercialization of inventions.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Use Google Scholar to Search Academic Journals

Google Scholar is a new search tool to navigate academic journals and patents. Articles are cross linked with citations to indicate the popularity of an article. We use Google Scholar as part of our patent search routine to search for prior art.