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Google Print Troubles UK Children’s Hospital
The latest controversy surrounding Google's ambitious Print for Libraries project, where the aim is digitize and make available online all works of literature, comes after a heart-string tugging plea from a British hospital for terminally-ill children that receives much of its revenue from its copyright of Peter Pan.
AOL UK To Launch LLU Broadband
After nearly a year of speculation, America Online's rumored launch of broadband service in the UK via local loop unbundling (LLU) is reported to be a reality soon. Yes, I understand I just said nothing.
MSN Search Puts Premiership Up For Grabs
A UK-based promotion with MSN Search at its center will reward someone who can quickly find quiz answers faster than anyone else. |
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optimising for phrases
If I optimise a page for a phase such "good cholesterol" and follow all the rules I can find for that phrase so that the page is optimised for that phrase....but then in the rest of the page the word "cholesterol" happens to be repeated alot of times (in context) will the se, because of that disregard the page.
Worth Hiring SEO Firm for Site with Decent Placement
SE Placement has always been a pain the butt to manage (personally). But I think we did well with it. We have a site that is currently ranking under Keyword: "Myrtle Beach".
What is Google's problem with WebPosition?
I have used WebPosition 3.5 to monitor my keyword rankings in the SERPs for some time now. I have applied my Google API licence to this software so, as far as I was concerned, this was all ethical and above board.
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The Secret to Interactive Blogging
Rob Hof over at Business Week has stumbled upon one of the secrets of growing interactivity on a blog - it's about not knowing all the answers.
Results May Vary By Date
UK researchers have revealed that one out of three women use various search and communication tools to scope out new boyfriends, blind dates and potential partners.
Search Engine Marketing Hype Killing Small Businesses
Think about the first thing you ever heard about "marketing a website" on the web. 99% of the time the first words anyone ever hears are "search engine marketing." Or some semblance of the phrase.
Documenting Partnerships In Your Business Plan
Forging partnerships to improve market penetration has become commonplace, particularly for "new economy" businesses. And, most companies proudly mention their many partnerships in their business plans.
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11.10.05
Calling “Dibs” In E-Business
 By
Jason Lee Miller
The 21st Century, where all things tech, software, media, and e-business will converge and boom with deafening force, is creating a new realm of specialization that is vital to an evolve or die type of market. That realm, as many are learning through litigation and deflated new product hopes, is intellectual property rights.
Intellectual Ventures, a company spawned by two former Microsoft employees, recognizes the potential of this burgeoning market, collecting patents rather than products.
Online and tech giants like Google, eBay, Apple, Intel, Sony, and Microsoft recognize the value of procuring the rights to innovation, even before the innovation is a reality, putting forth hundreds of millions of dollars for the company's patent collection.
Intellectual Ventures chiefs Nathan Myhrvold and Edward Jung run a dual-philosophy company that aims to capitalize on the fear of corporate patent lawsuits while giving the driving force of the future, the inventors themselves, who often find themselves victims to corporate opportunism, a leg up.
"Silicon Valley companies have stolen other people's inventions for too long," charges the company, according to one source.
Invention is one tier of the unconventional company with fewer than 50 employees, which sources say have collected anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 patents over the past few years. By comparison, IBM collected the most US patents last year at just over 3,000. The majority of Intellectual Ventures staff are inventors and attorneys.
As may seem self-explanatory, staff inventors invent, while attorneys collect, apply for, and buy patents. The mix makes for an incredibly unconventional company that doesn't really make anything-they just own the rights to. And it's the right to make products that has drawn the attention from major tech and Web players.
Microsoft's recent tangles with Research In Motion over the BlackBerry product, Apple's "whoops" after it discovers iPod technology patent was awarded to Microsoft first, Google's loss of the Gmail trademark in the UK, are all examples of the importance of procuring the rights to a product before it is launched in case somebody else beats you to the Patent and Trademark office.
Intellectual Ventures represents a radically new business model for technology--a cross between a venture capital fund, a law firm and an R&D lab. It wants to finance inventors to do what they do best-invent and obtain patents on those technologies. Then it wants to license those innovations to the world (and pursue infringers with razor-fanged determination). The IT industry is terrified of it," says The Economist.
As the global economy continues to grow and connect, intellectual property is the new frontier. It is not so much who has a good idea, but has the idea and calls dibs on it first.
About the Author:
Jason L. Miller is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.
Protecting Your Ideas And Stopping People Ripping You Off
 By
Martin Truman
We have all had that Eureka moment when we think we have thought of something new. Sometimes we think there may even be a viable business behind it. So how do you go about protecting that idea, particularly if it is so fundamental and integral to the success of your business model?
Ask yourself a few questions: Can I protect it so that my competitors cannot copy me? How practical is it to do so? How much will it cost me? Can I enforce it? Is it really that unique? Would I be better off just getting on and doing it?
To protect a business idea or model there are five key areas not all of which will be relevant to a particular business:
Law of confidence - this is a general duty of confidence which protects confidential information and ideas from unauthorised use or disclosure and is relevant to the early stages of a business idea or model. You can disclose information and retain legal protection from unauthorised use or further disclosure if (a) the information is itself not trivial and (b) it was disclosed in circumstances where an obligation of confidence exists. Read more about confidential agreements and non-disclosure agreements here.
Copyright - this protects the expression of ideas, not the ideas themselves, for example, the software, text, image or design. Particular care needs to be taken with photography and website code. We have seen many businesses that have been caught out regarding ownership. The creator of a work will usually be the first owner of the copyright but this can be "assigned" to someone else which effectively transfers all rights. This may leave the creator with something known as moral rights.
Patents - protects ideas which are new unique processes. The uniqueness needs to be proven as part of the registration and this can be a formidable and expensive hurdle. However, if you have a patent you have an enforceable monopoly right over the exploitation of that idea.
Trademarks - these may be unregistered or registered. If you have a brand which you need to protect this could be for you. Do you know the difference between the ™ and ® symbols? Read our mini-guide: Seven practical steps to protect your intellectual property here.
Domain names - arguably the modern day version of Trademarks, having key registered domains (eg.123.com or truelegal.co.uk) can be more useful and cheaper to obtain than trademarks, and be sufficient to warn others off using that branding.
Design Rights - like Trademarks these come in the form of registered and unregistered rights, and may be available to protect someone copying your design. They are more easily registered than patents and provide a useful and enforceable deterrent.
Once you have these some or all of these rights you can exploit them by licensing them to third parties. It is best to formalise these into a Licensing Agreement which needs careful drafting to obtain the maximum protection of your investment to ensure royalties and other licence income is secure.
Two great sites to look at if you are new to this field are www.patent.gov.uk and the more user-friendly and business focussed www.intellectualproperty.gov.uk.
About the Author:
Martin Truman is a commercial solicitor. He runs a fully regulated law firm delivering no-nonsense legal advice to UK businesses and business owners at an affordable price. Discover more at http://www.legal-advice-centre.co.uk/.
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