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‘Metaverse’ is set to be the disruptive technology which is about to bring an overhaul in the functioning of myriad sectors ranging from education, entertainment, health care, businesses amongst others. The key feature of this technology is the immersion of physical world into a virtual world. Metaverse in a way finds its roots on the technologies of Virtual/ Augmented Reality (VR/AR) which essentially are about simulating real world and augmenting the real – world experience in the digital world. Intellectual Property Rights which exist for protection of intangible assets, hence are vital in perspective of Metaverse. This research analyses the IP form of Patents in reference to Metaverse. Patents are an attractive choice due to the commercial advantage and the higher level of protection it offers compared to other IP forms. The trend of surge in patent applications seen with emerging technologies like AI and Blockchain is likely to be reflected with metaverse. The article views the metaverse and patent domain through an overarching lens gauging the possible scope and challenges. The analysis is based on US, EU and Indian patent laws to get a comprehensive picture across the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The entanglements between social creativity, legal instruments and global policies become particularly clear in emerging technological fields where such relations are being established or improvised. In this paper, an analysis of such entanglements is delivered, focusing on 3D bioprinting. This technique amounts to the use of robotic, computer-controlled devices called bioprinters, with which bioactive structures are manufactured, with potential medical applications. Bioprinting has triggered manifold relations and processes here grasped with the concept of experimental space. It is claimed that the experimental space has several dimensions, three of which are analysed here. First, there is a legal dimension formed by the multiplication of patent documents making reference to each other and forming a discursive network. Second, there is a social dimension, as the experimental space is populated by innovative companies and universities involved with bioprinting. Finally, the geographical dimension derives from the spatial processes and global geography of bioprinting. The study of these three dimensions is underpinned by a quantitative analysis of bioprinting patents filed from 2001 to 2019 and found on two specialized websites (The Lens and Google Patents). Furthermore, fieldwork was conducted in three countries (the UK, Brazil, and Italy), involving interviews with academics and entrepreneurs exploring bioprinting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the major planks of some visions for E-Gov is that there is a willing participatory group who are more than happy to be involved in new forms of democracy and will be active and useful suppliers of input to e-consultation or e-participation processes. This group is different from that which goes online to the government website and signs a petition asking the prime minister to resign. It is becoming clear, though, that the commitment to e-participation may well be there in theory, but difficult to access in practice. Further, the participation that is most welcome can frequently require training and expertise that is not widely available or there may be differences in opinion as to the point of participation. In this paper I will look to the attempts to encourage participation in the patent system. The UK has initiated a trial system utilising New York Law School's Peer-To-Patent project, but has also attempted to involve participants in previous consultation exercises. I will use these as demonstrations of the sorts of problems that e-participation has met, and consider whether this new form of E-Gov is perhaps being oversold. The interesting question is whether participation is a growing tool that can ensure better public services from the State. My conclusion is that consultation and participatory projects can demonstrate involvement and are certainly educative, but e-participatory projects are most likely incapable of achieving the goals set by their more optimistic advocates. The paper emphasises the patents field, but the lessons from it can – I suggest – be viewed as indicators having wider governance relevance. The primary point being made is that the technocratic view is always over-optimistic. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Technology, particularly recording technology, has for more than a century threatened the copyrights of composers, publishers and performers. Users armed with this technology have been given the means to record, copy and distribute the works of others. The response of rights holders has been to advocate the reiteration and expansion of their copyrights. The increased copyright regimes while going someway to protect the rights of composers, publishers and performers has also swept material from the public domain, so making it unavailable to other artists and follow-on creators. This process is referred to by Lessig as the locking down and appropriation of culture, a process that some argue will lead to a lack of diversity and choice. The folk song The Legend of Tom Dula (Dooley) is one of the best known examples of this appropriation. This song had been freely available to generations of folk singers until it was captured in a recording. The recording was transcribed and copyright was claimed, the song was no longer in the public domain. Whereas technology provides the reason to expand copyright, information technology and particularly the internet has spurned a number of initiatives that may lead to the freeing of content. The open source movement has been very successful in freeing and generating content; this movement has itself led to other related initiatives. One of these, the Creative Commons, provides a broad based solution which through a series of alternative licensing contracts allows rights holders to lessen their control on their content making it more available for others to use. This paper considers the interplay of music, technology and intellectual property. It considers how developments in information technology can now be used to offset the expansion of copyright. After reviewing some of these developments, particularly the Creative Commons, and considering evidence now analysed from a European wide survey of musicians and publishers completed in 2008, the paper concludes that these fixes, rooted in intellectual property, unfortunately offer little by way of solution. However technological solutions not so closely tied to intellectual property may offer more appropriate and workable solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate over whether software is appropriate subject matter for patent protection continues to rage, without any clear resolution in sight. The European Patent Convention attempts to draw this distinction by excluding software programs from patent protection unless they have a ‘technical effect’. US law requires that a software program have a ‘practical utility’ to constitute patentable subject matter. Both such requirements fail to provide clear guidance in hard cases because they merely beg the question of what constitutes a ‘technical’ effect or a ‘practical’ utility. I recommend that software patent claims instead be evaluated in terms of three kinds of utility or effects: (1) physical utility, which refers to the direct physical effects of an invention, such as the movement of gears and levers in a mechanical cash register; (2) logical utility, which refers to the information processing tasks performed by an invention, such as the mathematical operations performed by a cash register; and (3) application utility, which refers to the usefulness of the invention to the end user, such as the increased accuracy and reduced calculation time made possible by a cash register. In particular, the physical utility requirement would require the applicant to demonstrate that the claimed software is susceptible of embodiment in a tangible form, the logical utility requirement would require the claimed software to be defined clearly in terms of the information processing steps it performs, and the application utility requirement would require the applicant to provide an industrial application of the claimed software. Furthermore, patent examiners and judges should be required to evaluate software patent claims expressly in terms of each kind of utility. This would clarify the basis for the decision in each case and avoid the now-common conflation of one kind of utility with another, thereby focusing any dispute over subject matter patentability on the particular kind of utility whose satisfaction is in question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Private investment in biotechnology, a growth industry over the last 20 years, has depended on the combination of large, risky investments in research and development with monopoly profits secured through patent protection of the successful products. This business model, which has made pharmaceuticals first in profits on the list of Fortune 500 global companies, is everywhere under assault. The article begins by explaining the relationship of the importance of the business model to the success of the biotech industry. The changing nature of innovation in the biological sciences and the growing importance of incremental discoveries are then examined. The challenges posed by the escalating costs of pharmaceutical expenditures, the crumbling health care infrastructure in the USA, and the global unavailability of lifesaving medications are also considered. These changes are linked to the legal infrastructure, explaining the role of patent protection in encouraging and potentially deterring further innovation. The ethical obligations of the industry to address the needs of a global citizenry are considered, and the question is raised of whether the relationship between public and private partnerships in the development of biotechnology needs to be reconsidered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an environment widely described as a 'pro-patent era' and in the light of vigorous debates over business method patents, this article discusses how the issuance of these software-based patents could be, paradoxically, a state-sanctioned deterrent to software innovation and commercialization. It also questions if these patents fit the 'economic reality' of the software market. Empirical data on how European Internet-based software companies regard these patents are drawn from a recent study on Patent Protection of Computer Software Programs conducted for the European Commission. The paper concludes that there are grounds to interrogate the view that stronger rights will inevitably lead to a more innovative and competitive industry for three main reasons. The first is that software is a cumulative systems technology made up of multiple and incremental steps. The second is that stronger rights could jeopardize the ease of entry and detract attention from the right course of policy action with respect to intellectual property protection of software. Third, smaller firms, which make up the majority of software producers do not, on the overall, patent for competitiveness reasons nor do they readily regard patents as a stimulus for innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Commission Proposal for a Directive on the Patentability of Computer-implemented Inventions is an important step towards harmonising and clarifying the patent protection available for such inventions in European Member States. This paper discusses the proposed Directive, its potential impact and some initial reactions from those in the software industry. It outlines the background to the Proposal, discussing briefly the exclusion of computer programs 'as such' from patent protection under the European Patent Convention (EPC). The paper observes that, in its current form, the proposed Directive will narrow the protection currently available to patentees and that some thought should be given to transitional provisions. It concludes that, whatever balance is struck as the Directive progresses to adoption, the Directive will have the benefit of providing a mechanism for aligning the approach of European Member States to patenting computer-implemented inventions. 'Educational initiatives' may, however, be required if European companies, in particular Small and Mediumsized Enterprises (SMEs), are, as intended by the Commission, to view the harmonization and greater transparency provided by the proposed Directive as an incentive to use patents to exploit their computer-implemented inventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first phase of the Human Genome Project came to an end by the summer of 2000. We have a fairly complete and accurate listing of all the genes in a typical human being. Apart from the tremendous impact that this knowledge will have on health care, it also represents a patent rush where both private and public institutions are trying to gain temporary control, through patents, over the use and reproduction of genetic information. This paper introduces the reader to issues involving the patent ability of genes, the tests used by patent offices to award patents. The ownership of the human genome—and the access to the tools and databases necessary to make sense out of the millions of bits of information that make up the estimated 100,000 human genes—constitutes one of the hottest debates in the public policy arena not just in the field of science but sociology, politics, law and ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editor discusses the various topics within the issue like the patent-experimental space relationship, three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting, and privacy in the era of digital technology.

Focuses on the decision to reject a patent application by Fujitsu Limited to protect a software-related invention, on the grounds that it consisted of unpatentable subject matter under section 1 (2) Patents Act 1977, and Article 52 European Patent Convention 1973. Significance of this decision; Problems associated with section 1 (1) and (2) of the Patent Act 1977.