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Does proprietary knowledge protection (PKP) spur or hinder the product-market performance of new firms? Exploiting the staggered adoptions of the inevitable disclosure doctrine by U.S. State Courts, which enhance PKP, we show that treated firms increase industry-adjusted sales growth by 2% compared to control firms. The effect is concentrated among small and young firms and increases with the scope of proprietary knowledge and rivals' access to external finance. PKP encourages firms to develop new products and stimulates initial public offering activity. Our results suggest that PKP alleviates predation risk associated with "deep-pocket" rivals by allowing firms to maintain competitive advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following in the footsteps of the Nyéléni Declaration, the transnational agrarian movement La Via Campesina (lvc) secured recognition for the right to food sovereignty within the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. Alongside this, the academic community and the agrarian movement itself have developed the concept of “seed sovereignty”. Although it has not followed the same normative trajectory as food sovereignty, it has served (i) to bring together a range of issues scattered throughout the biodiversity “regime complex” (industrial property, concentration, seed regulation, gmo regulation, biopiracy, conservation); (ii) to establish a coherent and integrative intellectual framework, the high point of which was undoubtedly the enshrinement of the “right to seeds” in Article 19 of the Declaration.This chapter traces the history of the concept and the genealogy of Article 19, showing that seed sovereignty, through its appeal to permanent sovereignty over natural resources (which was also clearly visible during the drafting process), sought to anchor the prerogatives granted to peasants and farmers over their seeds in international human rights law. More fundamentally, in its alliance with the right to food sovereignty, it represents a significant attempt to challenge the Westphalian sovereignty – a hallmark of the transnational agrarian movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological innovation is a crucial factor in the technological and economic development of nations today. Ownership and appropriation policies of patents are an important part of innovation processes. The compulsory license is an instrument that in principle aims towards these objectives. However, in Mexico, despite the fact that compulsory licensing was incorporated into patent legislation more than a century ago, it has been exercised very rarely. The overwhelming lack of registration of compulsory licenses has been due, among other factors, to the gaps and insufficiencies in the specifications that patent laws have established to regulate the compulsory licensing process, aspects that have led to contradictions and discretions that erode the propensity to use compulsory licenses by those interested in exploiting patents in national territory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes double taxation agreements and reveals a number of shortcomings that actually contribute to income shifting. The main shortcomings of the agreements are the application of the principle of residency and the definition of a special mechanism for the payment of passive income. The term "resident" does not have a precise and specific definition. Individuals and legal entities can be residents of many countries at the same time, and identifying a resident's affiliation to a specific country has a high corruption potential. And the determination of the jurisdiction of the enterprise is also carried out according to the concept of "being managed by a resident". In the age of digital technology and the Internet, almost any place on planet Earth can be considered a place of control. Therefore, these concepts should be first and foremost specified in the legislation of Ukraine and applied in all concluded agreements on the avoidance of double taxation. In particular, it is necessary to determine whether the enterprise belongs to the jurisdiction of the state in whose territory it is located (it also applies to subsidiaries with the status of a legal entity). And income taxation is carried out according to the principle of source - income is taxed where the enterprise is actually located, the added value is produced, the salary is paid and the profit is received. The concept of "resident" of the country should be replaced by the more specific concept of citizen. When taxing royalties, a distinction should be made between industrial property and copyright. Industrial property is taxed at the place of its use for obtaining income and is paid from the profit that remains after the payment of taxes, contributions and fees provided for by the legislation of the country of the source of income. The fee for the use of the copyright is paid as a reward. The proposed definitions should be used in all double taxation treaties, although the author sees no need to retain these treaties. Therefore, it is possible to propose to denounce all current agreements of Ukraine on the avoidance of double taxation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The right of priority established in the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property allows a patent applicant to claim the filing date of a first application for any subsequent applications for the same invention filed within twelve months in another Paris Convention Contracting State. This right may be claimed by the person who has filed an application or their successor in title. If priority is not validly claimed, patent applications and patents relying on the right may be rejected, revoked or invalidated. National and regional rules governing who may claim priority, whether a priority right may be divided or shared, whether it may be transferred independently of the priority application and the rights to the invention, and the requirements for a valid transfer differ from country to country. The issue of whether priority has been validly claimed may therefore depend on which country's law applies, which depends on the characterisation of the issues. The aim of this article is to provide a European perspective on the law applicable to the right of priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drying conditions significantly impact the compositions and microstructures of polysaccharides, leading to various effects on their chemical characteristics and bioactivities. The objective of this study was to investigate how different industrial drying techniques, i.e., hot air drying, infrared drying, microwave vacuum drying, and freeze drying, affect the structural properties and biological activities of polysaccharides extracted from Rosa roxburghii Tratt fruit (RRTP). Results revealed that these drying methods significantly altered the extraction yield, molecular weights, monosaccharide ratios, contents of uronic acid and total sugars, gelling properties, particle sizes, thermal stability, and microstructures of RRTPs. However, the monosaccharide composition and functional groups of polysaccharides remained consistent across the different drying techniques. Biological activity assays demonstrated that RRTPs, particularly those processed through microwave vacuum drying (MVD-RRTP), exhibited excellent anti-linoleic acid oxidation, robust anti-glycosylation effects, and significant α-glucosidase inhibition in vitro. The outcomes of this research demonstrate that microwave vacuum drying serves as an effective pre-extraction drying method for RRTPs, enhancing their biological activities. This technique is particularly advantageous for preparing RRTPs intended for use in functional foods and pharmaceuticals, optimizing their health-promoting properties for industrial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recovery of iron contained in mill scale rather than iron ore can be considered a promising valorization pathway for this waste, especially if carried out through reduction using biogenic carbon sources. Nevertheless, the physicochemical properties of the latter may hinder the industrial transferability of such a pathway. In this work, the mechanical and metallurgical behavior of self-reduced briquettes composed of mill scale and four biogenic carbons (with increasing ratios of fixed carbon to volatile matter and ash) was studied. Each sample achieved mechanical performance above the benchmarks established for their application in metallurgical furnaces, although the presence of alkali compounds in the ash negatively affected the water resistance of the briquettes. In terms of metallurgical performance, although agglomeration successfully exploited the reduction by volatiles from 750 °C, full iron recovery and slag separation required an amount of fixed carbon higher than 6.93% and a heat treatment temperature of 1400 °C. Finally, the presence of Ca-, Al-, and Si- compounds in the ash was essential for the creation of a slag compatible with steelmaking processes and capable of retaining both phosphorus and sulfur, hence protecting the recovered iron. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A trademark's image is usually the first type of indirect contact between a consumer and a product or a service. Companies rely on graphical trademarks as a symbol of quality and instant recognition, seeking to protect them from copyright infringements. A popular defense mechanism is graphical searching, where an image is compared to a large database to find potential conflicts with similar trademarks. Despite not being a new subject, image retrieval state-of-the-art lacks reliable solutions in the Industrial Property (IP) sector, where datasets are practically unrestricted in content, with abstract images for which modeling human perception is a challenging task. Existing Content-based Image Retrieval (CBIR) systems still present several problems, particularly in terms of efficiency and reliability. In this paper, we propose a new CBIR system that overcomes these major limitations. It follows a modular methodology, composed of a set of individual components tasked with the retrieval, maintenance and gradual optimization of trademark image searching, working on large-scale, unlabeled datasets. Its generalization capacity is achieved using multiple feature descriptions, weighted separately, and combined to represent a single similarity score. Images are evaluated for general features, edge maps, and regions of interest, using a method based on Watershedding K-Means segments. We propose an image recovery process that relies on a new similarity measure between all feature descriptions. New trademark images are added every day to ensure up-to-date results. The proposed system showcases a timely retrieval speed, with 95% of searches having a 10 second presentation speed and a mean average precision of 93.7%, supporting its applicability to real-word IP protection scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laser‐assisted current injection treatment, also known as laser‐enhanced contact optimization (LECO), has great potential to reduce front contact resistance and metal‐induced recombination of n‐type tunnel oxide‐passivated contact (n‐TOPCon) solar cells, thereby improving the cell efficiency. Herein, the interfacial Ag–Si contact characteristics on boron‐doped p+ emitters and the electrical properties of industrial n‐TOPCon solar cells that feature a LECO treatment and a specific Ag paste are investigated and compared with those of n‐TOPCon solar cells with a standard Ag/Al paste process. LECO causes some current‐fired contacts that, when removed by sequential selective etching, leave bowl‐shaped imprints on the emitter, indicating that isotropic alloying behavior occurs between Ag and Si at these local positions during LECO. Unlike the standard Ag/Al metallization process, the LECO process does not significantly damage the passivation layer or emitter. More interestingly, the n‐TOPCon solar cells prepared with the specific Ag paste do not initially form an effective metal–semiconductor contact, with an average efficiency of only 0.14%, which increases to 25.65% after LECO treatment, even 0.2%abs higher than that of the reference counterparts with standard Ag/Al electrodes. Ultimately, a physical model of LECO‐induced Ag–Si contact formation on boron emitters is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Propiedad Inmaterial is the property of Universidad Externado de Colombia, Centro de Estudios de la Propriedad Intelectual and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Propiedad Inmaterial is the property of Universidad Externado de Colombia, Centro de Estudios de la Propriedad Intelectual and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

I examine how the investment and financing of innovation are affected by the contractual allocation of intellectual property rights using a Federal Circuit ruling that strengthened firms' property rights to employee patents. I find that treatment firms' total debt-to-assets ratio and R&D spending increase by 18% and 9%, respectively, as the residual control over patents increases firms' incentives to innovate. These effects are more pronounced when ex ante holdup exposure is high. Furthermore, I find a positive marginal effect of asset complementarity as it limits the decline in employee incentives. Consistently, I show that firms' ex post asset complementarity improves. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix , which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Dielectric effects and the coupled electrostatics between the nanoconfined and the internal/external aqueous media contribute to the observed deviations of chemistry within the nanoconfined environment when compared with unconfined systems. A systematic understanding has remained elusive, especially with respect to background salt concentration and boundary condition effects like the nanopore surface chemistry and the reference state used to calculate free energies. We utilize molecular dynamics simulations along with thermodynamic integration to determine the free energy difference associated with acid-base chemistry in 2 nm and 4 nm slit pores open to a bulk-like reservoir. pK a increases are predicted when confining acetic acid, formic acid, and bicarbonate in the slits at infinite dilution conditions. We find that confinement weakens the acids, and the modulation of outer pore surface dipole magnitudes can tune the pK a shift values, suggesting that purely "intrinsic" electrostatic effect on confinement may not exist. At sufficiently high salt concentrations, the dielectric/electrostatic effects on pK a values diminish due to charge screening effects. These discoveries enable future modifications of nanopore chemistries to achieve desirable properties for industrial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is dedicated to current issues of legal protection of unregistered industrial designs. It has been established that an unregistered industrial design is a type of industrial design that has its own legal regime, containing features inherent only to an unregistered industrial design. It has been proven that an unregistered industrial design as an industrial design must meet the conditions for granting legal protection, which are established by law. It was established that bringing an unregistered industrial design to the public should take place precisely on the territory of Ukraine. It is substantiated that the disclosure that took place on the Internet cannot always be interpreted as disclosure on the territory of Ukraine. It is established that the owner of an unregistered industrial design has an exclusive right to its use. It is justified that the owner of a registered industrial design has broader rights to prohibit unauthorized use of the industrial design than the owner of an unregistered industrial design, since the owner of a registered industrial design can prohibit both the copying of his industrial design and the use of a similar product if «its appearance causes informed user has the same overall impression as the protected industrial design.» It is well-founded that the owner of an unregistered industrial design has narrowed opportunities to protect the rights to the industrial design, as he can only prohibit direct copying of the product and even then with restrictions. It has been proven that when protecting rights to an unregistered industrial design, it is necessary to prove the existence of rights to such an unregistered industrial design. It has been proven that an unregistered industrial design is an important object of industrial property, it is a type of industrial design, intellectual property rights to which arise from the moment it is brought to public notice on the territory of Ukraine and which are valid for three years (shortened term of legal protection), it does not require registration and entry into the State Register of Industrial Designs of Ukraine, the rights to it are not certified by the Certificate, its owner has narrowed rights to its use and protection of rights to it, compared to the powers of the owner of a registered industrial design. It is substantiated that the legal regulation regarding the unregistered industrial design needs to be clarified in terms of the exercise of exclusive property rights of intellectual property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is devoted to the study of the essence of the concept of the degree of freedom of the designer of an industrial design in the context of such a criterion of the protectionability of an industrial design as an individual character. The Law of Ukraine «On Protection of Rights to Industrial Designs» has been analyzed for the purpose of defining the concept of «designer’s degree of freedom». It has been established that the domestic law does not contain a broad explanation of the mentioned concept. It has been found that some additional information regarding the understanding of the concept of «designer’s degree of freedom» is contained in such a secondary legal act as the recently approved Rules for drawing up and submitting an application for an industrial design and conducting an examination of an application for an industrial design and international registration of an industrial design. It has been analysed the Association Agreement between Ukraine, on the one hand, and the European Union, the European Atomic Energy Community and their member states, on the other hand, as well as Directive 98/71/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of October 13, 1998 on legal protection industrial designs and Council Regulation (EC) No. 6/2002 of December 12, 2001 on Community industrial designs, the provisions of which were implemented in 2020 into the Law of Ukraine «On the Protection of Industrial Design Rights». It has been established that the above-mentioned international legal acts do not provide a deep interpretation of the concept of the designer’s degree of freedom. Separate foreign and international court cases have been considered, in which the designer’s degree of freedom in specific practical cases has been analyzed in detail. It has been clarified and illustrated with real examples the specific importance of the degree of freedom of the designer for the individual character of an industrial design. On the basis of domestic legislation, international legal acts, foreign and international judicial practice, own conclusions have been drawn regarding the understanding of the concept of the degree of freedom of the author of an industrial design. It has been established under which circumstances the degree of freedom of the designer cannot be limited. It has been concluded that the requirements for the differences of the designed product from others, which make an impression on the informed user, depend on the lower or higher degree of freedom of the designer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relevance of the subject is conditioned by the fact that economic and scientific advance leads to an increase in the level of crime against property rights, specifically its most relevant form – intellectual property. An important task of law enforcement agencies is to overcome threats to intellectual property using the world’s best practices in this area. The purpose of this study was to perform a comparative analysis of the world experience of combating crimes against property. Using such methods as the method of legal hermeneutics, formal legal method, comparative legal method and problem analysis, the study outlined the problems associated with the prosecution of intellectual property crimes. The study classified countries according to the type of intellectual property protection regulation and outlines the key issues in the investigation of intellectual property cases. It was found that countries with a long history of criminal law counteraction to crimes against intellectual property, whose experience can be considered advanced, are divided into two groups. The first group includes those countries where legal protection of intellectual property is provided exclusively through the national criminal code. The second group of countries includes those where the relevant provisions are consolidated in special laws, which often prescribe sanctions for intellectual property infringement. As society develops and the use of intellectual property intensifies, the need to create a unified system of legal protection of these rights becomes apparent. The distribution of legal provisions among different legislative acts complicates their application in practice. Based on the conducted study, recommendations were offered for improving the mechanism of combating crime in the field of intellectual property. The study analysed the results of a survey conducted by the World Intellectual Property Organisation in 2023, which aimed to collect information on the prosecution of intellectual property crimes in the member states. The practical significance of this study lies in the fact that the proposed recommendations can be used to improve national mechanisms for combating intellectual property crime

Lipases, crucial catalysts in biochemical synthesis, find extensive applications across industries such as food, medicine, and cosmetics. The efficiency of lipase-catalyzed reactions is significantly influenced by the choice of solvents. Polar organic solvents often result in a decrease, or even loss, of lipase activity. Conversely, nonpolar organic solvents induce excessive rigidity in lipases, thereby affecting their activity. While the advent of new solvents like ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents has somewhat improved the activity and stability of lipases, it fails to address the fundamental issue of lipases' poor solvent tolerance. Hence, the rational design of lipases for enhanced solvent tolerance can significantly boost their industrial performance. This review provides a comprehensive summary of the structural characteristics and properties of lipases in various solvent systems and emphasizes various strategies of protein engineering for non-aqueous media to improve lipases' solvent tolerance. This study provides a theoretical foundation for further enhancing the solvent tolerance and industrial properties of lipases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacteria with streamlined genomes, that harbor full functional genes for essential metabolic networks, are able to synthesize the desired products more effectively and thus have advantages as production platforms in industrial applications. To obtain streamlined chassis genomes, a large amount of effort has been made to reduce existing bacterial genomes. This work falls into two categories: rational and random reduction. The identification of essential gene sets and the emergence of various genome-deletion techniques have greatly promoted genome reduction in many bacteria over the past few decades. Some of the constructed genomes possessed desirable properties for industrial applications, such as: increased genome stability, transformation capacity, cell growth, and biomaterial productivity. The decreased growth and perturbations in physiological phenotype of some genome-reduced strains may limit their applications as optimized cell factories. This review presents an assessment of the advancements made to date in bacterial genome reduction to construct optimal chassis for synthetic biology, including: the identification of essential gene sets, the genome-deletion techniques, the properties and industrial applications of artificially streamlined genomes, the obstacles encountered in constructing reduced genomes, and the future perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unique features of the sulfenamides' S(II)-N bond lead to interesting stereochemical properties and significant industrial functions. Here we present a chemoselective Chan–Lam coupling of sulfenamides to prepare N-arylated sulfenamides. A tridentate pybox ligand governs the chemoselectivity favoring C–N bond formation, and overrides the competitive C-S bond formation by preventing the S,N-bis-chelation of sulfenamides to copper center. The Cu(II)-derived resting state of catalyst is captured by UV-Vis spectra and EPR technique, and the key intermediate is confirmed by the EPR isotope response using 15N-labeled sulfenamide. A computational mechanistic study reveals that N-arylation is both kinetically and thermodynamically favorable, with deprotonation of the sulfenamide nitrogen atom occurring prior to reductive elimination. The origin of ligand-controlled chemoselectivity is explored, with the interaction between the pybox ligand and the sulfenamide substrate controlling the energy of the S-arylation and the corresponding product distribution, in agreement with the EPR studies and kinetic results. Sulfenamides are a class of divalent sulfur-derived scaffolds featuring an S-N bond with many industrial applications, however, they are also challenging substrates for synthetic transformations. Here, the authors present a highly chemoselective ligand-controlled Chan–Lam coupling of sulfenamides as a straightforward route to N-arylated sulfenamides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) affects 2.8 million Americans annually. AMR is identified through antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST), but current and proposed regulatory policies from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) jeopardize the future availability of AST for many microorganisms. Devices that perform AST must be cleared by the FDA using their susceptibility test interpretive criteria, also known as breakpoints. The FDA list of breakpoints is relatively short. Today, laboratories supplement FDA breakpoints using breakpoints published by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute, using legacy devices and laboratory-developed tests (LDTs). FDA proposes to regulate LDTs, and with no FDA breakpoints for many drug–bug combinations, the risk is loss of AST for key clinical indications and stifling innovation in technology development. Effective solutions require collaboration between manufacturers, infectious diseases clinicians, pharmacists, laboratories, and the FDA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conduits are plastic tubes extensively used to safeguard electrical cables, traditionally made from PVC. Recent safety guidelines seek alternatives due to PVC's emission of thick smoke and toxic gases upon fire incidents. Polypropylene (PP) is emerging as a viable alternative but requires modification with suitable halogen-free additives to attain flame retardancy (FR) while maintaining high mechanical strength and weathering resistance, especially for outdoor applications. The objective of this study was to develop two FR systems for PP: one comprising a cyclic phosphonate ester and a monomeric N-alkoxy hindered amine adjuvant achieving V0, and another with hypophosphite and bromine moieties, along with a NOR-HAS adjuvant achieving V2. FR performance along with mechanical properties, physicochemical characterization, and dielectric behavior were evaluated prior to and after 2000 h of UV weathering or heat ageing. The developed FR systems set the basis for the production of industrial-scale masterbatches, from which further optimization to minimize FR content was performed via melt mixing with PP towards industrialization of a low-cost FR formulation. Accordingly, two types of corrugated conduits (ø20 mm) were manufactured. Their performance in terms of flame propagation, impact resistance, smoke density, and accelerated UV weathering stability classified them as Halogen Free Low Smoke (HFLS) conduits; meanwhile, they meet EU conduit standards without significantly impacting conduit properties or industrial processing efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with the question of whether an author has, under the UK Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988, a right to object to the complete destruction of their copyright work. Under s. 80 of the 1988 Act, the author has the right, referred to as the 'integrity right', to object to the derogatory treatment of their copyright work, but the question as to whether this is broad enough to cover the utter and complete destruction of the work has not yet been settled satisfactorily. This discussion addresses this shortfall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mannosylerythritol lipids (MELs), one of the most promising biosurfactants (BS), are glycolipids produced by yeasts or fungi, which have great environmental performance and high compatibility with the human body. MELs, besides working as typical surfactants, can form diverse structures when at or above the critical aggregation concentration (CAC), reduce the surface tension of water and other solutions, and be stable over a wide range of conditions. Among others, MELs present antimicrobial, antitumor, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities and skin and hair repair capacity, which opens possibilities for their use in applications from cosmetics and pharmaceutics to bioremediation and agriculture. However, their market share is still low when compared to other glycolipids, due to their less developed production process and higher production cost. This review gathers information on the potential applications of MELs mentioned in the literature since 1993. Furthermore, it also explores the current strategies being developed to enhance the market presence of MELs, in parallel with the ones developed for rhamnolipids and sophorolipids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of ultrasound at two different frequencies, namely 30 kHz and 42 kHz, on various aspects of industrial Iranian honey, including its physical, biochemical, antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. Samples were subjected to ultrasound treatment at 30 kHz or 42 kHz for a duration of 1, 5 or 10 minutes at temperatures of 20 °C or 45 °C, respectively. The following parameters were then evaluated on days 1, 30, 90, and 180: HMF content, pH, acidity, proline concentration, total number of aerobic mesophilic bacteria, diastase activity, moisture content, sucrose concentration, fructose concentration, glucose concentration, fructose- glucose ratio, ABTS (antioxidant activity) content, number of osmophiles, phenol concentration, reducing sugar concentration and total sugar concentration. It is noteworthy that both treatment groups exposed to ultrasound showed changes in these parameters. Specifically, the group treated with ultrasound at a frequency of 42 kHz showed a decrease in moisture content, pH, acidity, fructosetoglucose ratio, total sugar concentration, clostridium count, total microbial count, mold count, osmophiles countand HMF content; as well as an increase in diastase activity, proline and phenol concentration. These changes were more pronounced on days 90 and 180. Ultrasound treatment at a frequency of 42 kHz for a duration of 10 minutes at a temperature of 45 °C has the potential to improve the quality and shelf life of industrial honey. Consequently, this technique can be used in the food industry to obtain a better product that is more suitable for export. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study all of the nearly 4.5 million patents, filed on or after May 29, 2000, that were issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office since 2005. We find that most patents (63.6%) get at least some “patent term adjustment” (PTA)—an additional patent term to compensate for delays in patent prosecution. The patents that get PTA get more than a year on average (411 days, a median of 290 days), and more than 25% of all patents have more than a year of extra term. Some get as much as ten years of extra term. Despite its imperfections, the PTA system works pretty well at achieving the goal of compensating patentees for patent prosecution delay. But we would be better off with a world in which delay wasn’t nearly as common as it is, because adding a year at the end of a patent’s life is not the same as having an extra year at the beginning. And the PTA system ends up disproportionately being used by patent trolls in litigation, a result that seems socially unproductive. We offer some suggestions for how to reduce delay and describe the more efficient PTA that could potentially result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In situ dynamic crystallization properties of industrial soda--lime--silica glasses at realistic processing temperatures have not yet been explored. Hence,we collected in situ high-temperature X-ray diffraction patterns for 10 different industrially manufactured soda--lime--silica glasses as a function of temperature between 900 and 1200°C to investigate the phase relations in their devitrified melts. The high-temperature X-ray diffraction study was complemented by measuring the liquidus temperature of those glasses by the temperature gradient technique. A multiple variable regression analysis was applied to the experimental and modeled data to produce a predictive model for the rate of solidification and liquidus temperature based on glass composition. We have demonstrated that forms of quartz (SiO2) and Na2 CaSiO4, which are not traditionally identified by room temperature X-ray diffraction studies of commercial soda--lime--silica glasses, are the dominant crystalline phases at 800 and 900°C. Upon further heating, different forms of cristobalite become the primary phase field prior to the formation of X-ray amorphous melts, irrespective of the glass composition. Sporadic unidentified as well as high-temperature stable SiO2 polymorphs that are not recoverable to room temperature were also observed. In contrast to the literature, wollastonite (CaSiO3) and devitrite (Na2Ca3Si6O16), which are the main predictor variables in previously developed liquidus temperature models, were not observed prior to the formation of X-ray amorphous glass melts, and hence their influence on liquidus temperature may be questionable. It was also found that the difference between glass processing and liquidus temperatures can be excessively high, and such large temperature differences can potentially be exploited and reduced to enable decreases inmelting or processing temperatures of industrial soda--lime--silica glass melts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the modern world, a significant role in the development of the innovative economy of the state is played by the training of highly qualified specialists who can produce new innovations and knowledge and build an efficient growing economy, manifested in the growth of the country's GDP. The training of such specialists is the responsibility of higher education institutions, which in today's, mainly Ukrainian, realities are struggling for applicants, which manifests itself in the formation of stakeholders' perceptions of the university, i.e., the formation of its own image. The image of a higher education institution becomes an intangible resource on par with industrial and intellectual property. Today, higher education institutions are moving away from just teaching students and are becoming research centers in Ukraine and the world, working in the format of teaching, research, and commercialization. The reputation and perception of a higher education institution (HEI) by its stakeholders directly depend on its ability to operate effectively and serve as a link between highly qualified specialists and businesses. This creates competition between universities in shaping their own image. Along with traditional determinants, including rankings, it is now necessary to consider new factors that reflect the digital level of representation and communication of higher education institutions in the internet space. For this study, we selected higher education institutions (HEIs) with the highest positions in the Times Higher Education rankings in Ukraine and the countries of the Visegrad Group. These countries were chosen because of their geographical proximity to Ukraine, shared history and borders, and because they were among the last to become members of the European Union, which Ukraine aspires to join. This approach allows for an objective assessment of the image of Ukrainian higher education institutions in the context of Ukraine's European integration aspirations. The methodological toolkit of the study was the entropy method of analysing the performance of the selected HEIs according to the Times Higher Education ranking and key indicators of the dynamics and visibility of their websites. The results obtained for the specific weights of the image subindices indicate a 43% influence of presence on the internet. This study empirically confirms and theoretically proves that digital presence and visibility on the internet are significant factors in forming the image of higher education institutions. This indicates the need to strengthen the digital communications and representation of Ukrainian higher education institutions to improve their image. The research results can be helpful for educational institutions, politicians, and communication specialists who seek to enhance the image of their higher education institutions. The obtained results can be used to develop strategies for improving internet presence and communication practices, which will contribute to a general increase in the rating and prestige of higher education institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In statistical modeling, lifetime datasets play an important and significant role. Weighted distributions can be useful to attain the essential purposes relating to the developed distributions' flexibility and to improve further compliances in data forming; they provide the extension of distributions. The current study suggests a new best-fit probability distribution model based on Pareto distribution. The new model is called Survival Weighted Pareto (SWP) distribution model. Furthermore, the statistical expressions for different properties, which include moments, inverse moments, quantile function, and order statistics, are reported. Moreover, to check the performance and the behavior of different estimators using different sample sizes, a simulation study, which is based on SWP distribution, is performed. According to the simulation results, it is established that the proposed model is a most useful fitted probability model. In addition, an application of the SWP model for three datasets is provided to check the goodness of fit measures of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Day-to-day life advanced composite materials usage is increasing continuously and replacing the existing monolithic materials. These composite materials are designed and fabricated for human needs with specific applications and also meet the standard requirements. In present study, the agro and industrial wastes derived ceramic reinforcements based Aluminium metal matrix composites, i.e. AA7075/welding slag and AA7075/Rice husk ash are fabricated through liquid metal stir casting route with varying the reinforcement contents from 2 to 12 (wt.%) in the matrix. Mechanical and microstructural characterization of the AA 7075 metal matrix composite were measured and compared to the base material. The results show an improved mechanical strength and high hardness in composites. Impact energy has also significantly improved at higher concentrations of reinforcement particles. Impact energy of the composites increases to 3 J for 9% and 12%, the maximum tensile strength obtained is 173 MPa for 12% Weld Slag MMC. The highest hardness achieved is 98 BHN for 12% Weld Slag MMC. Furthermore, the microstructural results reflect significant grain refinement with stir casting process with good interface characteristics in the matrix and uniform dispersion of agro reinforcement's particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

* Context.--Two major categories of laboratories performing nonwaived testing under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA) are the Certificate of Accreditation (CoA) and Certificate of Compliance (CoC) laboratories. Accreditation organizations collect more detailed laboratory personnel information than the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Quality Improvement and Evaluation System (QIES). Objective.--To estimate total numbers of testing personnel and testing volumes in CoA and CoC laboratories, by laboratory type and state. Design.--We developed a statistical inference method by using the respective correlations between testing personnel counts and test volume by laboratory type. Results.--QIES reported 33 033 active CoA and CoC laboratories in July 2021. We estimated testing personnel to be 328 000 (95% CI, 309 000-348 000), which is supported by the count of 318 780 reported by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. There were twice as many testing personnel in hospital laboratories as in independent laboratories (158 778 versus 74 904, P < .001). Independent laboratories had the highest test volume per person, which was twice as high as physician office laboratories (62 228 versus 30 102, P < .001). Hospital and independent laboratories comprised 34% of all CoA and CoC laboratories but performed the largest portion of testing (81%). Physician office laboratories, accounting for 44% of all CoA and CoC laboratories, performed a comparatively low proportion of total tests (9%). Conclusions.--Numbers of testing personnel vary considerably by laboratory type and across states. These data can provide valuable insight when assessing laboratory workforce training needs and planning for public health emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the classification system from the European Patent Office (EPO), we identify almost 600,000 patent applications for fourth industrial revolution technologies from 1986 to 2015. We contribute to the economic literature by seeking to answer two research questions: (1) What is the effect of legal breath (and other indicators) on the quality of innovations in the fourth industrial revolution, (2) How does the IP culture (utilitarism vs. natural law) explain these differences? We find that the legal breadth of a patent positively affects the quality of innovations in the fourth industrial revolution. Interestingly, this impact of legal breadth may be driven by historical path dependencies and ways in which the two philosophical schools (utilitarism vs. natural law) have shaped the patent system in Anglo-Saxon countries versus continental Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the incentives and welfare properties of industrial data sharing taking into account the data (economy) readiness of companies. We differentiate between two regulatory settings. First, there is no compulsion for companies to provide data. Companies, which also use the data for other corporate purposes, decide whether to share their data voluntarily. Second, there is a regulatory requirement on the minimum amount of data to be shared by the data provider. We assume that data sharing affects the data provider's value of the data. The magnitude and sign of this effect have an impact on the optimal investment level of data generation and overall welfare in the different cases under study. Our results suggest that the implementation of a data-sharing policy has ambiguous welfare properties. It has positive welfare properties if (a) the data receiving firm does not pay too much for the data, (b) the data receiving firm benefits enough from the data provider's data generating effort, and (c) the intensified competition due to data sharing is not too harmful to the data provider. In contrast, it will always have negative welfare properties if the data provider's minimum amount of data to be shared under the policy is prohibitively high such that no data is created in the first place. Our results also suggest that a positive effect of data sharing on the data-generating company's value of the data and its data economy readiness positively affect the incentives to share data. Finally, we find that data sharing under a data-sharing policy leads to a lower data quality if the data economy readiness of the data-generating company is too low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When an innovator's right is infringed, the length of time it takes to resort to the judiciary for a final ruling in the dispute leads to increased damage to the rights of the innovator and the possibility of losing evidence to prove the right. This requires the innovator to resort to temporary measures to protect the right subject to infringement. Preventive protection of the rights of the innovator is embodied in measures that innovators are required to take, such as precautionary seizure. It supports the protection of the rights of the innovator, provided that the appropriate security is deposited to compensate the person harmed by those measures if it becomes clear that the person requesting the reservation does not have the right to request temporary protection. This paper evaluates all aspects of the temporary procedural protection of innovator rights in Federal Law No. (11) of 2021 regarding the organization and protection of industrial property rights and comparative laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the effect of hot deformation on commercially available Ti-6246 alloy below its β-transus transition temperature at 900 °C, knowing that the α → β transition temperature of Ti-6246 alloy is about 935 °C. The study systematically applies a thermomechanical processing cycle, including hot rolling at 900 °C and solution and ageing treatments at various temperatures, to investigate microstructural and mechanical alterations. The solution treatments are performed at temperatures of 800 °C, 900 °C and 1000 °C, i.e., below and above the β-transus transition temperature, for 9 min, followed by oil quenching. The ageing treatment is performed at 600 °C for 6 h, followed by air quenching. Employing various techniques, such as X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, optical microscopy, tensile strength and microhardness testing, the research identifies crucial changes in the alloy's constituent phases and morphology during thermomechanical processing. In solution treatment conditions, it was found that at temperatures of 800 °C and 900 °C, the α′-Ti martensite phase was generated in the primary α-Ti phase according to Burger's relation, but the recrystallization process was preferred at a temperature of 900 °C, while at a temperature of 1000 °C, the α″-Ti martensite phase was generated in the primary β-Ti phase according to Burger's relation. The ageing treatment conditions cause the α′-Ti/α″-Ti martensite phases to revert to their α-Ti/β-Ti primary phases. The mechanical properties, in terms of strength and ductility, underwent an important beneficial evolution when applying solution treatment, followed by ageing treatment, which provided an optimal mixture of strength and ductility. This paper provides engineers with the opportunity to understand the mechanical performance of Ti-6246 alloy under applied stresses and to improve its applications by designing highly efficient components, particularly military engine components, ultimately contributing to advances in technology and materials science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the need for a federal amendment to trademark confusion tests to better address issues related to electronic word marks in esports. Topics include the historical evolution of video games, the legal framework of American trademark law, and the inadequacies of current district-by-district approaches in handling electronic marks, with a proposed federal solution for clearer trademark protection in the esports industry.

A novel hybrid image-adaptive watermarking technique utilizing Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) and Fast Walsh Hadamard Transform (FWHT) is presented in this paper for the safety of proprietary rights. The host image is partitioned into blocks of dimension 8 × 8 for entropy calculation. DWT is used to determine the low frequency coefficients from the high entropy blocks, which are further transformed by FWHT. These transformed frequency coefficients are modeled by Gaussian distribution. The watermark is added into the standard image using a modifiable Hybrid Strength Factor (HSF), which is computed using mean, standard deviation, entropy and kurtosis of the transformed coefficients of high entropy blocks. Four HSF's are used for embedding the watermarks with the help of limited side information consisting of locations of high entropy blocks and parameters of Gaussian distribution. Two novel contributions, firstly the amalgamation of DWT and FWHT to intensify the imperceptibility and robustness, and secondly the use of a statistical approach for watermark extraction have been presented in the paper. The efficacy of the technique is proved by better results using the performance metrics of PSNR (Peak Signal to Noise Ratio), SSIM (Structural Similarity Index Measure), NCC (Normalized Cross Correlation), GMSD (Gradient Mean Structural Deviation) and UIQI (Universal Image Quality Index) There was no compromise in the security and imperceptibility of the watermark when the scheme is put through various attacks. Also, a comparison with latest approaches too proves high invisibility and robustness of the suggested technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study describes the design of an experimental methodology developed to measure the working properties of the accuracy of the path traversed by a collaborative robot. The methodology proposed here uses a collaborative robot and a laser measuring system Gepard from Raytec. The main parts of the measuring chain and the ISO 9283 standard are described. The proposed experimental methodology should examine the working properties of industrial robots, such as position and path. The focus of this study lies in the path accuracy of robots. Currently, interest in this topic is on the rise, and the measuring systems capable of recording this parameter are too costly. This study focuses on the experimental measuring of the path properties, describing them in more detail. The measuring and results were processed in the software tool developed for Gepard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before the signing of the Decree of the Russian Federation on May 27, 2022, the use of intellectual property as a weapon of war was largely unprecedented. This article reviews the implications of the Russian-Ukrainian War on trademarks belonging to countries deemed to be "unfriendly nations" and their impact on the future of intellectual property as a weapon of war. Following the issuance of economic sanctions by the United States of America and many other countries against Russia, many global organizations took their products off the Russian market. However, in doing so, these companies did not anticipate the emergence of Russian copycat brands without any permission, licenses, or royalty payments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context.-- Health care providers were surveyed to determine their ability to correctly decipher laboratory test names and their preferences for laboratory test names and result displays. Objective.-- To confirm principles for laboratory test nomenclature and display and to compare and contrast the abilities and preferences of different provider groups for laboratory test names. Design.-- Health care providers across different specialties and perspectives completed a survey of 38 questions, which included participant demographics, real-life examples of poorly named laboratory orders that they were asked to decipher, an assessment of vitamin D test name knowledge, their preferences for ideal names for tests, and their preferred display for test results. Participants were grouped and compared by profession, level of training, and the presence or absence of specialization in informatics and/or laboratory medicine. Results.-- Participants struggled with poorly named tests, especially with less commonly ordered tests. Participants' knowledge of vitamin D analyte names was poor and consistent with prior published studies. The most commonly selected ideal names correlated positively with the percentage of the authors' previously developed naming rules (R = 0.54, P < .001). There was strong consensus across groups for the best result display. Conclusions.-- Poorly named laboratory tests are a significant source of provider confusion, and tests that are named according to the authors' naming rules as outlined in this article have the potential to improve test ordering and correct interpretation of results. Consensus among provider groups indicates that a single yet clear naming strategy for laboratory tests is achievable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The German Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (Deutsche Vereinigung für gewerblichen Rechtsschutz und Urheberrecht e.V., or GRUR) is a non-profit scientific association of professional groups and organisations working in the field of industrial property and copyright. Its members include, in particular, academics, judges, lawyers, patent attorneys and representatives of associations and private companies. The GRUR Taskforce IGC has been observing the negotiations of the World Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO) Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore since 2022. This opinion summarises the results of the discussions of the GRUR Taskforce IGC on the WIPO negotiations on a convention on the protection of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge and on the draft text of a convention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]