The Rise and Rise of IP Trolls
Innovation fuels progress, but it also creates opportunities for exploitation. Enter the troll: Shadowy figures that lie in wait, using IP law as a tool of extortion rather than protection. Unlike the real creators, these actors contribute nothing to create the assets they claim to protect. Instead, their business model revolves around extracting settlements or […]
Data Privacy vs. Database Rights: Balancing The Scales
Global economic trends and harsher business environments have pointed companies to the vast potential that lay in data, datasets, and databases. As businesses merge and exit, these form a strategic part of their asset base from where they can create more value. With this comes the need to protect the underlying IP in these databases, […]
“It’s Just a Replica—Or Is It?”: Unpacking Trademark Infringement & Unfair Competition in Fragrance Dupes
Photo by Castorly Stock from Pexels We all love a bargain. You walk into your local supermarket to see a perfume priced at $30. You notice the label says it is ‘inspired by’ a luxury perfume — a fragrance that typically retails for $830. You’re likely to pick the former. The ‘deal-maker’ in this transaction, […]
Up In The Air: Navigating Perfume Copyrights in a Sea of ‘Smell Alikes’
To say perfumes are a chemical blend of airborne molecules that form a scent and nothing more would be simplistic. Perfumes are an accessory we daily “wear”; and are every inch a part of how others identify, associate, and perceive us. Indeed, they are a mix of existing molecular blends engineered to produce a particular […]
Sharing Is Caring, but Who’s Keeping? Marking IP Territory in Open Source
The essence of open source is well captured in the sayings: “A joy shared is a joy made double” and “A problem shared is half solved”. Open-source development is a ‘double joy’, as developers leverage shared collaboration to contribute to exciting products, improving and amplifying product value. Similarly, issues such as bugs, vulnerabilities, or inefficiencies […]
Navigating Love and Intellectual Property: The Modern Couple’s Guide to Marital Agreements
In today’s world, where assets are not just physical but increasingly intellectual, the dynamics of marital agreements are evolving. Prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, traditionally meant to resolve financial and property disputes in divorce, are now addressing the complexities of intellectual property (IP). This article discusses the intersection of love and intellectual property and examines the […]