Browsing by Subject "intellectual property"
Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
- Results Per Page
- Sort Options
Item Culturally Respected but Not Legally Protected: Legal Case Disparities and Intellectual Property Rights In Contemporary Ghanaian Textile Design(2023-08) Phea, GregoryLocated in West Africa, Ghana is a country with a rich history, mesmerizing culture, and a flourishing national economy. It is known for being one of the first African countries to gain independence from British colonial rule, and has since become a model for political stability and economic development in the region. In addition to a diverse mix of traditional customs, Ghana's culture boasts a historic and globally recognized heirloom. The Kente is a colorful premium woven African cloth native to Ghana. The cloth symbolizes Ghanaian national pride and unity, cultural identity, and Asantehene royal heritage. Consumers and cultural artifact collectors worldwide have been willing to pay a high-end price for its authentic form for decades. However, because of its esteemed reputation and lucrative market potential, the Kente cloth and Adinkra symbols have been subject to severe misappropriation by third-party producers since around the 1990s. These two cultural products are vital in supporting a small but nationally significant portion of Ghana’s GDP and tourism trade exports. Thus, while Ghanaian clothmakers have held somewhat resilient considering the rapidly increasing presence of counterfeits within and beyond the country’s borders, the textile industry is nearing the verge of collapse. Equally important, Kente cloth is in critical danger of soon being viewed as a ‘generic African fabric’ rather than the revered embodiment of the cultural history of Ghana and its prosperous communities. With this understanding in mind, this honors thesis will seek to prevent Kente's ontological and economic death. This work will be reviewing leading Ghanaian intellectual property law scholarship, deconstructing interviews with cultural product experts in the UAE and top legal officials in Ghana, and analyzing firsthand legal insights from in-house copyright counsels and leading public-policy think-tanks to attempt to answer the question: how can Ghanaian clothmakers establish greater cultural product design control, intellectual property (IPRs), and economic justice for themselves amidst the often fraught norms of the global textiles industry? I argue that the answer lies in the 2003 Ghana Geographical Indications Act (GIA) [Act 659].Item Edison to AI: Intellectual Property in AI-Driven Drug R&D(2023-05) Turner, ZakIn 2019, the inventor Stephen Thaler filed a patent on two inventions in which he listed his AI program, Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience (DABUS), as the inventor. The US Patent and Trademark Office rejected Thaler’s applications and, in 2022, a US Federal Court of Appeals upheld this decision on the grounds that an inventor must be a human being. Although this decision is perhaps consistent with the law, a refusal to patent AI-inventions could have negative consequences for innovation. This thesis examines the question of IP policy toward AI-inventions through the prism of pharmaceutical drugs. The question is: how should AI-designed drugs be treated by US IP law? There are two smaller questions involved here. First, who, if anyone, should be recognized as the inventors for inventions created by AI. Second, is there a justification for IP rights in AI inventions? In attempting to answer these questions, this paper focuses on two AI- driven pharmaceutical companies, Insilico and Recursion. I then compare the data and models from the two firms against the arguments made regarding patent policy for AI-inventions in three scholarly works. My conclusion is that extending FDA market exclusivity privileges to AI-produced drugs is preferable to extending patent protections.Item Internet Business Method Patents(Bureau of Business Research, The University of Texas at Austin, 2002-10) Allison, John R.; Tiller, Emerson H."Internet Business Method Patents" by John R. Allison and Emerson H. Tiller: Companies operating over the Internet have aggressively pursued business method patents in recent years. While there has been much criticism about the PTO’s generosity in granting such patents, recent reforms may have curtailed much of the perceived abuse, or at least mollified many of the PTO’s critics regarding business method patents. Evidence from our recent study suggests that critics of the PTO’s handling of business method patents, at least those that are Internet-related, may have overstated the case. Also in this issue: "A Study in Contrasts: Professional Visas Under NAFTA" by Bradly J. Condon.Item It's All in Your Head: The Promise of Intellectual Property(Bureau of Business Research, The University of Texas at Austin, 1998-06) Bratic, WalterIn today’s knowledge-based global economy, intellectual assets often supersede physical assets as the basis of corporate value. Increasingly, companies build their competitive advantage upon a foundation of intellectual assets, and shareholder value has become a direct reflection of the ability to leverage and extract value from the intellectual asset portfolio. Intellectual property assets evolve from ideas, innovations, compilations, and presentations of information, designs, brands, and product/service imaging in which corporations invest intellectual capital or license from others, to develop and build their businesses and to deliver shareholder value.Item "Location, Location, Location" in Cyberspace: E-Commerce and the Domain Name System(Bureau of Business Research, The University of Texas at Austin, 2001-06) Tiller, Emerson H.Computers route actual data packets according to Internet protocol addresses, but these numbers are difficult for people to remember. The domain name system was developed so that easily remembered names, rather than their numeric equivalents, could be used as address locators. With the growth in electronic commerce, the issues surrounding the domain name system (DNS) have multiplied and become global in nature. Many Texas companies have found themselves in the middle of domain name controversies as they establish an online presence and develop, or move, their companies and product brands on the Internet.Item Opportunity Creation in Innovation Networks: Interactive Revealing Practices(2014) Jarvenpaa, Sirkka L.; Valikangas, Liisa; Jarvenpaa, Sirkka L.Innovating in networks with partners that have diverse knowledge is challenging. The challenges stem from the fact that the commonly used knowledge protection mechanisms often are neither available nor suitable in early stage exploratory collaborations. This article focuses on how company participants in heterogeneous industry networks share private knowledge while protecting firm-specific appropriation. We go beyond the prevailing strategic choice perspectives to discuss interactive revealing practices that sustain joint opportunity creation in the fragile phase of early network formation.Item Texas Business Review, June 1998(Bureau of Business Research, The University of Texas at Austin, 1998-06) Association of University Technology Managers; Bratic, Walter; McLane, Patrick