Qualcomm, Northwestern, YouTube: Intellectual Property

Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) has given the Searle Center at Northwestern University School of Law $2 million to fund research that will investigate the role of patents in spurring innovation.

Matthew Spitzer, the director of the Searle Center and a law professor at Northwestern, said in a phone interview on 26 August that “there is an anti-patent drift in the academic literature. People are skeptical about the value of patents, but I’m not one of them.”

The center will create databases to “collate information regarding standards, licensing, litigation and markets for patents,” according to an Aug. 22 statement from the university announcing the gift.

The database, once created, will be available to all, Spitzer said. He said he hopes to “test empirically the interaction of patent law and technological advances. We’re not yet very good at understanding this.”

Fair use of Music in YouTube Violates Copyright

Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig is asking a federal court in Boston to clarify that a lecture posted to YouTube doesn’t violate copyright law.

Lessig, a well-known expert on copyright law, has posted more than 50 lectures to Google Inc. (GOOG)’s YouTube, according to the lawsuit filed Aug. 22. One of those lectures - on innovation and copyright, given in Seoul in June 2010- incorporated amateur music video clips of people singing “Lisztomania,” a song originally performed by the band Phoenix.

Lessig posted a recording of his lecture. This June, he received notice from YouTube that Liberation Music Pty Ltd, which according to the complaint is authorized to represent Phoenix, complained that the lecture contained copyrighted material.

In a phone interview yesterday, Lessig said he “countered to YouTube that it was fair use under American law.” Two hours later, he said, “I received notice that Liberation Music planned to file a lawsuit within 72 hours if I didn’t take the content down.”

Lessig took the lecture down, but didn’t stand down. In filing what’s known as an action for declaratory relief, he sued seeking a judgment clarifying that no violation occurred.

Trade Secrets

Three Men Charged With Stealing Flow Traders Trading Software

Two men who were employed by Flow Traders were charged in New York with stealing the firm’s electronic trading software by e-mailing it to themselves from their work accounts.

Glen Cressman, a trader at the New York office of the Amsterdam-based company, sent e-mails to himself in December 2012 with trading strategies and valuation algorithms, according to the complaint in state Supreme Court in Manhattan. He is charged with two counts each of unlawful duplication of computer-related material and unauthorized use of secret scientific material, according to copies of a complaint brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.