Monday, July 07, 2014

(BN) Seed Theft, Microsoft, World Cup: Intellectual Property

(Bloomberg ) A seventh Chinese national was indicted in a trade-secrets case involving the theft of genetically modified corn seed.

Mo Yun is accused of conspiring to steal trade secrets from 2007 to 2013, U.S. prosecutors in Des Moines, Iowa, said in a July 2 statement. She is married to Shao Genhuou, chairman of Beijing Dabeinong Technology Group Co. (002385), and is the sister of Mo Hailong, an employee of the Chinese company who was indicted with five others in December.

They are accused of stealing the seeds belonging to Monsanto Co. (MON), DuPont Co.'s Pioneer Hi-Bred unit, and AG Reliant Genetics LLC's LG Seeds unit from production fields in Iowa and Illinois in order to ship them to Kings Nower Seed, a unit of the Chinese company.

Mo Hailong was arrested after he was found digging in an Iowa cornfield, prosecutors said.

The case is U.S. v. Yun, 14-mj-00160, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Iowa (Des Moines).

Patents

Collegium Gets Patent on Abuse-Prevention Drug Formulation

Collegium Pharmaceutical Inc., a Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical company, received a patent on a drug formulation aimed at preventing abuse of some drugs, such as opioids.

Opioid abuse is a growing problem and efforts to design abuse-resistant or abuse-deterrent formulations have been largely unsuccessful, the company said in the patent.

Patent 8,758,813, issued June 24, covers a formulation that prevents the immediate release of a substantial portion of the drug, even if the tablet is crushed or chopped, with the resulting material placed in water, snorted or swallowed.

This is accomplished by bonding the drug to fatty acids that constitute as much as 15 times the molecular weight of the active ingredient or by dispersing the drug within microparticles composed of a material that is either slowly soluble or insoluble in water.

Collegium applied for the patent in April 2013 with help from San Francisco's Cooley LLP.

Microsoft, Canon Agree to Cross-License Patent Portfolios

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Canon Inc. (7751) agreed to cross-license patent portfolios, according to a joint company statement.

Products and services covered by the patents include digital imaging and mobile consumer products, the companies said. They didn't disclose financial terms of the agreement or specify which patents are included.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said that since its licensing program began in 2003, the software company has entered into more than 1,200 licensing agreements.

Trademark

BP Fails in Attempt to Register Green Color as Aussie Trademark

BP Plc (BP/), the British oil company, cannot register a particular color of green as a trademark in Australia, the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper reported.

IP Australia said the oil company failed to provide convincing evidence that the average gas purchaser would inevitably link the company to a color of green known as Pantone 348C, according to the Guardian.

The company had attempted to register the color as an Australian trademark since 1991, the newspaper reported.

Elan-Polo, Adidas Settle Dispute Over Shoe-Design Trademark

Elan-Polo Inc., a Missouri-based shoe and clothing designer, settled a trademark lawsuit against Germany's Adidas AG (ADS) for undisclosed terms, according to a July 1 court filing.

The designer sued in federal court in St. Louis in November seeking a declaration that a shoe design it created for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) didn't infringe Adidas's three-stripe trademark for shoes.

Elan-Polo said although it had contractually indemnified Wal-Mart for infringement claims against the shoe design, Adidas demanded that the retailer stop selling the shoe and pay damages. Adidas also filed infringement claims against Elan-Polo.

The case is Elan-Polo v. Adidas America Inc., 13-cv-02322, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Missouri (St. Louis).

Copyright

World Cup Copyright Enforcement Most Successful Through Facebook

Orange SA (ORA)'s Viaccess-Orca unit, a content-protection company, has sent out 2,000 takedown notices to platforms hosting or linking to World Cup games streamed without authorization, the TorrentFreak anti-copyright news website reported.

David Leporini, executive vice president of marketing for Viaccess-Orca, told TorrentFreak that his company managed to get about 35 percent of the streaming links disabled before a particular World Cup game ends.

The company said it was most successful taking down unauthorized links to streaming game content that had been posted on Facebook Inc., with a 51 percent rate of link removal, according to TorrentFreak.

FIFA, professional soccer's governing body, previously contacted some website operators requesting that infringing content be removed as soon as possible, according to TorrentFreak.

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