productivity

In years gone by, companies with extensive patent portfolios were loathe to sell these assets, strongly preferring to license them.  These Patent Licensing Agreements (PLA) came in several flavors, most had some form of royalty payments for the licensor and the fundamental was that ownership of the patents remained with the original owner, i.e., the company granted the patent(s). While not totally different today, much has changed in the disposition of thousands of US patents. …

Photographer Files $1 Billion Suit Against Getty for Licensing Her Public Domain Images [UPDATED] – Hyperallergic: Wow. Getty was selling public domain photos to everyone, including the photog herself. Getty was notifying people with the images that they must pay money to keep using them (on their own web sites, etc.). So the copyright owner, Carol Highsmith, gets a $120 bill for using her own picture on her own web site. Highsmith had donated the…

Supreme Court Makes It Easier for Patent Holders to Win More in Damages – WSJ: The unanimous ruling by the Supreme Court brings back the serious damages — up to 3 times — for willful patent infringement. Recent lower court rulings were making it virtually impossible to go after big, treble-the-losses, damages. That is the BIG STICK in patent infringement cases. Some companies strategy is to just keep infringing and simply let the lawyers do…

State of the Profession 2016 | GreenBiz: They dynamics of Sustainability professionals, like Chief Sustainability Officers (CSOs), has had amazing change over the last 10 years. This report is impressive in so many ways. One is that CSR and sustainability are merging. Another is that both seem to be merged (embedded) into the divisions of organizations. ‘via Blog this’