Apple Signs Multi-year License Agreement for Imagination’s Intellectual Property

UK chip designer Imagination Technologies Group has recently revealed that it's struck a new license agreement with Apple Inc., an American Multinational Technology Company, reviewing a business relationship that had all but ended in recent years.

The company that was sold for 500 million pounds to Chinese buyout firm - Canyon Bridge Capital Partners - in September 2017, said that it formed a new multi-year license agreement in which Apple, the iPhone maker has access to a wide range of Imagination’s Intellectual Property (IP) in exchange for license fees.

In the beginning, Apple tended to use either graphics chips or GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) in its iPhones and iPads that were designed by using IPs of Imagination Technologies. However, later it moved to its own internal chip designs starting with iPhone X in 2017 and the iPad Pro in 2018. Besides these models, the US Company used its own graphics processors in Apple watches as well. Then in 2017, the company told Imagination Technologies that it would stop using their IP in new products within a small period of two years.

When it comes to Imagination Technologies, then a public company, proclaimed the loss of Apple as its biggest customer, its stock plummeted. The British company in 2018 said that there could be 'material uncertainty' regarding its future if Apple doesn't pay royalties on the largest generation of iPhones and iPads.

As per several reports observed till now, it is unclear whether or not Apple has paid the fees to Imagination Technologies. However, the British company argued that it would be very challenging for Apple to design GPUs in a way that enables the American company not to pay royalties to Imagination Technologies.

If we talk about Apple, the iPhone maker often uses a combination of supplier deals and acquisitions for building up its portfolio of patents and designs. For instance, last year also, it acquired Intel Corporation’s modem unit to design cellular chips for its future devices.

Although none of the two companies specified which IP the new agreement covers, it may possibly be related to either Artificial Intelligence (AI) or graphics, two main IPs of Imagination Technologies.

Though the IP covered in the latest agreement between the two companies has not been disclosed so far, yet it is expected that the Imagination's IPs, which are associated with AI and graphics, could be a key to the future Apple devices. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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5 Benefits Of Using Wood In Industrial Design

When it comes to the buildings that need to pass the test of time, wood appears to possess the necessary strength and resilience. As per many reports, wood provides the commercial and Industrial Designs with not just the outstanding durability but also a more acceptable aesthetic look over steel and concrete. Adding mass wood to the workspaces is a type of modern revival of the traditional timber post-and-beam-based design of the past. Wood, along with state-of-the-art technologies, provides the commercial and industrial designs that are expected in today’s era.

Some of the sustainable features that clarify why designers and people nowadays prefer wood in industrial design are as follows:

1.     Cost-effectiveness

According to the construction data gathered by surveying the mid-rise buildings in the United States, the cost of constructing these buildings with concrete is around 23% more than the expense of constructing them with wood. Moreover, the steel-framed spaces are around 41% more expensive than the wood-framed ones. Besides being cost-effective, the wood-framed buildings found meeting the essential requirements for an individual’s performance and safety in a better way as compared to steel and concrete ones.

2.     Adaptability and Versatility

 One remarkable feature that commercial and industrial buildings should possess is flexibility. In other words, these structures should be flexible as tenants look for changes over time. For this reason, wood that offers multiple options to get the long spans essential for an open and unobstructed floor plan is preferred by most of the designers when it comes to roof-framing. Roofs made up of wood are economical, strong, and easy to install. In the case of buildings with large-sized structural grids, the panelized wood roof sounds cost-effective due to the lower material costs and quick installation time.

3.     Ease of Use

In today’s times, most of the building materials are first built off-site and then assembled in the construction field. Wood perfectly fits this trend of offsite prefabrication of elements, and thus, helps in reducing the onsite construction time. This concept ultimately makes the wood buildings comparatively fast and efficient to construct. Using wood is advantageous in terms of location also. Wood buildings are simple and quick to be constructed in areas with varying climate. These are beneficial even in urban job sites, where finding space for steel fabrication or concrete delivery and mixing can be challenging. As experienced wood contractors are widely available, wood and related components can be obtained quickly and easily.

4.     Sustainability

For projects that emphasized sustainability and the use of renewable building components, wood is often the foremost choice. Almost all from new industrial designers to professionals, who deal with providing services like Registration of Industrial Design, Industrial Design Protection, etc., prefer wood over other materials. To evaluate the advantages of using wood in the construction of big stores, let’s go through the results of a study in which a 54,800 square foot steel-framed building was compared with one constructed of wood. Though the two buildings have the same geometry, floor area, and structural layout, yet the environmental impacts of the wood building are remarkably lower than the steel-framed one. The impacts were analyzed through demolition, disposal, recovery, recycling, and reuse of the materials used in the construction. When compared to the steel building, the wood building saves 642 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide and 9,116 gigajoules of non-renewable energy. Besides these, the wood building possesses many other benefits related to raw material supply, manufacturing phase, etc.

5.     Aesthetics and Biophilic Values

A ton of studies showed that wood possesses the ability to nourish a space with warmth, texture, and visually appealing appearance. That’s why not just common people and designers but even national to International Industrial Design Registration services providers have positive associations with it. Exposed wood trusses are known for adding immediate interest to commercial and industrial buildings, and thus, setting them apart from the wide range of other similar spaces. Designers nowadays are also increasingly drawn to the biophilic benefits provided by wood. Biophilia is the inherent human tendency to seek connections with nature. Biophilic design, which is an extension of biophilia, includes natural materials, nature views, and other experiences of the natural world into the modern built environment.

These are some of the amazing benefits of using wood, especially in commercial and industrial buildings. Now, it would not be wrong to conclude that wood provides designs that bring nature into a space, which is thought to be calming for people within and nearby. Moreover, commercial buildings constructed of wood are believed to provide the working ambiance that can increase productivity. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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Kanye West Seeks To Fight Against Ultralight Beam Copyright Lawsuit

Rapper Kanye West and Universal Music are seeking to battle against the copyright lawsuit filed earlier this year over the use of a clip at the start of his 2016 track ‘Ultralight Beam’.

According to an Instagram video, this song that was recorded for West’s album titled ‘The Life of Pablo’ includes the voice of a young girl in prayer. The video was uploaded by the girl’s mother in early 2016.

Sounds a bit interesting, West claimed that he received verbal approval to use the clip in his song from the child’s mother – Alice T Johnson. Nevertheless, in the Copyright Infringement lawsuit filed back in February, the girl’s adoptive parents – Andrew and Shirley Green, who adopted the girl in 2012 – argued that the agreement in connection with the use of the clip having girl’s voice had to be with them. It is because, at the time when the clip was recorded, Johnson was no longer legally the girl’s mother, and thus, didn’t possesses the authority to allow the girl’s voice to be used in the song.

The Greens further contended that even if Johnson provided approval, the lawsuit should continue as conversations amid her and West were only verbal. Meanwhile, Kanye neither finalized any written agreement with either Johnson or the Greens, nor he ever paid a fee for using the clip in his song.

To prevent the rapper from statutory or other relevant damages, his legal representatives have attempted to limit the copyright infringement lawsuit in several ways. Their response filed with the court deals with numerous elements of the case. For instance, firstly, West’s lawyers said that the Greens had not registered the original recording of the clip with the U.S. Copyright Office at the time when Ultralight Beam was recorded. Hence, they are not entitled to either attorney fees or statutory damages. Indeed, if the representatives succeed in arguing this, then there are possibilities that the damages owed to the Greens could reduce greatly.

Elsewhere West legal team seeks to remove an additional plaintiff, Andreia Green, from the lawsuit entirely. She is a relative of the child, and her adult voice, in addition to the girl, is also heard in the recording sampled by West. However, team West insisted that because Andreia Green is not listed as a co-owner of the recording in the Copyright Registration with the US Copyright Office, she has no standing in this case.

This is how West and his legal team responded so far in regard to the Ultralight Beam lawsuit. Nevertheless, for the final settlement, it now remains to be seen how the court and the Greens respond to West’s motion. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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Facebook Gets Patent To Track Users’ Television Viewing

Facebook (FB) has recently secured a patent for tracking users’ television (TV) viewing by using the device’s microphone, GPS, or camera to capture images, audio, video, or location that reveals what the users are watching. With this patent grant, FB now is allowed to track what the users watch on TV and streamline services and associate the obtained information with the rest of their users’ data.

The Menlo Park-based social media giant applied for the patent “Correlating media consumption data with user profiles” in 2015 but didn’t get the approval until this week. The invention mentioned in the Patent Application was invented by Ramesh Sarukkai, a former engineering director who left FB in the year 2017.

The patent application described ways in which Facebook could determine or capture media consumption data through a media device or by obtaining data from a content provider. For instance, acoustic fingerprinting. The user’s device with a Facebook app running on it could capture images, audio, video, or location data using a camera, microphone, or GPS to pick up data from a TV show the user is watching. The collected data then would be sent to the company to analyze the data, and thus, identify what the user is viewing.

The Patent Registration Application also described how FB could capture and analyze even the images from an incoming video stream. The company could also analyze audio or signals from an HDMI cable to discover which cable provider is broadcasting a given TV show or movie based on the unique time delay of the signal.

According to the patent, that information would enable Facebook to determine if a user is watching something on Comcast. The company then can associate the information with Comcast’s schedule for a specific time of the day.

In recent years, Facebook has come across many privacy advocates for its act of tracking the different types of users’ data. There are complaints that FB tracks users’ data even when they have their tracking services turned off.

In August 2019, Facebook released a tool to let users see which websites and/ or apps have traced them.

As per some reports, Mr.Sarukkai couldn’t be reached for comments in regards to the recent patent. Moreover, Facebook spokesman Anthony Harrison announced that no one at the company was available for comment over FB’s holiday closure. Hence, it is unclear whether the social media giant is currently utilizing the technology. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) And Its Implications On Patents

Artificial Intelligence (AI), in the past few years, has seen a profound increase in its media coverage and attention. It is due to the continuous improvements in its capabilities that has nourished its adaptation into various areas. Today, AI has found its applications in many fields, like small to large businesses, automotive industry, healthcare centers, etc.

AI is a technology that focuses on the creation of intelligent machines, which react and work like humans. One of the common activities for which AI-based computers are designed is speech recognition. Some basic technologies that include AI are as follows:

Boolean Search

These refer to algorithms that implement a sort of search, which enables the users to produce relevant results by combining keywords with operators like AND, OR, and NOT.

Natural Language Processing (NLP)

NLP emphasizes AI algorithms that enable computers to comprehend and process human languages.

Natural Language Search (NLS)

NLS comprises AI algorithms that carry out searches by identifying content matching a topic described by the user in plain language.

Machine Learning (ML)

Machine learning refers to a data analysis method that automates the building of the analytical model. With the concept of using algorithms that learn from data, ML allows computers/machines to find out the hidden insights even without being programmed – where to look.

AI Implications on Patents and Intellectual Property

With AI-based machines appearing to have surpassed human performance in many fields such as medicine, automotive, and others, it is expected that the future for AI would impact the ways humans beings work and perform. These predictions led to several debates such as ‘can AI surpass human capabilities,’ ‘is it the best tool used to aid humanity in work,’ etc. Apart from these questions, the implications for the emergence and rise of AI on Intellectual Property (IP) and especially Patents are also subject to debate.

With the advent and advanced functionality of AI in a wide range of fields, this technology may probably be on its way towards creating remarkable tools, approaches, and applications. For instance, the Neural Machine Translation System of Google, at the end of the year 2016, was found to have developed its internal language that represents the notions it uses to translate different languages. Not only this, there are a lot of other examples that showcase the consistent advancements in AI technology. Well, this is only the beginning, because as evidence suggests – AI technology may one day perform with its independent mind and intelligence. All these facts also suggest that AI, due to being the creation of the mind, has major implications for Patents and IP.

IP refers to unique and useful creations of the mind. It is a category of property that comprises intangible creations of human intellect. Additionally, when it comes to patent, this is a type of IP that provides its owner with the legal right to prohibit others from stealing and misusing his/her invention for limited years. But, with this definition that defines IP as a creation of the mind, the term ‘mind’ is left for debate – whether a robot or a human mind. Still, AI can create inventions that should be protected by filing Patent Registration Application. In other words, though the word ‘mind’ is in question, yet AI can create potentially patentable inventions. Hence, keeping this thing in mind, the human beings who so ever create AI technology-based inventions should logically own the patent rights over the same. The owner of AI-related inventions must obtain robust Patent Registration Protection as soon as he/she could. It is recommended because AI is the latest and continuously advancing technology, and therefore, the inventions based on this are highly vulnerable to be stolen, copied, or imported by unauthorized users.  For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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Why Cost Barriers To Copyright Access And Use Need To Go?

Copyright, nowadays, appears as the foundation for much of what goes into the knowledge economy. It is not just a way to protect unique creative works from being infringed but also a source of income for a wide range of creative workers. Some writers, composers, etc., get copyright income directly. Nonetheless, others earn by joining a creative network, including publishers, record labels, distribution companies, and others. Being a part of such an ecosystem, they make money by licensing rights under Copyright Law.

But, the fact is that if legal rights can’t be enforced, they don’t help the owner much. In documents, it appears as if the owners of a copyrighted work possess a solid set of rights. However, the reality is a bit different. The copyright, indeed, cost too much to enforce. It is common, and thus, the governments and Intellectual Property Law (IP Law) administrators should recognize that the law needs updating.

They should consider that although copyright assets don’t lead to as many problems as other products do, reinforcing this area, i.e., the knowledge economy is somewhere tied to economic success.

Because of mounting up things like legal advice costs, court fees, IP Attorneys‘ hourly charges, copyright litigation can be very expensive. And then the more threatening concern is the risks of having to pay to other parties if you lose. Take an example of a writer who finds that a large amount of his work has been violated. A report made in 2019 stated that the writers, on average, earn 31 percent of their annual income through writing. For most, if not all writers, enforcing their copyrights in cases where their work has been infringed upon will be prohibitive. The same also applies to small businesses and many others.

Sometimes, the only option writers and small businesses have is to put up with Copyright Infringement, in addition to the possible loss of income.

Another case to consider is that people often want to use material sheltered under Copyright Registration Protection but are not familiar with the way to go about clearing rights. The Copyright Act undoubtedly has many defenses and exceptions regarding this matter, but they may be arduous to comprehend. Many times, it is unclear whether the proposed use of copyright-protected material is lawful or not. Indeed, this is a common issue for cultural institutions such as galleries and museums.

Copyright owners often grant permission or give license but, if they don’t, then there can be a legal deadlock. One option that may be helpful in such cases is to knock the Court’s doors. But again, costs act as a barrier and prevent the public from getting the benefits of creative work or activity. IP Lawyers in Maldives and almost every nation call this an “access to justice” issue.

This concern, which is not just a copyright issue, impacts the IP industry in several countries of the world.

Although including some glitches, copyrights are still leading to the emergence of innovative solutions worldwide. Hence, to make the world enjoy continuous and better new creations, it is vital to turn all this good work into a meaningful and useful asset. For this, the government and authorities taking care of Copyright Law in Maldives and outside need to ensure that the rights can be utilized by the creative workers, cultural institutions, small businesses, and all for whom these matters. They should also make sure that the costs do not create barriers in the process of accessing copyright justice.

Almost everyone agrees that copyright law needs to be turned fit for purpose in the modern digital economy. Therefore, many IP experts have already started working on this subject matter and finding ways to improve the Copyright Acts of different nations. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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Baidu Files Patent Application For ML-Based Audio Synthesis Ownership

By catching the attention and likes of Tencent and Huawei, Baidu has topped as the leading artificial intelligence (AI) Patent Application leader. Apart from this, Baidu (with 1,237 patent applications) is also leading in the highly competitive area of intelligent driving, as many reports stated.

Victor Liang, Vice President & General Counsel Executive Assistant to CEO at Baidu, said that they retained the top position for AI-related patent applications in China because of their:

• Constant investment and research in developing AI
• Strategic focus on patents

After years of research and development, Baidu has now developed a comprehensive AI ecosystem, and therefore, is at the leading spot of the AI industry worldwide.

Patents focused and filed by Baidu encompass a wide range of domains, including:

• Deep learning (1,429 patents)
• Speech recognition (933 patents)
• NLP – Natural Language Processing (938 patents)

While Baidu acquired top position in China, its R&D center located in the US had filed patent applications in the US patent office also.

In this patent US20190355347A1, which is for a computer-implemented method to train a neural network model for spectrogram inversion with the title – Spectrogram to waveform synthesis using convolutional networks, Baidu lists the following points:

• Inputting an input spectrogram, including many frequency channels into a CNN (convolution neural network).
• Outputting a synthesized waveform from CNN for the input spectrogram, which has a corresponding ground truth waveform.
• Using the synthesized waveform, the corresponding ground truth waveform, and the loss function, consisting of at least one or more loss components opted from convergence loss spectral.
• Using the loss to update the CNN.
• A clear mention of using the CNNs (convolutional neural networks).

As CNN is the lifeblood of several contemporary ML-based applications, any claim, even on a small part, can create damages in the long run.

The current year has witnessed a sudden and rapid growth of interest in owning algorithms and deep learning. So, even if the plans are to protect the researches from falling prey to pseudo players, this trial appears as a slippery slope where owners of big businesses can leverage the smaller companies that are using advanced technology.

In Baidu’s case, too, there lie risks of losing ownership to various audio processing applications. Contributed to the increasing fear among the ML community, Baidu is a Chinese company. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) vision of this company was fortified with projects such as Apollo, which is an open-source independent driving platform together with many other intelligent driving innovations.

China has allegedly been found involved in Intellectual Property (IP) thefts, especially from US companies. Hence, when Baidu’s foreign division files a patent application, one cannot assist but think about the consequences of handing the ownership to China that continued to be the world’s leading source of fake goods, exhibiting its failure to take crucial action to restrain the widespread manufacture, sale, and export of bogus goods. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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