Academy of Applied Science: Sparks:2001

Academy of Applied Science

SPARKS:2001

PATENT, TRADEMARK, AND COPYRIGHT: Websites
by Bryan Harris, Director, PTC Research Foundation

Four Patent, Trademark, and Copyright Research Foundation web sites are now in operation. The first of these is www.ptcresearch.org, with information about the Foundation itself, ways of supporting it, members of the Board of Trustees, general and specific objectives and levels, and methods of contribution. This web site also contains information about the relationship between the Foundation and the Academy of Applied Science, of which it is the research arm.

In many ways the most important of the four web sites is the online journal www.ptcforum.org. One of the principal features of the journal is the digest of articles in the latest issues of journals on intellectual property law. These digests keep the reader up-to-date with the latest developments in intellectual property and are an appetizer for the full articles to be found in the reviews, monthly and quarterly periodicals, and other publications in the field.

The other main feature is the series of research papers, contributed by advanced postgraduate students. A digest of articles is added to the web site each week, while the research papers are added monthly. Other features of the web site are the editorial comments and the list of useful Internet links in the intellectual property field.

Some exciting prospects are in store for the third of the Foundation's web sites, which is devoted exclusively to online conferences and seminars. It is www.ptcconferences.org. The first planned conference is on the subject of employees' inventions. There will be three or four main papers, corresponding to lectures at a live conference, posted on the web site and introducing the discussion. Contributions to the discussion, questions to the speakers, and interventions by the moderator will constitute the rest of the conference. It will not be confined to one or two days, but will be spread out over a period of a month or more, allowing plenty of time for considered contributions from all over the world. Future conferences are also at the planning stage.

This leaves the fourth web site, www.ptcdebates.org, which will be for the purpose of informal debate. A splendid start is being made on the basis of papers written by students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the subject of copyright and piracy. These are not research papers. They are discussion papers, mostly with a controversial approach. There will be opportunities for contributors to the debate to make known their views by email. No one need feel committed to the views expressed in the course of the debate: the main purpose will be to stimulate a variety of different views.

There are already indications that the activities of the PTC Research Foundation are eliciting responses and encouraging interest in many parts of the world. This is indeed one of the Foundation's ideals: to spread knowledge, research, interest, and communication throughout the world in the field of intellectual property, and to help in furthering the aim of the Academy of Applied Science to promote innovation and creativity.