New IP Protection Trends
The II International Strategic Forum on Intellectual Property IPQuorum was held in mid-April in Kaliningrad. Its motto was 'IP code: all aspects of intellectual property for man and economy'. An ISSEK team took part, comprising Ekaterina Streltsova, Ilya Kuzminov, and Gleb Kuzmin. Our colleagues share some of their observations, and related trends.
Ekaterina Streltsova, Senior Researcher, Unit for Analysis of R&D Performance:
Most of the presentations I’ve attended at the IPQuorum reflected two key IP trends. First, it’s emergence and replication of new, unusual inventions. This trend is mainly related to development of ICT, and the growing role of data in today’s world. E.g. many technological organisations are actively developing and using various virtual models, algorithms, and data arrays which do not match database definition. Creators of such objects face serious problems with protecting their rights to them, since the existing legislation simply has no relevant provisions. As a result, the scope for commercialisation is limited. Another example is various materials created, and results obtained in the course of social studies — the customary for sociologists questionnaires, interview guides, mass surveys results, etc. All such objects are hardly suitable for presentation via conventional channels (e.g. it may not be possible to include them in a paper in full), while their value to research community can be quite high.
The second trend I’d like to highlight was quite expected, keeping in mind the abovementioned. It’s emergence of new IP protection formats. Digital platforms are increasingly used for these purposes, along with blockchain technologies. In Russia the IPChain Association is of course the flagship in this area, which was one of the IPQuorum hosts.
I’d also like to note that all innovations in the conventional IP protection system, and all additions to it, already implemented or just being pondered yet, do not make it less relevant. Almost all speakers at the IPQuorum noted the need to 'fine-tune' it to match current realities, but nobody suggested it should be completely abandoned.
Ilya Kuzminov, Head of the ISSEK Information and Analytical Systems Unit
Explosive development of artificial intelligence capable of text mining opens previously unheard-of opportunities to support IP-related business decision-making. Text data reflects opinions and consumer trends, is readily available at news sites, social networks etc., so it’s very useful for quick and inexpensive assessment of intellectual property.
Development of the internet, distributed computing, blockchain technologies and various gadgets have led to emergence of a new production and consumption culture, which has transformed the content market and created every condition required to deal with piracy. Now producers of creative content can sell it at any level of 'atomicity', and by eliminating intermediaries receive the lion’s share of the proceeds. Creative content consumers can use it by automatically making micropayments without even noticing it, simply by setting their personal budgets’ macro-parameters (e.g. a monthly limit).
Watch a video (in Russian) of Ilya Kuzminov’s presentation 'On development of intelligent systems and big data for intellectual property market', presentation slides, and a review of the session on the forum’s website.
Gleb Kuzmin, Leading Expert, Centre for Processing Social and Economic Information, made a presentation 'Strong IP protection today: new ways to protect art and technological achievements'. The expert presented a service which performs two functions particularly important to researchers: depositing in IPChain, and IP search and turnover. The service will improve communications within the research community, increase visibility of research results, and help universities’ and research institutes’ management assess demand for them.
See also (in Russian) a review of the session 'IPQuorum 2019: pre-digital age legislation and protection of present-day art and technological achievements'
