Under the presidency of Ichiro Nakatomi, LESI has set the basis for a project titled “SDG IP-Index,” which was already described in the Part 1 article of this series: “LESI’s SDG-IP Index: Using Quality of Life Aspects—and Intellectual Property—as an Indicator of a Company’s Future Success” (Nakatomi et al., 2023). This second part exposes how the SDG-IP Index Committee1 approached the following question: how can we effectively capture the sustainability impact embedded in innovations? In order to address that issue, we opted for a qualitative analysis in a supplement to the quantitative analysis exposed in Part 1. Also, during the last LES Winter Planning Conference in Geneva, and in the same vein, someone raised their hand and asked, “By the way, what is ESG?” This article sheds light on those two questions and justifies the methodological choices made to build LESI’s SDG-IP Index.

Imagine finding out that 90 percent of the software in your products is protected by third-party intellectual property (IP). You are relieved when you learn that such IP is licensed to your company. However, as soon as you start reading the agreements, you realize some of them contain terms you are not familiar with or have never even heard of before such as “source code,” “binary,” “object code,” and “system libraries.” Moreover, you cannot find any basic contractual provisions such as “governing law” or “jurisdiction” in the agreements. The reason, you are being told, is that your company had no chance to negotiate the terms, but was rather presented with “take it or leave it” standard template licenses, which differ from each other.

Global average temperature increase is still likely to exceed 1.5ºC despite State commitments, and we can see its disastrous effects through extreme weather phenomena around the world. Systems should be overhauled to combat climate change, and massive investment in green technology is crucial for this.

Since the last overview on recent developments regarding the application of the exhaustion theory by the European courts that was published in les Nouvelles (September 2017), new issues have been brought to the attention of the courts that demonstrate once again that the exhaustion theory is not yet exhausted.

To respond to the looming threat of climate change, the global community must transition to a low carbon energy economy. A robust pipeline of innovative technologies is needed to drive this transition. An often-overlooked law in the United States that promotes the commercialization of inventions developed by academic research organizations represents an expansive pipeline of innovative clean energy technologies needed to accelerate our transition to renewable energy. The Bayh-Dole Act provides academic research organizations the ability to own and license innovations they develop during government grants, therein generating massive economic benefits to the U.S. economy. In addition to generating novel technologies for commercialization, the government patent policies codified in the Bayh-Dole Act provide strong patent rights needed for startup company formation and investment while promoting public-private partnerships critical to advancing the diffusion of clean energy technologies to address rising greenhouse gas emissions. Several recent challenges to the Bayh-Dole Act have the potential to significantly compromise the effectiveness of the law in promoting the development and transfer of clean energy technologies from research organizations to the private sector for effective commercial development. Recent government investments in cleantech deployment will rely on clear government patent policies as enumerated in the Bayh-Dole Act to drive the U.S. transition to a low carbon economy.

In modern societies where Artificial Intelligence (AI) is growing exponentially, legal implications arise. This is the case with copyright law. AI needs billions of data such as videos, photos, books, inter alia, to understand how humans speak, think, and express themselves in order to be useful to society. Copyright holders have criticised with fury the way their works are reproduced to feed AI without their consent. So, should AI be able to learn?

Lara Prescott Succeeds In Her Defence Against Copyright Infringement Claim “This is Doctor Zhivago. May it make its way around the world,” Boris Pasternak is to have said to the envoy of an Italian literary agent. It is indeed still doing so, making its way, particularly around the English High Court and into the Law Reports. Anna Pasternak, the great-niece of Doctor Zhivago author Boris Pasternak, brought a claim for copyright infringement in the High Court of England and Wales. Pasternak’s claim alleged that Lara Prescott’s historical novel, The Secrets We Kept, infringed the copyright in the “selection and arrangement” of the events presented in Pasternak’s biographical work Lara: The Untold Love Story That Inspired Doctor Zhivago.

India has been a member of GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) since July 8, 1948. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) was established in 1995 as an international organisation to cater to global trade by providing basic agreements between member countries for an efficient global market. On January 1, 1995, India became a member of the WTO in order to continue with the reforms of its economy post 1991.

Currently, a major issue arises regarding the use and the exploitation of genetic resources issued from countries owning such resources by exploiting parties, due to the lack of balance regarding the access and benefit sharing (ABS) from such acts.

Patent law differs in each country, but there are some important equitable doctrines that apply across borders. One such doctrine is prosecution history estoppel.

As part of the Thought Leadership Program—a professional learning series organized by LES International— one track was devoted to Standard Essential Patents (SEPs). The objectives of this track were to engage LES members to be able to navigate SEP licensing negotiations, and to provide an understanding of the transactional efficiencies that are available, notably through patent pooling. These efficiencies offer benefits to those adopting a standardized technology and generate revenue streams for continuing innovation by the patent holders.