Andrea Wallace presenting at ISHTIP. Image by Kirsty McDougall

Two members of CREATe – Dr Elena Cooper (Leverhulme Fellow) and Andrea Wallace (CREATe PhD candidate and Lecturer in Law, University of Exeter) – recently presented at an interdisciplinary roundtable, to celebrate the publication of an exciting new volume later this year: A History of Intellectual Property in 50 Objects edited by Dan Hunter and Claudy Op Den Camp (CUP, forthcoming 2018).

The roundtable, held at University of Roma Tre, Rome, brought together 18 presenters from a diverse range of disciplinary backgrounds, each examining an object as a means of elucidating broader themes from the history of intellectual property. Amongst the presenters were a number of contributors to the volume and these included Jane Ginsburg (Tempesta Map of Rome), Peter Jaszi (Uncle Tom’s Cabin), Peter Decherney (Mickey Mouse’s Steamboat Willie), Marianne Dahlén (the Ferragamo wedge), Michael Madison (the soccer ball) and Maurizio Borghi (the Player Piano roll).

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Philip Schlesinger, Professor in Cultural Policy and CREATe Deputy Director, has been made the first-ever foreign Honorary Member (Socio de Honor) of the Spanish Association for Communication Research (Asociación Española de Investigación de la Comunicación).

The award was conferred on 26 June in the historic auditorium of the University of Salamanca, concluding the opening ceremony of the Spanish Association for Communication Research’s annual congress. The University of Salamanca is celebrating the eighth centenary of its foundation.

Professor Schlesinger’s citation noted his long-standing and wide-ranging work in the field of communication, culture, and related public policy questions, and also his international distinction.

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A new paper in the CREATe Working Paper Series is now available: ‘I should like you to see them some time’: an empirical study of copyright clearance costs in the digitisation of Edwin Morgan’s scrapbooks by Victoria Stobo, Kerry Patterson, Kristofer Erickson and Ronan Deazley.

The inability of cultural institutions to make available digital reproductions of collected material highlights a shortcoming with the existing copyright framework in a number of national jurisdictions. Overlapping efforts to remedy the situation were recently undertaken in the form of EU Directive 2012/28/EU, the ‘Orphan Works’ directive, and a new licensing scheme introduced by the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO). This study empirically evaluates both the EU and UK policy approaches, drawing on data collected during a live rights clearance simulation.

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Dr Ryan Whalen

A Network Theory of Patentability: Towards an Empirical Measure of Patent Nonobviousness

Date: Wednesday 18 July, 3pm
Place: CREATe Hub, Room 404, 10 Professor Square
Booking: Email kerry.patterson@glasgow.ac.uk to reserve a place.

Book now for a talk by visiting researcher Dr Ryan Whalen from the University of Hong Kong.

Abstract

The nonobviousness inquiry is one of the most notoriously complex and contingent of all legal questions. The challenges faced by those tasked with determining an invention’s nonobviousness include understanding unfamiliar technologies and seeing the world from the perspective of an objective inventor, all while avoiding issues of hindsight bias.

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The recent Dataset Licensing workshop “Choose the Right Rights, Use the Data Right,” took place on Friday 29 June 2018 at the Hilton Grosvenor Hotel, Glasgow. The Dataset Licensing Project  is the result of collaboration between CREATe, the Research Information Management team at the University of Glasgow, and JISC. The project aims to identify specific issues around the licensing of datasets, including the current move towards increasingly Open Access resources, and to facilitate deeper understanding and greater confidence in dealing with these complex issues.

This whole day workshop was the third in a series of events which brought together professionals from a variety of backgrounds, with the aim of building on their existing understanding of the issues in addition to providing a forum for discussion and sharing of experience.

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The European Union’s proposed reform of copyright law has reached a critical stage as the one of its key legislative measures approaches its European Parliament vote of approval.

The first major update to copyright legislation in almost 20 years, the intention of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market is to modernise and make it fit for the digital age. But some very problematic provisions have entered the draft text and been recently approved by the European parliamentary legal affairs committee. Which means that the current proposal, with all its problems, has a good chance of becoming law very soon, depending on the final plenary European Parliament vote on July 5.

This is something you should care about

There are many aspects to the EU’s current copyright reform package, of which some are unquestionably good ideas. But the copyright directive, specifically, has generated a lot of concern – and public campaigns for action – due to three provisions that will significantly affect the online life of millions of citizens, and not necessarily for the better. These three provisions are the right for press publishers, filtering obligations, and the provision dealing with text and data mining. We have already discussed this last provision, and so will focus here on the other two, more controversial measures.

CASRAI

On Tuesday 26 June, I was invited to participate in the CASRAI UK Reconnect 2018 conference, at the Grosvenor Hilton Hotel, Glasgow. The breakout session, ‘Dataset Licensing’, offered participants an opportunity to discuss this increasingly challenging issue, which has particular relevance to those working in the area of Research Administration. Alongside Valerie McCutcheon, Research Information Manager (University of Glasgow), I led discussion around terminology, selected from the CASRAI dictionary and identified as potentially problematic, and offered expertise where issues touched on law and copyright.

Among these, the term ‘dataset’ predominated, with participants noting that the term was often misunderstood and that datasets themselves were  hugely complex to manage. There was also discussion around the subject of the term ‘personal data’, with participants noting the impact of recent GDPR legislation and questioning the different legal and ethical treatment of ‘personal data’ within a research environment.

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The deadline is approaching for submission of proposals for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship with CREATe as a host institution. Are you interested in exploring copyright’s next frontier? The deadline for submission of proposals is 12 September 2018.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) are set of EU funding initiatives supporting research, training and career development focused on innovation skills. The programme funds worldwide and cross-sector mobility that implements excellent research in any field – a “bottom-up” approach. Endowing researchers with new skills and a wider range of competencies, while offering them attractive working conditions, is a crucial aspect of the MSCA. In addition to fostering mobility between countries, the MSCA also seek to break the real and perceived barriers between academic and other sectors, especially business. Several MSCA initiatives promote the involvement of industry and NGOs  in doctoral and post-doctoral research: for more details see here.

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A new academic statement has been released today in anticipation of the plenary vote in the European Parliament on the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive, scheduled for 5 July, 12:00.

More than 200 academics from over 25 research centres, including the leading European institutes, have signed open letters opposing Article 11 (new exclusive right for press publishers) and Article 13 (new obligation on platforms to obtain licences for content uploaded by users, or prevent the availability of such content by filtering).

This latest statement attempts to address directly some of the misinformation that is circulating in a heavily lobbied environment. The statement rejects the following four claims as false:

False: The proposals will increase legal certainty

False: The Internet will not be filtered

False: There is no problem relating to freedom of expression

False: Memes will not be affected

The statement also assesses the following claims as misleading:

Misleading: Complaint and redress mechanisms will protect the interests of users

Misleading: Authors will receive an increased share of copyright remuneration

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On Wednesday 20 June 2018, CREATe team members Amy Thomas and  Ally Farnhill, led by CREATe Programme Leader Sukhpreet Singh, conducted a workshop for postgraduate research students attending the Scottish Graduate School for Art and Humanities (SGSAH) three day ‘Summer School’ at the Teacher Building in Central Glasgow. The topic of the workshop was Securing your Intellectual Property, and it was aimed at providing postgraduate researchers with an overview of the types of IP protection available in their research areas, in addition to providing a forum for them to raise concerns and share experiences.

The team presented an overview of the types of intellectual property protection available and delved deeper into particular concerns around seeking copyright protection on creative products. The session opened with a screening of the insightful and award-winning short film ‘The Game is On’, created by copyrightuser.org. After the formal presentation, researchers were encouraged to discuss their concerns, fears and hopes around protecting their research work. The workshop saw researchers from a diverse range of humanities, social science and creative industries disciplines, including carpet weaving, film collage, music sampling, and the study of medieval food vessels.

The team was successful in encouraging lively discussion in groups, utilising the ever popular Myth/Reality cards. Some of the written feedback from the session included comments such as ‘excellent overview’, ‘great list of resources’, and commented on the ‘relaxed dynamic of presenters’.

The CREATe team are available to present our work on Intellectual Property – contact us for further information.