IP SOLUTIONS BLOG

Laura Gaze, Senior Marketing Manager, IP Solutions: The White House is looking for some feedback on IP protection and enforcement.

The official White House Twitter account posted this yesterday evening:

Seeking your input: Help us shape our strategy for intellectual property enforcement. Submit feedback & learn more: on.wh.gov/r3GI

— The White House (@whitehouse) June 26, 2012

Have thoughts? Click this link and have your opinion heard.

Laura Gaze, Senior Marketing Manager, IP Solutions Brand Protection Innovation, IP Enforcement, White House

Laura Gaze, Senior Marketing Manager, IP Solutions: Today, we released our annual synopsis of pharmaceutical industry trends today in its 2012 Pharmaceutical R&D Factbook, compiled by CMR International, a Thomson Reuters business. Key findings include the observation that the pharmaceutical industry’s recent emphasis on quality over quantity is working, as evidenced by a lower number of early phase projects and fewer phase III projects being terminated, combined with an increase in regulatory approvals.

An essential publication of pharma facts containing eleven chapters of essential data on R&D pipeline volume, success rates, cycle times, regional comparisons, therapeutic areas, generics and others, the Factbook provides valuable strategic insight to pharmaceutical leaders for managing their businesses. This year’s Factbook underscores the industry’s focus on drug production quality, as is evidenced by:

• Global Pharmaceutical Sales Highest Ever: Global pharma sales reached an all-time high of approximately $880 billion in 2011; with pharmaceutical companies reinvesting anywhere from two percent to 25 percent of sales in prescription drug (or “ethical drug”) R&D. Nevertheless, the rate of growth is declining as key drugs come off patent and the generic market grows
• Most New Molecular Entities (NMEs) Launched in Last Decade: The number of NMEs launched are at a ten-year high (increasing to 31).  Regulators and payers are looking for safer, more effective and differentiated drugs given the large influx of generics. The industry is seeing the first signs of the response by Pharma to increased R&D hurdles in the selection of drug candidates that are focused on diseases with high unmet medical need and, in many cases, targeted at stratified groups of patients (so called personalized medicine). This refocus is welcomed by the regulators and payers as reflected by the increased number of drug launches
• Cancer treatment benefitting from advances in personalized medicine: Anti-cancer development continues to attract the highest amount of investment across all therapeutic areas; with recent personalized medicine advances yielding two important oncology drug approvals in 2011 with companion diagnostics for targeted patient populations
• A marked turn in Phase III success: In the last three years we have seen a notable increase in phase 3 project success rates
• More targeted therapies: An increase in biologics in pharma R&D with higher clinical success rates and slower decline from peak sales, as well as an improvement in translating innovations in biological understanding from lab to patient

Information published in the Factbook was compiled by our Life Sciences Professional Services team; it is based on proprietary primary sources, competitive intelligence, and public sources covering key trends in the pharmaceutical industry.

Laura Gaze, Senior Marketing Manager, IP Solutions Thomson Reuters CMR Factbook, Pharma, Thomson Reuters

Laura Gaze, Senior Marketing Manager, IP Solutions: Today, we’re announcing a new study tracking the current status of research on neglected tropical diseases.  The Global Research Report Neglected Tropical Diseases analyzes research output across countries and fields from 1992-2011 and finds a two-fold increase in published literature focused on a group of diseases identified by the World Health Organization as underserved by public health services.  Despite these recent gains, however, the total research output is still significantly less than that of “first world” diseases.

Though the analysis finds that research output focused on neglected tropical diseases has doubled from roughly 2,500 papers in 1992 to well over 5,000 papers in 2011, these totals still pale in comparison to other diseases such as cancer (85,000 papers), HIV/AIDS (16,000 papers) and coronary artery disease (15,000 papers).  To put this in context, more than one billion people are infected with one or more neglected tropical diseases and more than half a million die each year from their infections, compared with ~35 million globally who are infected with HIV or the ~346 million afflicted with diabetes. Neglected tropical diseases affect more than one billion people around the world.

In addition to the aggregate bibliographic analysis, we also reviewed research output by region and individual disease and suggests strategies for fostering increased neglected tropical disease focus.  Following were the key findings:

• Brazil and India Show Steepest Growth in New Research: Though most research papers addressing neglected tropical diseases carry an author from one of the economies in the G7, Brazil and India have a surprisingly strong presence in the research arena.  The nations publishing most often in neglected tropical disease research are the US, UK, Brazil and India.
• Dengue Research Shows Sharpest Rise Over Last 10 Years: The specific diseases cited most frequently in published research over the last 20 years are Soil Transmitted Helminthiasis, Schistosomiasis and Lymphatic Filariasis.  Dengue research has shown the sharpest recent growth, nearly tripling in output between 2002 and 2011.
• Research Shows Evolution Toward Prevention and Treatment: Research into neglected tropical diseases has shown a notable spread across journal categories from core biomedical areas to fields relating to the ecology of the disease and the social and health environment in which these diseases are prevalent.  This signals a shift towards solutions that move from studying the disease to creating remedies.

Data for this report was drawn from Web of Science database, available on the Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge platform. The database covers over 100 years of research in more than 12,000 of the highest impact journals, and over 150,000 conference proceedings records from around the world.

To view the Global Research Report Neglected Tropical Diseases, click here.

To view the infographic summarizing Neglected Tropical Diseases, click here, or scroll below:

Laura Gaze, Senior Marketing Manager, IP Solutions Thomson Reuters Neglected Tropical Diseases, Thomson Reuters, World Health Organization

The University of Pennsylvania’s Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel has created a stir in the world of global public health, with a controversial editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), which raises questions on the value of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.

Emanuel notes that from 2003 to 2008, $20.4 billion was poured into PEPFAR, and during the three years that ended in 2011, more than $20 billion more was funneled into the program, bringing the number of people receiving treatment for HIV/AIDS to 4 million. Meanwhile, other health programs are not getting the same level of funding.  Specifically, he notes:

“Neglected tropical diseases, such as schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthes, which affect approximately 1 billion people worldwide – and the very poorest of the world’s population – received a paltry $45 billion cumulatively in US global assistance over the 6 years.”

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Laura Gaze, Senior Marketing Manager, IP Solutions: This topic strikes home for those of us Science side of the Intellectual Property and Science business of Thomson Reuters because we’ve been conducting extensive research on neglected tropical diseases for the past month.  In fact, our soon-to-be-published Global Research Report: Neglected Tropical Diseases, addresses many of Dr. Emanuel’s points head-on.

Our study tracks the current status of research on neglected tropical diseases, analyzing research output worldwide from 1992 to 2011.  In it, we make some very interesting findings about the pace of research output focused on neglected tropical diseases relative to other “first world” diseases, such as cancer, HIV/AIDS and coronary artery disease.

The full report, which contains a detailed bibliographic analysis of neglected tropical disease research, will be released tomorrow.  Stay tuned for more!

Laura Gaze, Senior Marketing Manager, IP Solutions Innovation JAMA, Neglected Tropical Diseases, PEPFAR

Laura Gaze, Senior Marketing Manager, IP Solutions: South Korea has undergone rapid consumer growth that has created numerous opportunities for multinational brands, according to our new report. The report, Trademarks in South Korea: Branding the New Cultural Wave, highlights South Korea’s evolution into a progressive protector of digital rights and outlines best practices for firms seeking brand protection in the region.

The Thomson Reuters study finds that the ratification of the Korean Free Trade Agreement helped spur rigorous intellectual property enforcement nationwide, creating an environment that better protects brand owners. This strong culture of intellectual property protection, combined with broad-based economic growth, resulted in a 171 percent increase in trademark filing over the last 15 years in South Korea, with analysts projecting continued growth for this market.

Following are some key observations in the report:

• South Korean Trademark Filing Underscores Consumer Growth: Between 1996 and 2011, trademark filing in South Korea grew by 171 percent, with the bulk of that filing focused in consumer-facing trademark classes, such as advertising, food & beverage and hotels, and clothing & footwear.
• Top Filing Companies: The individual companies registering the most trademarks in 2011 represent a cross-section of industries, including electronics (LG, Samsung), cosmetics (Amorepacific) and diversified food companies (Lotte, CJ Cheil Jedang).
• The World’s Strongest Anti-Piracy Laws: After seeing its burgeoning music industry nearly devastated by digital piracy, South Korea adopted some of the toughest anti-Internet piracy laws of any developed nation, incorporating a three-strike rule that will shut down websites that host copyrighted content illegally.
• Best Practices – First-to-File System Presents Challenges: South Korea’s first-to-file system for trademark registration makes it essential for brand owners to file a mark well in advance of a Korean brand introduction.

The data in this report was compiled using SAEGIS on SERION^® from Thomson CompuMark to identify trends in trademark applications, registrations, objections and claims between 1996 and 2012.

View the full report here:
Trademarks in South Korea: Branding the New Cultural Wave

Laura Gaze, Senior Marketing Manager, IP Solutions Trademarks South Korea, Trademarks

Sheri McLeish, Content Strategy Manager, IP Solutions: The June 13 Reveal Day of applicants for a new generic top-level domain (gTLD) marks a major milestone and turning point for the web. To date, only 22 gTLDs, like the familiar .com, .gov, and .edu, have been available to anchor a web site. But the future will clearly be an Internet landscape full of branded domains like .google and innocuous terms such as .cleaning or .sport. Getting there will not be easy.

Until the past few weeks no one knew quite how much interest the new gTLDs would generate. Weeks of delays caused by a technical glitch with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) TLD Application System (TAS) further held up access to applicant information. ICANN initially predicted 500 to 1,000 applications. News started to trickle out last week, however, and now we know it’s game on: ICANN received more than 1,900 applications for gTLDs, and once all application fees are reconciled it may grow to more than 2,000. Several applicants went public, from Google and Go Daddy to investor-backed startup web registries Donuts and Radix. Naysayers will persist, and complaints have begun in earnest about the “digital archery process” to move applicants through the process in batches of 500. Still, this level of interest in the new gTLDs bodes well overall because it:

• Spurs growth and creates new opportunities. ICANN has amassed $350 million in application fees to support the systems and processes to enable the introduction of new gTLDs. At a time when private investment is scarce, the ability for startups like Donuts.com to privately raise $100 million in a gTLD “land grab” means more money will follow to ensure their success. This creates opportunities for legal trademark professionals and others as they identify ways to lend support throughout the application and opposition processes and beyond.

• Forces ICANN to rise to the occasion. ICANN has been under scrutiny and on the receiving end of much criticism since it started down the path to expanding the gTLDs, even recently being called “crazy” by the current chair of the GNSO (Generic Names Supporting Organization) council, one of ICANN’s major policy making bodies. Crazy or not, ICANN must see the application process through and improve its track record. Hiring Deloitte and IBM to implement the Trademark Clearinghouse is a good start, but to really quell the criticism it will need to put more resources to work to smooth out the next phases for both applicants and concerned parties.

• Drives greater interest and awareness. With big name applicants like Google going for whimsical gTLDs like .lol and head-to-head clashes already shaping up for generic terms — we already know both Go Daddy and Radix have applied for .home — there is going to be a lot written about the process. Coverage of these conflicts will drive awareness and fuel interest in the outcomes as high-stakes players battle. This should help mitigate concerns about socializing the new gTLDs and help inform strategy on whether a brand should apply for a second-level domain on one of the new gTLDs.

Even with the influx of money and interest, the new gTLDs may feel more like a headache than a head start for all of the brands that opted to forego the first round. The 60-day public opposition period starts once the applicants are revealed, which means trademark and brand owners must act quickly to understand their risks and opportunities. While ICANN might surface public interest conflicts via its newly appointed “Independent Objector”, don’t count on it for trademarks or brands. For this segment the safest route will involve in-depth review of the applicants once they are revealed and a rigid adherence to the process set forth by ICANN for objections.  It’s been rough road so far for applicants, but the new gTLD ride is going to get a lot wilder for everyone after June 13. Buckle up!

admin Innovation gTLDs, ICANN, Reveal Day, TAS, Top-level domain

A court in Mannheim recently ruled that Microsoft infringed on Motorola Mobility’s patents and ordered Microsoft to remove its Xbox 360 gaming consoles and Windows 7 operating system software from the German market.

German judge Holger Kircher said Microsoft breached an agreement with Motorola Mobility in using certain video-compression software in products including Windows 7 and Xbox. Motorola Mobility is currently in the process of being bought by Google.
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Laura Gaze, Senior Marketing Manager, IP Solutions: Despite the ruling, Microsoft does not have to take immediate action. Their products will remain on retailers’ shelves, because a U.S. district court in Seattle has granted Microsoft a preliminary injunction against Motorola to prevent Motorola from enforcing any German court order. According to the MSN report, Microsoft said:

“Motorola is prohibited from acting on today’s decision, and our business in Germany will continue as usual while we appeal this decision and pursue the fundamental issue of Motorola’s broken promise.”

This injunction could present an interesting dimension in this and other patent cases. Many companies have brought their cases to German courts, due in large part to their expedited decision-making process. But if injunctions can be acquired in the U.S. and essentially negate the international ruling, companies many be more inclined to try their cases domestically. That could discourage companies from bringing a case, or at the very least, allow a company infringing on IP to do so for a longer period of time while litigation is pending. It will be interesting to see what impact this has.

Laura Gaze, Senior Marketing Manager, IP Solutions Patents