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Planned Parenthood is allegedly transferring “proprietary” aborted baby body parts to the University of California San Diego (UCSD) “in exchange for ownership of the university’s ‘patents’ and ‘intellectual property’” created through experiments. The Center for Medical Progress (CMP) obtained documents showing the alleged transaction between the abortion organization and the university after filing a public records request. CMP Founder and President David Daleiden told CatholicVote: “These documents show that the whole time Planned Parenthood swore to Congress and the public they did not sell body parts, they were lying about active contracts like this one to sell aborted fetuses for...

Artists have been fighting back on a number of fronts against artificial intelligence companies that they say steal their works to train AI models — including launching class-action lawsuits and speaking out at government hearings. Now, visual artists are taking a more direct approach: They're starting to use tools that contaminate and confuse the AI systems themselves. One such tool, Nightshade, won't help artists combat existing AI models that have already been trained on their creative works. But Ben Zhao, who leads the research team at the University of Chicago that built the soon-to-be-launched digital tool, says it promises to...

Russia has effectively legalized patent theft from anyone affiliated with countries “unfriendly” to it, declaring that unauthorized use will not be compensated. McDonald’s said Tuesday that it would temporarily close its 850 restaurants in Russia, a significant decision for a company that gets 9 percent of its revenue from Russia and Ukraine. Without trademark protections, Russia could “take those McDonald’s that got shut down and … just let local operators operate the restaurants and call them McDonald’s,” Gerben said. Russia’s removal of intellectual property protections during wartime is not without precedent. Smithsonian Magazine describes how the German company Bayer lost...

Harvard professor Dr. Charles Lieber was found guilty of all federal charges against him related to concealing his ties to a Chinese university and the Chinese government's Thousand Talents Program while receiving U.S. government funding. The verdict, a big win for the Justice Department’s China Initiative, came as a federal jury in Boston quickly determined Tuesday that Lieber was guilty on all six charges, including two counts of making false statements to federal investigators, two counts of filing false tax returns, and two counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Lieber, the former chairman of...

Kamala Harris’s husband’s firm, DLA Piper, consults on behalf of a bevy of Chinese Communist Party-owned companies and employs former Chinese Communist Party officials. DLA Piper, a multinational law firm, boasts nearly 30 years of experience in China and over 140 lawyers dedicated to its “China Investment Services” branch. Harris’s links to the company are found with her husband, Douglas Emhoff, who has served as a Partner in the firm’s Intellectual Property and Technology practice and its Media, Sport, and Entertainment sector since 2017.

Defendant Stole Google’s Confidential Information on Self-Driving Car Technology SAN FRANCISCO – Anthony Scott Levandowski pleaded guilty and was sentenced today to 18 months in prison for trade secret theft related to Google’s self-driving car program, announced United States Attorney David L. Anderson and John F. Bennett, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Levandowski was also ordered to pay a $95,000 fine and $756,499.22 in restitution. As part of a plea agreement, Levandowski, 40, of Marin County, pleaded guilty to one of the 33 counts of trade secrets theft originally filed against him in 2019.  In...

SAFEGUARDING NATIONAL SECURITY: President Donald J. Trump is dismantling China’s ability to use graduate students to steal intellectual property and technology from the United States. President Trump has issued a proclamation to block certain graduate level and above Chinese nationals associated with entities in China that implement or support China’s Military-Civil Fusion (MCF) strategy, from using F or J visas to enter the United States.China’s theft of American technology, intellectual property, and research threatens the safety, security, and economy of the United States.Today’s actions will not affect students who come to the United States for legitimate reasons. Affected students...

Our Nation’s history is defined by discovery, ingenuity, and innovation. Americans are known for their resourcefulness and ability to find solutions to a wide range of challenges, including the development of technologies that advance our security, health, and prosperity. This resourcefulness has been a driving force of economic growth and human development since the founding of our Nation, and our future depends on the continued protection of our intellectual property. On World Intellectual Property Day, we renew our resolve to protect and secure the works and innovations of American artists, inventors, and other creators who continually push the boundaries of...

We find ourselves at a fascinating—and perhaps terrifying, moment in history in which so much of the past seems irrelevant to answering the questions about our future. How to define misinformation from information. How to allocate accountability for guarding against harmful materials. How to balance individual freedom with responsibility. How to safeguard and promote the creation of original materials in an environment celebrated for disruption and the idea it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission. It is no fluke that it is within this broader set of entanglements that the Supreme Court is set to take up arguments in...

China has applied to patent a drug candidate being developed by Gilead Sciences as the government rushes to find the cure for the deadly coronavirus, a move that could raise questions on intellectual property and marketing rights. The state-backed Institute of Virology in Wuhan filed the patent for using remdesivir to fight the novel coronavirus on January 21, according to a statement posted on its website two weeks later on February 4. If approved, the drug will be used to facilitate its potential global market entry, it added. Studies have been conducted outside the human bodies and found that Gilead’s...

One of Donald Trump's more memorable promises on the campaign trail was to lower the cost of prescription drugs. Polls show this issue remains popular with Americans, especially lower-income families, who are worried about high drug prices. Of course, the entire concept of drug prices' being "too high" is subjective. Drugs are too expensive ... compared with what? Certainly not compared with not having the drugs available at all. If you suffer from the intense pain of migraine headaches or have been diagnosed with lung cancer, how much would you pay for a drug to help you? I have friends...

Six researchers who resigned last month from Florida’s Moffitt Cancer Center admitted to opening secret bank accounts in China to hide millions that they received from China’s Thousand Talents programme, say the preliminary findings of an internal investigation. Among the six were Alan List, Moffitt’s president and chief executive officer, and the centre’s director, Thomas Sellers. They are the latest and most senior researchers to lose their jobs in a nationwide hunt for academics suspected of working for China, in what US authorities claim is an organised attempt to steal intellectual property. At least 200 people are being investigated at...

The MTA's subway map can be intimidating. "It's quite complicated," said Sebastian Gutmann, a tourist. "Because you see so many street names, so many station names, and you have to figure out where you are. It wasn't much help to Jake Berman when he first moved to New York from San Francisco 12 years ago. So he decided to make his own version. Jake Berman's subway map. Courtesy Jake Berman "Frustration is a great source of creativity," Berman said. But when he began selling his creation, the MTA threatened legal action, and got the website Etsy to temporarily take it...

A nonprofit legal foundation is suing California on behalf of freelance workers who say the state's recently passed Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) will destroy their livelihoods. Set to take effect on January 1, 2020, AB5 will make it illegal for contractors who reside in California to create more than 35 pieces of content in a year for a single company, unless the outlet hires them as an employee. "By enforcing the 35-submission limit, Defendant, acting under color of state law, unconstitutionally deprives Plaintiffs' members of their freedom of speech as protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S....

Full title: FBI has 1,000 investigations into Chinese intellectual property theft, director Christopher Wray says, calling China the most severe counter-intelligence threat to US -- Arrests of people involved in Chinese operations to steal US corporate secrets have risen sharply in recent years Washington says problem is exacerbated by ‘Thousand Talents’ programme, which rewards Chinese professionals overseas who bring technology back to China -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation has nearly 1,000 investigations open into economic espionage and attempted intellectual property theft, nearly all of them leading back to China, FBI director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday. “There is no...

“Real estate brokers and agents invest resources into obtaining property listings,” wrote NAR, which counts 1.3 million real estate agents as members. As such, NAR said agents have “rights and responsibilities to control the distribution of their listings.” Any “appropriation of a commercial entity’s data, work product, or intellectual property for exploitation by another commercial entity is not justified,” NAR added. But while Zillow argued for the “democratization” of data, NAR said calls for greater access to MLS data are “based on faulty expectations that unrestricted access to listing data will help consumers.” Instead, NAR said, “forcing brokers to provide...

President Trump’s administration has a “selfish” attitude toward intellectual property rights, a Chinese diplomat said Friday amid the White House's crackdown on IP theft. “No one has the monopoly over the application of IPR to promote social and economic development,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters. “Innovation and IPR shall be harnessed for the progress and benefit of all mankind, instead of being reduced to a tool used by the U.S. to suppress others' development and serve its selfish interests.”

Intellectual property rights are under attack from Congress. On Monday, the Senate is expected to vote on a motion to proceed to S. 1519, the “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018.” That bill contains a provision that would nationalize the intellectual property of software firms that do business with the Department of Defense. The big high profile fights on the NDAA will be on issues where the Trump Administration disagree with Senator John McCain’s (R-AZ) drafted and committee passed bill. According to The Hill, the Trump Administration has a number of problems with the bill including “a prohibition on...

President Trump's political opponents in the music industry would like his help in at least one regard: The laws that govern who makes money off of music. "The Recording Academy, together with America's music makers, call on the president and Congress to help keep the music playing by updating music laws, protecting music education, and renewing America's commitment to the arts," Neil Portnow, the president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, said during the 2017 Grammy Awards Sunday night. The appeal demonstrated how the business side of the music industry will have to grapple with the reality...

Semiconductors are essential to everything from home appliances to cars, satellites and fighter aircraft. The U.S. has led the industry since its start in the 1950s, with firms like Intel, Qualcomm and Apple today accounting for nearly 50% of global sales, worth about $165 billion a year, and employing some 359,000 Americans. Semiconductors are the fourth-most valuable U.S. export behind airplanes, petroleum products and cars. China hopes to change this through state subsidies and predatory trade practices. The White House report, drafted by industry and policy experts, warns that “Chinese policies are distorting markets in ways that undermine innovation, subtract...