Later this month, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear an appeal regarding the first-sale doctrine of copyright law as it applies to college textbooks. However, museums and art institutions may have the most riding on the court's decision.

The pharmaceutical sector is no stranger to mergers and acquisitions, but a continued consolidation of the marketplace could have adverse effects for consumers. These issues took center stage earlier in the week as the Federal Trade Commission worked with four pharmaceutical companies to settle charges that a proposed acquisition may be anticompetitive.

The Google Library Project came up against stiff opposition in 2005, when the Association of American Publishers (AAP) filed a copyright infringement lawsuit protesting the inclusion of its members' works in the search giant's digital catalogue. The seven-year saga came to an end this week as the two parties came to an agreement which will allow publishers to independently decide whether or not to include their content in Google's eBook initiatives.

The University of Arizona now has renewed confidence that the innovations generated inside campus laboratories will make a splash in the commercial marketplace as well. According to the Arizona Daily Star, this optimism stems from a bold new vision outlined by recently appointed technology transfer director David Allen.

Just about every leading brand in the mobile device marketplace has found itself embroiled in one form of patent litigation or another within the past year. But as these so-called patent wars foster an unfortunate climate of hostility, one of the more beneficial side effects could be a renewed awareness of the role savvy intellectual property management can play in revenue strategies.

Musical artists and industry executives know all too well the effect that digital business models have had on revenue prospects over the past decade. However, it is now the internet radio pioneers that are starting to feel the squeeze and ask for amendments to current royalty management frameworks.

Not long ago, digital video recorders (DVRs) were still synonymous with TiVo. However, a recent influx of rivals has forced the company to leverage its intellectual property portfolio more aggressively and secure licensing fees via litigation.

A recent article posted on the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) web site highlights the efforts of one Canadian company to improve “in situ”, or underground, oil production processes. According to the piece, Petrobank Energy and Resources, a Calgary-based energy and technology company, has spent the past three years field-testing its THAI^™ (Toe to Heel Air Injection) technology. The technology advances the science of heating and loosening bitumen deep underground and subsequently pumping it to the surface. Environmental as well as production efficiencies are gained in this process, in part, by minimizing the amount of water and natural gas needed to heat the bitumen in a horizontal underground reservoir. This is accomplished by heating only the bitumen around the “toe” of the underground well, and completing the heating process by creating a combustion reaction through targeted air injection. The technology reportedly produces other benefits as well, including minimal water usage, a smaller surface footprint, a partial upgrade of this low-grade hydrocarbon while still underground by virtue of the combustion process, and residual materials produced by the process serving as fuel for continued combustion.

Apple and Google may have a commanding lead in the mobile device market, but their closest competitors came together this week to negotiate a potentially significant licensing agreement. By providing Research In Motion with access to its proprietary file storage technologies, Microsoft may have given the struggling Canadian manufacturer reason for hope.

In the preliminary findings released from a study due out later this year, the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) recently revealed that the number of patents issued to academic applicants rose to an all-time high in fiscal year 2011. In total, university researchers were responsible for the filing of nearly 20,000 U.S. patent applications last year and were awarded approximately 4,700 patents in return.