With media piracy evolving from an internet annoyance into a broader economic affliction in recent years, both public and private entities have taken notice and demanded stricter copyright enforcement efforts. After several months of delay, Center for Copyright Information (CCI) recently confirmed that it will debut its Copyright Alert System before the end of the year.

In March of this year, Cessna Aircraft announced at the Asian Business Aviation Conference & Exhibit (ABACE) plans to collaborate with Chinese partners on the development and manufacturing of existing and new jet designs. This sparked some fresh thinking about the integrity of intellectual property protections in such global collaborations.

Allied Minds, a Boston-based investment firm, has reached agreements with several U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) research laboratories in a wide-ranging technology transfer strategy intended to spur economic growth through the commercialization of military innovations.

Google has been a focal point of recent intellectual property controversies relating to the mobile device market, but its next battle may stem from a dispute that began more than seven years ago. According to the Associated Press, U.S. Circuit Court Judge Denny Chin has refused any additional delays in a class-action lawsuit that charges Google with misappropriating copyrighted materials in its quest to develop the world's largest digital library.

When matters of intellectual property and higher education collide, it is often the result of university researchers exploring new ways to commercialize their laboratory innovations. But in more cases, schools are finding similar value in a separate pursuit: trademark management.

Illinois may not be regarded as a technology transfer hub on par with traditional powers like Massachusetts, California and Michigan, but the state's universities have been making significant strides toward commercializing their intellectual property in recent years. According to the latest index compiled by the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and Illinois Science and Technology Coalition, Illinois schools are now licensing IP more frequently than at any point in the past decade.

Digital innovations continue pose new questions to traditional copyright and patent systems around the world. Australian legislators seem to have a lead on the coming clashes between technology and intellectual property management, having recently launched an investigation into how copyright law may be affecting the nation's burgeoning cloud computing market.

The Apple-Samsung patent litigation trial has covered some interesting territory in recent weeks, but one of the most surprising revelations may be the disclosure of a previously unknown strategy involving Microsoft.

While politicians, financiers and social commentators have been preaching the importance of refueling the nation's innovation engines, university research teams have been turning principles into practice. According to MedCity News, the technology transfer forecast is now looking particularly robust in the academic community.

When American universities receive public or private funding for their research and development (R&D) projects, that money does not always remain strictly on campus. According to the National Science Foundation (NSF), the amount of grant money passed on to outside organizations more than doubled the funding reserved for academic R&D expenditures during the fiscal years 2000 and 2009.