Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are becoming increasingly popular at universities around the world. Who owns the intellectual property rights to the course material for MOOCs remains an important question in many cases. Whether the university hosting the course owns it or the original author of the curriculum does seems to depend largely on individual university policy.

The U.S. has a set of laws and regulations imposing sanctions against particular countries, entities and individuals for a variety of reasons. Collectively, these are known as the U.S. Sanctions Program, managed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control. A sanction prohibits U.S. nationals and companies from doing business with those countries or entities that are subject to a sanction. Penalties for violating them range from criminal fines to imprisonment, according to The National Law Review.

New Canadian policies recently stripped drugmaker Eli Lilly of rights to two popular new drugs, and the company has decided to bring this dispute to the U.S. Lobbyists are working in Canada, and have begun efforts in the U.S. as well. Lobbyists are asking the U.S. to add Canada to the Priority Watch list of countries that don't do enough to protect and enforce intellectual property rights. Canada was removed from this list in 2013. Eli Lilly's lawyers are also asking arbitrators to award it half a billion dollars in damages if Canada's policies don't change.

In a ruling yesterday in London, Justice Colin Birss found two patents held by Roche Holding AG were invalid, according to Bloomberg. The company's patent for its top-selling breast cancer drug Herceptin expires in Europe on July 28, but it had filed two additional patents relating to certain dosages and the composition of the drug in order to prevent generic manufacturers from moving into the market.

Amazon won a patent case against Rovi in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, according to CBR. Rovi, which sells television guide programs to cable providers, alleged Amazon had infringed two of its patents - one that covers making an electronic program guide on a television, and the other that covers allowing a user to select and purchase a pay-per-view program. Rovi had also filed lawsuits against Roku and Netflix, but the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled those companies did not infringe its patents.

The Silicon Valley area's first permanent satellite patent and trademark office is set to occupy a section of San Jose City Hall, according to San Jose Mercury News. This decision was announced in November after four years of politicians, university leaders and business groups lobbying for precisely this decision. However, the opening of the office will now be delayed until the middle of 2015 because of financial difficulties San Jose is experiencing. City leaders are still committed to the deal, however, and to housing a satellite intellectual property office.

Israeli company Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. recently announced the U.S. Supreme Court will hear its appeal of a decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, according to Bionews Texas. That decision invalidated the claim of U.S. Patent 5,800,808, which Teva holds and which claims the process for manufacturing the active ingredient of Teva's relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis medication, copaxone 20mg/mL. Teva says it is committing to exploring all of its options to protect its intellectual property for copaxone. The drug is expensive, and reduces the frequency of relapse in patients who have relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, which includes those who have experienced a clinical episode and have MRI results consistent with a diagnosis of MS.

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed House Bill 116 on March 19, and it will become law on July 1. The bill will extend trade secret protections to universities and community colleges through exempting commercial, scientific or technical research materials from the state's Open Records Act until the research is published, according to Claims Journal.

Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG filed a patent infringement suit in India against Biocon Ltd. regarding its patent covering the diabetes drug vildagliptin, which is sold under the trade name Galvus. According to The Hindu Business Line, Galvus brought in $1.2 billion from global sales last year. In a statement, Biocon asserted it does not sell any form of that drug in India.

Lord Younger, the Minister for Intellectual Property, spoke at the Houses of Parliament recently at an event sponsored by the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST). He contended that the UK government must continue to enforce harsh penalties on intellectual property theft to support innovation and economic recovery.