--- F R E N D Z of martian --- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 If you thought intellectual property was nuts in the states... - ----- Original Message ----- From: "nettime's_roving_reporter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, June 26, 2000 11:57 AM Subject: <nettime> Moscow Times: Company Claims Patent on the Bottle > <http://www.moscowtimes.ru/24-Jun-2000/stories/story2.html> > > Saturday, June 24, 2000 > Company Claims Patent on the Bottle > By Lyuba Pronina > Staff Writer > > A company has managed to take out patents on all glass, plastic > and > metal containers and is demanding that breweries throughout the > country pay it 0.5 percent royalties on every bottle or can they > sell. > > Intellect, a company specializing in legal advice on industrial > property rights, secured the patents from state patent agency > Rospatent and has sent letters to breweries offering a license > so > brewers can continue to use bottles and cans. > > Interfax reported Vladimir Shishin, head of the Brewers > Association, > as saying Friday that Intellect's demands could cost beer makers > 200 > million rubles ($7 million) a year. > > If Intellect was to succeed with other bottlers, it would > receive huge > income from the sales of the 1.8 billion to 2 billion bottles > that, > according to the Glass Research Institute, are produced in > Russia each > year. The country has about 250 breweries and 500 non-alcoholic > beverage plants, the Brewers Association says. > > The Encyclopedia Britannica says the Egyptians were producing > glass > bottles before 1500 B.C. But that didn't stop Rospatent from > issuing > the patent Oct. 20. It is now in the middle of an internal > investigation into whether it should have done so. > > "If there was a mistake, then those responsible for it will bear > the > consequences," said Alexander Ashikhin, director of the Federal > Institute of Industrial Property, a division of Rospatent which > advises the agency on whether patent applications should be > approved. > "Someone might even be fired." > > The institute, whose experts are retracing the steps taken to > issue > the patent, is wary of saying the patent was issued in error. It > said > it has ruled out the possibility that bribes were paid to get > the > patent. > > Critics say the patent application was written in complicated > language > and pertained to a feature inherent in all bottles. > > Intellect general director Vladimir Zaichenko said the company > was set > up 1 1/2 years ago and has received hundreds of patents f on > screws, > ball bearings, flasks, cisterns, ampules, railroad lines and > other > everyday items. > > It applied for the patents on bottles and cans on behalf of a > client, > Technopolis, Zaichenko said. He refused to provide information > on > Technopolis, saying only that "among other fields it's involved > in > invention." > > Zaichenko said inventors are not responsible for knowing whether > their > inventions already exist. "If a patent is issued, then Rospatent > recognizes the idea as being original," he said. "They are the > experts." > > Representatives of Moscow's breweries, among them such > heavyweights > such as Ochakovo, Ostankino and Badayevsky, met this week to > work out > a strategy to fight Intellect's claims. > > The outraged breweries are planning to file an appeal to > Rospatent's > appeal chamber challenging Intellect's bid to make them pay > royalties > for items they have been using for decades. They accuse > Rospatent of > not performing due diligence and Intellect of setting out to > swindle > the industry. > > "It smacks of an intellectual racket," said Tatyana Vakhnina of > the > patent law firm Center-Innotek, which is advising Ochakovo > brewery. > > "We think this patent is not legitimate and we will ask the > appeal > chamber to annul it. It [the patent application] was written so > cleverly that it will be difficult to overturn. But we have 100 > percent confidence that we will release our clients from the > obligation to pay," Vakhnina said in a telephone interview. > > Ochakovo director Alexei Kochetov was unavailable for comment. > > Vakhnina said the bottle patent rewarded the creativity in the > writing > of the patent application. The application was formulated in > such > complicated language that, at first, even engineers were > baffled, she > said. > > Intellect's argument is based on geometrical features that are > inherent to all containers, Vakhina said. "It's Euclidean > geometry. It > could be applied to an amphora," she said. "The invention is > defined > in such a way that it embraces 90 percent of containers." > > Valery Dzhermakyan, deputy director of the Federal Institute of > Industrial Property, said Intellect is interpreting the patent > too > broadly. "It relates to products that already existed and > therefore it > cannot universally apply to all containers in current use," he > said. > > Both Dzhermakyan and Vakhnina said nothing of the sort had > happened > before. > > Valeria Karpunina, technical director of Moskvoretsky brewery, > which > also received Intellect's letter, said only a mathematician > would have > seen through the patent application and it was no wonder > Rospatent's > experts overlooked it. > > "The beer industry is booming, and I think this is why they are > using > us as a test case, but what they [Intellect] do can apply to any > industry f bottles, perfume containers, cartridges, rockets. > With > this, they can extract tribute from everyone. It's sabotage," > she > said. > > Karpunina said Intellect had threatened to take the brewery to > court > if it didn't comply. > > Zaichenko denied Intellect had made any threats of court action, > saying the company has so far merely proposed license > agreements. > > He also dismissed the breweries' reaction as emotional, saying > the > "patent is good and within the law." > > He refused to comment on the precise nature of what is novel in > the > patent or what proof Intellect has that breweries are violating > patent > rights. > > He also said that too much fuss was being made about the > breweries and > that they were at the bottom of the list of Intellect's > activities. > > Industry insiders said Intellect's claims seemed absurd. > > "It's nonsense," said Sergei Alexeyev, of the Glass Research > Institute > marketing department. "You can patent a bottle only if it's > original, > has an original lense, for example, or a label. This might be a > case > of a group of people who got together to cheat everybody." > > Sergei Mikheyev, director of Badayevsky brewery, said the bottle > claims reminded him of a feud this year over the Zhigulyovskoye > beer > brand. > > The brand was produced throughout the Soviet Union but was never > patented. Breweries were encouraged to promote the brand. > > Many breweries inherited the brand after the Soviet Union broke > up and > continued to produce it until a brewery in Samara claimed > exclusive > rights after obtaining a patent for it. The brewery won a string > of > court cases, but after competitors appealed to Rospatent, it > withdrew > the patent. > > Dzhermakyan said Intellect's demands could be considered > extortion if > Rospatent's appeal chamber establishes that it is trying to > extend its > patent to a product that had been in use before Intellect filed > its > patent application. > > He said that at the time the application was examined, papers > that > could have stopped the patent from being approved might not have > been > available to experts. > > As for Intellect's claims against producers, they must be for a > concrete product, he said. "If, in the course of chamber > hearings, > Intellect loses two to three patent cases, the other tens or > hundreds > of patents they have will collapse like a house of cards." > > � copyright The Moscow Times 1997-1999 > > # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission > # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, > # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets > # more info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and "info nettime-l" in the > msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGPfreeware 6.5.1 Int. for non-commercial use <http://www.pgpinternational.com> iQA/AwUBOVd5ZJ/fHXYJkzo2EQKQmACg5Z3LvXxHpBqFu5BzFOdwI9mk7WQAnAxs Hl7CM0B2rPEDfaafRFUOch/g =hyme -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- Sent to you via the frendz list at marsbard.com The archive is at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
