Closing the gap between copyright and designs: an age of enlightenment or state of confusion?

The arena of intellectual property encompasses streams that often interrelate and overlap in protecting different aspects of intellectual property. Australian commentators suggest that ‘one of the most troublesome areas in the entire field of intellectual property has been the relationship between copyright protection for artistic works under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) and protection for registered designs under the Designs Act 1906 (Cth).’ [McKeough, J., Stewart, A., & Griffith, P. (2004). Intellectual property in Australia (3rd ed.). Chatswood, NSW: Butterworths.] [Ricketson, S., Richardson, M., & Davison, M. (2009). Intellectual property: Cases, materials and commentary (4th ed.). Chatswood, NSW: LexisNexis Butterworths.] This overlap has caused much confusion for both creators of artistic works and industrial designs, as there is an uncertainty of whether protection against infringement is afforded under the Copyright Act 1988 (Cth) or whether the Designs Act 2003 (Cth) will apply. In Australia, there is limited precedent that examines the crossover between copyright and designs. Essentially, the cases that have tested this issue remain unclear as to whether a design applied industrially will invoke copyright protection. The cases demonstrate that there is an inconsistency in this area despite the aims of the new provisions of the Designs Act 2003 (Cth) to close the loopholes between copyright and designs. This paper will discuss and evaluate the relationship between copyright protection for artistic works and protection for registered designs with respect to the Designs Act 2003 (Cth).     

The success prognosis of plastic diaphragma operation on women with stress incontinence (author's transl)A1]

The paper refers to 126 patients on whom a plastic diaphragma operation was performed at the 1st Department of Obstet. and Gynec. of the University of Vienna. Based on the results one year after the operation, the success chances are shown and set into relation to several preexistent factors, such as severity of the incontinence, weight, parity, age and conduct of life. An increasing of the two first mentioned factors led to a significant deterioration of results. The influence of an incontinence remains incontested, yet a higher parity does not lead to significantly poorer operation results. As to the factor "age", there were no significant differences in our material. Conduct of life and additional stress in women employed in an occupation are being discussed. Furthermore it was possible to confirm the postoperative space of time needed until restoration of an undisturbed bladder function as a relatively reliable prognostic hint to the expected success of the operation. For this confirmation an objective examination method (sphincterotonometry) was used.     

Modeling of the thermopiezoelastic behavior of prismatic smart composite structures made of orthotropic materials

Asymptotic homogenization models for prismatic smart composite structures are derived and the effective elastic, piezoelectric, and thermal expansion coefficients are obtained. The actuation coefficients characterize the intrinsic transducer nature of active smart materials that can be used to induce strains and stresses in a coordinated fashion. Examples of such actuators employed with smart composite material systems are derived from piezoelectric, magnetostrictive and some other materials. The constituents of the smart structures are assumed to exhibit orthotropic characteristics. The original problem for the regularly non-homogeneous smart composite structure reduces to a system of three simpler types of problem, called unit cell problems. It is precisely these unit cell problems that enable the determination of the aforementioned coefficients. These effective coefficients are universal in nature and can be used to study a wide variety of boundary value problems associated with a smart structure of a given geometry.     

When secret use is not so secret

The concept of secret use has been a difficult element in establishing whether the validity of a patent may be challenged. Its difficulty is entrenched in the uncertainty of interpretation of the construction of the legislation and the meaning that the legislature imparts on it. One of the main cases in Australian patent law that has tested the issue of secret use is Azuko Pty Ltd. v. Old Digger Pty Ltd. (2001) 52 IPR 75. The significance of this decision is the differing approaches to the issue of secret use. This case demonstrates the various practical and policy implications that arise out of the differing views from the judgment. This paper will discuss the practical and policy implications raised by the differing views of the judges.     

Some remarks on the security of the identification scheme based on permuted kernels

We present in this paper an idea of how to reduce the number of possible permutations when trying to solve the permuted kernels problem. We refer to the identification scheme of Shamir [2] and we also show how a dishonest prover can maximize his prospects to pass the test.     

Biobehavioral approaches to the treatment of essential hypertension.

Despite recent advances in the medical management of hypertension, chronically elevated blood pressure remains a major health problem in the United States, affecting almost 50 million Americans. It is widely recognized that lifestyle factors contribute to the development and maintenance of elevated blood pressure. This article critically reviews current approaches to the nonpharmacological treatment of high blood pressure and highlights outcome studies of exercise, weight loss and dietary modification, and stress management and relaxation therapies. Methodological issues in the assessment and treatment of hypertension are discussed, along with possible mechanisms by which lifestyle modification may reduce elevated blood pressure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Survey of air pollution in Cotonou, Benin--air monitoring and biomarkers

Exposure to genotoxic compounds present in ambient air has been studied in Cotonou, Benin, a city where two-stroke motorbikes are the major form of transportation and gasoline quality is poor. Personal monitoring and biomarkers were used to assess the exposure. Non-smoking taxi-moto drivers (city) and village residents were the study subjects. Benzene exposure was significantly higher in the city, as compared to the village (76.0+/-26.8 microg/m(3) versus 3.4+/-3.0, p=0.0004). Urinary excretion of benzene and S-phenylmercapturic acid (S-PMA) were also highest in subjects living in the city, whereas 1-hydroxypyrene was not different. The level of total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), associated with particles, ranged from 76.21 to 103.23 in Cotonou versus 1.55 ng/m(3) for the village. Determination of DNA damage in lymphocytes showed that subjects from the city had elevated number of lesions compared to subjects in the village in terms of bulky DNA adducts, 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine and 5-methylcytosine, whereas DNA fragmentations analysed by alkaline gel electrophoresis was not different between the subjects. In conclusion, this study shows that air pollution is pronounced in Cotonou, Bénin and is associated with elevated levels of DNA damage in residents of the city compared to people living in a non-polluted rural village.     

Establishment of atmospheric pollution standards for motor vehicles

First we classify the various emission standards applying to light vehicles, the conditions under which the emissions are measured and the environmental standards. We then describe the way in which a standard is established according to the basic principles and procedures involved in determining acceptable environmental concentrations in practice. We refer to the economic and political considerations involved in deciding on a standard and, as an example, to the positions adopted by the various parties concerned in France when drafting the 15.05 standard. In response to the atmospheric pollution caused by motor vehicles, all the industrial countries have, some earlier than others, drawn up regulations designed to limit the extent of this pollution, to protect the environment and reduce the public health risk. Both environmental and emission standards are aimed at reducing the risks to the environment and in particular to man, arising From the presence of particular pollutants. The procedure concerned in establishing these standards is a complicated one involving scientific, economic and political considerations; furthermore, there is a great diversity of standards.     

Locally manipulating the geometry of curved surfaces

Interactive tools that can be used to edit a curved surface locally by altering its intrinsic geometric measures are described. The interface consists of two parts. The first uses graphic displays that illustrate specific characteristics of the surface. Users can isolate different types of curves on a surface. These curves yield unique information about the surface. The second part of the interface uses some of the specialized icons to interactively manipulate the surface itself. The methods can be used with many previously published techniques, and, because they are based on the intrinsic differential geometry of the surface, can be applied to all types of surfaces (parametric, implicit, algebraic, and so forth)