Industrial Design: Very Good For Business!
by Vincent Teh “Good design is good business” said Thomas J. Watson, the former CEO of IBM. And he is right. From the time in the Pleistocene when our evolutionary ancestor took a branch and fashioned it into a stick to fish for juicy termites, to the time our ice-age forefather hunted mammoths with his […]
The Bolar Provision: A Defense to Patent Infringement
By P. Kandiah & Kimberly Liam What happens when a patent for a particular drug expires or is about to expire? Patented drugs lose their patent exclusivity as they go off patent and pharmaceutical companies that own these patents start to worry as the generic pharmaceutical companies begin to sell their drugs in the market. […]
‘Tis the season to be wary!
By Vincent Teh Christmas means different things to different people. To some, it’s a time of excess. A time to drink a year’s worth of alcohol in the span of a day, and to stuff oneself in one night with enough food to feed a small African nation for a decade. To some it’s a […]
In Defense of Monopoly
By Vincent Teh You are perpetuating the insatiable greed of mega corporations by creating unjust monopoly on precious ideas,” was the accusation thrown at me by a young impressionable man-boy upon hearing what I do for a living during lunch one day. I simply reached over and appropriated his food. “This,” I said, “is the […]
A Case Against Scientific Terrorism
By Dr Mahaletchumy Arujanan Farming looks mighty easy when your plough is a pencil and you are a thousand miles from the corn field – Dwight D Eisenhower (34th President of the United States of America) Act of terror to create fear, motivated by religious, political and ideological goals is called terrorism. And this is exactly what […]
Trademark Guardians Or Trademark Trolls – It’s The Way That You Do It
I recently attended a colleague’s wedding, which, despite my inherent detestation of attending weddings, I found quite delightful. I was particularly touched by the lovely speech given by the bride’s father. Speaking from experience, the man had this to say to his new son-in-law, “a man who gives in when he is in the wrong […]
Freedom Isn’t Free!
Have you ever tried to register for an email or social networking account? Chances are your first few choices of usernames had already been taken up by someone else. Naturally, you would end up with silly usernames like “HunnyBunny” or “VinnyPeach”, which my colleagues have recently informed me, were slightly suggestive in nature. If I […]
Bulletproofing Ideas?
“Beneath this mask there is more than flesh; beneath this mask there is an idea; and ideas are bulletproof,” said the masked vigilante in the movie “V for Vendetta” before snapping the neck of a corrupt politician. I was acting out the final fight sequence the other day (note to self: must get a life!), […]
The Next Generation Of Offensive Trademarks
By Lydia Rhanakumar Disclaimer: Some words in this article may offend the sensitivities of certain individuals. Please exercise discretion when reading. Callipygian. Intrigued? Well, you should be – the word means “having well-shaped buttocks” and is a registered trademark in the US! Now for those of you whose curiosity was aroused by the said word, […]
Santa Cola: Trademarking People
“Did you know Santa was invented by Coca-Cola? He’s actually a trademark of Coca-Cola, that’s why he’s always dressed in red and white, it’s the corporate colour,” I was told by a teenager recently. Naturally, my first reaction was to shrug it off as the wild imaginings of a precocious anti-establishment pubescent boy whose parents […]