Volvo Blast Hit? Nepal Bernes … Piece Smokers Fume Over Patent

this link to a slice inwards the New York Times past times Stuart Elliott.

Microsoft Xbox has created for Volvo a novel interactive game called 'Volvo Drive for Life', which serves every bit a showcase for the Volvo nameplate, 3 Volvo models together with the longtime Volvo build identity every bit the machine designed amongst security foremost. Unlike most racing video games, which vantage players for speed, 'Volvo Drive for Life' encourages them to maintain judiciously past times taking them through a grooming course of teaching at the Volvo proving grounds inwards Gothenburg, Sweden, earlier sending them out on famous highways to induce spell avoiding accidents. This video game, which has an initial run of close 100,000 copies, also includes a "greatest hits" collection of celluloid from actual crash tests (Volvo was in 1 lawsuit famous for its advertisements involving examine crash dummies).

'Volvo Drive for Life' is said to hold out an illustration of a growing tendency known every bit advergaming, which brings together marketers together with game makers inwards an attempt to encourage consumers to pass fourth dimension playing amongst their advertising material. The advergaming tendency includes producing games that are played online or downloaded to a player's computer, similar those for Life Savers candy together with the Orbitz locomote service, every bit good every bit those that are played on video game systems sold past times Microsoft, Nintendo together with Sony.

simply loves the idea. Whether it makes people dear Volvo or detest it, there's simply a adventure that person mightiness larn the thought that it's a practiced thought to induce safely. Now, if that's a build message that gets through to consumers ...

Test Crash Dummies here and here


Nepal signs upwardly for Berne Convention

The mount kingdom of Nepal has announced that, amongst lawsuit from 6 Jan 2006, it volition hold out a fully-functioning fellow member of the Berne Union. This is bad intelligence for all international copyright infringers who have, upwardly till now, been routinely pillaging Nepalese copyright plant without fearfulness of retaliatory litigation. Nepal right away becomes the 160th fellow member of to ratify the Berne Convention.

Nepalese authors projection here
Nepal fine art together with prints here


Smokers fume over rumbled tax-dodge

Another IPKat friend, European Patent Attorney Edward Tomlinson (Frohwitter) has drawn his attending to a somewhat odd utilization of patent applications, buried inwards para.19 of Case C-197/04 Commission v Germany. What he constitute at that topographic point was a reference to Reemtsma's (West) patent PCT application WO0249462:

"As regards the application of the relevant provisions every bit defined to a higher house to the production ‘West Single Packs’, the Commission refers to the international patent application for ‘West Single Packs’ (published inwards accordance amongst the Patent Cooperation Treaty nether the championship ‘fine cutting unit of measurement pack’). According to that document, it is a production which offers consumers a straightforward way of easily making their ain cigarettes, which are comparable inwards every abide by to industrially-manufactured cigarettes, together with which also do goodness from the lower charge per unit of measurement of taxation on fine-cut tobacco. Therefore, the Commission considers that the criteria for the application of Article 4(1)(b) of Directive 95/59 are met inwards this instance together with that the products concerned, such every bit ‘West Single Packs’, must hold out classified inwards the category of cigarettes".

This simply goes to show, the Kat's informant observes, that some patentees peril including also much data inwards their patent specification.