For those who may be interested, here are
some photos from the WIPO Int'l Seminar on IP and Development.
First, this is the rear of the main auditorium, showing the translators' offices, where they, well, sit and translate. Below the translators' windows is some sort of sculpture/fresco that encircles the rear of the room.
Next, Martin Khor. Now, I've blogged about Martin before. Martin is an artist of distortion and misrepresentation. Over the course of the 2 day Seminar, I heard Martin at least three times use as an example an alleged patent on "how to make a sandwich." Martin uses this example to argue that patent protection is grossly overdone, and from there it doesn't take him long to get to there shouldn't be any IP protection at all. So why don't we caption this photo "Martin Khor and his tiresome sandwich patent illustration." If he wasn't talking about that darned sandwich at the time, he soon would.
Prabuddha Ganguli from India is an IP proponent who became my hero when he here explained to Martin Khor that if someone granted a patent for how to make a sandwich, it was simply an example of a bad patent, not an indictment of the entire IP system. But I predict we haven't heard the last from Martin about the sandwich patent.
By the way, Prabuddha is a great guy. I had lunch with him on Tuesday, and he definitely gets IP. Though he thinks reverse engineering is R&D. I tried to explain that reverse engineering is an important process, but that it is reverse engineering, not R&D. I'm not sure I convinced him.
Here's just a misc. scene from the Seminar. I named the photo "misc scene."
Here's "scene2." I work hard at these photo names.
Here's "scene3." You wouldn't believe how long it took me to come up with that one.
This was fun. These IP skeptic folks are so transparent in their agenda. Here a panelist actually proposes changing the name of WIPO to suit her personal agenda. She thinks international organizations should completely reorient their functions to suit her. She's so modest . . . yet somehow morally superior to the rest of us.
This is the President Wilson hotel, taken from the jetty I was on in the pictures that follow. A better hotel than the Noga Hilton.
Finally, a travellogue of my Sunday afternoon at the lake. It was hard work, but somebody had to do it. Bear in mind that, 3 weeks before, it was bitterly cold in Geneva. But on this Sunday, it was 86 degrees, sunny and mild. The Genevans came out in force. And I was there to document it. And to get a sunburn.
I was looking at the tour boat. Honest. Coolest tour boat you ever saw.
First, this is the rear of the main auditorium, showing the translators' offices, where they, well, sit and translate. Below the translators' windows is some sort of sculpture/fresco that encircles the rear of the room.
Next, Martin Khor. Now, I've blogged about Martin before. Martin is an artist of distortion and misrepresentation. Over the course of the 2 day Seminar, I heard Martin at least three times use as an example an alleged patent on "how to make a sandwich." Martin uses this example to argue that patent protection is grossly overdone, and from there it doesn't take him long to get to there shouldn't be any IP protection at all. So why don't we caption this photo "Martin Khor and his tiresome sandwich patent illustration." If he wasn't talking about that darned sandwich at the time, he soon would.
Prabuddha Ganguli from India is an IP proponent who became my hero when he here explained to Martin Khor that if someone granted a patent for how to make a sandwich, it was simply an example of a bad patent, not an indictment of the entire IP system. But I predict we haven't heard the last from Martin about the sandwich patent.
By the way, Prabuddha is a great guy. I had lunch with him on Tuesday, and he definitely gets IP. Though he thinks reverse engineering is R&D. I tried to explain that reverse engineering is an important process, but that it is reverse engineering, not R&D. I'm not sure I convinced him.
Here's just a misc. scene from the Seminar. I named the photo "misc scene."
Here's "scene2." I work hard at these photo names.
Here's "scene3." You wouldn't believe how long it took me to come up with that one.
This was fun. These IP skeptic folks are so transparent in their agenda. Here a panelist actually proposes changing the name of WIPO to suit her personal agenda. She thinks international organizations should completely reorient their functions to suit her. She's so modest . . . yet somehow morally superior to the rest of us.
This is the President Wilson hotel, taken from the jetty I was on in the pictures that follow. A better hotel than the Noga Hilton.
Finally, a travellogue of my Sunday afternoon at the lake. It was hard work, but somebody had to do it. Bear in mind that, 3 weeks before, it was bitterly cold in Geneva. But on this Sunday, it was 86 degrees, sunny and mild. The Genevans came out in force. And I was there to document it. And to get a sunburn.
I was looking at the tour boat. Honest. Coolest tour boat you ever saw.