THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) may be interpreted to include generic drugs as counterfeit, thus excluding many people from life saving drugs and protecting the interests of Multinational drug companies and their patented products. And it will make Compulsory Licensing of patented drugs, as recently done in India, all the more difficult. Patented drug owners have fought back to protect their investment in research. What will the generic drug industry and governments do next?

FARCEBOOK

FARCE OVER FACEBOOK

A number of things went wrong with the Facebook IPO and again retail investors come off worse than the big institutions. Caveat Emptor. Facebook has huge potential with its user base of hundreds of millions which is not yet realised. But this IPO shows the failings of a financial market run by big institutions for the benefit of big institutions and where concern for the small investor is missing.

MOBILE INDIANS

In India, sales of Mobile handsets has increased against the global trend of a slowdown according to Gartner. Indians are embracing the smartphone, and the latest technology, with a vengeance. Makers like Samsung and Nokia are doing very well in India. There is still plenty of growth in the Indian market. The 4G mobile phone market is the latest offering in India with the telecoms companies gearing up to try and get consumers to take this up while the 2G scam still lingers on.

ALGORHYTHM - ALGO THIS WAY, YOU GO THAT WAY

Algorithm Trading, where computers using mathematical algorithms put in trade orders in microseconds, is here to stay. Stock markets are now dancing to the beat of algorithms. Mathematicians have become the new masters of the universe, in whose hands the fate of billions of people rests. Faulty algorithms have caused some problems in some exchanges and financial institutions are in search of the Holy Grail - the perfect algorithm.

TAKE A CHILL PILL

Compulsory Licensing of patented drugs in India has sent a chill down the spine of foreign drug companies who will see this move as infringing their intellectual property rights (IPR) for which they have spent huge sums in developing. Supporters of compulsory licensing will see this as a victory for improved healthcare and consumers in terms of cheaper drugs as drug companies have been overcharging for their products at the expense of lives of people who cannot afford the prices. Battle lines are being drawn in this fight for control of IPR.

TRIPing with India's Drug Addiction

This year, the patent office in India for the first time, granted a licence to Natco Pharma to make a copy of Bayer Healthcare AG’s cancer drug Nexavar after considering that the drug was not available at a reasonably affordable price. Is this a victory for consumers or will this lead to further litigation and possible protectionist trade wars? India said that this decision was in accord with TRIPs rights. We will have to wait and see if another such decision is made by the Indian Patent Office in relation to another patented drug and who has the greater lobbying power.

COMMUNICATIONS CONUNDRUM

Plans to monitor all Calls, Emails, Texts and Website Visits of all UK citizens is being proposed by the UK Government according to the BBC News. Does this amount to a Snoopers' Charter? Will appropriate safeguards be put in place? You have the usual arguments for and against such plans. It is, I think, a  foregone conclusion that such plans will eventually come into force whether you agree with them or not.

PATENTLY ABSURD?

It was reported in the Times of India that Twitter is trying to patent one of the most basic features on the iPhone, namely, that of  'User Interface Mechanics' or the touch screen which are now the norm on mobile phones. Would such a patent application succeed? I wrote a blog earlier: Patent Wars about the search for control by multinational corporations of technology. This is the Holy Grail, these days, to gain control over some new technology that is commonly used worldwide.

LIVING OFFILNE

Is it possible to live in any large city in the world without having access to the Internet or having a mobile phone? Living offline and not being connected through mobile devices is becoming more and more difficult in any urban environment. Financial institutions are trying to move more and more customers away from old-fashioned cheques and to online and mobile transactions. Interacting with state and utilities companies is now being geared towards online interaction.Newspapers are moving online. Marketing and selling is slowly being moved more online. What will the offline world be like in another 10 years?

INDIAN IDENTITY PARADE

India plans to have a Universal ID with biometric data (including iris scans and fingerprints) for the whole of its population of approximately 1.2 Billion people. Bureaucracy appears to be getting in the way as usual and opponents are putting forward the usual arguments against such an invasion of privacy, civil liberties and the security of the computer systems used to store the data. Will anyone be watching Big Brother while Big Brother is watching us?

DIGITAL DIALOGUE

Digital Dialogue from the DigitalAsian on Twitter

MUMBAI SKYLINE WITH THE PARSI ZOROASTRIAN TOWER OF SILENCE IN THE BACKGROUND - Photo

MUMBAI SKYLINE WITH THE PARSI ZOROASTRIAN TOWER OF SILENCE IN THE BACKGROUND - Photos from India - IdeaIndia.com Photo Library

Parsi Zoroastrians in Mumbai still use the traditional method of vultures in their death rites in the Tower of Silence which is hidden from view by the greenery in the photo above.

INTANGIBLES

In this digital age it seems that intangibles such as intellectual property and brands are becoming more important online. This can be seen by the patent wars taking place between corporations fighting for dominance in the digital world. The rewards are so great for the winners that this is becoming an all or nothing battle to find the most popular technologies that people will use to access products and services via the Internet. Whether it is through a tablet computer or mobile handset or their TV at home, digital delivery of digital products and services is the way things are heading. The owners of the intellectual property, that allows people to access the services they want in the way that they want, will dominate. The intangibles are what count in this digital age.