Category: News and Views

Canadian Supreme Court Invalidates Viagra Patent | Wired.com

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The Supreme Court of Canada is invalidating Pfizer’s patent on the popular erectile-dysfunction drug Viagra for failing to openly disclose the drug’s active ingredient, as required by Canadian intellectual property law.

The 7-0 decision Thursday to open Viagra to competition ahead of its 2014 patent expiration underscores a major difference in how the Canadian and United States courts are interpreting patent laws.

Both nations have so-called “patent bargains” that require the disclosure of a drug’s chemical compounds in enough detail so that scientists can replicate it and learn from the invention, thus benefiting society. In exchange, the inventor, in this case Pfizer, gets the exclusive rights to market the invention for a limited period.

But “sufficiency of disclosure lies at the very heart of the patent system,” the Canadian high court ruled Thursday, and “adequate disclosure in the specification is a precondition for the granting of a patent.”

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Frankfurt Turns Offices to Homes | Bloomberg.com

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Vijay Vankadari, who has renovated Frankfurt apartment buildings for more than a decade, used a cheap and plentiful resource for his latest residential project in the city: old office buildings that businesses won’t touch.

Office-to-apartment conversions like Vankadari’s Grand- Westend 24 in the city center are growing in Germany’s financial capital, providing opportunities for landlords hard pressed to find corporate tenants for outdated buildings. Such projects will account for more than a fifth of the homes coming onto the market this year, city government data shows.

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Client Focus | Sent Her Way

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Bryn Jurkins has come up with an idea she thinks will be a hit with busy women. Sent Her Way is a service that ships women their feminine hygiene products monthly, taking away that sometimes last minute trip to the store.   Women can customize their tampon orders eliminating or increasing the quantity for a particular size, something not available when purchasing off the shelf. Add to this the convenience of having the product delivered to their door for a dollar more than they would pay in a CVS or Walgreens.

She came up with the idea while working in sales for a garment manufacturer in New York City. “Whatever you buy in the City you have to carry,” she explains, “So I would have my dry cleaning delivered, my dog food delivered. It’s amazing the things that you can get delivered to you.”

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24 Brilliant Beer Branding Designs | trendhunter.com

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Beer companies have started to reconsider how they approach beer branding and what that means to their bottle designs. Should a brand’s design be witty and interactive, colorful and vibrant, minimalistic and direct or original and retro? In order to win over the average consumer, these are questions that marketers and brand executives need to consider. Fortunately, several companies have made it a point to re-brand themselves and that means changing their bottle designs.

This collection of designs showcase beer companies that have used branding strategies like summer-themed graphics, bottle labels that feature a 12-part detective story, bottles designed in an elegant sleek shape and various other companies that are changing the ways in which we view and drink from a beer bottle.

Check Them Out.

Coke launches dance dance revolution in S. Korea with kiosk| kioskmarketplace.com

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The latest salvo in Coca-Cola’s battle for global supremacy recently launched in South Korea, not with a bang but with a pop song.

The soda behemoth’s latest viral video shows an inventive interactive digital out-of-home branding campaign using a kiosk, augmented reality and interactive digital signage.

Part of its global integrated “Open happiness'” campaign launched three years ago, the Coke dance machine grabs passersby attention with callouts from members of the South Korean boy band 2PM; shows viewers on-screen with the band members on a multiscreen video wall; and then gets them to dance along with the band, dispensing free Cokes to people who mimic the right moves.

See Video.

Air China Special Livery | airlinereporter.com

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When I was visiting Paine Field recently, I caught a glimpse of a special livery from Air China. Yesterday  the Boeing 777-300ER was delivered to the airline and Boeing shared some background information on the unique design.The aircraft displays 40 different smiling Chinese faces to represent the role that Chinese aviation has played in bringing China to the world.

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Jim Butz Interview | Peter Mehit

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Jim Butz has extensive business experience working as part of Bell Labs, AT&T and Lucent Technologies. Currently he is a Venture Partner at California Capital Partners, a merchant banking platform. His decades of experience includes mergers, acquisitions, strategic alliances, organizational development and operational improvement. He brings his vast experience to the local scene along with a fearless perspective of where we are and where we need to go.

Mehit: What is Cal Cap? What are you investing in?

Butz: California Capital Partners is a merchant banking platform. Most of the people who are involved with Cal Cap are pretty seasoned people and have been in equity investing for thirty, thirty-five years. Phil Smith, who is one of the managing directors in New York City actually put together Citibank’s first venture fund together forty years ago.

Martin Mansfield, of Pacific Ridge Capital, shutdown his business and joined Cal Cap. So now, we’re Series 7, FINRA compliant, he’s got Series 24 so he can manage ten other people doing deals. What we’ve mostly been focusing on recently is higher up the food chain with people who are looking for money from private equity sources.

We did sixteen investments since we started in 2006. We’ve done everything from pet pharmaceuticals to a beer company and everything in between.

We’re currently raising some money for some people to drill oil down in Texas. We also looking to put together a fund of funds to investigate intellectual property that’s held by large corporations.

Mehit: What qualities are you’re looking for?

Butz:  A promising return, because you’re really still looking at it the way you look at any venture, which are large returns in a short period of time. Everybody still looks for a 5 – 10x return in three to five years even though the average hold time on a venture backed company was at 9.6 years.

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Sustainable Store Design in Action | Starbucks.com

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I recently had the pleasure of cracking open my first built project for Starbucks: Reclamation Drive-Thru in Tukwila, Washington. This small project came at a perfect time here at Starbucks as we challenge ourselves to deliver LEED-certified stores across the US. Pending LEED certification, this project is just one step toward our goal of universally building all new company-owned stores to be LEED-certified Starbucks Stores. I wanted it to be green, thought provoking and sustainable – the sort of project that stirs chatter. I think we got it.

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