Microbiome, a microorganism that creates health

 

It’s known that about 40 trillion microorganisms exist in our body. In other words, much more microorganisms live in our body than the cells that make up our body. The fact that there are so many microorganisms living in our bodies is proof that they play an important role in our bodies. Recently, research and technology development of ‘microbiome’ using such a large number of microorganisms is active. Today, we will learn about microbiome, a microorganism that opens a new future for health and beauty.

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Germs as medicine, a microbiome,

Microbiome, a term that combines microorganisms and ecosystems refers to microorganisms living in the human body or their genetic information, and is called the ‘second genome’. The microbiome can analyze the relationship between the principle of production of beneficial and harmful bacteria and diseases, and is widely used in recent drug development and research on treatments for incurable diseases. We can say that it is a germ that becomes a medicine.

The microbiome that unlocks the secrets of my health,

The field in which the microbiome is most actively researched is the health and medical industries. The microbiome is the ‘first genome’, which is a collection of various microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses in the body, and plays a very important function in promoting health and treating diseases. In fact, many pharmaceutical companies, universities, and medical research institutes are working hard on technology research and patent filing using the microbiome.

Let's take a look at the technology Korea's CJ Bioscience has been developing,

CJ Bioscience paid attention to the anti-cancer effect of the microbiome. The anti-cancer effect of suppressing the formation and proliferation of cancer tumors was confirmed in the main microorganism called 'Faecalibacterium' in the intestine and an anti-cancer composition was developed using this.

wipsglobal.com
KR10-2021-0149007,
Titled, "Faecalibacterium sp. and anti-cancer composition comprising the same'

University industry-academia cooperation foundations are also active in treatment research using microbiome. The Catholic University of Korea Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation is researching microbiome technology to improve rheumatoid arthritis. They have confirmed that a microbiome cell strain called ' Akkermansia muciniphila' reduces the index and induction rate of rheumatoid arthritis and also inhibits joint and cartilage damage.

wipsglobal.com
KR10-2023-0105320,
Titled, 'Microbiome composition for the treatment of
metabolic disorders rheumatoid arthritis

 The microbiome can also be used for health information and analysis. Macrogen, a genome analysis company, has developed a method to provide a health information and analysis device using microbiome. This analysis device consists of an input device that receives metagenome data on the microbial community possessed by the subject and a microbial information storage device constituting the microbial community, and generates health information of the subject. More accurate health information can be obtained by using this analysis device that tells the result of the microbiome analysis.

wipsglobal.com
KR10-2492977,
Titled, 'Provind method for health information based on
microbiome and analysis apparatus.

The microbiome that completes my skin,

Cosmetics and beauty industries starts to pay attention to microbiome. As research results have revealed that it is effective in skin regeneration and wound healing with its excellent cell regeneration ability, domestic and foreign cosmetics and beauty companies are paying attention to the microbiome and are researching and developing it. Amorepacific, Korea's leading beauty company, has also developed a skin age prediction method using microbiome. This method accurately predicts skin age by amplifying the sequences of two or more microorganisms, such as Proteobacteria and Cutibacterium, which are a type of microbiome, from the skin microorganisms taken from the subject.

wipsglobal.com
KR10-2021-0116907
Titled, 'Method for predicting skin age using microbiome'

Cosmax, another Korean beauty company, has also developed a cosmetic composition using microbiome. Cosmax has created a skin moisturizing composition by culturing Streptococcus infantis, a type of microbiome. Anti-aging substances in Streptococcus infantis are said to have excellent skin barrier recovery and skin barrier maintenance effects.

wipsglobal.com
KR10-2020-0057822
Titled, 'Composition for strengthening skin barrier, moisturizing skin or anti-aging'

Cosmax is also very serious about microbiome. They’ve lauched the microbiome platform for the first time in the world. It is said that this platform will be equipped with a system that comprehensively analyzes skin environmental factors with national or racial differences such as Korea, the United States, and China, and includes genetic information. In addition, Cosmax recently signed a joint research agreement on microbiome technology with L'Oreal, a global beauty group in France, and will focus on developing and researching cosmetic ingredients derived from new skin microbiome strains.

 Also, if the skin is healthy, hair loss, which is a common concern of modern people, cannot be left out. Hair loss may be one of the common signs of aging, but an unhealthy scalp and hair can also cause hair loss.

The microbiome may also contribute to hair loss treatment. Aheads, a Korean company that develops hair loss shampoo, has developed a composition using mineral ingredients and microbiome. The shampoo is said to help prevent hair loss by mixing complex biotics containing probiotics and prebiotics familiar as lactic acid bacteria and mineral ionized water collected from deep sea water.

wipsglobal.com
KR10-2021-0073941
Titled, 'Cosmetic composition for improving hair and head skin for alleviating
hair loss symptoms comprising mineral ingredients and biotics material

 A healthy life brought by the ‘special bacteria’ microbiome,

So far, we have learned about the microbiome that shapes our health. It was found that the microbiome is relatively stable compared to existing synthetic drugs and has a high possibility of success in developing new drugs, so it has suitability and advantages as medicine and cosmetics.

The reason why the microbiome is getting more and more attention is probably the potential of the microbiome as a treatment. We hope that the microbiome will become a ‘special germ’ that realizes our healthy life through continuous research and development.

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[International Briefing] NO, WIPO

 

NORWAY

Norwegian Government Fines Meta for Privacy Infringement

 On August 8, 2023, the Norwegian government imposed a fine on Meta for infringement of privacy, Reuters reported.

 In 2019, German regulatory authorities ordered Meta not to collect personal information from platforms such as Facebook and Instagram without the user's 'separate' prior consent for use in advertising sales. In response, Meta filed a lawsuit with the German court, saying it was an excessive measure. The court requested the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the highest judicial body in Europe, for a judgment. In response, on July 4, 2023, the Court made a decision that there was no problem with the German authorities being involved in Meta's privacy infringement issue.

 On 4 January 2023, the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) fined Facebook and Instagram respectively, saying that Meta's personalized advertising business violated the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)1).

  The Norwegian data protection authority, Datatilsynet, argued that Meta could not collect data of the actual location of Norwegian users and use it for personalized advertising without permission. As a result, Meta didn’t fulfill the obligation that they had to prove that the issue was resolved with the Norwegian regulatory authorities by August 4, 2023 for the same.

 Meta said that they plans to seek "consent" from users in the European Union (EU) to tackle the problem of personalized advertising, and then allow social media services to target ads based on what users see. Regarding this, Tobias Judin, Head of International Division at Datatilsynet argues that it is not possible to know exactly how the 'consent' mechanism will be implemented, and that it is not justified to violate people's rights every day until the mechanism is implemented, so only seeking 'consent' is not sufficient.

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 Datatilsynet plans to fine Meta 1 million kroner per day from Aug. 14, 2023 to Nov. 4, 2023 for privacy infringement.

 The decision could be referred to the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) to make it permanent, with the possibility of extending the scope of the decision to other parts of Europe.

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1) The DPC judged that the 'preliminary explanation to the user' as stipulated in the EU's General Personal Information Protection Act (GDPR) was not sufficiently done with respect to basic matters such as the purpose and legal basis for obtaining usage information (source) : Reuters).

< Original source of this post > 

 : https://www.kiip.re.kr/board/trend/view.do?bd_gb=trend&bd_cd=1&bd_item=0&po_item_gb=&po_no=22231

 

 

WIPO

World Intellectual Property Organization selects Sao Paulo, Brazil, as an innovation hotspots

 On Aug, 1, 2023, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) announced that the Brazilian city of ‘São Paulo’ was selected as an innovation hotspots1) and presented reasons and specific grounds. 

 São Paulo is a rich middle class in Brazil with cash grants, a minimum wage policy and various other social policies. More than half of Brazil's startups and unicorns have grown, and it is also a concentration of venture capital firms and large corporations.

What has made ‘São Paulo’s innovation hotspot successful?

(1) Leading in patenting

Sao Paulo recorded more than one-fifth of all Brazilian patent applications in both the International Patent Family (IPF) and the Brazilian National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI Brasil), It has a higher application volume than other regions such as Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and Santiago.

(2) Technological diversification

São Paulo's patent activity is spread across various technology fields. This technological diversity not only contributes to São Paulo's innovations combining knowledge and expertise from different fields, but also has the potential to lead to the creation of more complex and valuable technologies.

(3) Harnessing innovation networks

São Paulo plays the role of an intermediary in local innovation and a connecting channel between co-inventive networks. The concentration of multinational corporations in São Paulo facilitates knowledge transfer between regions and creates a dynamic link between domestic and multinational corporations to carry out cooperation in the patent sector.

(4) Driving local initiatives

São Paulo has two initiatives supporting industrial and technological development: Desenvolve-SP and Technology Park System (SPTec). ‘Desenvolve-SP’ is an initiative that supports economic development policies, and ‘SPTec’ corresponds to an initiative that promotes business synergy and attracts technology investment by providing research and development opportunities to companies.

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1) “Innovation hotspot” refers to the high-density innovation regions of the world that collaborate to push the global technology frontier. Global innovation networks (GIN) are formed based on innovation regions, which expand the potential scope and scale of innovation activities. (Source: WIPO).

< Original source of this post >

 : https://www.kiip.re.kr/board/trend/view.do?bd_gb=trend&bd_cd=1&bd_item=0&po_item_gb=&currentPage=2&po_no=22225

 

Insight Plus, entire process of patent analysis at once!

 

In today's competitive market, the importance of R&D is growing in order to constantly lead innovation and stay ahead of the competition. R&D can stay informed of new developments and make strategic decisions about where to focus staff and investments by tracking competitors' patenting activity, including where patents have been filed. In this point of view, one of the most necessary tasks for effective R&D is patent trend analysis.

Patent trend analysis is an important task for R&D to identify new trends, potential opportunities, and leading indicators to determine where to focus manpower and resources with more information. For this important task, wrong tools can make you miss opportunities or poor decisions. Then, what is the right tool? The right tool that should get answers to what is currently happening in the market or R&D area, what effects it has, and how recent events are changing patent trends, in other words, very helpful for quick and accurate R&D portfolio management and decision-making.

Features that your tool should have for patent trend analysis:

· Comprehensive coverage of contents : extensive and reliable patent information from multiple jurisdictions

· Technical classification: high accuracy of specific result

· Competitive Intelligence: Patent reviews and related information based on close scans to identify potential areas of competition and collaboration.

· Reliability of Results: Collect and transmit analysis results to share with key stakeholders.

WIPS recognized the importance of analyzing patent trends based on years of customer research and needs, and launched an analysis tool, Insight Plus that enables the entire process from automated classification for patented technology to statistics – analysis – reports.

Insight Plus is a tool that can easily handle data through AI automatic technical classification on the web by reflecting the practical analysis process, apply the latest patent information, and use quantitative analysis and report at once. It is a great advantage that there is no difference in the quality of work from beginners to experts as the whole process is handled only by the system.

Then, let's take a look at Insight Plus from now on.

wipsglobal.com> Insight Plus

1. Create a new project

Projects can be created by importing a list of search results or My Folder or by uploading an Excel file. Up to 5 projects can be created, and 20,000 cases can be imported per project.

wipsglobal.com> Insight Plus

2. AI automatic classification

The imported population is provided in the status of deduplicated registered documents and patent family group. For a population that has not been classified, tech tree can be created through automatic clustering. Depending on the learning literature classified by the user, AI automatic classification can be performed or classification can be performed by selecting similarity(%).

(*AI automatic classification option- a certain degree of similarity or all of the unclassified documents)

When the classification is complete, we can see the result of each trained documents and AI classified documents.

wipsglobal.com> Insight Plus

When AI automatic classification is completed, the classification value (%) of 3 depths is displayed for each document. If it’s judged to be misclassified, user can drag it to another technical category and correct.

On the left : the tech tree

In the center : prior arts classified by AI

On the right : ‘View Details’ page where you can see the bibliography, abstract, claims, description of the invention of the selected document.

At the top : extra detail features for selected document – Sorting by similarity, Excel Download, Save as My Folder

wipsglobal.com> Insight Plus

There are several additional features to review the classified documents - Filter, Keyword clouds, My family applicant, Timeline (save work time).

With the keyword cloud, you can check the distribution of major keywords or the documents of selected keywords of interest,

And can shorten the time for analysis work by editing applicants or grouping applicants.

All work history is saved on the timeline, so you can go to any point later.

wipsglobal.com> Insight Plus

3. Create a chart

Statistic charts are generated when automatic classification is run. The target of the chart analysis is the entire documents (not a patent family group).

In the Charts tab, you can check itemized charts for all documents in the project.

Individual editing such as chart type, data range or section setting, legend, display, etc. can be done for each chart, and chart images can be saved and downloaded in Excel format.

wipsglobal.com> Insight Plus

It also provides charts for various perspectives.

· Country Perspective Analysis – Technology development by country, domestic and foreign analysis to identify the leading country in the relevant technology

· Company perspective analysis – status of securing technology of top applicants, identify key players based on market entry status

· Technology Perspective Analysis – Predict the future R&D direction by identifying detailed technology trends and whitespaces

Moreover, custom perspective analysis for each user to make charts by themselves.

wipsglobal.com> Insight Plus

4. Make a report

After reviewing the statistical analysis, next step is to make a report.

Select the format (WORD, PPTX) first and select chart items for quantitative analysis. You can select a chart that can show the analysis of detailed items corresponding to the summary of application trends, country perspectives, company perspectives, and technology perspectives.

wipsglobal.com> Insight Plus

On the left, you can see a list of items for each chart you selected, and you can change the order of the charts, or change the number or layout of charts displayed per page.

With style settings, you can create a headline, text, and chart titles that would be suitable for the layout.

wipsglobal.com> Insight Plus

Detailed charts for each item can be edited or modified by changing settings such as chart type, data range and range setting, and sorting, and you can also check the statistics list. The date of saving the data is displayed under the chart, and if there is a data update in the future, click the button of ‘Update data’ to reflect the latest data on the chart.

wipsglobal.com> Insight Plus

As a final step, the report you’ve worked is able to be made as a web report and can be shared through the URL address after setting a password.

 So far, briefly we have looked at Insight Plus, newly launched by WIPS Global. Easy and convenient analysis tool using AI automatic technology classification.

Try Insight Plus for complex and tedious patent analysis tasks. 

You can contact, global@wips.co.kr for free trial!

 

Where Cupid's arrows go? Neighboring Rights of 'Fifty Fifty's case

 

‘Neighboring Rights’

In the era of content flood, a lot of attention is being paid to content producers as well as their rights and income. It has become a rite of passage in entertainment programs to ask about the copyrights they own when creators such as composers and lyricists appear on TV. The copyright commission they receive has also become a hot topic on the Internet. Now, copyright has become a ‘public-friendly keyword’ that anyone living in this era would have thought about at least once.

Recently, ‘neighboring rights’, which is similar to copyright but unfamiliar, is attracting new attention. A while ago, the legal battle between the rookie group Fifty Fifty, who debuted with the song ‘Cupid’ and hit the Billboards simultaneously, the agency ‘Attract’, and the contract-free ‘The Givers’ became a public issue. From now on, let's look at 'neighboring rights', which are a little unfamiliar to us.

clipartkorea.co.kr

Do singers and producers have copyrights?

YES! A singer, a composer, a lyricist and production company, four of all have ‘neighboring rights’.

‘What is Neighboring Rights?’

Neighboring rights, as the term implies, are rights adjacent to copyright. It is a right given to ‘PERFORMERS’, which collectively refers to people who express creative works such as singers, performers, and actors, as well as conductors and directors who direct them. Neighboring rights are granted not only to performers, but also to record producers and broadcasting companies.

Specific Rights of Neighboring Rights 

<Source: Excerpts from ‘Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’ on Naver >

Neighboring rights in the “Fifty Fifty” case

▶Summary ;

A K-POP group, Fifty Fifty’s song called ‘CUPID’, which gained a lot of popularity at home and abroad, was composed by a creator called ‘Swedish Students’. Mr. Jeon Hong-Jung, CEO of Attract (Fifty Fifty's agency) paid about $9,000 to the creator and bought the song. However, various suspicious were raised as it was revealed that the copyright of song ‘CUPID’ was owned by the service company ‘The Givers’ (which is not the agency). Let's look at the arguments on both sides.

Hongjoon Jeon, CEO (Attract) - ‘The Givers’ did not provide any information about CUPID’s copyright.

When the CEO of the agency came out, suspicions are rising that the copyright fee was included in the original fee of 9,000 dollars, but the service company ‘The Givers’ stole the copyright without consultation.

Ahn Seong-il, CEO (The Givers) – What the agency paid 9,000 dollars is not the 'copyright' of the person who created the work, but the 'neighboring right' granted to the record producer, and ‘The Givers’ does not have any rights to neighboring copyright. In addition, ‘The Givers’ claimed that it’s the legitimate copyright they owned by purchase from the composers (Swedish Students) with contract for transfer of rights through a legal process. Moreover, they protested that they have a separate invoice that proves the legitimate copyrights, not a song fee.

What caused the controversy?

Currently, Attract only owns ‘neighboring rights’ that record producers can have, instead of ‘copyrights’. Neighboring copyrights of Attract seem to be quite similar to copyrights, which are said to have been held by a service company through a legal process. Then, it seems possible to exercise the right to CUPID even if you have only one of the two, but why is there such a fierce battle over the name of the right and the owner?

clipartkorea.co.kr

Copyright v Neighboring Rights

Neighboring rights, like copyright, include the contents of property rights and personality rights. However, it doesn’t have the 'Adaptation Right' (the right to create a new work based on the copyrighted work by retranslation, arrangement, etc.) belonging to the property rights of the copyright owner and the 'Public Exhibition Right’ (the right to decide whether to disclose to a notary) corresponding to personality rights. Furthermore, personality rights are granted only to ‘performers’ and do not apply to record producers and broadcasting companies.

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In South Korea's case, even in terms of the duration of rights, copyright is maintained until the ‘lifetime period of the copyright holder + 70 years after death’. However, neighboring rights can be protected for 70 years from the time of performance (performer), 70 years from the time of publishing music (music producer), and 50 years from the time of broadcasting (broadcasting business). This is a much shorter than the copyright protection period. Even in terms of the level of rights, it can be said that the ‘right to claim compensation’ held by neighboring right holders does not reach the overall right to the copyright owner’s share of the work.

In other words, when considering the compensation and added value that can be obtained through the range of rights, it can be said that copyright has a wider and greater influence. Therefore, if both sides can acquire two rights, who gets the copyright will be an important issue.

The Future of Neighboring Rights

We have looked at neighboring rights so far. With the development of culture and technology, a large amount of various contents are produced, and social issues and disputes surrounding copyright as well as neighboring rights are expected to increase in the future, as in the Fifty Fifty case. In fact, the issue of ‘Should neighboring rights be granted to publishers as well as recognizing the rights of music companies’ has been discussed for a long time. Recently, the question of whether an AI cover song using the original singer's voice infringes on the neighboring copyright of the original singer has become a hot potato in society. We’re going to have to pay attention to the neighboring copyrights how it will change and develop in the future.

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<References and Excerpts>

1. [Column] Rights Adjacent to Copyright: Neighboring Rights: Some references from Patent News

2. Article, “Dugiverse purchased 5ft 5ft Cupid’s copyright and entered into a contract through a legal process” – excerpts and references from Ten Asia (hankyung.com), https://tenasia.hankyung.com/music/article/2023070546364

3. Naver Blog, ‘Neighboring Rights that Publishers Should Know’: https://blog.naver.com/parkisu007/222950119861