Information Systems and the Environment


Book Description

Information technology is a powerful tool for meeting environmental objectives and promoting sustainable development. This collection of papers by leaders in industry, government, and academia explores how information technology can improve environmental performance by individual firms, collaborations among firms, and collaborations among firms, government agencies, and academia. Information systems can also be used by nonprofit organizations and the government to inform the public about broad environmental issues and environmental conditions in their neighborhoods. Several papers address the challenges to information management posed by the explosive increase in information and knowledge about environmental issues and potential solutions, including determining what information is environmentally relevant and how it can be used in decision making. In addition, case studies are described and show how industry is using information systems to ensure sustainable development and meet environmental standards. The book also includes examples from the public sector showing how governments use information knowledge systems to disseminate "best practices" beyond big firms to small businesses, and from the world of the Internet showing how knowledge is shared among environmental advocates and the general public.




Law of Raw Data


Book Description

Data, in its raw or unstructured form, has become an important and valuable economic asset, lending it the sobriquet of ‘the oil of the twenty-first century’. Clearly, as intellectual property, raw data must be legally defined if not somehow protected to ensure that its access and re-use can be subject to legal relations. As legislators struggle to develop a settled legal regime in this complex area, this indispensable handbook will offer a careful and dedicated analysis of the legal instruments and remedies, both existing and potential, that provide such protection across a wide variety of national legal systems. Produced under the auspices of the International Association for the Protection of International Property (AIPPI), more than forty of the association’s specialists from twenty-three countries worldwide contribute national chapters on the relevant law in their respective jurisdictions. The contributions thoroughly explain how each country approaches such crucial matters as the following: if there is any intellectual property right available to protect raw data; the nature of such intellectual property rights that exist in unstructured data; contracts on data and which legal boundaries stand in the way of contract drafting; liability for data products or services; and questions of international private law and cross-border portability. Each country’s rules concerning specific forms of data – such as data embedded in household appliances and consumer goods, criminal offence data, data relating to human genetics, tax and bank secrecy, medical records, and clinical trial data – are described, drawing on legislation, regulation, and case law. A matchless legal resource on one of the most important raw materials of the twenty-first century, this book provides corporate counsel, practitioners and policymakers working in the field of intellectual property rights, and concerned academics with both a broad-based global overview on emerging legal strategies in the protection of unstructured data and the latest information on existing legislation and regulation in the area.




Proprietary Rights and Data


Book Description

Examines allegations that small business concerns are required to supply information to prime contractors or to the Government including invaluable privately owned technological data, which is subsequently made available to other bidders and contractors.




Personal Data in Competition, Consumer Protection and Intellectual Property Law


Book Description

This book analyses the legal approach to personal data taken by different fields of law. An increasing number of business models in the digital economy rely on personal data as a key input. In exchange for sharing their data, online users benefit from personalized and innovative services. But companies’ collection and use of personal data raise questions about privacy and fundamental rights. Moreover, given the substantial commercial and strategic value of personal data, their accumulation, control and use may raise competition concerns and negatively affect consumers. To establish a legal framework that ensures an adequate level of protection of personal data while at the same time providing an open and level playing field for businesses to develop innovative data-based services is a challenging task.With this objective in mind and against the background of the uniform rules set by the EU General Data Protection Regulation, the contributions to this book examine the significance and legal treatment of personal data in competition law, consumer protection law, general civil law and intellectual property law. Instead of providing an isolated analysis of the different areas of law, the book focuses on both synergies and tensions between the different legal fields, exploring potential ways to develop an integrated legal approach to personal data.







Big Data and Global Trade Law


Book Description

An exploration of the current state of global trade law in the era of Big Data and AI. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.




Registries for Evaluating Patient Outcomes


Book Description

This User’s Guide is intended to support the design, implementation, analysis, interpretation, and quality evaluation of registries created to increase understanding of patient outcomes. For the purposes of this guide, a patient registry is an organized system that uses observational study methods to collect uniform data (clinical and other) to evaluate specified outcomes for a population defined by a particular disease, condition, or exposure, and that serves one or more predetermined scientific, clinical, or policy purposes. A registry database is a file (or files) derived from the registry. Although registries can serve many purposes, this guide focuses on registries created for one or more of the following purposes: to describe the natural history of disease, to determine clinical effectiveness or cost-effectiveness of health care products and services, to measure or monitor safety and harm, and/or to measure quality of care. Registries are classified according to how their populations are defined. For example, product registries include patients who have been exposed to biopharmaceutical products or medical devices. Health services registries consist of patients who have had a common procedure, clinical encounter, or hospitalization. Disease or condition registries are defined by patients having the same diagnosis, such as cystic fibrosis or heart failure. The User’s Guide was created by researchers affiliated with AHRQ’s Effective Health Care Program, particularly those who participated in AHRQ’s DEcIDE (Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions About Effectiveness) program. Chapters were subject to multiple internal and external independent reviews.




Property Rights in Blood, Genes and Data


Book Description

Taking a case and context driven approach and backing up traditional legal analysis with historical analogies, web-surveys and practical experience, "Jasper Bovenberg" provides counter-intuitive, provocative and practical answers and recommendations for such controversial issues as how to share the benefits of DNA research, whether or not to recognize personal property rights in bodily material and access to biomedical datasets in academia.




Bits of Power


Book Description

Since Galileo corresponded with Kepler, the community of scientists has become increasingly international. A DNA sequence is as significant to a researcher in Novosibirsk as it is to one in Pasadena. And with the advent of electronic communications technology, these experts can share information within minutes. What are the consequences when more bits of scientific data cross more national borders and do it more swiftly than ever before? Bits of Power assesses the state of international exchange of data in the natural sciences, identifying strengths, weaknesses, and challenges. The committee makes recommendations about access to scientific data derived from public funding. The volume examines: Trends in the electronic transfer and management of scientific data. Pressure toward commercialization of scientific data, including the economic aspects of government dissemination of the data. The implications of proposed changes to intellectual property laws and the role of scientists in shaping legislative and legal solutions. Improving access to scientific data by and from the developing world. Bits of Power explores how these issues have been addressed in the European Community and includes examples of successful data transfer activities in the natural sciences. The book will be of interest to scientists and scientific data managers, as well as intellectual property rights attorneys, legislators, government agencies, and international organizations concerned about the electronic flow of scientific data.




Intellectual Property Law and the Fourth Industrial Revolution


Book Description

The convergence of various fields of technology is changing the fabric of society. Big data and data mining, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and blockchains are already affecting business models and leading to a social and economic transformations that have been dubbed by the fourth industrial revolution. Focusing on the framework of intellectual property rights, the contributions to this book analyse how the technical background of this massive transformation affects intellectual property law and policy and how intellectual property is likely to change in order to serve the society. Well-known authorities in intellectual property law offer in-depth chapters on the roles in this revolution of such concepts and actualities as the following: power and role of data as the raw material of the revolution; artificial inventors and creators; trade marks in the dimension of avatars and fictional game characters; concept of inventive step change where the person skilled in the art is virtual; data rights versus intellectual property rights; transparency in the context of big data; interrelations of data, technology transfer and antitrust; self-executable and ‘smart’ contracts; redefining the balance among exclusive rights, development, technology transfer and contracts; and proprietary information versus the public domain. The chapters also provide complete analyses of how big data changes decision-making processes, how sustainable development requires redefinition, how technology transfer is re-emerging as technology diffusion and how the role of contracts and blockchain as instruments of monitoring and enforcement are being defined. Offering the first in-depth legal commentary and analysis of this highly topical issue, the book approaches the fourth industrial revolution from the perspectives of technical background, society and law. Its authoritative analysis of how the data-driven economy influences innovation and technology transfer is without peer. It will be welcomed by practicing lawyers in intellectual property rights and competition law, as well as by academics, think tanks and policymakers.