Intellectual property in a post-pandemic future part I - The world has become more IP-intensive; Lexology, December 31, 2021

Bird & Bird LLP, Lexology; Intellectual property in a post-pandemic future part I - The world has become more IP-intensive

"The coronavirus pandemic surprised the world a couple of years ago and forced people to adapt to exceptional circumstances. At the start of this series of articles, the return to the “new normal” has already been canceled once due to the omicron variant, and the old saying about the certainty of change feels very concrete.

A great deal has also happened in the field of intellectual property assets during the pandemic. I will discuss these, perhaps to some degree surprising, changes in the following series of articles, the first part of which concerns IP protection activity and its effects during the coronavirus era. In the second part, I will proceed to address the IP cultures of businesses which are nowadays seen as an increasingly significant part of the IP strategies of corporations. The third and final section of the series is dedicated to IP issues regarding sustainable development. All the themes mentioned show that even in the field of IP rights, only change is permanent and succeeding in a changing IP field requires companies to adapt a considerably more active and conscious frame of mind."

Jonathan Nolan Responds To That Westworld Location Theory; Slashfilm.com, 10/17/16

Peter Sciretta, Slashfilm.com; Jonathan Nolan Responds To That Westworld Location Theory:

Minor spoilers re "Westworld" plot themes

[Kip Currier: Viewers of Season 1 of the popular new HBO series "Westworld"--a reimagined reboot of the 1973 film, based on Michael Crichton's eponymous novel--have increasingly seen the protect-at-all-costs value of Westworld's Intellectual Property, as well as privacy concerns. Showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy Nolan touch on these issues below:]

"In regards to the computer terminals where the Delos staff communicate to their loved ones back home, [Lisa Joy Nolan] says:

Regardless of where they are, the park is very, very vast, and you don’t rotate home often. You don’t have open communication where you can just pick up a phone. Even senior people have to go to the coms room – because [the park is] protecting their intellectual property. We’re hoping to paint a portrait of the culture of the corporation.

[Jonathan] Nolan (who was a showrunner on Person of Interest, a series about a computer system that could analyze all forms of public and private data to predict the future) seems to be very interested in the aspect of big brother looking in on our communications. As for how it relates to Westworld, he says the Delos corporation wants to protect its intellectual property and the privacy of the park’s guests:

In Westworld, the value of the park is all in its intellectual property, it’s all in the code. So regardless of the park’s location, they would be extremely careful with that code and making sure its virtually impossible to smuggle it out of the park. And there’s the privacy of the guests – you’re not going to have a good time in Westworld if somebody is Instagramming your activities. I’m amazed [th]at [sic] Las Vegas has survived the Instagram age. In episode 2, when the guests come in, we don’t see this, but we assume these guys have cell phones that they’re not allowed to bring in the park. We very much think this is a path where culture may be going – that we’ll get over-exposed and sick of the interconnectedness of our lives that we’ll hunger for places [that offer disconnected privacy]. We’ll hunger for a moment where we can go back toward having some privacy."