The CIP is very pleased and excited to announce the appointment of Georgia K. Harper as the CIP Intellectual Property Scholar for 2006-2008. (About the IP Scholar Program.)

Georgia K. Harper is the Scholarly Communications Advisor for the University of Texas at Austin Libraries, where she focuses on issues of digital access. She was Senior Attorney and manager of the Intellectual Property Section of the Office of General Counsel for the University of Texas System until August 2006, where she specialized in copyright law.

While with the Office of General Counsel, she created the noted online publication, The Copyright Crash Course, that provides guidance to University faculty, students and staff concerning a wide range of copyright issues and is freely accessible to all universities and colleges.

She has conducted local, state, regional and national workshops and seminars on copyright issues and has been an advisor to the Council on Library and Information Resources, the Association of Research Libraries, the Association of American Universities, the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges and the American Council on Education, as well as the National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage in connection with its Copyright and Fair Use Town Meetings. She was named a fellow of the National Association of College and University Attorneys in June 2001.

Ms. Harper graduated with High Honors from the University of Texas at Austin with a B.S. in Education and with Honors from the University of Texas at Austin's Law School with a J.D. degree. She is currently pursuing a third degree from the University of Texas at Austin, this time in Information Science.

CIP Executive Director Kimberly Bonner spoke recently with Harper.

It is precisely for this reason that UMUC President Dr. Susan Aldridge has written to U.S. Senators Barbara Mikulski and Paul Sarbanes concerning the video flag provision of S.2686, the Communications, Consumers' Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act (CCCBD) of 2006. (Read her letter here.) In her letter, Dr. Aldridge expressed serious concerns on behalf of institutions, educators, and students around the world who are engaged in distance education. The video, or broadcast, flag provision would have a detrimental effect on such educational endeavors by restricting or preventing the re-transmission of content via the Internet.

• View the book's Table of Contents (PDF)

We invite you to take a peek inside The Center for Intellectual Property Handbook:

• The TEACH Act: Will it Make a Difference for Colleges and Universities (Ch. 5) (PDF)
• Digital Rights Management (DRM) in Higher Education (Ch. 7) (PDF)
• Copyright Education Programs (Ch. 8) (PDF)

DRM Technologies
(Jan. 22-Feb. 2, 2007)

This workshop is moderated by Kimberly Kelley, Vice Provost and Dean, Academic Resources and Services, University of Maryland University College (UMUC), and by Bill Rosenblatt, founder of GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies and recognized authority on digital media technologies. He is the author of Digital Rights Management: Business and Technology and managing editor of the Jupitermedian newsletter DRM Watch.

Space is limited.
Don't procrastinate.
Register today to secure your spot.

The Seventh Annual Intellectual Property Symposium will be

MAY 21-23, 2007
Copyright Utopia:
Alternative Visions,
Methods & Policies

I had lofty ideas of writing my inaugural column on some hard-core IP policy subject. Perhaps I would discuss the problems of broadcast flag legislation or the Copyright Modernization Act of 2006. Perhaps I would discuss Ninth Circuit Court Jedge Alex Kozinski's argument that fair use should be dumped in favor of awarding damages for derivative uses. Ah, the choices; oh, the conflict.

Then, to my surprise CIP’s Assistant Director, Olga Francois, e-mailed me a story. Not any old story like The Cat in the Hat or The Three Little Pigs. Far worse, this story was not fiction, but a real “news” story about the cut throat world of...high priced chefs in upscale trendy restaurants. The article, in Food and Wine magazine, discusses a matter that has become all the rage in culinary circles—copyrighting and/or patenting cuisine. Are you gasping for air (or is that just your stomach growling)?

I know. I know. You are saying to me right now, “Clearly, you jest, Kim!” “No, you can’t be serious.” “Why that’s absurd!” Well, read it and weep, moan or whatever you do to express grief. In my family, we eat under duress, and that may not be a bad idea, since right now a meal at Busara’s is presently in the public domain. (see: New Era of the Recipe Burglar)

According to the article, “some influential people are now talking about changing the copyright law so that chefs own their recipes the same way composers own their songs. Under this plan, anyone who wanted to borrow someone else’s recipe would have to pay a licensing fee.” Chefs are analyzing how to protect their creations due to controversial copying by high profile chefs who are not only reproducing recipes but also the presentation.

Some very creative chefs have already taken matters into their own hands. Chef Homaro Cantu of Moto restaurant cooked up a legal disclaimer. He placed the following language on a tiny sheet of edible paper that tastes like cotton candy:

Confidential Property of and © H. Cantu. Patent Pending. No further use or disclosure is permitted without prior approval of H. Cantu.