Biological patents and biopiracy.

Biological patents and biopiracy. Until several hundred years ago, ownership and protection has only been granted to objects of a physical or concrete nature, such as a piece of land or a building. However, people began to feel the need to protect and receive credit for their inventions and other products of their intellectual capacity. This desire is the driving force for the creation of intellectual property rights. Traditionally, intellectual property rights protected the creations of the mind such as literary or artistic works, designs and symbols (WIPO). In the past 20 years, another item has been selected to be protected under intellectual property rights: genes and other biological materials.The most prominent type of intellectual property used in protection of biological material is patents. In order to be eligible for a patent, the invention must satisfy the three criteria of novelty, utility and non-obviousness (WIPO). The requirement of novelty means that the invention has not been available to the public, through printed publications or commercial sales, or has not applied for a previous patent (Patent Basics).PatentAnything that indicates the previous existence of the invention, or anything similar to it, is termed prior art (Patent Basics). The condition of utility indicates that the invention must have a use (WIPO). The final prerequisite of non-obviousness specifies "that a person with ordinary skill in the art would not be likely to develop the same invention, even knowing all there was to know in the prior art." (Patent Basic).Modern genetic engineering practices and research requires large amounts of genetic material and organisms, especially in the field of agricultural development. Corporations and other private entities began to scout for "new" organisms and genetic material to sustain their practices and as well as profits. The term biodiversity prospecting, or bioprospecting, is used to describe this activity. According...

Forensic Linguistics Definition and Examples

Forensic Linguistics Definition and Examples The application of linguistic research and methods to the law, including evaluation of written evidence and the language of legislation. The term forensic linguistics was coined in 1968 by linguistics professor Jan Svartvik. Example: The pioneer of forensic linguistics is widely considered to be Roger Shuy, a retired Georgetown University professor and the author of such fundamental textbooks as [Creating] Language Crimes. The field’s more recent origins might be traced to an airplane flight in 1979, when Shuy found himself talking to the lawyer sitting next to him. By the end of the flight, Shuy had a recommendation as an expert witness in his first murder case. Since then, he’s been involved in numerous cases in which forensic analysis revealed how meaning had been distorted by the process of writing or recording. In recent years, following Shuy’s lead, a growing number of linguists have applied their techniques in regular criminal cases . . ..(Jack Hitt, Words on Trial. The New Yorker, July 23, 2012) Applications of Forensic Linguistics Applications of forensic linguistics include voice identification, interpretation of expressed meaning in laws and legal writings, analysis of discourse in legal settings, interpretation of intended meaning in oral and written statements (e.g., confessions), authorship identification, the language of the law (e.g., plain language), analysis of courtroom language used by trial participants (i.e., judges, lawyers, and witnesses), trademark law, and interpretation and translation when more than one language must be used in a legal context. (Gerald R. McMenamin, Forensic Linguistics: Advances in Forensic Stylistics. CRC Press, 2002)On some occasions the linguist is asked to provide investigative assistance or expert evidence for use in Court. Within the linguistics literature there has been considerable focus on the rules for admission of authorship identification evidence to criminal prosecutions, but the role of the linguist in providing evidence is broader than this. Much of the evide nce provided by linguists does not involve authorship identification, and the assistance a linguist may offer is not restricted to only providing evidence for criminal prosecution. Investigative linguists can be considered that portion of forensic linguistics which provides advice and opinions for investigative and evidential purposes. (Malcolm Coulhard, Tim Grant, and Krzystof Kredens, Forensic Linguistics. The SAGE Handbook of Sociolinguistics, ed. by Ruth Wodak, Barbara Johnstone, and Paul Kerswill. SAGE, 2011) Problems Facing Forensic Linguists [There are] certain problems facing an insider forensic linguist. Eight such problems are: 1. short time limits imposed by a law case, as opposed to the more familiar time limits enjoyed in everyday academic pursuits;2. an audience almost totally unfamiliar with our field;3. restrictions on what we can say and when we can say it;4. restrictions on what we can write;5. restrictions on how to write;6. the need to represent complex technical knowledge in ways that can be understood by people who know nothing of our field while maintaining our role as experts who have deep knowledge of these complex technical ideas;7. constant changes or jurisdictional differences in the field of law itself; and8. maintaining an objective, non-advocacy stance in a field in which advocacy is the major form of presentation. Since forensic linguists deal in probabilities, not certainties, it is all the more essential to further refine this field of study, experts say. â€Å"There have been cases where it was my impression that the evidence on which people were freed or convicted was iffy in one way or another,† says Edward Finegan, president of the International Association of Forensic Linguists. Vanderbilt law professor Edward Cheng, an expert on the reliability of forensic evidence, says that linguistic analysis is best used when only a handful of people could have written a given text. (David Zax, How Did Computers Uncover J.K. Rowling’s Pseudonym? Smithsonian, March 2014) Language as a Fingerprint What [Robert A. Leonard] thinks about of late is forensic linguistics, which he describes as the newest arrow in the quiver of law enforcement and lawyers.In a nutshell, just think of language as a fingerprint to be studied and analyzed, he enthuses. The point to be made here is that language can help you solve crimes and language can help you prevent crimes. There is a tremendous pent-up demand for this kind of training. This can be the difference between someone going to jail over a confession he didn’t actually write.His consultation on the murder of Charlene Hummert, a 48-year-old Pennsylvania woman who was strangled in 2004, helped put her killer in prison. Mr. Leonard determined, through the quirky punctuation in two letters of confession by a supposed stalker and a self-described serial killer, that the actual author was Ms. Hummert’s spouse. When I studied the writings and made the connection, it made the hair on my arms stand up. (Robin Finn, A Graduate of Sha Na Na, Now a Linguistics Professor. The New York Times, June 15, 2008) The linguistic fingerprint is a notion put forward by some scholars that each human being uses language differently, and that this difference between people can be observed just as easily and surely as a fingerprint. According to this view, the linguistic fingerprint is the collection of markers, which stamps a speaker/writer as unique. . . .[N]obody has yet demonstrated the existence of such a thing as a linguistic fingerprint: how then can people write about it in this unexamined, regurgitated way, as though it were a fact of forensic life?Perhaps it is this word forensic that is responsible. The very fact that it collocates so regularly with words like expert and science means that it cannot but raise expectations. In our minds we associate it with the ability to single out the perpetrator from the crowd to a high degree of precision, and so when we put forensic next to linguistics as in the title of this book we are effectively saying forensic linguistics is a genuine science jus t like forensic chemistry, forensic toxicology, and so on. Of course, insofar as a science is a field of endeavour in which we seek to obtain reliable, even predictable results, by the application of a methodology, then forensic linguistics is a science. However, we should avoid giving the impression that it can unfailingly - or even nearly unfailingly - provide precise identification about individuals from small samples of speech or text. (John Olsson, Forensic Source Linguistics: An Introduction to Language, Crime, and the Law. Continuum, 2004) Roger W. Shuy, Breaking Into Language and Law: The Trials of the Insider-Linguist. Round Table on Language and Linguistics: Linguistics, Language and the Professions, ed. by James E. Alatis, Heidi E. Hamilton, and Ai-Hui Tan. Georgetown University Press, 2002

External Macro Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

External Macro Environment - Essay Example These factors influences a business through causing some major influences on it like competition, changing the interest rates payable by a business on loans and other debts that it, owes, changes in the cultural tastes and preferences of the society, as well as a change in the government regulations, regarding the conduct of such businesses (Porter, 1998 p33). Thus, the external macro environment of a business refers to all the political, social, economic and the technological events, occurrences and trends, which impacts on a business or its market. These factors affect the business indirectly, but the business can only respond to these factors through adopting changes and strategies that will be favorable for its operation, amidst these factors. Therefore, the decision making of a business has to rely on such factors, since they highly determine the success or failure of a business. However, the macro environment creates both favorable and unfavorable environment for the business t o operate on, thus a business has to take advantage of the favorable ones, while strategizing on how to handle the negative influences of this environment. There are various ways in which these external environment factors affect a business and consequently its HR function. Owing to the changes in the business environment that requires that the business costs must be reduced to the lowest possible level, so that the profits earned by the business can reach the expected targets, the HR function of any business has to strategies appropriately towards lowering such costs (Kendon, 190 p13). Notable of these factors that have a great impact on the HR function of a business are the technological and the social factors. Under the social factors, there are such elements as the educational levels, the diversity of the work place employees as well as religion influences. On the technological front, there are elements such as technological changes, improved knowledge and communication channels , and the moral factors (Adams, 1990 p28). There are major changes that have occurred in the HR function, within organizations in the recent past years. These changes are geared towards the decentralization of the HR function within organizations to create a less centralized HR department (Porter, 1998 p45). As a result, the HR functions have been shared within the organization to include other segments and departments of the organization, and thus change the concentration of all the HR activities from the HR department to the other functional department within an organization. This sharing of the HR functions have gone a long way in reducing the costs associated with the depart within organizations, in that the manpower required in this department as well as other tools and equipment has been reduced, by having such functions being undertaken in other segments of the organization (Kendon, 190 p22). The advancement in technology has made this transfer of HR functions to other depart ments and organizational segments possible. Recent social changes have also created several challenges to the HR functions, forcing it to be integrated into the business strategies, to overcome such challenges. The changes that have occurred in the HR function within the last 10 years include, shared services, where, those working under the shared services segment of the organizati

Groupon Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Groupon - Essay Example The company makes profit by retaining utmost half the money paid by customers for subscribing to coupons. For instance, a $50 message can be bought by an individual for only $25, if purchased through Groupon. Then the $25 would be split between the retailer and Groupon as per their initial terms of contract. Each day, the subscribers of Groupon receive daily deals from a variety of local businesses including spa, home paints, restaurant, and so on. From the above discussion it can be said that if the minimum number of subscribers does not sign up for daily offers, the subscribers are not given discounts. E-Marketing Analysis The e-marketing strategy of the company helped to grow its revenue in one year and become one of the fastest growing companies. According to the business model of the company, the users get to avail discounts only when certain number of subscribers signs up for a deal. Such a strategy adopted by the company helps the existing subscribers to spread the message to their family, friends, followers, and hence encourage others to follow the suit. This e-marketing strategy helps the company to introduce themselves to new potential customers (Chaffey, 2008, pp.336). The company’s marketing and promotion strategy enables subscribers to share their experience on social media. This helps the company to spread the daily deals reach out to as many customers as possible. The company also offers group deals which add value to daily deals package because a customer who has never used the products of Groupon gets to avail attractive discounts. The process spreads through referrals helping the company to spread products to larger segment. In addition, the company sends daily emails to their...The company also motivates its customers through social networking. The web design of the company’s portal uses a countdown timer clock and a tracker of number of deals signed by customers. Such interface helps the customers to spread the deals online to their friends and family. The company’s e-Business strategy also helps to reduce the cost of advertising and add value to the business by encouraging potential customers turn into repeat customers. The company also sends frequent emails to subscribers for daily deals and best offers. The company’s marketing and promotion strategy enables subscribers to share their experience on social media. This in turn motivates the subscribers to spread the daily deals reach out to as many customers as possible. Recommendation The e-marketing strategy of the company helped to grow its revenue in one year and become one of the fastest growing companies. According to the business model of the company, the users get to avail discounts only when certain number of subscribers signs up for a deal. Such interface helps the customers to spread the deals online to their friends and family. Recent studies have also shown that Groupon subscribers are favouring Groupon mobile applications over traditional desktop internet. The company should invest more in mobile commerce technology. It will help the company to reach younger generations more easily and also increase revenue.

How to Be a Successful Investor Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

How to Be a Successful Investor - Essay Example Market efficiency Eugene Fama in 1970 developed the concept of market efficiency on the basis of EMH (efficient market hypothesis). He suggested that at any given time the prices of stocks are purely dependent on the information present in the stock market regarding stock or overall market (Moyer, McGuigan & Kretlow 2008). He also concluded that no one can efficiently predict the exact future return on any stock because no one has access to the information which is not easily be predicted or available to everyone else (Damodaran 2002). Fama divided efficiency of a market into three levels: Strong-form efficiency Shows that stock price truly reflects all the information available, whether it is public or private. Investors did not get any additional value because it is quite impossible to predict the prices. Even the availability of insider information does not benefit the investor in any way (Moyer, McGuigan & Kretlow 2008). Semi-strong efficiency Movement of asset prices truly refle cts the availability of public information; therefore investor having insider information gets the investing advantage. The investor does not get any stock advantage through any fundamental or technical analysis. Weak form efficiency   Type of efficiency which states that today’s Prices of assets and securities shows the reflection of past prices. Therefore, technical analysis is useless to predict the prices in order to beat the market (Chandra 2008). Efficient market hypothesis (EMH) is also called as Random Walk Theory (Hebner 2006). This theory suggests that the movement or fluctuation of the stock price is a true proposition of all the related information regarding the value of the company that is available in the market. According to this theory, nobody earns profit more than the overall return of the market. In other words, it can be said that depending on the available information everyone earns the same level of return on the investment of stock. There are some cri tics of this theory that are related to fundamental and electrifying issues of finance. For example, why the price of stock change frequently and what are the factors that cause this change. All the stock related information has very important value for both investors as well as financial managers (Cai 2009). The concept of â€Å"Efficient market â€Å"was first developed by Eugene Fama in 1965 and he said that â€Å"in an efficient market, on the average, competition will cause the full effects of new information on intrinsic values to be reflected "instantaneously" in actual prices.† (Arffa 2001) The primary target of all the investors and finance managers is to invest in the stock that outperforms the market and provide more return as compared to other stocks. Similarly, most of the investor selects the securities that are undervalued having expectations that their price will beat the market, and in the end, they get their desired return. All these decisions are based on different valuation techniques of stocks, future expectation and predictions depending on the available information. Effective use of the valuation techniques and prediction enables the investor to get more return on the investment made.

Critically evaluate one approach to organisational culture change - Essay

Critically evaluate one approach to organisational culture change - Yandex Case Study - Essay Example Justify your recommendations with supporting evidence. Yandex is the leading search engine in Russia. The success of the firm is closely related to its strategic decisions and its structure. However, it is clear that certain interventions are required in order for the firm’s goals to be fully achieved. The update of the firm’s OD strategy would be a potential solution for the above problem. The OD framework developed by Brown (2011), see also Graph 1 – Appendix, can be considered as a quite effective tool for developing the particular task. Primarily, the involvement of this tool in the restructuring of the firm’s OD strategy should be appropriately justified; reference should be made to the firm’s goals. ... Despite the fact that the promotion of the above strategy has helped the firm to keep its performance at high levels, still there is a series of organizational issues, which need to be appropriately addressed. The change of the firm’s existing OD strategy would be the most effective way for achieving the above target. This change could be based on the OD framework of Brown (2011), see Graph 1, Appendix. In the context of this framework, the firm’s current strategy should be restructured at the following points: a) at the first stage, the need for change should be clearly defined – meaning that the firm’s strategic managers should understand this need and should be willing to support it; Yandex is a firm well established in the Russian market, controlling the 57% of the specific market; the profitability of the firm is high, being increased at a level of 80% annually (page 2, case study); moreover, its employees are chosen through a detailed recruitment pro cess which guarantees that only candidates with the necessary skills enter the organization; from this point of view, the change of the firm’s strategy – in one or more areas – would have many chances of success, taking into consideration the exceptional relationships among employees and the high level of communication/ cooperation across the organization, b) emphasis should be given on the improvement of the relationship between the employees and the clients; despite the fact that communication and collaboration in the internal organizational environment is highly developed, in the firm’s external environment the following problem seems to exist: the relationship between

How Can Facebook Be Good for Business Research Paper

How Can Facebook Be Good for Business - Research Paper Example This paper will discuss how Facebook can be good for businesses. This will also analyze the scope of marketing activities in this new age of online branding. Facebook provides users with a common platform to express their views and share their opinions easily so as to significantly take part in the social formation process. As compared to traditional promotion techniques, companies obtain a great pool of audience while marketing through the Facebook channel. In other words, firms can cheaply advertise their products and services to people across the globe using Facebook. In contrast to conventional promotion techniques, Facebook-based promotion assists companies to collect customer feedbacks regarding various product/service instantly. Today all successful companies have a well maintained Facebook page and they keep their pages updated in order to be in good touch with customers. Market analysts point out that Facebook is very helpful for companies in dealing with brand positioning i n the current business environment. Modern people spend more time browsing the internet, particularly Facebook rather than watching television. Therefore, TV ads would be less effective (in terms of cost and productivity) today. The most fascinating advantage of Facebook-based brand positioning is that it significantly benefits businesses to cut down their operating costs while achieving the planned benefits quickly. To illustrate, an organization can very cheaply maintain a Facebook page and develop its followers’ group as there is no extra charge for doing so. According to Schivinski and Dabrowski, with the emergence of Facebook, communication with customers has become an easy task for organizations and this situation, in turn, drives the formation of timely and potential operational strategies. Undoubtedly, most of the marketing managers will agree that a notable percent of their new business comes from existing customers. In the opinion of Lynn and Davis, mouth publicity is the most powerful tool of advertising because consumers are the ones who can best evaluate a product/service. It is evident that Facebook provides users with extensive exposure to discover and share information and this feature of social media contributes to the feasibility of ‘word of mouth referrals’. The Guardian reports that â€Å"there are more than 3.2 billion likes and comments posted to Facebook every day, many of those to the 37m brand pages†. It directly reflects the unimaginable scope of Facebook-based brand promotion. Since a company’s Facebook page will reflect its business and what it stands for, the management must pay higher attention to creating and maintaining its brand page. To illustrate, the firm may set a cover photo that depicts the essence of its brand and quality of products/services offered. Firms can include the â€Å"find us on Facebook† option on its website, emails, and newsletters in order to encourage its existing customers to like the firm’s brand page. Hence, the company gets a huge group of existing and prospective customers subscribed to its brand page.