Mr. Niall Douglas

 9am-10am: Pronunciation Exercises  10am-11am: Theory behind Intellectual Property Law  11.20am-12pm: Business vocab  12pm-12.20pm: Explain tonight’s reading  12.20pm-1pm: Explain this week’s group task  1pm-1.20pm: Check on group task work plan

1. Alexandre, Romain, Tanguy, Hubert 2. Anne-Charlotte, Sitra, Maxime, Jeremy 3. Leslie, Camille, Calvin, Rachida 4. Julie, Steven, Manon, Clemence, Louis

 2x English Pronunciation Exercises

 The main economic growth driver in the West since the 1990s is the knowledge industry  The entire knowledge industry is entirely based in LAW  We no longer really make things in Europe or the West (China does that)  Germany mostly assembles things from China rather than makes them  Nowadays we design things and send the designs to China for manufacture

 Some examples: 1. Apple designs the iPhone but it is manufactured by Foxconn in Shenzen, China 2. Volkswagen designs the VW Golf but it is manufactured in Japan and China and assembled in Hungary 3. General Electric design Energy Saving Lightbulbs but they are manufactured in Shenzen as well

 However, the knowledge industry also makes pure intangible goods  These make up an ever increasing proportion of economic growth in the West (rather than product designs)  Intangible goods are ones which cannot be held in the hand

 Some examples of pure intangible goods: 1. Law itself – generally it is written by the West (the WTO, the EU, NAFTA, the International Criminal Court) 2. Television programmes and Movies 3. Music 4. Computer Software 5. All financial services e.g. Insurance, the stockmarket

1. Trademarks  These protect a brand identity 2. Copyright  This protects intangible content e.g. The text of a book rather than the book itself 3. Patents  These protect designs of things

 The design and structure of IP Law is controversial  Much of it is unchanged since the Middle Ages and came about by accident rather than design  An awful lot of it is a very bad fit with modern technology  Why?

 Computers are very, very, VERY good at copying intangible goods  Therefore it costs millions of euro to make the very first copy of an intangible good, but almost ZERO cost to copy it  Therefore, intangible goods have extremely high fixed costs and nearly zero marginal production costs

 What does that mean? 1. You can copy an intangible good extremely easily without paying the person who has invested years of their time to make the very first copy 2. The entire Intellectual “Property” system therefore is doomed in the long run. Therefore the main economic growth driver in the West is also doomed in the long run 3. Remember 3D printing? It may finally kill off the Western economy for good

 Questions on IP Law?

 Multiple choice Business Vocab...

 Explain Tonight’s reading

 Explain this week’s Group Task

 Check Group Task Work Plans