Whenever I speak at IP conferences and seminars, one of the examples I use is about JK Rowling releasing her latest Harry Potter book in Malaysia only to find it pirated eventually.

How ironic now to find that it has actually happened! A store in Tesco, Puchong was raided for selling alleged bootleg copies of the latest Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Truth imitating fiction?

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The Star In Tech ran a series today about businesses that blog. There were 3 articles - New Marketing Tool, The Business of Blogging and Developing Ideas and Apps.

So, why did we at Mindvault decide to start our own blog?

Well, we've been providing thought leadership on Intellectual Property and Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) for a few years now and we decided that the internet remains one of the best media to convey our message.

What better way than a blog to publish your thoughts?

We also felt that it was the fastest way to inform our clients and partners of the latest happenings at Mindvault as well as the other companies within our eco-system - new developments, new solutions, new partnerships etc.

We are very proud of launching the first Intellectual Property/IAM blog in Malaysia.

Informants are hampering Government efforts to close down optical-disc plants that are engaging in content piracy, said the Recording Industry Association of Malaysia (RIM).

Its chairman, Sandy Monteiro, said the plant operators would be tipped off whenever a raid was imminent and would shift the pirated products elsewhere before the authorities arrived.

"The law requires pirates to be caught in the act," he said. "You can't stop the tip-offs obviously, so maybe the courts could look into placing more weight on forensic evidence recovered during the raids, so that pirates can be brought to book without having to nab them red-handed."

The European Parliament voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to reject a law that would have given software common patent protection across all countries in the European Union.

The decision, by 648 votes to 14, was preceded by a fierce four-year battle between those who supported the idea that companies should be able to own software - and the inventions that use it - and those who backed the idea that software breakthroughs should be shared widely and freely. That battle will continue, though it will have to be fought separately in each of the 25 member states of the EU.

Both opponents and supporters of tougher patents in the Parliament united Wednesday to reject the bill - with supporters fearing that amendments would be added that would have undermined existing national patent protection. Opponents, meanwhile, said the law would have bolstered the market power of big companies.

Telekom Malaysia (now known as TM) has spent RM9 million rebranding itself. The money was spent on engaging an external branding expert, creating a new concept and designing a new brand.

Branding is more than just coming up with a new logo or spending more money on a new tagline and endless advertising. It has more to do with matching the customer experience with the brand promise. Therefore, branding is more what you do internally than externally.

Mindvault has been going through its rebranding process since March 2003. Why haven't we come up with our new logo, colors etc yet? Because we are still working on ourselves to ensure that our external image matches our internal processes.

How do you think TM has fared with their RM9 million?

The protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) has been identified as being one of the main concerns for US investors to come into Malaysia, said the United States ambassador to Malaysia, Christopher J LaFleur.

He said a survey conducted last year of senior executives of global 1,000 firms found that 28% considered IPR protection an important factor in considering where to make new investments.

"That's 28% of potential investors who probably will think twice before putting money in Malaysia or seeking new business partnerships here," LaFleur said in his speech at the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) seminar in Kuala Lumpur on July 7 on "enhancing US-Malaysia business".

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