In order to produce a tasty food product, flavor is a crucial component of food production and processing that requires careful planning, monitoring, and testing. By the time food reaches consumers, canning, freezing, and heating can have reduced the original taste. To overcome this issue, taste, sour, bitter, salty, and savory tastes are kept intact throughout the production process using flavor enhancers. It is a no-brainer that consumers turn to food products that taste great and have a desirable texture and consistency. Compounds, known as flavor enhancers, are added to food in order to complement or improve the inherent flavor of the food item. The idea of flavor enhancement first appeared in Asia, where chefs would add seaweed to soup stocks to give them a fuller flavor. The amino acid L-glutamate was discovered to be the flavor-enhancing component of seaweed, and monosodium glutamate (MSG) was the first flavor enhancer to be used commercially. The complex flavor that L-glutamate is known for is called umami. Natural sources of umami include cheese, veggies, and sea cuisine (such as fish, seaweed, clams, and oysters) (e.g., edible fungi, soybean, and carrot). The three primary classes of conventional taste enhancers are amino acids, nucleotides, organic acids and their sodium salts. Here are some common flavor enhancers in the food industry - sodium aspartate, disodium inosinate (IMP), disodium guanylate (GMP), disodium cytidylate (CMP), disodium adenylate (AMP), disodium uridylate (UMP), and disodium succinate. For What Purposes are Flavor Enhancers Used? Enhancement of flavor Maintaining flavor Enhance a good flavor Replace flavor lost while processing food Give particular flavor to food Mask some undesirable flavors in order to increase the acceptability of food Most Common Flavor Enhancers A typical flavor enhancer and food additive that is commonly used is monosodium glutamate (MSG) (INS 621), which is made from the glutamate amino acid. Monosodium glutamate is occasionally used as an ingredient to lower salt content. The 5′-ribonucleotides, inosine monophosphate (IMP), guanosine monophosphate (GMP), yeast extract, and hydrolyzed vegetable protein are some other substances that are utilized as flavor enhancers. The use of these flavor enhancers in sauces, broths, and soups is common. Extracts From Autolyzed Yeast Autolyzed yeast extracts are organic flavor-enhancing additives, despite the fact that the phrase may conjure thoughts of large machinery. Yeast cells are partially broken down by their own enzymes to produce a partially non-soluble taste enhancer. Autolyzed yeast extracts are frequently utilized to give meats and baked goods a roasted, toasted, or grilled flavor. Although ingesting autolyzed yeast extracts has no known negative side effects, a person who is allergic to yeast may want to restrict or avoid eating items that contain them. Maltodextrin The grain starch is converted into the flavoring ingredient maltodextrin by using a method of Partial hydrolysis. The starch is divided into smaller polymers during this process. Maltodextrin is a versatile additive because it is used in a variety of products to extend the shelf life of sweets, delay or prevent granulation, give foods a powdery appearance, act as a "filler" ingredient, prevent melting, reduce sweetness, change a food's flavor, and improve the natural smell and nutrient retention in beverages. Maltodextrin has a high glycemic index, contrary to what its name might imply, so diabetics and hypoglycemics should monitor their intake proportions. INS 627 (Disodium Guanylate) A food additive called Enhancer 627 is used to improve the flavor of any food product. When used in little quantities, it improves the flavor of any culinary product. It lacks any inherent color. It is available as a crystalline powder or tiny crystals. The source of it is monosodium glutamate. This flavor enhancer 627 is created from the fermentation of tapioca starch. Other items used to extract this taste enhancer include sardines and yeast. It gives a variety of foods a savoury flavor. There are two varieties of Enhancer 627; one contains fish extracts, and the other offers yeast extract that is suitable for vegans and vegetarians. INS 631 (Disodium [(2R,3S,4R,5R)-3,4-dihydroxy-5-(6-oxo-3H-purin-9-yl) oxolan-2-yl] methyl phosphate) A sodium salt of inosinic acid, a naturally occurring acid primarily found in animals, is called Flavor Enhancer (INS 631). It comes in the form of crystalline powder or crystals that range in color from white to colorless. It is made commercially using fish or meat. However, bacterial fermentation of sugar might also result in its production. How does it function? To add umami flavor to packaged food products and fast food, flavor enhancer (INS 631) is frequently combined with monosodium glutamate (MSG) and occasionally with flavor enhancer (INS 627) (disodium guanylate). Additionally, this lessens the requirement for salt in that product. The primary goal of this additive is to significantly improve the flavor of the food it is added to. INS 635 (Disodium 5′-ribonucleotides) It is one of the most widely used flavor enhancers. To prepare it, Disodium guanylate (INS 627/E 627) and disodium inosinate (INS 631/E 631) are blended in the appropriate amounts, according to the European Food Safety Authority. It is important to note that extracts of meat are included in flavor enhancer INS 635. Vegan and vegetarian sources are employed to produce vegetarian food enhancers, though. Further, INS 635 can be used in conjunction with MSG (E621) or in place of MSG. Although it is sparsely soluble in alcohol-based solutions, it is soluble in water. Instant noodles, potato chips, cheese, sauces, ice cream, and soups are a few food items that make use of this flavor enhancer. This ingredient extends the shelf life of herbs and seasonings as well. Who Is Not Allowed to Consume Flavor Enhancers? Food products with food additives shouldn't be given to infants less than 12 months Flavor enhancers may cause allergies in people with gout and asthma Either short or long-term toxicity to sensitive individuals Consequences of Using Excessive Enhancers Anything that is consumed excessively might be harmful to one's health. Food additives operate in a similar manner. They are made up of chemical substances and have a number of negative impacts. It would be best if you avoid consuming more of it. Some of the Most Common Side Effects of Consuming Flavor Enhancers are: Flavor enhancers trigger allergies in a lot of people. It can cause nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and occasionally very bad headaches after consumption. A few people who consume it also develop skin rashes or skin redness. Allergies on the lips, face, or tongue are other common symptoms that people may experience. Although salt enhances the sensory qualities of food, people are aware that consuming too much sodium raises the chance of developing chronic diseases. Conclusion In order to produce a tasty food product, flavor is a crucial component of food production and processing that requires careful planning, monitoring, and testing. By the time food reaches consumers, canning, freezing, and heating can have reduced the original taste. To overcome this issue, taste, sour, bitter, salty, and savory tastes are kept intact throughout the production process using flavor enhancers. It is interesting to note the way food businesses use flavor generation, flavor analysis, and sensory perception of food flavor to develop new products and enhance old ones. Even while minute amounts of these taste enhancers wouldn't significantly impact the customers' health, certain people might still be affected by them. Be careful and read all the food labels before purchasing. References https://www.britannica.com/topic/food-additive/Natural-colorants#ref502239 https://www.justgotochef.com/ingredients/flavor-enhancer-ins-631 https://mishry.com/flavor-enhancer-627 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/fsn3.2178 https://www.faia.org.uk/category/additives/flavor-enhancers/ https://hmhub.in/classification-food-flavors-uses/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Flavor_enhancers http://epgp.inflibnet.ac.in/epgpdata/uploads/epgp_content/food_technology/food_additives/08.flavor_enhancers_for_the__food_industry/et/2683_et_m8.pdf

While conducting a design patent search, if you notice that you are getting irrelevant or junk results, try revising your search strategy. Further, utility patents may turn up in the searches, it is important to keep in mind that the designs from utility patents will be used as prior art to reject your design patent application. Therefore, it is essential that one conducts their search while considering utility as well as design, shape, and aesthetics. Getting a design patent is simpler than getting a utility patent for an invention. Despite the simplicity of obtaining a design patent , applications get frequent rejections from the patent examiner. To avoid such rejections, it is important to carry out a comprehensive and thorough design patent search. Extensive design patent searches are a typical and essential method for assuring that the design application is granted. Although applicants can carry out design searches on their own, it is recommended to seek professional help in order to get accurate search results and avoid the risks of rejection. What Constitutes a Prior Art ? • A prehistoric sculpture • A piece of technology that is centuries old • A previously described idea that cannot possibly work • A Youtube Video • A graphic or an image • A Product Concept Video Given its relevance to the design in question, anything and everything can be prior art. How Design Patent Search is Carried Out? The answer is quite simple - You merely convert the shape into words! Everything you need to know about strategies to conduct design patent searches is covered in the article, along with the best methods to conduct design patent searches. In order to obtain a solid prior art, people frequently limit their search to design patents, drawings, and utility patent descriptions while conducting a design patent search. But more often than not, they might not come across any relevant prior art at all. When you land up in such a situation, it is time to embrace unconventional methods! 12 Design Patent Search Strategies 1. Product Reviews Websites When conducting a design patent search, product review websites are a fantastic place to start. But keep in mind that only the products that have already been launched or are soon to be launched in the market are on these product review sites. These websites are some of the best places to look for evidence that might be able to invalidate the design because they are filled with product reviews and first-hand pictures of nearly every product that is introduced to the market. Also, exact technical details and vital information about the products can be availed at these websites. These kinds of websites can yield a wide range of results bringing to light many designs, some of which might not be found in patent databases. One thing to keep in mind while searching is to stick to a particular niche that you are interested in. Say, for example - You want to get information about the best cameras, PetaPixel and ISO.500px top the charts. Sites vary according to the technology, and one must be vigilant enough to look at different ones to get out the best results. 2. Product Prototype Search (Crowdfunding sites) There are no accurate statistics, but some experts estimate that for every recorded invention that eventually reaches the market, ten never will. This means that if you want to find out if your design is unique, you should look for products from the past as well as present and future! Sometimes the products are not fully functionalized or are in the development stage, and are not present in the market. The best option for getting your hands on such designs and concepts is crowdfunding sites! Crowdfunding sites contain a directory of products that may have never made it to larger commercial websites or store shelves. They can often result in discovering products with designs that conflict with a present application. You can start with websites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, CircleUp and GoFundme for some incredible prototypes and designs for products that might hit the market in the near future. 3. Product Designs Every product on the market today began as a concept embodied in a sketch or drawing or representation in some form or an illustration. Drawings continue to be an acceptable form of the prior art even though a product may differ from how it was initially imagined. Given that a similar design was already conceptualized even though it never materialized into a product, could render a design patent invalid. The reason for invalidation is that in this situation, the design does not meet the most crucial requirement for patentability: novelty. You can look for product designs on various platforms on social media like Pinterest, YouTube and Tumblr, etc. 4. Manufacturer's Samples It is indeed interesting to note that most companies do not create or make a product from scratch. Each design or product, for that matter, is made up of different components. For example, a fan is made up of blades, housing, hub, motor, mounting device and other components. These parts are frequently purchased from various suppliers before being put together to create a finished product. So it's no brainier to go through manufacturer or vendor sites to get a glimpse of the elements or components that one has in their design. 5. E-commerce Websites When someone uses the term "e-commerce websites," what comes to mind? Sale? Discount? Products? Technically, online shopping portals are best for searching for any kind of design because everything is right in front of us. One can compare the technical details, look for different versions of similar designs, get a general idea about state of the art and also get to know which products are up in the market. For instance, all it takes is a comprehensive search on various e-commerce websites like Alibaba, Amazon, Myntra, etc. to determine whether a specific design of a purse or camera or perfume bottle that one wants to patent is truly unique or not. 6. Geography-Based or Region-Specific Search What is the design you aspire to patent that has already been conceptualized and described in the literature of a foreign land whose language you cannot comprehend? You must expand your search to non-native locations where many innovative ideas are patented, developed, and manufactured in languages not known to us. Countries like China, Korea, Japan, etc. Due to a limited search, designs that already exist in other areas of the world would pass the test of novelty in the US since most prior art searches are frequently restricted to USPTO or European databases. Don't commit this blunder! Today technology has made it possible for us to break the language barriers and explore the world in a better and easy way. Incentivize on that! 7. Product Backtracking Everything has a starting point. Backtracking frequently reveals the sources of inspiration for certain goods, such as product sketches or earlier iterations that may successfully invalidate a design patent. Suppose you think that a specific product category or class may have prior art that clashes with your design. You might look into the product's development background and get a better insight into its relevance to your design. This process mainly involves looking up earlier versions of the product or models. A novel design for one person may have already been created, shined, and zoned out, making room for new ones. Even when it is no longer in power, the legacy endures, which is sufficient evidence to invalidate a design. 8. Google Lens Google Lens is essentially a visual search engine. With the help of deep machine learning and a given smartphone's camera, Google Lens can recognize objects in front of the camera lens and provide options for actions like scanning, translating, shopping, and more. For instance, if you take a photo of a landmark and then hit the Google Lens shutter, the landmark is identified by Google Lens, which then retrieves pertinent information from the internet. Depending on the landmark, this data may contain a description, reviews, and contact details if it's a business. It can look up similar photos on the web that depict the same thing as the one in a provided picture or screenshot. It's an excellent approach to locate visually comparable photographs or even to pinpoint details like a certain design or item visible in a picture. Look for the "Search" option in the main sliding bar of options at the bottom of the Lens interface to conduct this bit of Google magic. 9. Locarno Classification Locarno classifications were established in 1968 by the Locarno Agreement which is internationally accepted. This industrial design classification system makes it much easier to search design patents on international databases. According to the 12th version, the Locarno categorization system has 32 classes and 237 subclasses. Design searches using Locarno classifications are possible in a number of databases, including Hague Express Database, Orbit Intelligence, Designview, etc. The ability to filter search results is a key benefit of employing Locarno classification. Locarno classifications also help in finding references having unusual text in the title, which cannot be tracked using standard keywords. 10. Patent Citation Analysis Patent citations are sources that describe technology previously understood and described in patents or other scientific literature. When a new patent application is made under the patent system, the inventor must describe how the new invention improves upon the recognized prior art by citing it. While in other instances, the invention may be a wholly new use of scientific advancement, in some cases, the new invention offers a realizable advancement over current technology. Thus, citations have been regarded as a noisy but valuable indicator. The fundamental idea underlying its application in design patent search is that papers or patents that are cited as prior art tend to contain significant ideas that serve as the foundation for several inventions. This might be your hint! 11. Keyword Based Search The keyword is essential for any search strategy out of all the aspects undertaken. The group of terms or terminology that an inventor uses to identify the different parts of an invention are called keywords. It is one of the most crucial tools an analyst uses to effectively build successful search techniques that quickly produce the set of nearest prior arts. Boolean searches add an additional dimension to keyword searches, allowing you to search for multiple keywords together, or exclusive of each other, or within a certain distance from each other. The following processes are often taken to prepare the search keywords: • Extract the terms and keywords from the invention disclosure. • Fetch the synonyms of the search terms. Junk patents surfacing during patent searches are further minimized or avoided by filtering the synonyms according to the technology domain. 12. Product Videos on Social Media Many inventions never become products, yet there may be evidence of them somewhere - in pictures, concept videos, prototype designs, etc., to name a few. For example - The Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 are Samsung's upcoming flagship foldable phones, but some people are dreaming of something different! Designer Alexander Bazilewskiy is one of them. He developed the idea for the Samsung Galaxy Fold Mini, which has a vertical wraparound screen. It even turns into a tablet. Let's assume this concept of the vertical wraparound screen is not materialized today, and someone comes up with a similar concept years later. Now the concept which failed to materialize will act as prior art for the new design. So visiting such social media platforms is a great idea to get your design patent search going. Moral of the Story To be able to effectively defend your design, you should conduct regular searches and observe the market also after the registration of your design. While conducting a design patent search, if you notice that you are getting irrelevant or junk results, try revising your search strategy. Further, utility patents may turn up in the searches, it is important to keep in mind that the designs from utility patents will be used as prior art to reject your design patent application. Therefore, it is essential that one conducts their search while considering utility as well as design, shape, and aesthetics. Materialization of the product is not the most important thing when it comes to designs. Even the documented concept is enough for the invalidation of the design in question. Most inventions solve a problem, and most problems have more than one possible solution. You need to examine other solutions too! Additionally, keep an eye on the market, product exhibitions, trade literature, and industry publications and conduct your own internet image searches. References https://www.iebrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Locarno-Classification-trending-tool-for-design-searching.pdf https://vakilsearch.com/blog/five-patent-search-engines-and-databases/ https://www.epo.org/learning/materials/inventors-handbook/novelty/prior-art.html https://thebusinessprofessor.com/en_US/property-law/how-to-do-a-design-patent-search https://www.wipo.int/reference/en/designdb/ https://boldip.com/design-patent-search/

Air taxi has come a huge way forward to address the issues offered by the land, and water taxis and the big guns are loaded to shoot the air taxi business to height, but it has to overcome various hurdles such as legal limitations put forward by Aviation Federation/ DGCA including infrastructure demand and cost optimization. Introduction The transportation industry has grown tremendously in the last 20 years. From taxi-hailing apps to IoT enabled management of fleets, and from remote driving capabilities to OTA software updates for connected cars, technology has not left a single stone unturned to revolutionize the cross domains of transportation. Airborne vehicles are no exception to this, but it has already taken a lot of time for automotive businesses to percolate the benefits of space/air (as opposed to land and water) by scaling from huge aircraft to small commercial air taxis. What is Air Taxi? An air taxi is a small aircraft that is used to transport people or goods over short distances. This type of aircraft is typically flown by a single pilot and can take off and land at a variety of airports. Fundamentally, all airborne vehicles whether it is a full capacity aircraft, private jets, a helicopter or a drone, come under the category of air taxis. But as per Merriam-Webster, an air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. The concept of air taxis is not new. NASA and the aerospace industry study on the potential Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) promoted air taxi operations in the US in the year 2001. But a recent development in the field of drone/unmanned aerial vehicles has forced businesses to revisit the concept. What are the Basic Legal Limitations of Air Taxi? Drones have already seen huge investments in the delivery and surveillance sector, but the real world implementation is not justified due to legal limitations in context to maximum altitude and speed range. Different jurisdictions have different limitations. For example; In India, a micro drone and a small drone may not fly higher than 60 and 120 meters, respectively, above ground level or faster than 25 meters per second. Drones that are medium or large must fly in compliance with the conditions outlined in the DGCA’s Operator Permit. Prohibited zones are completely off-limits, whereas restricted areas require prior approval from the DGCA. Micro, small, medium and large sized drones are categorized based on their weight within the range of 2, 25, and 150 Kg respectively. In the US, similar drone flying limitations are policed. For commercial drones weighing below 25 Kg, the altitude and speed restrictions are 125 meters and 45 meters per second. Along with legal limitations, drones also face issues in concern to low customer readiness to adapt to this non-conventional technology, loopholes concerning a unified platform for taxi hailing and low budget trip availability. But amidst all the issues, still, a long list of market players including Uber, Boeing, Volocopter, Joby Aviation, EHang and Lilium is adamant to put risk aside and gamble in this field of passenger drones. Air Taxi - Patent Perspective Before going further deep into this feasibility analysis of air taxis, it is important to take into consideration, the relevant facts of the said domain from patent analytics. Based on an analysis of 814 patents extracted in relation to “air taxi”, Honeywell, Skygrid, Boeing, Textron, Amadeus, Bell Helicopter, Alakai, Toyota Motor, Volkswagen, Zunum Aero, Goodrich, Gatelink, Robert Bosch, NASA and Wi Sky were identified as top 15 patent fillers with Honeywell and Skygrid alone having more than 50 patents. Surprisingly, huge investors like Uber and Volocopter jointly does not have more than 5 patents in relation to air taxi. With the United States, China and Europe being accountable for 56% of total patent filing, jurisdictions like Germany, Great Britain and India are not far behind with 12% of total patent filings. An interesting takeaway from the analysis is that even when Korea is evidencing a huge implementation of air taxi concept from automotive giants like Hyundai, US based Joby Aviation in collaboration with SK Telecom and Korea’s $1.3 Billion UAM project, it is still at par with India in the patent filing. Air taxi-related patents date as far back as 1968. “The vehicle might be used as a short-haul VTOC air-taxi or air-bus for transporting passengers from the middle of cities to intercontinental air terminals”, according to this first air-taxi patent by NASA. 2016 was the next significant year for IP investment as drone use for videography and surveillance spread around the globe. Another interesting fact is that the last 10 years of patent fillings account for 75% of total patents filed in the last 70 years. Do We Have Enough Runways and Ports to Support Mass Air Taxis? Moving ahead from legal and IP facts, one more fact that this concept of air taxis needs serious consideration is the huge physical infrastructure demand and high boarding durations. Even private jets need proper consumer boarding time and huge runways to land and take off. Envisaging the air taxi industry with helicopters still seems feasible considering the fact that it does not require runways. But helicopter has a good share of loopholes. For example, helicopters are too loud and intrusive to operate at any real volume in less populous areas. What is VTOL? Can it Resolve the Issues of Missing Infrastructure? Another terminology that has seen a lot of citations in the context to air taxis and is important to understand is VTOL. It stands for vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) and it promises to overcome the issues faced with helicopter based air taxi. Although helicopters fall in the category of VTOL only, besides these, there are currently two types of VTOL aircraft in military service that can make sense from a commercial angle. Tiltrotor aircraft, such as the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey, and thrust-vectoring airplanes, such as the Harrier family and new F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). In the commercial sector, right now only helicopters are in general use. Generally speaking, VTOL aircraft capable of STOVL (short take-off and vertical landing) use it wherever possible, since it significantly increases take-off weight, range or payload compared to pure VTOL. Possible implementations of VTOL in the commercial sector in the foreseeable future are Lillium Aircraft, Bell 525 Relentless, Joby Aviation S4, CityAirbus (developed jointly by Audi, Uber, Airbus and Iraldesign), Leonardo AW609 AC4, Hill HX50, Opener Blackfly and Samad Aerospace Starling. What is eVTOL? Some recent developments in VTOL involve the implementation of an electric powertrain to decrease the overall weight and subsequently optimize the aircraft's size and range. Termed as eVTOL, this technology relies more on motors and propellers rather than wing design. These typically use radial arms to host the motor/propellers. For example, Volocopter, Jetson Aero and Joby S2. To explain the brief behind the technology of eVTOL, Joby S2 has been considered as an exemplary product. Joby S2 work on the concept of tilt-rotor aircraft. It comprises a total of 12 individual motors out of which 8 motors are mounted on the fixed wings (4 on each side wing) and 4 motors are mounted near the tail of the aircraft. Each drives a single fixed-pitch propeller. These motors are mounted on linkages that tilt the motors and propellers between vertical and horizontal orientations during the transition between vertical and horizontal flight. The use of multiple individual tilt linkages eliminates the single point of failure present in tilt-wing designs. These propellers are only used during take-off and landing, and their blades are able to fold such that, when folded, they lie flat against nacelles, minimizing their drag impact on a cruise. The folding hinges also act as flapping hinges to react to unsteady blade loads and reduce structural demands on the blades and the hubs. Cost/Benefit Analysis - Do We Have Enough Licensed Pilots to Drive These Costly Aircraft? Putting aside the infrastructure issues, which will possibly be answered by VTOL aircraft, another issue that may pertain is the limited number of trained and licensed pilots to drive these aircraft. The land taxi concept was sustained because, with time, the land vehicle, either a car, a bus or a motorbike, became a travel necessity for individuals; particularly, every individual is trained to drive by the age of 18. Driving a land vehicle compared to an air taxi is easier and less complex. This constraint concerning trained and licensed pilots is also subject to affordability. The average cost of a basic four-wheeler vehicle which can carry at max 5 passengers, including driver cost, can range up to $20,000. On the other hand, according to Wall Street Journal, the initial sale price for Volocopter is around $250,000, which is around 10 times the cost of a basic four-wheeler. Apart from the initial investment, the maintenance is also expected to be on the higher side. Until the air taxi becomes a travel necessity based on factors of affordability and useability, the business model of the air taxi will be a company or brand-oriented similar to a huge aircraft business. The loopholes in the context of the high requirement for trained pilots can be filled using the concept of unmanned air taxis. But the question remains the same for this. Will consumers readily accept it? Speculating the Future of Mass Air taxi Right now, a boy in his adolescence is free to throw a ball in space and wait for it to land back. Who knows, the right of freely throw anything into space above your head may become a luxury in the future with thousands of small drones and aircraft hovering over the terrace of our homes? According to current limitations, a small drone has to fly between 60 to 120 meters. Hopefully, the legal limitations put forth by Aviation Federation will think of that boy, and by any chance will allow a baseball player to hit the ball as high as possible. Most business analysts are counting only on the initial investment and maintenance costs related to air taxis. One more cost factor that can be perceived once air taxis become normal is based on traveling priorities. The space may soon be segmented into levels based on altitude. There will be higher prices for low crowded levels and lower prices for high crowded altitude levels. A similar traffic light system may be used to regulate the traffic of air taxis. Conclusion Air taxi has come a huge way forward to address the issues offered by the land, and water taxis and the big guns are loaded to shoot the air taxi business to height, but it has to overcome various hurdles such as legal limitations put forward by Aviation Federation/ DGCA including infrastructure demand and cost optimization. References 1. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/air%20taxi 2. https://blog.ipleaders.in/drone-laws-in-india/ 3. https://uavcoach.com/drone-laws-in-united-states-of-america/ 4. https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/05/unlikely-players-team-up-to-lead-south-koreas-air-taxi-industry/ 5. https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/06/joby-aviation-to-launch-air-taxi-service-in-south-korea/ 6. https://www.aerospacemanufacturinganddesign.com/article/bell-boeing-delivers-400th-v-22-osprey/ 7. https://www.flightglobal.com/first-operational-f-35-squadron-declared-ready-for-combat/117812.article 8. https://www.jobyaviation.com/S2ConceptualDesign(AIAA).pdf 9. https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-TEB-5964

As an open standard, SIP allows you to connect a wide variety of compatible IP phones or Standard VoIP softphones. It can power your organisation with video conferencing and other unified communications in addition to phone communication (UC). Other VoIP systems may necessitate the usage of branded devices. The SIP-enabled PBXs are frequently easier to interface with third-party systems like CRM. In the current scenario where we are in a pandemic, the majority of corporate organizations are providing their employees with the facility of working from the comfort of their homes which leads to more interactions, and the involvement requires far more than just phone calls. While phones remain an important tool for communication, professionals use a variety of other devices to communicate too. The ordinary employee is likely to rely on email, phones, mobile applications, text, chats, and video conferencing on any given day. Most organizations are considering IP PBX or Hosted PBX phone systems and SIP trunking when implementing a phone system. Modern technical breakthroughs have increased the number of alternatives available to businesses for business phone systems. To reduce money, businesses are increasingly shifting away from antiquated solutions like primary rate interface and toward more integrated options like Voice over Internet Protocol. For some businesses, upgrading to internet-based business phones is the best option. However, VoIP phones are insufficiently robust software for many businesses today. Many businesses might benefit more from a Unified Communications strategy, which enables text, audio, conferencing, mobility, and other forms of communication. What is Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP)? VoIP is an abbreviation for the Voice over Internet Protocol, which specifies how to make and receive phone calls over the internet. Since the late 1990s, telephony has depended on digital lines to carry phone calls. VoIP is a low-cost method of handling an infinite number of calls. It is considered a tried-and-true technology that allows anybody to make phone calls over the internet. With the growth of broadband and has emerged as the clear choice for phone service for both individuals and companies. VoIP services have the ability to transform the voice of the users into a digital signal that can be transmitted over the Internet. If the user dials a standard phone number, the signal is transformed into a regular phone signal before reaching its destination. It also allows them to make a call immediately from the computer, a VoIP phone, or a standard phone linked directly to a specific adapter. What is Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)? The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is one of the main protocols in VoIP technology. It is an application layer protocol that controls multimedia communication sessions over the Internet in combination with other application layer protocols. It is essentially a signalling system used to create, modify, and end a multimedia session over the Internet Protocol. The endpoint can be a smartphone, a laptop, or any device that can receive and distribute multimedia information over the Internet. It employs a request/response model to establish communications between network components and, eventually, construct a call or session between two or more endpoints. Several clients and servers may be involved in a single session. It transparently provides name mapping and redirection services, allowing users to keep a single externally visible identity independent of network location. SIP is part of a larger multimedia infrastructure and is dependent on other Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) protocols. The SIP will often employ the Real-Time Session Protocol (RTSP) to give transportation and quality of service (QoS) feedback for streaming video; the SIP will often use the Real-Time Session Protocol (RTSP). Other established protocols govern public-switched telephone network access and describe multimedia sessions. While SIP employs certain protocols, it is not bound by them if a better solution becomes available. One of the advantages of SIP over its predecessor protocols (H.323) is that it does not need to be redefined in order to progress to something better. SIP is in charge of user location, availability, capabilities, as well as session establishment and administration. It has no effect on what services are transmitted back and forth or how information is shared. SIP just has to be able to communicate, regardless of whether it uses radio waves, wired networks, satellites, or other means. It is a text-based protocol that also transports many non-text data. Why SIP is Essential? A protocol is a set of rules for communicating between pieces of hardware. Many protocols, such as SIP, TCP, and HTTP, are used in modern digital services. A protocol defines the syntax and semantics of communication. A protocol can only be useful if various vendors agree to utilize it on their devices and apps. Many protocols grow over time to become industry standards when more developers begin to use them. SIP is an example of an industry standard that is utilized in VoIP. It governs how messages are delivered between endpoints in order to establish and manage multimedia sessions. Other protocols carry real speech and video. SIP is in charge of call handling. Most companies choose SIP because it ensures interoperability. You can buy SIP-compliant hardware with confidence that it will function with your system. You do not need to be concerned about compatibility or integration difficulties. SIP Sessions The basic SIP specification includes a method for establishing and managing sessions between two user agents. SIP sessions, sometimes known colloquially as "calls" and more technically as dialogues, are initiated by invitations from one User-Agent (User Agent Client or UAC) to another (User Agent Server or UAS). This invitation transaction is essentially a three-way handshake between the UAC and the UAS. To establish a call session between different users, the SIP Sessions are used with the VoIP and Voice and Video over IP (VVoIP or V2oIP). SIP Architecture Elements of SIP Architecture User Agent Client (UAC) User Agent Server (UAS) Proxy Server SIP Terminal Location server Redirect Server The above six can be broadly grouped into two categories: 1. User agent (UAC and UAS): A SIP terminal, such as a SIP phone, is a device that allows for two-way, real-time conversations in a SIP network. The client element initiates the calls, which are then answered by the server element. This enables peer-to-peer communication using a client-server protocol. 2. SIP Network Server (Proxy, location and redirect): The Location Server in SIP communicates the current IP address of clients to the network's Redirect Server and Proxy Server. The Redirect Server then accepts the SIP request, which determines the new address and provides it to the SIP client. Whenever the Proxy Server gets any SIP request, it forwards it to one or more clients or the next-hop servers. SIP Call Flow Basic SIP session setup involves a SIP UA client sending a request to the SIP URL of the called endpoint (UAS), inviting it to a session. The request can be sent if the UAC knows the UAS's IP address. If the user cannot be found, the UAC redirects the request to a proxy or redirect server. The request may be sent to various servers until the user is found. The request is made to the UAS after the SIP address is resolved to an IP address. If the user accepts the call, capabilities are discussed and the conversation begins. If the user does not answer the phone, the call might be redirected to voice mail or another number. Why SIP Should be Preferred? The primary goal of SIP is to start and then finish the session. SIP answers inform you of the other party's existence, establish a connection, and allow you to do anything you need via the connection. However, it has no understanding of what is going on over the connection, which allows SIP to be used for video conferencing, instant messaging, and making calls over the internet. This is how SIP works in a corporate VoIP call: before voice data can be delivered over the internet, it must be encoded with codecs that convert audio impulses into data. As an open standard, SIP allows you to connect a wide variety of compatible IP phones or Standard VoIP softphones. It can power your organisation with video conferencing and other unified communications in addition to phone communication (UC). Other VoIP systems may necessitate the usage of branded devices. The SIP-enabled PBXs are frequently easier to interface with third-party systems like CRM. SIP enables voice communication via the Internet, but other protocols may necessitate the usage of private networks, which can be more difficult to set up. As a result, the usage of SIP can aid in the deployment of telephone services in distributed workplaces. This is not to say that other VoIP protocols do not permit it; nevertheless, you may need to perform some technical settings to enable it. Also, it has a considerably broader community than any other VoIP communication technology. This helps to ensure the standard's dependability and usefulness, and if you have any questions, you can be sure to locate or discuss them simply online. SIP Gateway In VoIP communication solutions, a SIP gateway, also known as a SIP Server, is required. It is a device that handles device registrations and connects devices such as desk phones, conference phones, and softphones. SIP gateways allow audio and video connections to be made over the internet at the same time. A SIP gateway is required if you wish to use conference calls, voicemail, or video calls. SIP Trunking SIP trunking is a means of providing phone services to businesses that have their own IP PBX. It takes the place of the classic PRI line between organisations and regular phone companies. It acts as a link between VoIP and the public telephone network (PSTN). A SIP trunk is a virtual link between your company and your ITSP rather than a physical line (Internet Telephony Service Provider). The seller is only responsible for the connection and supplying you with a dial tone. You must handle the PBX on your own. That is, your team will determine which features to activate and administer. You have complete control over when and how your hardware and software are upgraded. You are in charge of data security and privacy. Each SIP trunk supports SIP channels. A SIP channel corresponds to one incoming or outgoing call. Because a SIP trunk can accommodate an infinite number of channels, your company only requires one SIP trunk no matter how many concurrent calls you anticipate. The number of channels necessary is determined by the volume of calls made by your company at any one moment. Many SIP trunking providers provide per channel/call options, including unlimited incoming and outbound, local and long-distance calls. Each channel allows you to make or receive a single call. Once you've used up all of your channels, you won't be able to make or receive any more calls. Additional channels for increased capacity can always be added by contacting your provider. Businesses may simply budget their telecom expenses with this sort of SIP trunking service. Advantages of SIP Trunking Over VoIP: SIP is very scalable, and it is not only restricted to speech; it can also be used for video, messaging, and other purposes. For better efficiency, it frequently contains built-in interface with regularly used applications. Can be used with PRI lines to provide the greatest combination phone system for your company. Pricing is quite flexible, allowing for more features and lines as needed. SIP VS VoIP A straight comparison is not always possible when it comes to SIP versus VoIP technologies. Whereas VoIP is used to describe any internet-based phone service, SIP is a set of communication protocols used in most VoIP implementations. VoIP refers to any phone call made through the internet rather than traditional phone lines. VoIP systems rely on data connectivity rather than the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to transport voice packets. Unlike SIP, which is used to support and expand Voice over IP, not all VoIP is supported by SIP technology. While SIP is only one protocol that may be used in a corporation VoIP to expand communications beyond voice-only calling to allow video conferencing, text, instant messaging, and other multimedia communications, it is not the only one. Patent Analysis Due to digital transformation trends driven by remote work and the COVID-19 pandemic, cloud computing became the de facto IT choice in 2021 and will continue to do so in 2022. With heavy investments, skilled human resources and a whopping 2467 patents to its credit, the US proved to be a leader. The European Patent Office and Germany follow with 537 and 346 patents - still far behind the US. Avaya, Blackberry and Qualcomm are at the top spots. This can be credited to the fact that these companies are ready to fulfil the ever-changing needs of customers and employees and create unique experiences. All the other companies are still up the ladder and definitely need to focus a lot more on getting the numbers. Future scope of SIP Trunking SIP, being a cloud technology, is open to continual enhancement as connection, PBX, and network technologies advance. When improvements are made at any level, you should reasonably expect them to flow through to your current situation. SIP is already the most popular protocol for handling audio, video, and instant messaging sessions. As video continues to gain traction in business communications, stronger codecs will be used to guarantee video conferencing quality is maintained. If the accompanying bandwidth and network constraints are met, SIP will continue to be the communications protocol for business interactions. Thus, it is quite evident that SIP trunking is future proof and will be utilized by more and more organizations to come. References https://www.ciscopress.com/articles/article.asp?p=664148&seqNum=2 https://telecom.altanai.com/2013/07/13/sip-entities/ https://www.ciscopress.com/articles/article.asp?p=664148&seqNum=2

What is Google Lens? Google Lens is an image recognition system that uses visual analysis and a neural network to bring up relevant information about the items it recognizes. It identifies an object when a user points their phone's camera at the object by analysing an image, barcodes, QR codes, labels, and text. It then presents relevant search results, web pages, and information. For instance, the device will immediately join the scanned Wi-Fi network when the camera is aimed at a Wi-Fi label with the network name and password. Google Lens works with Google Photos and Google Assistant as well. The program's functionality is analogous to Google Goggles, a predecessor that performed a similar function but with fewer features. Google Lens uses more sophisticated deep learning techniques to enhance its detecting abilities than its earlier version. What is Google Lens Used For? Translate: With Google Translate installed, a user can point the phone at text and have it live-translated in front of his eyes. This may also be done without an internet connection. Smart Text Selection: The user can use Google Lens to highlight text and copy it to use on the phone after pointing the phone's camera at it. As an example, consider being able to point the phone at a Wi-Fi password and copy/paste it into a Wi-Fi login page. Smart Text Search: When highlighting text in Google Lens, you can use Google to search for that text. This is useful if the user needs to search for a word's definition, for instance. Shopping: If the user sees a dress while shopping, Google Lens can recognize it and other apparel items identical to it. This works for almost every item a user can think of, as well as for buying and reading reviews. Google Homework Questions: That's true, the user can simply scan the query to see what Google returns. Searching Around: Google Lens will recognize and identify the user’s surroundings if the user points the camera around him. This might include information on a landmark or information about different sorts of cuisine, including recipes. Copy Text from the Real World: The capacity of Google Lens to capture text from a physical document — a paper, a book, a whiteboard, a suspiciously wordy tattoo on the rumpus, or anything else with writing on it — and then copy that text into your phone's clipboard is its most powerful and most often used feature. The user can then effortlessly copy and paste the content into a Google Doc, a note, an email, a Slack discussion, or anything. Send Text from the Real World to Your Computer: Just follow the same procedures as before, but this time, scan the panel at the bottom of the screen for the "Copy to computer" option. Any machine running Windows, Mac, Linux, or Chrome OS should have that choice available as long as the user is actively signed into Chrome with the same Google account. And when the user taps it, a list of all the locations that are accessible is prompted on the screen. Hear Text from the Real World Read Aloud: Simply repeat the previous procedure of pointing the phone at the paper and selecting the "Text" option. Choose any text, and this time, seek the little "Listen" option in the panel at the bottom of the screen. Interact with Text from an Image: In addition to the live stuff, Lens can pull and process text from images — including both actual photos and screenshots the user has captured. That latter part opens up some pretty interesting possibilities. Say, for instance, the user has just gotten an email with a tracking number in it, but the tracking number is some funky type of text that annoyingly can't be copied, or maybe the user is looking at a web page or presentation where the text for some reason isn't selectable. Well, grab a screenshot — by pressing your phone's power and volume-down buttons together — then make the way over to the Google Lens app. Look for the screenshot on the Lens home screen, tap it, and tap "Text" along the bottom of the screen. And then, the user can simply select the required text. From there, you can copy the text, send it to a computer, or perform any of Lens's other boundary-defying tricks. For Design Patent Search: Google lens is a helpful tool to conduct an effective design patent search. Extensive design patent searches are a typical and essential method for assuring that the design application is granted. Although applicants can carry out design searches on their own, it is recommended to seek professional help in order to get accurate search results and avoid the risks of rejection. The architecture of Google Lens Google Lens uses cloud Vision API to find products of interest within images and visually search product catalogues. Object Localizer The Lens may utilize the Vision API's "Object Localization" option to identify and gather data about various items in a picture. The following items are returned for each object that is detected: What is a textual description, exactly, in everyday terms? A confidence score indicates how confident the API is in what it has found. The vertices of the enclosing polygon around the item were normalized. Where do the things appear in the picture? Product search Retailers may design items with reference photos that visually explain the product from a variety of angles using the Vision API Product Search. Then, retailers may include these items in product sets. The following product categories are supported by Vision API Product Search at the moment: general, packaged goods, toys, clothes, and home goods. Vision API Product Search uses machine learning to match the product in the user's query image with the photos in the retailer's product set when customers query the product set with their own photographs. It then produces a ranked list of visually and semantically related results. Cloud storage Cloud storage provides the already stored image information which can be used for object identification, text detection, and translation. The URL of a file located in cloud storage or a base64-encoded image string is the two ways to transmit an image to the Vision API for picture detection. Algorithmic Solutions Google launched Google Lens a few years ago to lead the drive for "AI first" goods. Now that machine learning techniques have improved, particularly in the areas of image processing and natural language processing, Google Lens has reached new heights. Here, we examine a few algorithm-based approaches that underpin Google Lens. The Lens enables users to convert what they see in the real world into a visual search box, allowing them to identify items like plants and animals or copy and paste text from the real world onto their phones. Region Proposal Network Google Go's Lens must interpret the shapes and characters in a picture after it has been captured. Tasks involving text recognition depend on this. In order to find character-level bounding boxes that may be combined into lines for text recognition, optical character recognition (OCR) uses a region proposal network (RPN). A fully convolutional network RPN predicts object limits and objectness scores at each place at the same time. Fast R-CNN performs detection using high-quality region suggestions that RPN has been trained to provide. It essentially instructs the unified network where to search. Knowledge Graphs A picture with a bounding box around text that can be identified is on the left. This image’s initial optical character recognition (OCR) result states, “Cise is beauti640.” The phrases “life is lovely” are recognized by Lens in Google Go by using Knowledge Graph in addition to the context from neighboring words, as seen on the right. There might be a variety of extra difficulties because the photos that Lens in Google Go captures could come from sources like signs, handwriting, or papers. The model may misread words if the text is veiled, stylized, or fuzzy. Lens in uses the Knowledge Graph to give contextual hints, such as whether a term is probably a proper noun and shouldn't be spell-checked, in order to increase word accuracy. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) Convolution neural networks (CNNs) are the foundation for many computer vision applications because of the availability of massive datasets and computing power. As a result, the focus of the deep learning community has primarily switched to boosting CNN performance in image identification. To identify cohesive text blocks, such as columns, or text with a recognizable style or colour, Lens uses CNNs. The final reading order of each block is then determined inside each block using signals such as text alignment, language, and the geometric connection between the paragraphs. Separable convolutional neural networks (CNNs) with an extra quantized long short-term memory (LSTM) network carry out each of these tasks, including script detection, direction identification, and word recognition. Additionally, a range of data, including ReCaptcha and scanned pictures from Google Books, are used to train the models. Google Lens Alternatives and Similar Apps 1. Search by Image on the Web Reverse image searching has gained a lot of traction. The user may choose a picture from the device's gallery or capture a shot with the camera and do reverse image searching using the Browse by Image on the Web application. This aids in locating the photographs that the user wants to look for if they are accessible in high resolution or if the user wants to learn more about the item. If the user wants to search for a certain product inside an image, the user can also utilize the Crop Feature on the Search by Image on the Web app to alter the picture. Be aware that there are several advertisements that might make the experience with reverse image searches difficult. This program lets the user search the Web for things, pictures, or people. The software may assist the user in determining if a social network profile photograph is genuine or fraudulent, locating related images, learning more about a clothing item, and discovering where to purchase it, among other things. Additionally, the user may scan QR Codes with the integrated QR scanner software. 2. Reverse Image Search & Finder One of the well-known and trustworthy reverse image search programs, Reverse Image Search & Finder enables a user to look for photos from any source. The user may start the reverse image search by taking an image with a camera or selecting any image from the gallery. Using the URL or link for the picture, the user may also conduct a reverse image search. To extract the precise picture, the user may crop, rotate, and more using the built-in photo editor in the Reverse Image Search & Finder tool. The user interface of the app is sleek and contemporary. It is uncluttered and one of the simpler Google Lens competitors because there aren't many buttons. 3. Image Analysis Toolset (IAT) The Image Analysis Toolset is one of the top-rated applications on the Play Store that assists the user with reverse image search, item recognition, and much more (IAT). A wide range of categories, including inanimate things, plants, and animals, are supported by the app. The IAT app might be useful if the user wants to learn more about any object or picture. It will display details about the picture and the things in it, including labels, links to relevant web pages, and matching and aesthetically related pictures (if available). The Censorship Risk Meter, which tells the user if a picture could be banned or censored, is built-in. Additionally, there is an optical text recognition capability. The user may quickly alter and add anything that he wants to the scanned document by using it to extract the text from any document. A logo recognizer, landmark recognizer, barcode scanner, colorimeter, and face insight to determine facial characteristics, emotions, and degree of likeness are a few further features. 4. PictPicks A user may use the PictPicks app to look for pictures that are similar to the ones the user has submitted. Additionally, the app features a built-in filter that enables the user to block explicit material and do more detailed searches. The user may begin an image search using PictPicks' Search By Picture tool by selecting an image from the phone's gallery or one that was taken with the camera. The app offers options to share, store, and utilize photographs in other applications, as well as to display all relevant information about the searched image, including image sources. The software has a highly cutting-edge and sophisticated user interface. The learning curve for PictPicks is really low, and the user can do a reverse image search straight away. Notably, the program occasionally displays advertisements without interfering with the work. Overall, PictPicks is among the most effective Google Lens substitutes. 5. PictureThis Notably, a user can use this software to recognize any type of plant, including trees, flowers, succulents, cactus, and more. Additionally, if you have a backyard garden and need advice on how to take care of the plants, this app may be a tremendous asset. The Image With an accuracy rate of 98%, this software can identify more than 10,000 plant species. If the user wants to gain more in-depth information about plant care, one may also look into a network of helpful horticultural experts. The software offers an intuitive user interface, and instructions to help the user snap the right picture, and, if the location is enabled, it can find nearby plants. In the Feeling Lucky area of the app, there is a mini-game that rewards users with free plant identification bonuses. Developments with Respect to Social Media Future-oriented visual search is a major trend that will probably alter how we find and buy pertinent things. In order to make it easier for consumers to locate exactly what they're looking for, Snapchat has been discussing this for years, Pinterest is expanding its visual search functionality, and Facebook is also investigating image-based solutions. The creation of Google's visual search capabilities is crucial since no platform has invested more in search than Google. The Broadened Scope of Google Lens The scope of Lens's potential has increased. In contrast to objects and portraits, Google estimates that up to 15% of photographs taken by people nowadays are of shopping lists and receipts. Lens now includes the capability to recognise text in photographs and convert it for use in other apps in order to address this. With an increasing number of applications and a foundation built on Google's vast database, the Lens offers a lot of potential for development. Visual search is another crucial consideration to make and will become much more crucial in the future of SEO, even if the rise of voice search, particularly as a result of the development of smart home devices, has garnered the majority of attention. Conclusion and Future Scope Google Lens with AR glasses will change the current scenario of seeing the things around the users. Currently, the user can use a phone to get information about a subject by pointing the camera at it. Google is driven to create a system that combines Google AR glasses with Google Lens. By eliminating intermediary obstacles like phone cameras, this technology will enable users to instantly get the necessary information. For instance, a person who only speaks English might find themselves in a Chinese restaurant with a menu in that language. While the user is looking at the menu, the Google AR glasses will instantly translate each item from Chinese into English. To bolster this, Google published a blog post describing the development of its Lens picture search feature and outlining the various improvements and developments they made to make it a more practical, precise tool. References https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Lens https://www.pocket-lint.com/apps/news/google/141075-what-is-google-lens-and-how-does-it-work-and-which-devices-have-it https://www.slideshare.net/prathyushaduggireddy/google-lens-91443526 https://www.shilpad.com/googlelens https://stackoverflow.com/questions/71590340/google-lens-apis-sdk https://cloud.google.com/vision/product-search/docs https://www.cloudskillsboost.google/focuses/1836?parent=catalog&utm_source=vision&utm_campaign=cloudapi&utm_medium=webpage https://www.maketecheasier.com/best-google-lens-alternatives-for-android/ https://analyticsindiamag.com/these-machine-learning-techniques-make-google-lens-a-success/ https://www.computerworld.com/article/3572639/google-lens-android.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niM4ttonrrA

The US accounts for 45% of the global pharmaceutical market and 22% of global production. This is evident by the number of patent families (i.e., 34,334) filed in the USA regarding the Lyophilization technology. Also, the Europe pharmaceutical market size was valued at USD 282.75 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR)of 5.4% from 2021 to 2028. The number of people experiencing severe food insecurity and needing immediate access to livelihood support and life-saving food aid is rapidly increasing. The Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC), an international coalition comprising the United Nations, the European Union, and governmental and non-governmental organizations working collaboratively to address food crises, released its annual report in June 2022, and this is one of its most significant findings. The report focuses on countries and regions where the scope and depth of the food crisis exceed the region's capabilities and resources. According to the report, nearly 193 million people in 53 countries or territories experienced acute food insecurity at crisis or worse levels (IPC/CH Phase 3-5) in 2021. This represents an increase of more than 40 million people over the already historic figures for 2020. If we talk about the global scenario, a total of 690 million people, or around 9% of the world's population, experience extreme food insecurity. This figure has been gradually increasing since 2014, and by 2030, it is anticipated to surpass 840 million. 2.5 billion people, or almost one-third, experience some amount of hunger. This is all about the hunger and food crisis, but what about food wastage? More than one-third of the food produced worldwide is wasted. More than half of all food waste in developed nations occurs at home. Every year, the average UK household wastes £700 worth of food, amounting to an annual waste of $14 billion. There are far-reaching repercussions from this issue that go beyond food. For instance, 25% of the freshwater available on Earth is utilized to grow food that is never consumed. If we have a method to increase the shelf life of food, we can store food for longer periods. This will help both in tackling future food crises and food wastage. Most of the food items have water content in them. This water content provides sufficient moisture to support the growth of bacteria, yeast, and mold, which then degrades the food. Conventional methods, such as drying under the sun, can remove up to 90% of the water content and can increase the shelf life of food items up to 10-12 years. But what if I tell you that there is another technique that removes 99% of the moisture from the food items and can increase the shelf life of the food items by up to 25-30 years? Obviously, it will help to tackle the ongoing and future food crisis. Also, it would provide an efficient way to store food that gets wasted each and every second in every corner of the world. What is Lyophilization? Lyophilization, also known as Freeze drying, is the process of removing water content to increase the shelf life of food items to an extent to which conventional methods cannot do. Lyophilization involves freezing the substance, followed by a drop in pressure and the addition of heat to cause the substance's frozen water to sublimate. Lyophilization occurs in three phases, with the first and most critical being the freezing phase which is also known as crystallization, followed by Primary Drying (Sublimation) and then Secondary drying (Absorption). Phases Of Lyophilization Process Freezing Phase (Crystallization) - To freeze the product, there are several techniques. Freezing can be done on a shelf in the freeze dryer, in a chilled bath (shell freezer), or in a freezer. As opposed to melting, sublimation is ensured by cooling the substance below its triple point. This keeps its physical form intact. Large ice crystals, which can be created by gradual freezing or annealing, are best for lyophilization. The outcomes of freeze-drying biological materials, however, are less than ideal because when crystals are too big, they may rupture the cell walls. The freezing is done quickly to avoid this. An option for materials that precipitate is annealing. The product is quickly frozen, and then the temperature is raised to encourage crystal growth. Primary Drying (Sublimation) - Primary drying (sublimation), the second stage of lyophilization, involves lowering the pressure and heating the substance to cause the water to sublimate. The vacuum accelerates sublimation. Water vapour can stick to and solidify on the cool condenser's surface. The vacuum pump is additionally shielded from the water vapour by the condenser. In this stage, the material's water content is reduced by about 95%. Drying in the initial stages can take time. The structure of a substance can be changed by excessive heat. Secondary Drying (Absorption) - Secondary drying (adsorption), the last stage of lyophilization, is when the ionically attached water molecules are eliminated. The links between the substance and the water molecules are broken by elevating the temperature above that of the primary drying phase. The materials are still permeable after being freeze-dried. The vacuum can be broken with an inert gas after the lyophilization procedure is finished before the material is sealed. To 1-5% residual moisture, the majority of materials can be dried. Advantages of Lyophilization Prolonged Shelf Life - Any particular product's moisture content directly impacts its shelf life. By using the freeze-drying method to remove water, bacterial development is prevented. Although moisture content varies from product to product, freeze-dried goods typically have a moisture level of roughly 3%. Any given freeze-dried product's actual shelf life will vary depending on its packaging, storage temperature, and the product itself. Application Variety - Food processors provide the flexibility and blending power to add real fruits and vegetables to a wide range of applications. Breakfast applications like hot and cold cereals, retail-ready or ready-to-eat snacks, and beverage applications like smoothies or entire fruit pieces added to beverages are all expanding categories of freeze-dried applications. Whole Food Nutrition - Consumer values are shifting, and more people are seeking nutrition from real, high-quality food sources with understandable labels. Because freeze-dried foods are minimally processed, they can contain clean ingredients that are free of synthetic, artificial, and highly processed materials. Freeze-dried fruits and vegetables are also real fruits and vegetables, allowing brands to make nutritional claims. Closest to Fresh Form – Freeze drying retains nutritional value better than other drying methods, supporting consumers' desire for whole-food nutrition. The process also preserves the original raw material's color and shape, assuring consumers that they are eating real fruits and vegetables. Freeze-dried ingredients' intense flavor and aroma closely resemble the raw material profile. Customization - Another advantage of freeze-drying is the ability to tailor it to specific needs and project objectives. Freeze-dried ingredients can be cut or ground into a wide range of sizes and shapes, from whole fruits and vegetables to fine powders. The finished product can be easily mixed into any blend or formulation to create a flavor profile that is entirely unique to your final product. Disadvantages of Lyophilization Water is needed for reconstitution (except for simple snacks) Some people dislike the dry, Styrofoam texture of the process, which takes 24+ hours on average. Some foods cannot be freeze-dried. Long-term storage necessitates the use of airtight containers. There are no space savings because the food's cellular structure is mostly preserved. Normal dehydration is sometimes preferable. Cost of production Application Areas Pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries - Pharmaceutical companies, frequently use freeze-drying to extend the shelf life of products like vaccines and injectables. The material can be easily stored, shipped, and reconstituted to its original form for injection by removing the water from it and sealing it in a vial. Food Manufacturing - Food is freeze-dried to preserve it and make it lightweight. The method has gained popularity in the form of freeze-dried ice cream, which is an example of astronaut food. Coffee is frequently dried by vaporization in a hot air flow or projection on hot metallic plates. Some breakfast cereals contain freeze-dried fruit. Although freeze-dried culinary herbs are available, air-dried herbs are far more common and less expensive. On the other hand, the freeze-drying process is more commonly used in the pharmaceutical industry. Industry of Technology - Lyophilization is a technique used in chemical synthesis to make products more stable or easier to dissolve in water for later use. Because it effectively removes solvents, freeze-drying can be used as a late-stage purification procedure in bio separations. It can also concentrate substances with low molecular weights that a filtration membrane would remove. Other Applications - The Document Conservation Laboratory at the United States National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has conducted research on freeze-drying as a method of recovering water-damaged books and documents. Freeze-drying is used in bacteriology to preserve special strains. Freeze-drying is sometimes used in advanced ceramics processes to create a formable powder from a sprayed slurry mist. Although freeze-drying produces softer particles with more homogeneous chemical compositions than traditional hot spray-drying, it is also more expensive. Freeze drying is also used for floral preservation, and brides who want to preserve their wedding day flowers have become very popular. Patent Analysis - Lyophilization Intellectual Property provides evidence for deep research and flourishment of every technology. It provides deep insights into how the technology started and developed within due course of the period. In lieu of it, patents in lyophilization technology describe how the technology developed started from firstly used in 1953 with lyophilization of human blood and then spread its application to food and other industries. Today, there are 82,169 patent families around the world that are related to lyophilization or freeze drying. Among them, 45,407 are alive, and 36,762 are dead patent families. Merck Sharp & Dohme is a major pharmaceutical company investing heavily in research and development projects. The market cap of Merck Sharp & Dohme is $221.5 Billion, and it spends $12.2 Billion on research and development. This is evident by the fact that Merch Sharp & Dohme has the highest number of patent families, i.e., 1573 related to the Lyophilization technology. Similarly, Novartis is also a pharmaceutical company that has a market cap of $184.6 Billion and spends $9 Billion on research and development. This is evident by the placement of Novartis on number two when we talk about the number of patent families (i.e., 1116) a firm owns related to the Lyophilization Technology. Bristol Myers Squibb follows Novartis for having the third largest number of patent families, i.e., 1010 related to the Lyophilization technology. Bristol Myers Squib has a market cap of $164.05 Billion and spends $11.3 billion on research and development. Similarly, Bristol Myers Squibb is followed by Pfizer (813), Hoffman La Roche (792), Genentech (733), University of California (722), University of Texas (705), Millennium Pharmaceutical (678), and then at the end AstraZeneca (628). The US is accountable for 45% of the global pharmaceutical market and 22% of global production. This is evident by the number of patent families (i.e., 34,334) filed in the USA regarding the Lyophilization technology. Also, the Europe pharmaceutical market size was valued at USD 282.75 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR)of 5.4% from 2021 to 2028. After the US, European Patent Office has the second maximum number of patent families (i.e., 23,405) related to Lyophilization technology, which is then followed by Japan having 18, 657 patent families. Japan is also one of the largest pharmaceutical producers having a production value of approximately $63 Billion. Japan is followed by China (16,198), Canada (14,546), India (12,775), Germany (12,320), Great Britain (11,748), France (11,422), and then Korea (11,387). Conclusion As the world adapts to increasing populations and less stable food production due to climate change, there is a lot of interest in the future of Lyophilization. Lyophilization could contribute to the solution by extending the shelf life of our food products while preserving their nutrition and form. Currently, the cost and energy involved in Lyophilized foods are prohibitively expensive. A home Lyophilization machine costs between $1,995 and $38,000+. Maintenance and electricity costs are up to eight times higher than air dry methods. However, with increased use of clean, renewable energy and advancements in technology and pricing, the technology has enormous future potential. Perhaps the image of Lyophilized food is also a barrier to its adoption, with chefs such as Gordon Ramsay chastising any chef who uses frozen food. I believe that we should be seriously considering technologies that can reduce our rampant food waste problem and use Lyophilization as part of the solution to improve food hunger outcomes globally. References https://teapro.co.uk/could-freeze-drying-solve-world-hunger/ https://www.millrocktech.com/lyosight/lyobrary/what-is-lyophilization/ https://www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/global-report-on-food-crises-acute-food-insecurity-hits-new-highs/en#:~:text=The%20document%20reveals%20that%20around,already%20record%20numbers%20of%202020. https://www.vandrunenfarms.com/blog/advantages-freeze-drying/ https://www.familycanning.com/freeze-drying/learn-about-freeze-drying/freeze-drying-advantages-disadvantages/ https://www.biotechnologynotes.com/food-biotechnology/food-technology/industrial-freeze-drying-process-applications-advantages-disadvantages-food-technology/14221

For a long time, graphic engineers implemented lighting in scenes using forward rendering or forward shading. Forward rendering is a direct approach where we render an object and follow it by lighting the object according to all light sources in a scene and then move on to rendering the next object. This process is repeated for each object in the scene. It is an easy process to understand and implement, but it exerts a toll on the performance parameter. Forward rendering is an intensive process and requires a high amount of processing since each rendered object has to iterate over each light source for every rendered fragment. Another downside of forward rendering is that it wastes fragment shader (FS) runs in scenes having a high depth complexity (wherein multiple objects cover the same screen pixel). This happens as a result of most fragment shader outputs being overwritten. Another problem with forward rendering arises when there are multiple light sources. In that case the light sources tend to be rather small with a limited area of effect (else it will overpower the scene). But fragment shader calculates the effect of every light source, even if it is far away from a pixel. Calculating the distance from the pixel to the light source adds more overhead and branches into the FS. Forward rendering doesn't perform well with many light sources. When there are hundreds of light sources, the amount of computation the FS needs to perform increases manifold. This is where deferred shading or deferred rendering steps in and tries to overcome these issues. Deferred rendering considerably changes the way we render objects. Deferred rendering provides several new options which significantly optimize scenes with large numbers of lights, allowing rendering of hundreds or even thousands of lights with an acceptable frame rate. The primary goal behind deferred rendering was to minimise the computer’s system resources via its pipeline mechanics. Whilst its counterpart, forward rendering, follows a more linear approach (which has its own advantages) deferred rendering solves certain scene complexity by first rendering the scene’s basic attributes such as depth, normals and diffuse colour. These attributes are stored in the G-buffer. Primarily, the G-buffer contains full screen rendering targets with various information being stored within them to produce a final image. Below is an image comparison between deferred and forward rendering. A scene/view was rendered using the two types of rendering. Then, the view was split into two halves. The left half represents deferred rendering and the right half is depicting forward rendering. One can easily see a difference between the two. The left view has better detailing and shadow information and also looks more realistic due to the textures. What is Deferred Rendering? To better understand deferred rendering, we need to understand a couple of rendering concepts and terminologies. 1. Fragment shader - Fragment shader processes a fragment (data necessary to generate a single pixel's worth of a drawing) generated by rasterization into a set of colors and a single depth value. The fragment shader is an OpenGL pipeline stage after a primitive (the basic elements of graphics output, such as points, lines, circles, text etc.) is rasterized. For each sample of the pixels covered by a primitive, a "fragment" is generated. Each fragment has a window space position, and a few other values, and it contains all of the interpolated per-vertex output values from the last vertex processing stage. The output of a fragment shader is a depth value, a possible stencil value (unmodified by the fragment shader), and zero or more color values to be potentially written to the buffers in the current framebuffers. 2. Geometry shader - A geometry shader (GS) is a shader program that governs the processing of primitives. A GS receives a single base primitive and it can output a sequence of vertices that generates 0 or more primitives. This is unlike vertex shaders, which are limited to a 1:1 input to output ratio. A GS can also perform layered rendering, where different primitives can be rendered to different attached layered images. Geometry shaders reside between the vertex shaders (or the optional Tessellation stage) and the fixed-function vertex post-processing stage. The GS is optional; if it is not present, vertices passed from prior stages are given to the next stage directly. The main reasons to use a GS are: · Layered rendering: Layer rendering takes one primitive and renders it to multiple images without having to change bound render targets. · Transform Feedback: This is employed for doing computational tasks on the GPU. With OpenGL 4.0, GS has two new features. First being the ability to write to multiple output streams and second, GS instancing, which allows multiple invocations to operate over the same input primitive. 3. Vertex shader - The vertex shader is a programmable shader stage in the rendering pipeline that handles the processing of individual vertices. Vertex shaders are fed with vertex attribute data, as specified from a vertex array object by a drawing command. A vertex shader receives a single vertex from the vertex stream and generates a single vertex to the output vertex stream. There must be a 1:1 mapping from input vertices to output vertices. Vertex shaders typically perform transformations to post-projection space, for consumption by the vertex post-processing stage. They can also be used to do per-vertex lighting, or to perform setup work for later shader stages. 4. G-buffer - The G-buffer is used to store lighting-relevant data for the final lighting pass. There is no limit in OpenGL to what we can store in a texture so it makes sense to store all per-fragment data in one or multiple screen-filled textures called the G-buffer and use these later in the lighting pass. As the G-buffer textures will have the same size as the lighting pass's 2D quad we get the exact same fragment data we'd had in a forward rendering setting, but this time in the lighting pass; there is a one on one mapping. 5. Graphic pipeline - A computer graphics pipeline or rendering pipeline is a conceptual model that explains what steps a graphics system needs to perform to render a 3D scene to a 2D screen. Once a 3D model has been created, for example in a video game or any other 3D computer animation, the graphics pipeline is the means of turning that 3D model into computer displayable content. Since the steps required for this operation depend on the software and hardware utilized and the preferred display characteristics, there is no universal graphics pipeline which will be good fit for all scenarios. However, graphics application programming interfaces (APIs) such as Direct3D and OpenGL were created to unify similar steps and to control the graphics pipeline of a given hardware accelerator. These APIs abstract the underlying hardware and keep the programmer away from writing code to manipulate the graphics hardware accelerators (AMD/Intel/NVIDIA etc.). The model of the graphics pipeline is usually used in real-time rendering. Often, most of the pipeline steps are implemented in hardware, which allows for special optimizations. The term "pipeline" is used in a similar sense to the pipeline in processors: the individual steps of the pipeline run parallel but are blocked until the slowest step has been completed. Implementing Deferred Rendering The implementation process of deferred rendering comprises primarily of two passes/stages: geometry pass/stage, lighting pass/stage. Each stage uses programmable pipeline functionality through vertex and/or fragment shader. Furthermore, each stage communicates with the other through a shared memory area in the video memory of the graphics card. For each fragment, data including a position vector, a normal vector, a color vector and a specular intensity value is stored. In the geometry pass, all objects of the scene are rendered and these data components are stored in the G-buffer. Multiple render targets or MRT can be used to render to multiple color buffers in a single render pass. Multiple Render Targets, or MRT, a feature of graphics processing units (GPUs), allows the programmable rendering pipeline to render images to multiple render target textures at a single instant. MRT stores the information required for lighting calculations in multiple render targets, which are used to calculate the lit final image. The geometry stage alone makes use of 3D geometric data. Hence, mesh of the scene to be rendered forms the input of this stage and the output is the G-buffer filled in with information required to shade all pixels that contribute to the final image. In the geometry pass, a frame buffer object is initialized. The framebuffer or the G-buffer has multiple color buffers attached to it. This is followed by rendering into the G-buffer. In order to fill the G-buffer with the required information, it is necessary to set the G-buffer as the current render target. Raw geometry information (only vertices without normals, texture coordinates and materials) is sent to the graphics card using the fixed function pipeline which only updates the G-buffer's depth buffer. Next, material and geometric information of the scene are sent to the graphics card and further a fragment shader fills the rest of the G-buffer's data. Completion of the geometric pass results into four texture maps (G-buffer contents) namely normal, diffuse, specular and depth maps. These will form the input of the next stage, the lighting pass. The first step in the lighting pass, the ambient pass, initializes all the pixels in the buffer. This is followed by an optimization. For rendering the lighting pass, scissors rectangle is a good optimization to use. This optimization processes every sample and then discards fragments that fall outside of a certain rectangular portion of the screen. When enabled, all fragments outside the scissors rectangle will be discarded before the fragment shader is executed saving a lot of processing. The scissors rectangle computation is done on the CPU before rendering each light source. The next step, the illumination pass, accumulates all light's contributions. For that, a screen-aligned quadrilateral matching the current render target resolutions is rendered for each light. And, during the rendering, the information stored in the G-buffer is used to shade the current quadrilateral. Deferred shading does not require the knowledge of what geometry is illuminated by what light and we could process all lights in on ago. With direct rendering, the contribution of each light can be added one pass per light source. Using one pass per light allows shadows but is less efficient than processing multiple lights in a single pass. But, when one has a small scene and not too many lights to work with, deferred rendering is not necessarily faster and sometimes becomes even slower as the overhead outweighs the benefits of deferred rendering. For complex scenes deferred rendering quickly becomes a significant implementation owing to more advanced optimization extensions. Where do we see Deferred Rendering? With all those advantages and smooth rendering processes, deferred rendering is a not a term many outside the computer graphics world have heard. But they have seen it in action. For example, when it is raining in the game, water is stagnant in some areas and water splashes when a character runs on it. That is deferred rendering. Deferred rendering has become the rendering of choice and can be seen in every game we have today. Use of the deferred rendering technique has increased in video games because it provides a good level of control in terms of using a large amount of dynamic lights and reducing the complexity of required shader instructions. Almost all top video game developing companies such as Rockstar Games, Electronic Arts implement this technique. Some examples of popular games using deferred lighting are: 1. Grand Theft Auto V developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games 2. Assassin's Creed III by Ubisoft 3. Dead Space 3 developed by Visceral Games and published by Electronic Arts

Football is a sport that involves, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Football is a global sport. The senior men's national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the world's governing organisation of association football, compete in the FIFA World Cup, commonly referred to as the World Cup. The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ will be played from 20 November to 18 December in Qatar. It will be the 22nd edition of the event, and the first played in the Arab world. Various legal protections exist for various types of intellectual property (IP), including those for inventions (patents), brands (trademarks), designs (industrial design rights or design patents), and creative works (sports programmes, other sports-related creative outputs, and specific sports broadcasts) (copyright and related rights). Given the magnitude of the sport - it becomes a mandate to protect various aspects of football under various branches of intellectual property rights. Let’s have a look at some of the most crucial aspects of IP in a football game! Trademarks in a Football Game A trademark is a symbol that can be used to differentiate one company's products and services from those of another. Trademarks are effective and essential marketing resources. Their clever application creates huge business prospects to make money in the world of sports. When we discuss a trademark, it can be the name of a football team, the club's logo, a sort of 3D aspect, such as the stadium, or any merchandise that is currently being produced. The logos of the brand on a jersey, or a uniform constitute a trademark. The colour combinations of the uniform with the distinct patterns can also be covered under trademarks. Even a football that is used to play the game has a particular logo on it that is covered under trademark protection. Further, football teams can increase the value of their brand by licencing their trademarks and other intellectual property rights to companies that make merchandise like clothing, accessories, footwear, and more. For instance, Manchester United and sportswear tycoon Adidas have a ten-year deal covering global technical sponsorship and dual-branded licencing rights. As consumers embrace the potent image and values that sports encapsulate, sports clubs and leagues are quickly evolving into global lifestyle brands thanks to the strategic marketing alliances that now exist between major apparel companies like Adidas, Nike, Puma, Under Armour, and others and sports organisations. Companies frequently spend millions of dollars for high-profile sports figures (and other celebrities) to endorse their products because they recognise the huge marketing potential of these superstars. Some even create product lines with the athlete's name on them. All these things are covered under trademarks. Copyright and Related Rights in a Football Game Football leagues, especially FIFA cups, rely on broadcasters to share their activities with followers around the world, engage them in their events, and even bring in sponsors. The connection between sports, television, and other media are supported by copyright and related rights, particularly those pertaining to broadcasting corporations. Sports events as a whole are typically not covered by copyright laws, but media firms shell out astronomical sums to have the exclusive right to broadcast the biggest sporting events live. Such occasions draw millions of spectators wanting to experience the thrill of a sporting event. The majority of sports organisations today get the lion’s share of their income from the sale of broadcasting and media rights, the value of which has skyrocketed in recent years. Along with helping to support the grassroots growth of sports, the money they bring in helps pay for large sporting events and stadium renovations. Further, the actions or signature moves of important players may then be protected using copyright as well. Sporting movements do not come under the usual categories covered by intellectual property rules, thus there is still a gap. IPR frequently excludes from its purview any act brought about by the human body, such as surgical maneuvers, yet athletic movements go well beyond that. Sports moves combine art, skill, and judgment, giving the person who invented or created them an edge over their competitors. This move frequently determines the outcome of the game, giving the so-called "signature moves" extra protection. However, the rules around this concept are not yet streamlined across the globe. Plant Variety Protection in a Football Game Unlike other sports, the type of grass used in football fields is chosen based on its environmental adaptability. In the northern states of America, there are three types of cool-season grasses that are used on the football field: Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass, and tall fescue. In the southern states, warm-season Bermuda grass and Bahia grass is primarily used. The major football associations have regulations governing the type of turf that must be present on a football pitch. If the competition rules allow it, the football pitch must be completely green and natural. Due to these regulations, most football pitches are built of real grass, however they are occasionally covered in synthetic turf. Football pitches covered in natural grass are preferred by professional football players over areas with artificial turf. For this year, FIFA has chosen the grass seed, created by a Georgian business, and instructed Qatar 2022 organisers to utilise it for playing fields at all stadiums and training facilities. The Qatar 2022 pitch contractor, Aspire Turf said that the American grass seed provides a more robust playing surface. Without the proper grass seed, the playing surface wouldn't keep together in Qatar's environment and conditions. Patents in a Football Game Since its inception, football has seen many changes, and unsurprisingly, intellectual property rights have had a substantial impact on those advancements. An idea of playing a game as such cannot be patented. But there are many peripheral aspects and equipments that can be patented. Now imagine you are watching a football match and it is getting cold. You want a chair that would not turn ice-cold, wouldn’t you? Metal benches can rapidly become unpleasant, as every seasoned football fan knows. Thank goodness Francis H. Chute came up with a remedy in 1961 that he termed the "FOLDABLE STADIUM CHAIR" (U.S Patent No.3,066,980). Chute's chair can be fastened to any stadium bench seating and gives some comfort to the harsh bleachers. Due to this development, many people may now enjoy sporting events for longer periods of time and fewer hurting backs. Design patent: The design of a product has a significant impact on the sports industry. Design plays a role in the distinct identity of sporting events, teams, and their equipment in the fiercely competitive sports market. Designs have a crucial part in providing economic value, making the product or the event more desirable and marketable, and it makes a product and a sporting event more attractive and appealing to consumers. We are all willing to pay a little bit more for a design that expresses our way of life and philosophy. Businesses can use industrial design rights or design patents to safeguard the investment they make in creating novel, appealing designs. Like a football of a particular brand may be protected to keep it safe from other brands that might want to copy it. U.S. Patent No. 2,182,053 ("'053 invention"), which is named "play or game ball," is one patent that protects the actual ball used in football. The football's form is one of its distinctive qualities. The ball's form distinguishes it from other sports balls in terms of aerodynamics. The 053 patent discloses and details the special shape of the football. The stitching of the ball is another another feature disclosed and explained in the '053 patent. Football pads are yet another essential component for the game of football. The user is protected and suffers less damage after a high impact thanks to the pads. In U.S. Patent No. 1,094,865 (the "'865 patent"), an early design for football pads was disclosed. It's possible that the materials used to produce an older generation of football pads differed slightly from those used to make them now. More specifically, the football pads described in the '865 patent state that "the [football pads] are essentially non-stretching material such as thick khaki or canvas," and that "the foundation of the [football pads] is a close fitting sleeved jacket." Nike files the most patents in the domain given its hold over the sports market globally. Many brand collaborations and advertisements are seen where Nike sponsors a lot of players and teams. This strategic partnerships have led Nike to have a monopoly in the world of sports. Undoubtedly, innovation is nothing new for Nike. It is what made the brand, which is possibly the most recognisable in the world, what it is today. Their signature football cleat, the Mercurial, is one of Nike's most known items. The company utilises the Mercurial as a canvas, gathering its most daring inventions and fusing them together like a Frankenstein-style sneaker. Early on (1800), Americans chose football as their most popular and significant sport. Since then, football has been used to represent American values, passions, and national identity. No doubt most of the activities related to football and a majority of IP can be seen there. China is currently 79th in the FIFA world rankings and has only ever participated in one World Cup (2002). But China is seeing a growth in the sports sector and football seems to be one of the most rapidly growing sports in China. Conclusion Football is a simple, universal sport. There is therefore a vast potential and a vast array of rights that need to be protected. Many equipments that have utility in football are rightly protected under patents. Brand collaborations, credibility and brand value go hand in hand. Trademarking these aspects and protecting them is of utmost importance. It is undoubtedly a contentious issue to grant sports moves intellectual property rights. The switch from web2 to web3 promises to create a wide range of financial options for football clubs, whether through retail, sponsorship, or media rights. We are living in a transformative era. However, it is more important than ever for sporting organisations to safeguard their intellectual property. References https://moon.vn/hoi-dap/football-is-a-team-game-that-involves-to-varying-degrees-kicking-a-ball-to-score-a--832441 https://theyouthedge.com/more-than-12000-websites-are-prohibited-from-streaming-fifa-world-cup-2022%ef%bf%bc/the-youth-edge-law-current-affairs-2022/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cup https://blog.decathlon.in/articles/top-5-benefits-of-playing-football https://lawncaretutor.com/what-kind-of-grass-is-on-a-football-field/ https://www.dlapiper.com/en/us/services/intellectual-property-and-technology/trade-dress-and-unconventional-trademarks/ https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/commercial/fifa-marketing/brand-protection

An essential step in the discovery process, deposition is a testimony given under oath and recorded in writing by a court-authorized official, usually outside of court and before the trial. The "deponent" is the witness who is being cross-examined. One of the most effective legal resources available to a party in a trial in the United States is a deposition. The majority of civil lawsuits are decided during depositions rather than in court. Experienced counsel, analyzing a deposition transcript, can typically foresee the likely outcome of a trial and can offer proposals for settlement appropriately. Particularly in civil courts, depositions are a crucial part of any case. Even seasoned lawyers must plan in advance to offer their clients the best representation possible. It can be exceedingly challenging to remember complex tactics and ideas. The golden guideline to keep in mind is that depositions always require planning ahead of time. In the session room, attorneys typically spend three hours for every hour of work. So, giving yourself plenty of time to prepare well before making an appearance is compelling. The Army teaches you how to properly put on your parachute, jump out of an airplane, use your equipment while in the air, and land safely. Nothing fully gets you ready to leap out of an airplane door for the first time while you're 1,200 feet in the air, despite all of this training. Similarly, getting ready for a deposition takes considerable work. You might not feel completely ready to take a deposition despite all of your preparation. But don't worry. Our best practices for deposition have you covered and will assist you to deliver an effective deposition should you ever be required to do so. Here are very simple tips for deposition preparation that you'll be able to put to use right away. Let's get going! 1. Competency of Witnesses According to California Evidence Code Section 702, "the evidence of a witness concerning a particular issue is inadmissible unless he has firsthand knowledge of the matter" for percipient witnesses. A foundation demonstrating the witness' firsthand knowledge is required before the witness is allowed to testify. Personal knowledge is frequently overlooked in terms of importance. The difference between knowing something to be real and believing it to be true. A quick funny example! - Consider the earth. If asked, the majority of witnesses won't be reluctant to confirm that the earth is round. Everyone is aware of that. However, most witnesses struggle when asked to name any personal information that might have contributed to their understanding. They might have heard or read in books that the earth is round while they were in school (which accounts for hearsay). Most likely, they have seen images of the earth shot from space. However, as they have never traveled to space, those witnesses are unable to validate the images. 2. Authentication of Documents Even though document authentication is easy and normally takes a few seconds, lawyers frequently make mistakes when doing the task. This can lead to significant issues during summary judgement or trial. According to California Evidence Code 1400, authentication must either "(a) be established by the introduction of evidence sufficient to justify a conclusion that the writing is what the proponent of the evidence asserts it is, or (b) be established by any other means authorized by law." In other words, the proponent must provide enough proof to establish a conclusion by a majority of the evidence. 83 Cal. App. 4th, People v. Herrera, 46, 61 (2000). 3. Outlines can be Tricky In order to cover all the subjects you need to discuss during your session, you typically construct an outline. A solid outline gives your deposition shape and guarantees that you don't forget anything. However, knowledgeable attorneys advise against writing questions. Naturally, you want to appear knowledgeable by asking ready-made questions, but there is a risk in doing so. There may be a desire to read out your next question rather than hearing the witness' response and then asking a follow-up question. Such a tactic avoids engaging in in-depth questioning and leaves out many inquiries that might be made immediately. Lawyers with experience advise creating a brief synopsis as opposed to detailed queries. For example, instead of writing "What time did you meet Mr. Jones?", you'd better jot down "time: Mr. Jones: meeting". Without worrying about missing anything, you can frame the inquiry however you wish during the session. Despite this, you must not disregard outlines. During the deposition, you might take a break to make sure you have covered everything. It's possible that you got lost in the interview's natural flow and missed some crucial details. It is wise to take a pause and look over the outline. 4. Research and Read Make sure to read before you begin to formulate your outline and questions. You must be aware of the "essential" papers and important legal principles that will be used throughout the trial. You can jot down notes as you read the materials on any objections the opposition might make to them. Comprehending the case's facts is very crucial. When you demonstrate your familiarity with the case throughout the deposition, you can prevent the witness from misleading you. For instance, you could inquire, "Did you work at a law firm, Mr. Smith?" in place of, "Where did you work?" If Mr. Smith sees that you are informed of the facts, he will be less likely to avoid giving you the answers. 5. Keep your cool The opposing lawyer could pose queries that appear foolish or irrelevant. The best thing a witness can do is maintain composure and respond to every question with candour and consideration. You have the right to take a pause if a topic of the questions makes you uncomfortable or if you're unsure of how to respond. Talk to your attorney at the intermission about the problems or the best way to deliver your testimony. 6. Exception for Business Records The justification for the business records' exception is dependability (and many other hearsay exceptions). There is a good chance that certain documents are reliable enough to be presented in court if a company uses them in its regular operations. On the other hand, a record is understandably less reliable if it was made particularly for a party to utilize in court. 7. The Attorney-Client Privilege There is no limit to the attorney-client privilege. Evidence protected by the attorney-client privilege may not be ordered regardless of relevance, necessity, or circumstances, unlike other exclusions that occasionally have countervailing policies. The attorney-client privilege is sacred, but lawyers who are defending their clients in depositions sometimes have the predisposition to apply it in ways that are not allowed. Lawyers may advise clients to withhold information about the procedures they took to find legal representation. 8. Hearsay The exclusionary rule of hearsay has so many exceptions that, while memorization of the rule and its exceptions (and the specifics of each exception) is required, it is insufficient to apply the rule successfully in the fast-paced environment of depositions or trials. Practitioners may make a mistake by failing to carefully evaluate hearsay during depositions because hearsay objections are only allowed at trial. However, depositions are frequently where parties can lay the necessary groundwork to determine if an exception to the hearsay rule applies (or does not). Such testimony may be of the utmost significance both during the course of the trial and when the court reviews numerous hearsay objections in motions in limine. 9. Never be too Confident Use terms like "never" and "always" sparingly. Such statements are overly conclusive and could make others doubt your trustworthiness if the assertions they support are later shown to be untrue. 10. Don't Get Distracted One of the essential components of a successful deposition is avoiding distractions. You need to first be clear on your destination in order to prevent getting sidetracked. Think over your deposition's outline and keep in mind the facts you want to prove. Once you feel you have all the information you require, you should stop asking questions. Young lawyers may lose focus on their overall strategy if the witness provides false information. If the witness has made false assertions, you must resist the urge to correct or educate them. Ask some more clarifying questions instead, and encourage the witness to go into more detail about the misleading statement for the record. At trial, you will have the chance to contest their testimony and present arguments in opposition. Conclusion No matter the type of challenge, learning and preparation is critically important to success. Many people find taking a deposition to be a major shock, especially if they have no past experience with litigation. Speaking with them and outlining the discovery process, as well as the deposition itself, is a smart idea. Tell them they will be put under oath and that you expect them to tell the truth. We hope this was a good read for any potential deposition that you may need to face in the future. If you have any questions, please contact us. References https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deposition_(law) https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/deposition https://www.findlaw.com/litigation/filing-a-lawsuit/what-is-a-deposition.html https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/deposition.asp https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/deposition https://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_education/resources/law_related_education_network/how_courts_work/discovery/ https://www.stimmel-law.com/en/articles/depositions-american-litigation https://lawshelf.com/videocoursesmoduleview/depositions-types-and-purposes-module-3-of-6

Are you struggling to create a highly coded platform for your business? If yes, LCNC platforms could be the answer! Enterprise developers and citizen developers may construct mobile or web apps by dragging and dropping application components into low-code or no-code development platforms, connecting them together, and adding code as needed. Why Are We Shifting to LCNC? The adoption of LCNC platforms is the next step toward ensuring that everyone can create applications quickly and easily. Professional developers may swiftly design apps using low-code and no-code modular techniques since they are not required to write lines of code. They also make it possible for people who are not software professionals to create and test apps, such as business analysts, office managers, small company owners, and others. These folks don't need to know much about machine code, traditional programming languages, or the design effort that went into the platform's programmable components in order to create apps. What is Low Code/No Code? Low code: Low-code is a technique for planning and creating programs that eliminate the need for traditional, or pro-code, coding by employing simple graphical tools and embedded functionalities. Low-code development delivers an enhanced and streamlined experience to allow users to start creating right away. However, pro-code writing is still a component of the development process. No Code: No-code is a technique that shares certain advantages with low-code in terms of user experience but goes one step further by enabling non-technical business users to create applications without writing a single line of code. Greater user accessibility is promised with the use of LCNC technologies, which will encourage more innovation and relieve pressure on IT departments. Similarities Between Low Code and No Code Platforms Visual Platforms with low code and those with no code are both WYSIWYG, or what you see is what you get. They enable them to visualize the business procedure or application that is developing graphically rather than in terms of code. As a result, business stakeholders will be able to work effectively with the development team, comprehend how their systems operate and be flexible enough to make fast adjustments. Drag & drop Drag and drop is how the development tools operate. In order to link them in the logical sequence, choose the tool, and drag it onto the design surface and customize them to meet the requirements. Pre-built tools and connectors Pre-built tools and connections are available nearly universally in low-code and no-code platforms, depending on the low-code platform already in use. Tools include ready-to-use connectors and services, which save development time and facilitate integration. Differences Between Low Code and No Code Platforms The difference between low-code and no-code platforms may be shown by emphasizing a few of their key distinctions. The complexity of the app, procedures, and systems, the size and capabilities of the development team, and the required speed of market entry should all be taken into account when deciding which platform best meets the objectives. As a general rule, no-code platforms are excellent for "citizen developers" who need something straightforward for a particular situation, whereas low-code platforms are excellent for software engineers who wish to create intricate systems that are in line with business requirements. What are the Features of LCNC platforms? In essence, low-code/no-code platforms are a component of the first wave of rapid mobile application development tools. Businesses of all sizes and sectors have acknowledged the necessity for a digital transformation as a result of rapidly developing technology. Such businesses require software and/or apps that meet client expectations if they were to be relevant and competitive in the digital era. Platforms with low or no code are an excellent options since they have several benefits, including wide accessibility, quick development, and low cost. Visual Modeling: Low-code and no-code platforms substitute a drag-and-drop interface for complex code. Through visual modelling, data processing and management are made simple for developers. Robust Functionality: Famous low-code solutions offer OOTB (out-of-the-box) capabilities, removing the need to create the foundational components of programs from scratch. Some of the platforms come with pre-built core modules such as data management, customer service management, etc. Reusability: The use of pre-configured modules and functionality for apps is a significant part of low-code development. These modules often contain all the essential basic operations required by many programs and may be readily reused for several alternative solutions. Cross-platform accessibility: One of the most sought-after characteristics of low-code/no-code platforms is multi-device interoperability. The cross-platform interoperability of the low-code platform allows users to create apps that can operate on all essential platforms and devices, in addition to enabling the usage of the platform on any device running major operating systems. Reporting and monitoring: Apps created with the low-code methodology are prepared to track workflows and processes to determine their efficacy. Additionally, tracking the performance of other applications is particularly helpful for analytical purposes. Types of LCNC by Use Case LCNC platforms provide a variety of use cases. There are several distinct low-code platforms available, each with a particular intended use or function. General Purpose These platforms enable the development of almost any kind of application. A general-purpose platform enables the developer to create apps that can be used everywhere and cater to a wide range of purposes. Depending on the need, general-purpose low-code platforms may entail building the front-end or back-end of the application. Process These platforms concentrate especially on apps that manage business processes, such as forms, workflows, and system connections. Going paperless and using approval procedures are perfect uses for process-based systems. Request Handling Low-code systems that handle requests are comparable to those that use processes, although they are less powerful. Only requests for fixed processes can be processed by them. Database These platforms are much more constrained; they only provide access to retrieve data from internal system databases. Database low-code platforms are excellent if needed to load a system with a lot of data but don't have a lot of time to do so. Mobile Application Development Platform (MADP) These platforms help developers code, test, and launch mobile apps for smartphones and tablets. Using these platforms, the user can write code for one platform and port the app to different mobile platforms. LCNC Examples Although experts predict that software developers employing low-code/no-code tools will be the main DevOps trend, marketers and analysts will profit from the no-code/low-code technology. Most developers believe that using these technologies will help them save time, lessen the workload, increase productivity, and prevent them from becoming outdated. 40% of low-code developers work full-time, while 33% work part-time, according to research by IDC. Developers are now judged on their ability to create digital solutions rather than their level of coding expertise. Despite this, low-code/no-code systems are still in their infancy. Even the most widely used tools demand extensive API knowledge and JavaScript competence. The functionality of items that don't require coding is currently constrained. Amazon Prior to the release of Amazon Sagemaker Canvas, AWS introduced two no-code/low-code services: Amplify Studio, visual development service for application stacks, and Amazon Honeycode, a visual builder for web and mobile applications. Any engineer or business user can develop ML predictions using point-and-click choices and automatically merge their data to create individual or batch forecasts using the Amazon Sagemaker Canvas. Due to the excessive demand for cloud-focused talents and the belief that the solution would help with the existing skill-gap issues, Amazon intends to increase the no-code/low-code portfolio. With no-code/low-code, the business also hoped to appeal to non-technical users. Google Google also offers AutoML, a no-code AI solution. The answer implied that the developer had some experience with machine learning. Users may train superior ML models for commercial use cases with the feature-rich AutoML family of AI tools. SAP SAP joined the no-code/low-code bandwagon as well. With this solution, users may use drag-and-drop tools to create apps and modify SAP procedures. Workflows for the controlling and finance divisions will also be automated. The firm acquired the no-code platform AppGyver for its no-code development environment, and SAP has introduced the Business Application Studio for low-code. Microsoft offers a free desktop application called Lobe that allows users to create customized AI models without any code. The best application for classifying images is Lobe, which is available for Windows and Mac. Also, an end-to-end, free AI platform called Akkio was created for marketing, sales, and finance operations. The software states that without creating code or employing a data professional, it can assist in transforming data into live AI forecasts in less than 10 minutes. Conclusion The upcoming trends in software development include no-code and low-code. Citizens will construct more and more applications in the future utilizing low- and no-code platforms, which will offer the necessary governance for development across business functions. Subject-matter experts have distinctive expertise and ideas that are sometimes challenging to properly share with IT teams. Businesses may ensure that the most knowledgeable team members can participate in the app development process by empowering these "citizen developers." Department heads and IT specialists can work together more effectively and make sure the appropriate technologies, workflows, and procedures are in place with the help of LCNC platforms. The increase of citizen developers contributes to meeting the need for new apps, addressing the developer talent gap, reducing the strain on IT personnel, and enabling quicker customer and market response. References https://www.techtarget.com/searchsoftwarequality/definition/low-code-no-code-development-platform#:~:text=Low%2Dcode%2Fno%2Dcode,create%20mobile%20or%20web%20apps. https://www.sap.com/insights/what-is-low-code-no-code.html https://marutitech.com/no-code-low-code-vs-traditional-development/ https://venturebeat.com/2021/02/14/no-code-low-code-why-you-should-be-paying-attention/ https://medium.com/@stefan_d/starting-a-low-code-application-architecture-13170fcd6fc7 https://www.cuelogic.com/blog/low-code-platform https://kissflow.com/low-code/types-of-low-code-platforms/

What is a Trade Secret? A trade secret is any information used in commerce that the owner has taken reasonable measures to keep secret, from which the owner derives independent economic value and such information not being readily ascertainable by the public. Such trade secrets are afforded legal protection against theft as long as the owner continues to derive commercial value from it (as opposed to patents which usually only provide up to 20 years of protection). 18 U.S.C. § 1832: Theft of Trade Secrets a) Whoever, with intent to convert a trade secret, that is related to a product or service used in or intended for use in interstate or foreign commerce, to the economic benefit of anyone other than the owner thereof, and intending or knowing that the offense will, injure any owner of that trade secret, knowingly— (1) steals, or without authorization appropriates, takes, carries away, or conceals, or by fraud, artifice, or deception obtains such information; (2) without authorization copies, duplicates, sketches, draws, photographs, downloads, uploads, alters, destroys, photocopies, replicates, transmits, delivers, sends, mails, communicates, or conveys such information; (3) receives, buys, or possesses such information, knowing the same to have been stolen or appropriated, obtained, or converted without authorization; (4) attempts to commit any offense described in paragraphs (1) through (3); or (5) conspires with one or more other persons to commit any offense described in paragraphs (1) through (3), and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, shall, except as provided in subsection (b), be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both. b) Any organization that commits any offense described in subsection (a) shall be fined not more than the greater of $5,000,000 or 3 times the value of the stolen trade secret to the organization, including expenses for research and design and other costs of reproducing the trade secret that the organization has thereby avoided. A company with a commercially valuable invention/information must face the decision as to whether to keep the invention a secret or whether to seek a patent (or other forms of intellectual property protection) on it. Assuming the invention contains a commercial value and is not general industry knowledge, here is a methodology we frequently follow while advising clients on such a decision: STEP 1 Categorize all such inventions as being one of the following two types (we call this the Subject Matter Test): TYPE 1: Processes, formulae, methods and other intangible information such as customer lists, pricing, vendors and contracts that are not otherwise patentable under U.S.C. §101 TYPE 2: Processes, methods, systems, apparatus and compositions of matter that are patentable under U.S.C §101. STEP 2 Categorize all such inventions as being one of the following two types (we call this the Discoverability Test): TYPE A: Information that can be seen or learnt from end-use of the product, or easy reverse engineering of the product, such as fluid mixtures, designs, devices, articles of manufacture, client-facing functionalities, user interfaces and documentation. TYPE B: Information that is not publicly accessible (for example, through reverse engineering or in publicly available documentation) such as secretly maintained recipes, customer lists, new formulae or server-side software. Using these two tests, each individual invention or information can be classified as: TYPE 1A: Information that is unpatentable as well as easily ascertainable. Such information is best protected by copyright (for example, the company can publish technical research papers to at least claim authorship and to contribute to the general state of the art). TYPE 1B: Information that is unpatentable but hard to determine from public documents, product use or reverse engineering. Such information is best protected by trade secrets. Trade secrets do not need to be registered with the government, but the company bears the burden of accurately defining the secret and actively protecting its secrecy. TYPE 2A: Information that is patentable and easily ascertainable from public documents, product use or reverse engineering. Such information is best protected using patents, assuming the commercial value derivable from the information exceeds the cost of obtaining and maintaining a patent (in the US, for example, a patent can cost upwards of $20,000 over its lifetime just to obtain and maintain). If the commercial value derivable from the information does not justify the cost of patenting, the information is best protected using copyrights - that is the company publish research papers that not only establish authorship and contribute to the general state of the art, but also preclude others from later obtaining a patent over the same invention. TYPE 2B: Information that is patentable but not ascertainable from public documents, product use or reverse engineering. Such information can be protected using both patents and trade secrets, and the decision depends on the commercial value derivable from the information (explained for TYPE 2A) as well as strategic importance of the information in light of the company's competitors. A patent by definition discloses the invention to the public to an extent that anyone with ordinary skill in the art would be able to practice the invention by reading the patent and without undue experimentation. Competitors for example, may use the patent to build similar (yet sufficiently different) products once the patent application is published (typically 18 months after application filing). What's more, competitors are free to build identical products and derive commercial value without owing any royalties in the time between publication of an application and successful grant. And if the application is not ultimately granted (due to non-payment of fees or prior art), you've just given away your secret for competitors to freely use. Keeping the invention as a trade secret in these cases is a more prudent approach. Yet, patents remain the most preferred route for most companies with TYPE 2B inventions. Patents in general around the world are affordable a stronger protection (for instance emerging market countries may not even recognize trade secret misappropriation as a valid civil claim for relief, while the alternative recourse like corporate espionage, cyber-crime and theft may be much more difficult to investigate and prove). Further, patents can be licensed to competitors in exchange for royalties, or even bought and sold as assets - which although possible, is rather difficult with trade secrets. Patents also provide protection against independent development of the secret by competitors while trade secrets must be actually stolen from you in order for a court to award you protection. For example, if you competitor stumbles upon (or even derives through reverse engineering) your secret invention, without actually stealing your documents or hiring your former employees who had access to such secrets, you would have no claim for relief. However, if you have a patent on such an invention, you could still sue the competitor for royalties and damages. How Do I Protect My Trade Secrets? Copperpod follows and proposes to clients a 4-pronged DM2 model of trade secret management: DEFINE commercially valuable trade secrets owned by the company, the date of origination, creators as well as employees and vendors that have been given access to individual trade secrets. This may be implemented as an intellectual asset management database maintained by the in-house counsel. MARK documents that contain trade secret information providing ample notice to a recipient of the confidential nature of the document. DISSEMINATE to all current and new employees and vendors the nature and importance of trade secrets that will be disclosed to them, and insert trade secret provisions in contracts. MONITOR continuously the activities and association of current and former employees and vendors with competitors Based on trade secret misappropriation cases filed over the last 10 years, 40% of cases dealt with former employees taking trade secrets with them over to their new employers while 25% of cases dealt with suppliers, consultants and vendors misusing trade secrets disclosed to them in due course of business. Interestingly, cyber-criminals and hackers constituted only 15% of trade secret theft, while the remaining 20% were attributable to actions by current employees at companies where the theft occurred. These numbers highlight the need for not just technical solutions (effective most against cyber-criminals and hackers) but also (and even more so) legal and procedural solutions to protecting trade secrets before, during and after the secrets are willingly disclosed to employees and vendors. While laws around trade secrets in the US and around the world may not yet be as mature as those around patents, with the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (DTSA) which brought trade secrets under civil and criminal federal law in addition to trade secrets being protected under state law, and weakening of patent protections over the last five years, trade secrets are now becoming an increasingly important means for companies to protect their intellectual property. Copperpod helps companies protect their competitive advantage through trade secrets, and trade secrets through technology. Contact us to find out if you have trade secrets that might be at risk. #tradesecrets #litigation

A metadata file that has been encoded using an artwork that may or may not is covered by copyright protection, or it may even be a work in the public domain, makes up the majority of non-fungible tokens. An NFT can be created from anything that can be converted into a digital format, so the original work is only required during the initial step of the process to produce the distinct combination of the tokenID and the contract address. NFTs, therefore, have very little to do with copyright in theory. Although Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have existed since 2014, the domain of digital assets has recently become more prominent. Both Fungible and Non-Fungible Tokens are built and reside on blockchain technology. But NFTs are peculiar in the sense that they are not made to have equivalent fractional values and instead represent a unique and individualized character. Fungible tokens, on the other hand, have equivalent fractional values to one another. To know more about NFTs and the interesting facts revolving around them, read our blog “What is a Non Fungible Token?” NFTs have opened new arenas for discussion in the legal world, particularly concerning copyright, ownership, and moral rights of artists. Today NFTs are being seen as a mechanism to authenticate ownership of not only the asset they represent but also physical assets. For example, to certify its high-end timepieces, the premium watchmaker Breitling offers digital certificates encoded in an NFT. Anything that can be digitized can be turned into an NFT, practically making the possibilities endless! Why Do People Want to Own Digital Art or NFT? An NFT is the creator's signature on the content, similar to an autograph on a baseball card, making it rare, special, and expensive. Any digital work that is owned might be a financial investment, have sentimental worth, and establish a connection between the creator and the buyer or collector. In the Ethereum ecosystem, the NFT standard was initially applied to a group of pixelated cartoon characters named Cryptopunks, which was published in June 2017. Memes, music albums, and digital art are just a few of the numerous types of works that have evolved into NFTs in the intervening years. NFTs come in many forms, but the most typical is a metadata file containing data encoded with a digital copy of the work being tokenized. The second type involves uploading the complete piece of work to the blockchain; these are less typical because doing so is expensive. NFTs and Copyright "Copyright (or author's right) is a legal term used to describe the rights of creators over their literary and artistic works. Copyright work includes books, music, paintings, sculpture, and films, computer programs, databases, advertisements, maps, and technical drawings." - (WIPO) NFT, as we know, is used to represent an underlying asset. So the underlying asset should be a literary or artistic work for it to be eligible to be copyrighted. Having said that, buyers should be aware that copyright in NFTs is not necessarily assigned at purchase. The tokens/NFTs that the buyer has in their digital wallet are theirs to keep, but not necessarily the artwork linked to the NFT. It's critical to carefully review the selling platform's relevant NFT agreements before purchasing an NFT. These differ between platforms and even amongst NFTs. Additionally, anyone thinking about purchasing an NFT should keep in mind that this is a young, speculative market with several unknown dangers, including the chance of a 100% loss. NFTs are only worth what someone else would pay for them; they have no intrinsic value. A metadata file that has been encoded using an artwork that may or may not is covered by copyright protection, or it may even be a work in the public domain, makes up the majority of non-fungible tokens. An NFT can be created from anything that can be converted into a digital format, so the original work is only required during the initial step of the process to produce the distinct combination of the tokenID and the contract address. NFTs, therefore, have very little to do with copyright in theory. However, there is growing interest in NFTs from a copyright standpoint. This is partly due to the fact that many of the works being traded as NFTs, like paintings or art, are covered by copyright, but it is also due to the fact that it is unclear what you precisely get when you purchase an NFT. One potential application for these tokens is perhaps in a system for digital rights management. While most NFTs don't involve a transfer of rights, the seller occasionally offers to convert the token into a real copyright ownership transfer of the original work. Copyright Infringement of NFTs There have currently been many instances of copyright violations in the NFT sector. A potential breach of this kind occurred in February 2022. After attempting to produce a minted NFT collection of cards from Magic: The Gathering cards, owned by Wizards of the Coast, a group of cryptocurrency and NFT enthusiasts faced criticism and a solid backlash. These people may have loved the game and possessed the cards they intended to mint, but they undoubtedly didn't understand their legal obligations. In an email to these fans, they admitted that they had been "working on the false idea that the project would be legal." As you might have guessed, this flagrant plagiarism of another person's work is illegal, and MTG's attorneys quickly intervened to put a stop to this attempt. The statement that followed said that "the copyright owner has the sole right to reproduce the copyrighted work, such as a MAGIC card, in any format." Therefore, it is safe to assume that this particular set of people won't be involved in the sale of MAGIC NFTs any time soon. Another example is DC Comics, which recently sent a letter to all its creators (even independent freelancers) advising that the unauthorized use of their characters and intellectual property in NFTs is forbidden. This arose after a creator generated $1.85 million from the sale of NFTs that included characters he had previously created for DC Comics. The Hermès Lawsuit Hermès, a leading name in high fashion, sued NFT designer Mason Rothschild in January 2022 for using images of bags that were strikingly similar to Hermès's renowned Birkin bag. Even Rothschild's collection's name, "MetaBirkins," makes it evident that Hermès' style influenced him. Hermès claimed that Rothschild's MetaBirkins NFTs violate the luxury company's 1984-established Birkin mark in its 47-page case. Hermès asserted that Rothschild's NFT collection is "likely to induce consumer confusion and error in the minds of the public" as defined by the Lanham Act due to the enormous power of its Birkin mark. Hermès further claimed that Rothschild used its Birkin logo without its consent and that by selling and reselling the NFTs, the company made a clear profit from doing so. On May 6, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff rejected a Motion to Dismiss filed in March by Rothschild, allowing for Hermès’ lawsuit to move forward. The defense In response, Rothschild argues that the MetaBirkins are hairy rather than fuzzy. In response to Hermès, the artist claims that his photos are "created with pixels, yet the bags are depicted as fur-covered," a visual criticism of the animal cruelty involved in creating a Birkin. Rothschild claims that unlike expensive bags, which "are produced from the tanned hides of slain animals," MetaBirkins "carry nothing but meaning." According to him, it is irrelevant legally that his images are associated to NFTs. The First Amendment ensures his "freedom to reply in the marketplace of ideas to the inescapable corporate brand messaging by which we are inundated every day, nearly wherever we turn," which is what matters. (The First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the government from making laws respecting the establishment of religion, prohibiting the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech or the press, preventing citizens from peacefully assembling, or interfering with citizens' ability to petition the government for redress of their grievances. The First Amendment is one of the most sacred aspects of the American legal tradition and has spawned a vast body of jurisprudence and commentary.) The outcome The opposition to Rothchild's request to dismiss was submitted by Hermès on April 4, 2022. In it, Hermès claimed that Rothschild was a "opportunistic infringer, trading upon Hermès' enormous brand to sell digital handbags he describes as "commodities." Hermès further reiterated its arguments that the Rogers test did not apply and that Rothschild's use of the term "METABIRKINS" violated and devalued Hermès' trademark. The dismissal motion is still pending. So what are the reasons for such petty infringements? Are these infringements intentional? Or are they due to some other reason or just because of confusion? The Confusion About NFTs Some buyers believe they are purchasing the underlying work of art together with all of its rights. They only purchase the metadata related to the item, not the work itself. The amount of money spent on the tokens may be somewhat to blame for the confusion. It's simple to presume that the buyer has gotten more than just a piece of code when pixel art can be purchased for over USD $1 million. People frequently believe that the concerned work (like a painting or an art) has been sold while covering the sale of NFTs, but this is not the case, which adds to the growing confusion in the mainstream media and among people at large. Possible Remedies to Protect NFT Cryptographic hash A simple adjustment to the cryptographic hash associated with NFT would result in a very different collection of codes. A mathematical operation known as a hash function compresses one input numerical value into another. The hash function accepts arbitrary-length inputs, but the output is always predetermined in length. The underlying asset and the platforms that offer NFTs should be hashed. Buyers must check to see if the purchased NFTs have been hashed, and artists must request that the platforms hash NFT. This can help determine whether the NFT is genuine. License agreements for NFTs By incorporating the NFT licence agreements into their smart contracts, which automatically carry out the licence conditions in all subsequent resales of the NFTs, the creators may safeguard their intellectual property rights and economic rights. The rights of the original owner and the purchaser should be outlined in these licence agreements. Additional ways to obtain genuine NFTs Buyers must determine whether the NFTs they are purchasing are confirmed or listed under "verified collections" on online markets like OpenSea. The confirmed ones guarantee that the NFTs exhibited are from the authors and artists who originally created them. Awareness The best remedy is to understand the scope of your rights and take into consideration what amounts to infringement. Conclusion An NFT creator may be liable for intellectual property (IP) infringement when using someone else's creations without their consent. Selling artwork that incorporates characters protected by copyright is illegal without the owner's consent. Although NFTs are popular now, many critics think they will soon lose popularity. One of the causes of this doubt is that no one is certain how long the NFT model of copyright ownership and protection will last. There are very few rules that regulate NFTs, particularly when it comes to the copyrights that are used in NFTs. No international or exclusive law applies exclusively to NFTs, even though there ought to be at least a global protocol or agreement to prevent such infringement. Given the wide scope of NFTs, an international community and legal system should govern and uphold the moral, legal, and just rights of the original inventor, the new owner, and the purchaser. NFTs and copyright will inevitably interact in actuality. However, most disagreements will be resolved at the platform level. By promoting the existence of a space where artists may sell the tokens they have created, the market is already serving as a gatekeeper, reducing potential infringement. The NFT space may still see a significant number of copyright infringements, though, due to the structure of the NFT market and the motivation for high returns. It will be interesting to see how ownership claims and disputes play out in the early stages of this potentially revolutionary technology. References https://amplify.nabshow.com/articles/do-copyright-and-ip-laws-apply-to-blockchain/ https://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2021/04/article_0007.html https://www.makeuseof.com/nfts-copyright-law-explained-simply/ What are the copyright implications of NFTs? | Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/what-are-copyright-implications-nfts-2021-10-29/ The Nifty Affair of NFTs and Copyright https://sc-ip.in/2021/07/15/the-nifty-affair-of-nfts-and-copyright/ https://www.wired.com/story/nfts-cryptocurrency-law-copyright/