Chat with Kenneth Cukier of The Economist on Patents & Technology

By Aditya Mhatre at 21 October, 2007, 2:30 pm

Kenneth A very articulate Kenneth Cukier from The Economist talks about his special report on Patents and Technologies which was a result of painstaking research that lasted more than 8 months. Kenneth toured several countries in Europe and Asia (including India) and searched for answers on the sensitive yet misunderstood topic of patents, trademarks, copyrites and trade secrets. Nopes, it's not what you think. It ain't a bland topic after all.

It does affect our daily lives in more ways than one and Kenneth makes it very listener friendly!

Before joining 'The Economist', Kenneth served The Asian Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong. Prior to that he was the European Editor of Red Herring. From 1992 to 1996 he worked at the International Herald Tribune in Paris. He was also a research fellow at the National Center for Digital Government at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he worked on a book about the Internet and international relations. He also serves on the board of advisors to the Daniel Pearl Foundation. Kenn brings all his experience into this talk on his special report on Patents and Technologies.

This talk seeks to answer the following questions (among others):

What role did Intellectual Property Rights have in the making of the device which we all call, ' The iPod'?
Why do Indian companies shy away from filing patents?
If IBM has 3000 patents and Toshiba boasts of 6000, does that mean that IBM is twice as innovative as Toshiba on the innovation barometer? What about the Indian companies which have far less?
Ever heard of Submarine patents and Patent trolls? Kenneth paints a wonderful picture while explaining these terms.

Listen to Kenneth's take on the customer who sued McDonald's successfully for millions of dollars after she suffered burns by the unreasonably hot coffee which she spilled on herself. Currently, Kenneth has moved from London to take charge of the Tokyo bureau and he says, "I'm loving it!" You can also read about Kenneth's works on his website.

Listen Online (64 kbps) : Episode length: 27 mins

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