Tell Me What You Think of Patents, and I’ll Tell You Who You Are 

by Jeremy M. Ben-David, Managing Partner, JMB Davis Ben-David

(original article was first published in January 2015 – as timely as ever)

It’s official. On June 12, 2014 the LA Times reported a statement by Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors, Inc., that “he was opening up the electric car company’s patents to all comers.” The lead line on this was the very trendy, almost postmodern statement that “the Tesla Model S just became the world’s first open-source car.”  It has been suggested that behind Tesla’s radical decision was the realization that they cannot do it all alone. They need others to use their technology and to create a demand for the infrastructure that a Tesla-driven electric car market would need in order to become a real mainstream alternative.

But then why go to the bother and expense of registering patents in the first place? 

Ophir Fromm is a serial entrepreneur who, after 23 years of creating start-ups in the Hi-Tech and Low-Tech world, decided to combine his talent as an engineer with his passion for cycling, to create Bamboo Bike, an engineering firm that's creating sustainable solutions by using bamboo for modern construction such as in drones and cars.

Avraham sat down with Ophir to discuss the inspiration for Bamboo Bike, solutions that the company has created outside of using bamboo as a composite material for projects, tips for startup founders, funding advice and much more.

The New Israel Design Law

In his 2018 introduction to the new Israel Designs Law, Eviatar Aron takes us through the main things to know about Design Law in Israel.

Let’s admit it. The new Designs Law in Israel has been cooking for a long time. 50 years after the new Patent Law and 46 years after the new Trademark Law, we finally celebrated the passage of a new Design Law in Israel in 2017, and on August 7, 2018, it will take the place of the 1924 Patents and Designs Ordinance.

Broader: It’s definitely more up-to-date, relating to such modern things as screen displays (registerable) and fonts (not registrable).

Longer: It grants a 25 year period of registration – this is good news

3 Keys for IP Fitness in 2016

By Dr. Mike Hammer, US Patent Attorney, Partner JMB Davis Ben-David

(In January 2016, Mike Hammer reminded us of a number of important points regarding our IP.)

We live in a health-obsessed society, and particularly this week more than ever, as we turn the page on our calendars to 2016.  If there are any doubts, you need look no further than the briefest of internet searches.  A recent search of “health” AND “New Year’s Resolution” produced over seven million hits. And I’m not even going to bother looking at the results from substituting “fitness” in place of “health!”

With all those pixels (and even ink) being spilled about “how to be healthy in 2016,” one would think that there is a piece of critical, and before now unknown, information that must be cast to the four corners of our information ecosystem if we are to have a chance of making it to 2017.