TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2014 ANALYSIS THE LEADING INDEPENDENT DAILY IN THE ARABIAN GULF ESTABLISHED 1961 Founder and Publisher YOUSUF S. AL-ALYAN Editor-in-Chief ABD AL-RAHMAN AL-ALYAN EDITORIAL : 24833199-24833358-24833432 ADVERTISING : 24835616/7 FAX : 24835620/1 CIRCULATION : 24833199 Extn. 163 ACCOUNTS : 24835619 COMMERCIAL : 24835618 P.O.Box 1301 Safat,13014 Kuwait. E MAIL :[email protected] Website: www.kuwaittimes.net Issues Oil in Arcadia By John Kemp he state of New York produced just 1,000 barrels of oil per day in 2013, but consumed almost 620,000 barrels per Tday of refined fuels, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Virtually every gallon of gasoline which New York motorists put into their cars, and the fuel oil used to heat their homes and offices through the long, cold winter, was refined from oil produced outside the state. Some of that crude came from states such as North Dakota, Texas and Alaska, and the rest from foreign suppliers like Canada, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Nigeria. In common with other metropolitan areas, such as Washington, London or Paris, the lifestyle New Yorkers enjoy depends on oil and gas produced in other places and commu- nities. It is worth remembering that when sitting in a comfort- able office in a big city reading about all the problems associat- E-cigarette boom sparks race for new patents ed with oil and gas production. On Saturday, the New York Times published a carefully researched essay chronicling “The By Martinne Geller and Ben Hirschler inate in China, where over half of men smoke. help limit intake. Other smaller players aim to but also a wider drive by the Chinese govern- Downside of the Boom” about how “North Dakota took on the In second place is the United States, with 14 deliver doses of caffeine and other additives ment to forge a knowledge economy. By oversight of a multi-billion dollar oil industry with a regulatory lectronic cigarette makers are racing to percent, followed by South Korea with 9 per- instead of nicotine. A unit of mCig Inc sells maximising patents it hopes to replace the system built on trust, warnings and second chances”. design and buy variations of a technolo- cent. Some patented suggestions target VitaCigs containing vitamins and supple- ubiquitous “Made in China” label by It discusses in detail the accidents, blow outs and spillages gy that has lit a billion-dollar boom, cre- smokers looking to regulate their nicotine ments such as valerian and collagen, while a “Designed in China”. which have accompanied the state’s oil boom, with interviews, E ated a new vocabulary, and prompted a back- intake and their spending. While offerings company called Energy Shisha sells a caf- Since 2011, China has been the world’s top data analysis and illustrations. The whole article is well worth lash from health officials worried about the already on the market include thousands of feinated vaping stick. Patents filed by others, patent filer for all inventions, according to the reading but it tells only part of the story and ultimately fails to impact of the new smokeless devices. e-liquid flavours from menthol to marshmal- including Fuma International, mention World Intellectual Property Office. Its scien- present a balanced picture of the costs and benefits associated Research by Thomson Reuters shows that low, and even a smartphone app to show tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active tists and companies now lay claim to intellec- with oil production. China - with over 300 million smokers - is the how much you are using, new patents go a chemical in cannabis. tual property rights on everything from tele- front runner in the manufacture and develop- step further. In general, e-cigarette patents relate to coms to medicine. “Patenting globally is rising Rural Poverty ment of so-called e-cigarette technology, Tobacco giant Philip Morris International systems for heating and vaporising liquids, significantly year on year, driven by Chinese Like many other articles published in the great metropolitan while new versions being patented include a describes an e-cigarette that would allow as well as for charging the electronic sys- patenting generally,” said Bob Stembridge, newspapers from New York, Washington and Los Angeles, it “pay as you go” computer-assisted device and users to “pay as you go” by buying a certain tems, whether in a “cigalike” device or a larg- senior patent analyst at Thomson Reuters IP & presents a picture of a rural Arcadia despoiled by careless oil others that can deliver caffeine instead. number of doses via computer application er “tank” system, which doesn’t resemble a Science. “But I would say the e-cigarette field and gas producers. The reality is rather different. For most of the In 2005 just eight e-cigarette inventions connected to their e-cigarette. Customers cigarette but gives a better “vaping” experi- is growing faster than the general trend, and last century, North Dakota has been a poor rural economy were described in published patents. By 2012 could also program the device to shut off ence. China’s domination of the market the bias toward China is greater than in global struggling to make a living from farming. Until the oil boom the figure had jumped to 220 and by last year after a certain number of puffs per use to reflects not only its huge number of smokers patenting.” —Reuters started around 2006, incomes in North Dakota had been far there were over 500 inventions, according to below the national average for most of the last 80 years. an analysis by the IP & Science business of During the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, average Thomson Reuters. So far this year the total has Together, apart, afraid: Living in Jerusalem personal income in North Dakota hovered at just 80-85 percent reached 650. (A single invention may be cov- of the national level. By contrast, average incomes in New York ered by several patents.) The original technolo- By Delphine Matthieussent surface, a fragile coexistence exists in public parks, shopping centres and were almost 50 percent higher at 120 percent of the national gy, involving battery-powered heating sys- workplaces, with Palestinians crossing from east to west Jerusalem to work average, according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis. In tems that vaporise nicotine-laced liquid, is he two young Jerusalem shop assistants wear similar clothes and in often menial jobs. 1995 the average per capita personal income in the United credited to Hon Lik, a Chinese medical makeup. Only their names tell them apart as Israeli and Palestinian. But other than out of professional or economic necessity, Israelis and States stood at $23,500, but was $26,700 in New York and just researcher with a 20-a-day habit, in 2003. TBut they know that talking about events outside might test their Palestinians do not tend to mix, increasingly avoiding each other for fear of $19,400 in North Dakota. His invention has since become so popular friendship. Avital and Iman spend their days chatting at a budget clothes random or revenge attacks. “I’m scared of being assaulted,” said Iman, who In 1995, North Dakota was ranked 42nd out of the 50 states that the market is now estimated to be worth shop in west Jerusalem. They look almost identical, dressed from the did not want to give her family name. Raada, a Palestinian working at a in income per capita. Only Kentucky, Oklahoma, New Mexico, $3.5 billion. Both big tobacco firms and small store’s “winter collection” and wearing their dark, straightened hair the Talpiot nursery, said Jewish parents now regard her with increasing suspi- Utah, Montana, Arkansas, West Virginia and Mississippi were entrepreneurs are falling over themselves to same way. But months of violence in the Holy City, including a spate of cion. “I learned that some parents demanded the Shin Bet (Israel’s domes- worse off. North Dakota’s average per capita personal income in find new ways to “vape” - a verb suddenly so deadly Palestinian attacks against Israelis, have ramped up tensions. It is a tic security service) vet me,” she said, also refusing to give her family name. 1995 was only $2,000 per year higher than Mississippi, the mainstream the Oxford English Dictionary subject Avital and Iman avoid discussing. “I’ve looked after Jewish children for years. These people’s kids come in poorest state in the union. The oil boom has changed all that. named it 2014’s Word of the Year. Imperial Last week, two Palestinians armed with a gun and meat cleavers killed each morning and cuddle me. Is that not enough proof for them?” By 2013, North Dakota’s average personal income ranked it 7th Tobacco last year snapped up the patents five people at a synagogue - the culmination of months of tension, and in the country. Only Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, owned by the company Hon co-founded in a after a series of apparent “lone-wolf” attacks, including hit-and-runs in Tension Reaches YMCA New York and Maryland were better off. deal worth $75 million, and is suing rivals for a which Palestinian drivers killed four people. “We’ve been working together The tension has even reached west Jerusalem’s YMCA hotel and leisure range of alleged patent infringements. for a few months, and we’ve been getting along,” said Iman, 21, from the centre opposite the historic King David Hotel. For years it has seen itself as Cost and Benefit Part of the rush to create new devices can Arab east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Beit Safafa. “But we avoid talking a haven of intercommunal coexistence.