Recent cases in the U.S. have spotlighted the growing concern over the ease with which technology can be improperly used by jurors and the impact this has on the fairness of trials. Specifically, the use of cell phones and PDA’s to disseminate confidential information, and even the use of search engines and online databases to […]
As a part of my undergraduate studies, I took a course in business strategy, and one of the most memorable topics was technological lock-in. We were taught that there is explicit value in being a technological first-mover because such businesses can create switching costs for purchasers by establishing a proprietary standard in a new market. […]
A recent blog has commented on copyright reforms proposed at the Leadership Music Digital Summit. In particular, panelists at the seminar had suggested that copyright registration should become mandatory for those seeking copyright protection. At the Summit, registration was seen as a solution to many ‘copyright ills’ including the problems of 'orphan works'. An orphan work is […]
Professor Giuseppina D'Agostino is the Founder and Director IP Osgoode. Michel Gérin is the Executive Director of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada. When you look around the globe one cannot help but realize that Canadian writing in IP has much work ahead. For starters, we need much more of it, on all areas of IP, from […]
A common joke amongst Canadian copyright lawyers goes something like this: What do copyright reform and hot dogs have in common? You don’t want to see how either of them are made. Despite this light-hearted warning, last Thursday IP Osgoode hosted Glen Bloom from Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, who delivered a guest lecture entitled […]
Dr. Michael A. Einhorn is a former member of the Antitrust Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. He is the author of Media Technology and Copyright: Integrating Law and Economics. He is also an independent consultant (dba Media Technology Copyright) in intellectual property and antitrust to parties in media and entertainment. He also teaches […]
Keldeagh Lindsay is a first year law student at Osgoode Hall and is taking the Legal Values: Challenges in Intellectual Property course. Canada’s Access to Medicines Regime (CAMR) is an amendment of the Patent Act following the 2003 WTO Decision to waive certain intellectual property rights, with the aim of providing low-cost generic pharmaceutical medicines […]
Richard Warman is an Ottawa-based lawyer active in human rights law and is well known for initiating complaints against white supremacists and neo-nazis for Canadian Human Rights Act violations in the realm of the Internet. One of Warman’s most recent targets is the controversial online forum, FreeDominion.ca. In the action, Warman claims damages for allegedly […]
Liberal MP Marlene Jennings has taken it upon herself to re-table her lawful access bill, called the Modernization of Investigative Techniques Act (MITA). Bill C-285 proposes to facilitate lawful interception of information transmitted via telecom service providers (TSP). The purpose delineated in the Act is: “... to ensure that [TSPs] have the capability to enable […]
On March 18th, MIT announced that its faculty had unanimously voted to adopt a university wide open access policy. The policy mandates that faculty must make a copy of any scholarly articles they publish available to be included in MIT’s freely accessible online repository. This follows recent similar announcements from Harvard Law School, Harvard Faculty […]