In a recent post Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Horacio Gutierrez, articulated the need for a global patent system calling it “a necessity, if national patent authorities are to overcome the substantial difficulties they face”. With respect to patent applications, such difficulties include, increased number of patent application backlogs, longer pendency periods, […]
A recent appeal initiated by the University of Western Australia (UWA) was dismissed by the full Federal Court of Australia, which upheld the decision to place intellectual property rights into the hands of academics, and not the institutions that employ them. The case of University of Western Australia v. Gray involved a particular invention developed […]
Three years ago, Netflix released a database containing the movie preferences of 480,000 users. Last year, Google released information on the viewing habits of millions of YouTube users to Viacom. In both of these and many other similar cases, the data was anonymized first—fields containing personally identifying information were removed. According to a paper by […]
The Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) continues to set forth its proposal of a levy on iPods and other digital audio recording devices. The CPCC is a non-profit agency that collects and distributes the private copying royalties to songwriters, performers, publishers and producers. Since 2000, the CPCC has been collecting levies ranging between 21 and […]
Giuseppina D’Agostino is the Founder and Director of IP Osgoode and an Assistant Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School. Among the many potential issues that I could discuss in Canada’s copyright consultation process, I will address just three things that I think are necessary to help position Canada as a global leader in copyright policy. Namely, […]
Scott Beeser is a Patent Attorney at Apotex Inc. in Toronto. He obtained a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Utah and a LLB from Osgoode Hall in 2002. He is a registered Canadian Patent and Trade-mark Agent. Prior to joining Apotex, Dr. Beeser was an associate at a IP-boutique in Toronto. Scott answered […]
On May 6, 2009, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger launched an initiative to make available free digital textbooks for high school students. California’s Secretary of Education, Glen Thomas, was responsible for ensuring that digital resources were available for use in high school math and science classes this September. According to Governor Schwarzenegger, California’s budget crisis motivated […]
In response to the complaint against Bell Sympatico (Bell) by the Canadian Internet policy and Public Interest Clinic, based at the University of Ottawa, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner produced a report of findings dated August 13, 2009. The complaint launched under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) alleged 1) that […]
Software patents have been criticized frequently in recent years for a multitude of reasons. Computer programmers argue that they can make programming impossible for both commercial and for non-profit projects. Some analysts have noted that they do not promote innovation like patents in other industries do, and may in fact be hurting research and development […]
Beer companies are notorious for their litigious ways and this summer has seen a continuation in the legal drama. In May 2009, beer giant Labatt Brewing Co. Ltd. launched a lawsuit against the Waterloo-based Brick Brewing Co. Ltd., regarding the similarity of the Brava and Red Baron bottles. Labatt, who acquired Brava in 2007 when […]