Brian Chau is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. Given the essential role that entrepreneurs play in driving the economy, there is no question that the creation of patent laws must take into account the protection of their interests. From a small business perspective, patents play a large role not only in helping protect their inventions […]
Nigel D'Souza is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. I have finally returned home to Toronto after spending three difficult months in India. I have travelled to India before but never during the summer. Unfortunately, there was a drought during my stay in Delhi, with temperatures hovering around fifty degrees celsius on a […]
Jasdeep Bal is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School and was an intern this past summer with the People’s Patent Group (PPG) in New Delhi, India. Currently, India’s domestic seed market is being overshadowed by the growing stature of Multinational corporations (MNCs), mainly due to their access to international germaplasm. Despite the dominant presence of […]
Alex Gloor is a JD student at Osgoode Hall Law School. Cleantech is everywhere you look. Hybrid cars. Energy efficient appliances. Geothermal power. There is a global realization that continuing our coal-burning, energy guzzling ways are unsustainable, both because we will exhaust the planet of its resources and because of the uncertain, but certainly disastrous, […]
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 […]
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently ended much of the controversy surrounding product-by-process claims in Abbott Laboratories v. Sandoz, Inc., but arguably created a new debate in the intellectual property world. The court overruled an earlier panel decision from Scripps Clinic & Research Foundation v. Genetech, Inc., instead following the precedent […]
On Friday, July 31st, the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce approved “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act” by a narrow three-vote margin. The bill was introduced in the House by Wisconsin Democrat Representative John Dingell. Representatives from around the country stated that the bill “will deliver the results the nation’s health care system […]
The current decline in patent filings at the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") has been well documented on many prominent intellectual property blog sites. In fact, according to a recent Patently-O blog entry, "new patent filings are down 16% so far in 2009." This post examines the variability in the number of application filings in the United […]
Australia is now at the centre of the global gene patent debate with a Senate inquiry that began last week in Melbourne. Senators in Australia began hearing public submissions on August 4th about the topic of gene patents in relation to the impact they have on health care costs. The inquiry centres around a bid […]
Nigel D'Souza is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. I have been researching at Human Rights Law Network for over a month now and my findings are quite concerning. In terms of patent law, a skeleton based on international standards is in place but clarity is lacking. As mentioned in my previous post, […]