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Broken Promises: Utility Standards and Patent Applications in Canada
The last day of June 2017 saw the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) quash the controversial Promise Doctrine. The issue at hand in AstraZeneca Canada Inc v Apotex Inc was whether the Promise Doctrine should be held as the correct standard of utility under the Patent Act. The SCC’s ruling finds the Promise Doctrine unsound […]
What’s Innovative About Cryptocurrency and Hayek’s “Free Market Money”? — Some Understated Obstacles in the Race for Blockchain Patents
If we are going to be fair, the cryptocurrency idea dates back to almost forty years ago. In an article published in the Wall Street Journal on August 19, 1977, Friedrich Hayek — the economist and philosopher whose work on a theory of money earned him a Nobel Prize — anticipated that many different types […]
What Makes It My Molecule: A Look at Professor Ronald Pearlman’s Genome Editing Work
This past November, Professor Ronald E. Pearlman from York University’s Department of Biology gave a talk [1] at Osgoode Hall Law School to discuss the potential of the innovative CRISPR genome editing system. Central to the talk was the evolving nature of genome editing technology and the ethical concerns that come with its growing breadth of […]
Big Telecom versus Video Games: Big Implications
As reported on Kotaku.com – “British Telecommunications, a multinational mega-conglomerate with origins dating back to the 1800s, is suing Valve, a video game company that can’t count to three”. British Telecommunications (BT) alleges that on-line services offered by Valve infringe on four U.S. patents held by BT. The patents at trial are broadly worded and could implicate […]
Re Facebook Biometric Information Privacy Litigation
Canadian users of Facebook may be familiar with the process of “tagging” photos – adding the names of the people to images – but they may not be familiar with the ‘Tag Suggestion’ feature on Facebook. Tag Suggestions, which automatically scans photos uploaded to the social media site in an attempt to identify for the […]
Changes to Ontario’s Health Information Privacy Law Include Breach Notification, Increased Penalties
The re-posting of this article is part of a cross-posting agreement with CyberLex. Notification to affected individuals and regulators will be required in the event of unauthorized use or disclosure of personal health information under amendments to Ontario’s health information legislation. The Ontario legislature passed Bill 119[1] in May, which amended the Personal Health Information […]
Pharmaceuticals Main Attraction in TPP IP Chapter
Patent law can be a polarizing topic, but it is especially so during international trade negotiations. Perhaps this is because the principles of patent law create fundamental conflicts between those that own patents and those that pay for patents. Despite this divide, these negotiations, along with some international diplomacy, often produce patent chapters that fall […]