IP reform

Cracking Down on Green Mountain Trolls

Watch out, patent trolls – the Attorney General of Vermont is coming to get you. Vermont recently became the first US state to enact an anti-“patent trolling” law.

TPP: The Shape of the New International IP Regime

It must have been really nice to have worked as an IP expert for the US Trade Representative (USTR) during the 1990s. Almost everything they proposed would become law. The global maximalist agenda had the large international institutions on its side. The golden age of international maximalism saw the creation of the WTO, the TRIPS […]

Intellectual Property And Development: Closing The Conceptual Gap

Alysia Lau is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. I spent this past summer interning with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Jakarta, Indonesia. Preparing to take part in the new Osgoode IP Law & Technology Intensive Program this coming fall gave me an opportunity to reflect on the intersection between IP issues […]

How about making copyright registration private?

In 2007, Dan Heller, a freelance photographer, filed a proposal with the US Copyright Office. The proposal urged for the creation of a system of privately-run ‘Copyright Registrars’. The proposal describes a universal online system where a large number of private companies would be involved in the processing of copyright registration of original works. The […]