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 […]
"Domain tasting" refers to the practice of registering a domain name and taking advantage of the 5-day Add Grace Period (AGP), which is activated upon registration, for the purpose of assessing the profitability of said domain. The full price of the domain remains completely refundable until the AGP expires, at which point the registrant becomes […]
In a recent presentation delivered at MIT, Professor Edward Roberts and Charles Eesley discussed the findings of a report that they co-authored on the role of universities in the level of success ultimately attained by companies founded by their graduates. Understandably, an emphasis was placed on the economic success achieved by start-up companies created by […]
The period of data protection allocated to research-based, innovative drug companies is a hotly debated topic in the pharmaceutical industry and beyond. This period of protection allows research-based, brand name drug companies to maintain a monopoly on the market for any particular drug for a specified duration. During the period of data protection, competing generic drug […]
Balancing the rights of trademark holders and registered web-domain owners is a complicated process. Understandably, trademark holders wish to protect their intellectual property rights and prevent cyber-squatters from acquiring valuable domain names for an illegitimate purpose. Conversely, domain owners argue that corporations should not be granted the automatic right to acquire any domain that can […]
Late last month, Industry Minister Tony Clement hosted a conference entitled "Canada's Digital Economy: Moving Forward." He invited 150 leading technology industry experts to offer feedback to the government with respect to strategy and the type of action that should be taken to further Canada's pursuit to place a more aggressive emphasis on the prioritization […]
A recent article written by Colin Campbell from Maclean's discussed the unfortunate fact that Canada is usually far behind other nations when it comes to adopting new technologies that have been developed in the United States and abroad. His discussion begins with a reference to the Kindle DX. This is the new, wireless e-book reading […]
In a recent blog post by Prof. Shamnad Basheer at Spicy IP, he discussed the issue of whether or not patent lawyers should be required to achieve a certain level of training in science/engineering before being admitted to the patent bar. In his discussion, he addressed the question of whether individual academic institutions should be […]
In his April 2008 report, ‘Between a Hard Rock and a Soft Space: Design, Creative Practice and Innovation’, Dr. John H. Howard discusses how the arts, humanities and social sciences can contribute to innovation systems and innovation policy by recognizing that design and creative practice play a central role in innovation. He argues that, while […]
As a result of the recent proliferation of social networking sites, a debate has emerged over the media’s ability to use photos added to user profiles, in the absence of express permission granted by the owner. Exacerbating this issue was a recent incident where all four of Toronto’s daily newspapers published articles regarding the murder […]