Dan Whalen is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. At the end of March 2011, intellectual property brokerage firm, ICAP Ocean Tomo, is planning to auction off four “covenants not to sue” covering Round Rock Research LLC’s portfolio of approximately 4,200 patents and pending applications. Though an intriguing proposition, interested parties ought to […]
Dan Whalen is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School In a recent amicus brief, the US Department of Justice has suggested that patents for “isolated human genomic DNA” be invalidated, a significant change to the longstanding practice of gene patenting. The surprising proposition comes in response to an appeal by Myriad Genetics of […]
Lorraine Fleck is a Toronto, Canada lawyer and trade-mark agent who practices advertising and marketing, information technology, intellectual property and packaging and labeling law at Hoffer Adler LLP. The Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA) and Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) were recently amended. One of the amendments provides IP licensees with more certainty regarding the […]
Amanda Carpenter is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. On September 21, 2009, The New York Times featured an article entitled “Patent Auctions Offer Protections to Inventors”. This article is about the story of a small-inventor firm called Zoltar Satellite Alarm Systems and their battles with big corporations over its patented inventions. In […]
Brian Chau is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. Where do we draw the line between commercial and non-commercial uses? Is this view the same across content creators and users? A quick background Creative commons licences are designed to help content creators (who own the copyright) communicate to their users which rights they […]
Creative Commons (“CC”) is a non-profit corporation “dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright.” CC provides free licenses and other legal tools to mark creative work with the freedom the creator wants it to carry, so others can share, remix, […]
Ashlee Froese is an Osgoode Hall alumnus and currently practices intellectual property at the law firm of Keyser Mason Ball LLP. In today’s tough economic times, downsizing and cutting costs has become the global universal mantra. But is this strategy necessarily applicable to intellectual property? Given that trade-mark rights can exist in perpetuity, their value […]
Tony Duarte (B.A., LL.B.) practices exclusively in the area of entertainment law and is an Adjunct Faculty member of Osgoode Hall Law School. Perhaps one of the most problematic rights clearance transactions for a producer of film or television production is the licensing of existing photos, film/video clips, or music to the producer for reuse […]