Upon discovery of the J. Craig Venter Institute’s (Institute) application for patent protection on a synthetic life form, called “Mycoplasma laboratorium”, the ETC Group promptly announced its intention to challenge the patent and urged the relevant authorities to reject the application as contrary to public morality and safety. The ETC Group does not contend that […]
India’s rejection of Novartis’ claim on drug improvements highlights the flexibility of India’s patent laws. Such flexibility stands in sharp contrast to the World Trade Organization’s efforts to set standards for intellectual property regulation (via TRIPS agreement) and has enabled India to become a worldwide producer of cheap drugs. Various health agencies have proclaimed the […]
In the early days of the dot.com boom, internet commerce presented opportunities for information providers (websites) to sell inexpensive digital goods to web-users and have the benefit of reaching a far larger consumer base than just a local market. But with the growing free-rider ethos of the World Wide Web and the increasingly burdensome […]
In Canada, it has been a long-standing policy to place a levy on recordable devices such as tapes and blank CDs and redistribute those proceeds to recording companies and the artists that they represent. The core purpose of this practice is to compensate artist for private copying that these blank media enable. However, technology has […]
Popular Russian online music store Allofmp3.com announced its plans to reopen following a ruling by a Moscow district court acquitting its former head of copyright violation. After persistent pressure and attempts by an angry U.S. recording industry to smother the site, the plug was finally pulled on the site earlier this year by the […]
The murkiness of the legality of unlocking the iPhone was highlighted recently by an AppleInsider article which suggested that actions of the ‘iPhone Dev Team’, hackers who are offering the solution to unlocking the iPhone for free online, may be illegal. The iPhone is locked to one service provider, AT&T, meaning another wireless carrier‘s SIM […]
Warner Music Group’s (WMG) third-quarter loss widened this year, to US$17 million. Warner is one of several major players in the global music industry being hit hard by the seismic repercussions the internet has held for the music business. Indeed, virtually every industry that distributes their product through traditional media has seen market changes like […]
In an unexpected move, the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) filed documents in the Federal Court of Appeal recently in a fight to eliminate the application of the private copying levy to MP3 players. The irony of this is apparent as the CRIA has advocated for the private copying levy for many years and makes […]
A patent is a bundle of exclusive rights. This allows an inventor to make, use, and sell a novel invention, without the threat of competition. It may seem odd, then, to acquire a patent without any intention of using or making that patented invention. But a new breed of company, the conspicuously named “patent troll”, […]
In the article “ICANN’t Believe That Domain Name,” Wired’s Oscar S. Cisneros details some of the issues and concerns surrounding the current process of resolving disputes between trademark holders and the owners of Internet domain names. This comment will briefly outline the dispute resolution process described in the article before arguing that the current system […]