Australia to keep parallel import restrictions

Billy Barnes is a JD Candidate at the University of Toronto. The Australian government recently rejected a recommendation by the Productivity Commission to repeal the Copyright Act's parallel import restrictions. Parallel import restrictions, which exist in most English-speaking countries including Canada, prevent the importation of copyrighted works without the consent of the local rightsholder. Australia's […]

A Taxonomy of Social Networking Data: Privacy Concerns

Amanda Carpenter is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. Many thanks to Bijan Soleymani, a M. Eng Candidate at McGill University. In a recent post, the internationally renowned security technologist and author Bruce Schneier proposed a “taxonomy” of social networking data. In this taxonomy, he divides social networking data into five categories: Service […]

The Curious Case of the Actor’s Performance (Part Two)

Bob Tarantino is a lawyer in the Entertainment Law Group of Heenan Blaikie LLP. He holds graduate degrees in law from Osgoode Hall and the University of Oxford. This is the second part of Bob Tarantino's feature blog post on "performer's performances" in the Canadian Copyright Act.  Part One can be read here. In Section […]

A Time for Change in a Time of Change

Peter (Zak) Zakrzewski is an adjunct professor at the Schulich School of Business at York University, where he co-created a course in Management of Innovation and Design. He also teaches design at The Centre for Creative Communications.  We live at a unique time, a time of profound global economic, social and cultural shift. The pace […]

Standard of Proof in Determining Accessibility of Online Prior Art

Alex Gloor is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School A recent decision regarding a UK patent application by Ranger Services Ltd raised an interesting issue regarding the accessibility of online documents for prior art searches. As was first discussed on the IPKat blog, the specific question for discussion is the appropriate standard of […]

A Wait and See Approach to privacy in Genomics

Virgil Cojocaru is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. deCODE Genetics, an Icelandic firm that offers customers private DNA tests has filed for bankruptcy. Customers would typically take a genetic sample from the inside of their cheek and would mail it to the address provided.  deCODE Genetics would calculate the chances of a person […]

FCF Charter avoids free culture clichés

Stuart Freen is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. I’ll admit it: When I went to the website for the Charter for Innovation, Creativity, and Access to Knowledge and watched the inane video prominently posted on the front page my first impression was that it was going to be a bit foolish. After studying […]

Pirates, Pirates Everywhere

Peter Waldkirch is a second year LL.B. student at the University of Ottawa. Utter the words “online copyright infringement” and most people probably think of the mass distribution of popular music on peer-to-peer networks or Hollywood movies being downloaded through bittorrent. A recent brouhaha over the unauthorized use of photographs uploaded to Flickr (a photograph […]

Fear and Loathing in Seoul, Korea: ACTA’s Sixth Meeting

Nathan Fan is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. The world’s leading countries gathered again this year in Seoul, Korea for the sixth negotiation meeting for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). For those who do not yet know about ACTA, the negotiations are intended to culminate in a multi-lateral trade agreement that will assist […]

BRCA Gene Patents Lawsuit Lives On

George Nathanael is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. Earlier this month a United States District Court denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought forth against the USPTO, Myriad Genetics, and directors of the University of Utah Research Foundation. The suit had to do with patents covering the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 […]