Blogs

Encouraging Innovation by Promoting Intellectual Property Education in Canadian Post-Secondary Institutions

On August 21st, 2017, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (“CIPO”) released its five-year business strategy for 2017 to 2022. Of the five main strategies for supporting Canadian innovation and businesses, CIPO outlined a plan for building intellectual property (“IP”) awareness and education throughout Canada by expanding CIPO’s presence and partnerships in innovation focused networks and […]

Blockchain: Revolutionizing Content Creation, Registry and Dissemination in the Creative Industry

People often inadvertently refer to “Bitcoin” when they actually mean blockchain, perhaps largely because the Bitcoin cryptocurrency was the first application of blockchain. But, blockchain is more than cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is a type of digital asset implemented using the blockchain technology. The blockchain technology allows cryptocurrencies to be stored and transferred on a distributed ledger using […]

Virgil Abloh’s “Trademark”

Virgil Abloh, the Creative Director of fashion house Off-White and currently one of the biggest designers in the fashion industry, may have some important legal decisions to make in the near future. Abloh has been using quotation marks around everything he associates with the Off-White brand. Whether it is a design feature on a shoe, a […]

More research, regulation needed to handle artificial intelligence, academics say

This article was originally published by The Lawyer’s Daily (www.thelawyersdaily.ca), part of LexisNexis Canada Inc. Artificial intelligence (AI) can create inherent benefits for all sectors, but governance of the technology is lagging, forcing industry experts and academics to confront the legal and ethical issues that this technology raises. At Bracing for Impact: The Artificial Intelligence […]

AI & Industries — An Interplay That Hints at the Way to Governance

Virtually every industry resorts to artificial intelligence (“AI”) technologies to streamline processes, enhance performance, and improve service provision. As AI becomes ubiquitous in our everyday lives, it is necessary to create guidelines to help us navigate the changes these advancements cause in our society. Crafting such a roadmap for AI governance is nonetheless an uphill task […]

The (R)evolutionary Impact of AI-Generated Work and Big Data on Intellectual Property Law and Commercialization

Who should own the Intellectual Property (IP) rights for Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated work? The current global legal regime does not allow for patents and copyright protection of AI inventions and works, and some argue they may ultimately fall under the public domain. The issue of AI creations and big data ownership and their impact on […]

Can Legislation Restrain the Looming ‘Beast’ of Artificial Intelligence?

Amidst the unprecedented number of cyber-attacks in recent years, we have quickly transitioned into an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Era in which Intel predicts more than 200 billion Internet enabled devices by 2020. The use of Big Data to fuel AI development has brought about groundbreaking innovations that will impact virtually every aspect of human lives. […]

AI for Social Good: Becoming Aware of Different Interests

On February 2, 2018, IP Osgoode along with its partners, the York Centre for Public Policy & Law and the Zvi Meitar Institute for Legal Implications of Emerging Technologies, hosted a conference entitled “Bracing for Impact – The Artificial Intelligence Challenge (A Road Map for AI Governance in Canada)”. The conference brought together experts from a broad range of […]

A Celebratory Book Launch for Professor Pascale Chapdelaine

On January 19, 2018, IP Osgoode and the Windsor Law's LTec LAB co-hosted a book launch for Prof. Pascale Chapdelaine’s new book, Copyright User Rights, Contracts, and the Erosion of Property. The event featured a talk by the author on her influences and the book’s key themes and takeaways, as well an introduction by Bob Tarantino, which […]

The Importance of History

Knowing the past is useful for understanding where we are now and how we can succeed in the future. The final session of IP Osgoode’s symposium honouring Professor David Vaver's contributions to  IP law, titled “The Importance of History”, examined this concept in relation to technology transfer and copyright in Canada. After an introduction by […]