In 2007, Pepsico (“Pepsi”), makers of its namesake fizzy drink did their competitors, The Coca Cola Company (“Coke”) a good turn, by turning in two Coke employees who tried to sell its secret recipe to Pepsi. This decision on Pepsi’s part can be read as a mixture of sound business acumen, legal sense and some […]
On February 28th 2012, the Navajo Nation filed a lawsuit against Urban Outfitters Inc. and its subsidiaries in the District Court of New Mexico for ‘trademark infringement, trademark dilution, unfair competition and commercial practice laws violation and for the violation of The Indian Arts and Crafts Act’. The basis of the Navajo Nation's complaint was […]
This comment was prepared for the Harvard Law Review Forum “The New Private Law” Symposium (October 2011) as a response to Shyamkrishna Balganesh’s “The Obligatory Structure of Copyright Law: Unbundling the Wrong of Copying,” 125 Harvard Law Review 1664 (2012).
Free online access to tax-funded scientific research is the most recent movement by American open-access advocate group Access2Research. The group calls for a policy similar to the one currently implemented by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). New scientific papers, which were funded by the NIH, are deposited in the online databank PubMED within a […]
A team of Hamilton scientists at the Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute (SCC-RI) of McMaster University have made a breakthrough discovery (reported by CTV here) with the potential to significantly impact future cancer treatment, and provide new hope for people living with cancer including tens of thousands of Canadians. Published in last Thursday’s edition […]
On Friday May 25th, the Government of Canada announced a series of investments that seeks to create research partnerships among the academic, public, private and not-for-profit sectors. The effort will be conducted by the Federal Government through grants administered through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
This April, the United States Court of Appeals ruled that Sergey Aleynikov, former Goldman Sachs software developer-turned convicted thief and spy, was wrongly charged and convicted of theft and espionage under the rationale that software code is not physical property and thereby not subject to theft. This ruling sparks the debate about whether criminal courts […]
Throughout last weekend’s second annual lawTechCamp, audience members interacted with each other using the Twitter hashtag #ltcto2012. While many participants chose not to hide their online identity behind a veil of anonymity, this possibility currently exists without privacy concerns. Sahar Zomorodi’s session, “Dissecting the term ‘lawful access’ in the proposed Online Surveillance Bill C-30,” illustrated Bill C-30’s privacy issues and […]
The copyright and patent dispute between Oracle and Google continues, however a partial verdict on the copyright side of the debate has been handed down.
As the author of the highly publicized decisions of Kerwhizz and Temple Island Collections, Judge Birss of the England and Wales Patent County Court (PCC) is no stranger to controversy. In his latest judgment, Suh v Ryu, Birss J appeared to settle a relatively straightforward procedural matter. Closer scrutiny reveals that his reasons are reflective […]