This past Tuesday, as part of the IP Osgoode Speaks series, Tony Chapman, founder and CEO of Capital C Marketing Group, gave a talk about the need for Canada’s industries to generally change the way they do business. The event was hosted in one of the vibrant seminar rooms of Capital C in downtown Toronto. […]
On Wednesday November 18, 2008 the Right Honourable Governor General of Canada Michaëlle Jean delivered the Government’s Speech from the Throne, and so dawned Canada’s 40th session of Parliament. The speech outlined the Conservative government’s goals for its term in power under the shadow of the current economic storm looming over the world. Though much […]
The ideas that an inventor’s time and investments should be protected and new inventions encouraged through the granting of patents, underlie some of the justifications of our current patent system. Theorists such as Adam Smith and Jeremy Bentham claim that patents are necessary to encourage invention at no social cost (1). Professor Heller of Columbia Law […]
A recent landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court in Quanta v. LG Electronics has effectively restricted patent-holders’ ability to claim infringement for subsequent uses of licensed products. This is the latest step by the top American court to circumscribe the scope of entitlements of patent-holders by limiting the ability of companies to collect […]
It is said that a problem shared is a problem halved. Is it possible that innovation shared could mean innovation doubled? If one looks to economic theory to justify IP, the underlying purpose of IP appears to be the promotion of advancements in science and useful arts- by protecting the creator’s rights the law provides […]
In re Bilski, the courts must re-interpret 35 U.S.C. § 101, which states that a process can be patented. In State Street Bank v. Signature Financial Group, the court decided that business methods were patentable as long as the process produced a “useful, concrete, and tangible result” [1]. In re Comiskey, the courts put an […]
The academic scientific community conventionally shares research results, ideas and expertise. Not surprisingly, the commoditization of peer reviewed journal articles seems antiquated with cost and accessibility issues when compared with online posting, web-enabled databases, free online journals and guides as knowledge dissemination tools. In the Aug 25, 2008 edition of The Tech, these practices are […]
I am delighted to be returning to Osgoode as Professor of Intellectual Property Law after a decade at the University of Oxford as the Reuters Professor of Intellectual Property & Information Technology Law and Director of the Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre. The draw was Osgoode's establishment of a program devoted to research in IP […]
Today the Conference Board of Canada gave Canada another "D" grade for innovation. As indicated on the Board website, Canada is at the back of the class. As last year, where Canada also got a "D" grade, this should be another alarming call to government, industry, and members of the public that we need to do our homework. […]