This year’s World Intellectual Property Day theme is focused on the role that IP rights play in encouraging innovation and creativity and how the IP system supports innovation. At Osgoode Hall Law School, one of the ways we strive to foster innovation is through our Innovation Clinic, a student-focused initiative that assists start-up companies, entrepreneurs […]
WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE? Artificial intelligence (“AI”) is a technical field of computer science that includes machine learning, natural language processing, speech processing, expert systems, robotics and machine vision. The term “artificial intelligence” is sometimes challenged in favor of machine intelligence or machine learning. Machine learning automates decision making using programming rules and in some […]
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. once described the law as nothing more than “prophecies of what the courts will do in fact.” If the practice of law is largely an exercise in fortune-telling, Benjamin Alarie believes that computers are very good at reading tea leaves.
What happens when intellectual property law collides with the social sciences? They meld together for some fascinating experiments. In a lecture given at Osgoode Hall Law School as part of the IP Osgoode Speaks Series, Prof. Chris Buccafusco described three such experiments performed by him and his team.[1] Specifically, their research seeks to develop an […]
OVERVIEW Similar to other traditional industries, a digital revolution for financial services is underway. Financial technology, or ‘‘FinTech,” is an accelerating technical sector gaining in popularity with both traditional financial institutions and new market entrants. Competitors are forming constructive partnerships to collaborate, efficiently develop, and deploy new FinTech products and services. Patents for core technology […]
3D printing technology has advanced to the level where consumers are able to purchase these printers for their personal use. Just recently, 3D printing was accessible only in limited circumstances. Now, it is possible for consumers to purchase versions of 3D printers which can be used at home to print various articles and objects. In […]
On June 29, Sam Harris delivered a TED Talk in which he posed the question: “can we build artificial intelligence without losing control of it?” He proposed the founding of “something like a Manhattan project on the topic of artificial intelligence” to answer his question. On September 28, leading Silicon Valley AI developers entered into a “Partnership […]
On September 20, Thomson Reuters and MaRS LegalX presented the Emerging Legal Technology Forum to a filled auditorium in the MaRS Discovery District. The purpose of the forum was to examine how technology is currently being used within law firms, how contract and document automation is changing transactional practice, the design change requirements to leverage […]
Introduction As the first collaboration of its kind, in February 2016, IP Osgoode and The Copyright and International Trade Policy Branch of the Department of Canadian Heritage, came together to organize the “Orphan Works Licensing Portal Hackathon”, a multi-day hackathon to develop options for a new online system to process licensing of Canadian orphan works […]
A few thoughts on Prof. Jean-Gabriel Castel’s talk, Fully Autonomous Artificial Super-Intelligence: Is it a threat to the human race or a blessing? How can it be controlled? Introduction Before they died, my parents told me stories of how the world once was … They remembered a green world, vast and beautiful. Filled with laughter […]