IP

WTO, TRIPS & Dispute Settlement: Exploring the Intersection Between International Trade, Intellectual Property Rights and The WTO Dispute Resolution Process

Nirav Bhatt is an LLM candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. BACKGROUND During the early 1990s, the extent of protection and enforcement of Intellectual Property ("IP") rights varied widely around the world. As IP became more important in trade, these differences became a source of tension in international economic relations. New internationally-agreed trade rules for […]

OPC Findings against Abika.com

This blog post reports on the report of findings made by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) against a US-based company called Accusearch, Inc., operating as Abika.com (Abika) for collecting and disclosing data on Canadian residents without their knowledge and consent. This decision is noteworthy since it recognizes the harm done to […]

Intellectual Property in Munich, Germany

This summer I had the opportunity to travel to Munich, Germany where I attended summer courses in Copyright and Patent law. I attended this program though the George Washington University Law School and the courses were held at the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law.  What I learned in the classroom […]

Yahoo's LAUNCHcast shows Webcasting still viable in US

There was once an era where the music record industry existed in a symbiotic relationship with radio stations and broadcasters. Radio DJs could play what they wanted without paying royalties for every song played and radio play was free advertising for the record industry, enticing customers to purchase records from retailers. With the advent of the […]

Google’s Open Source Strategy and the U.S. Patent Reform Act of 2009

Brian Prentice of the Gartner Blog Network raises an interesting possibility in his post about Google's long-term business strategy. He speculates that Google's advocacy for the Patent Reform Act of 2009 coupled with its support of the open-source movement may not be as altruistic as one might first be led to think. The proposed legislation outlines various standards for […]

RealDVD case affirms anti-piracy legislation, but where are my personal use rights?

On 11 August 2009, a U.S. District Court in California ruled that RealDVD, RealNetwork's software that enables users to copy DVDs for personal storage on hard drives, was in violation of U.S. copyright law. In light of the evidence that RealDVD circumvented anti-piracy protection requirements set out in law, Judge Marylin Patel granted the DVD […]

Copyright Collectives: Good Solution But for Which Problem?

Ariel Katz is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto. Ariel holds the Innovation Chair in Electronic Commerce and is the Director of the Centre for Innovation Law and Policy of the University of Toronto. With the Public Copyright Consultations moving full steam ahead, various stake-holders raise proposals for expanding […]

Q&A with Osgoode Alumnus: Lesley Ellen Harris

Lesley Ellen Harris is an Osgoode Hall Law School Alumnus ('85) who is a copyright lawyer/consultant and works on legal, business, and strategic issues in the publishing, content, entertainment, Internet, and information industries. She is the editor of the Copyright & New Media Law Newsletter and the author of several books.  Her newest book is […]

Federal Court Ruling Upholds Data Protection Period for Research-Based, Innovative Drug Companies

The period of data protection allocated to research-based, innovative drug companies is a hotly debated topic in the pharmaceutical industry and beyond. This period of protection allows research-based, brand name drug companies to maintain a monopoly on the market for any particular drug for a specified duration. During the period of data protection, competing generic drug […]

Newspaper Publishers and Google Butt Heads Over Aggregators

For months newspaper publishers have been complaining about Google, creators of the ubiquitous search engine and the largest online ad-space sellers. Publishers have argued that online news aggregators like Google News unfairly generate tons of ad revenue for Google without compensating the papers who provide its content. In a move likely to anger European publishers, […]