The extremely variable pricing of diamonds has made them a historically difficult and unstable commodity to trade. However, recent advents in diamond technology have been patented, and industry insiders such as Martin Rapaport have suggested that diamonds will become akin to gold from an economic standpoint.
New legal research from the University of Pennsylvania Law School suggests so. The aim of the study, according to Professors David S. Abrams and R. Polk Wagner, is to empirically predict how the recent changes to American patent laws, introduced by section 3 (s3) of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA), will affect American innovation after […]
In the latest portion of the legal fallout from the News of the World “phone hacking” scandal, the UK Supreme Court held that former footballer and private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire must reveal his contacts with the corporation.
In the recent decision of Bancorp Services v Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada (U.S.), the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has attempted to reconcile the eligibility of software and business process patents with previous decisions from the United States Supreme Court. The holding also makes qualifying patent eligibility in business […]
On May 13, 2012, the Supreme Court of Israel gave a landmark decision in Civil Appeal 9183/09 The Football Association Premier League Ltd v John Doe. The Court overturned a controversial decision by Judge Michal Agmon-Gonen of the District Court in Tel Aviv-Jaffa. In that case, Judge Agmon-Gonen used the mechanism of legal transplantation to […]
As members of the international intellectual property community attend the 24th session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), they are told to keep the spirit of Beijing alive, referring to the recently concluded Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances. However, there is reason to keep another country’s spirit in mind as well. […]
One of the recent pentalogy of copyright decisions that has forever changed Canadian copyright law is Alberta (Education) v. Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright), 2012 SCC 37. The decision focused on the concept of fair dealing, and its application to photocopying books for educational purposes.
The much anticipated Supreme Court of Canada ruling in Rogers Communications Inc v Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada, 2012 SCC 35 (Rogers v SOCAN), culminated with a unanimous Court holding that on-demand transmissions of music streams made available by online music services constitute communications “to the public”. Consequently, the on-demand streaming of […]
Entertainment Software Association of Canada v SOCAN was one of two 5-4 split decisions of the copyright pentalogy decisions released on July 12. Online media and software producers and distributors won a major victory. The Supreme Court ruled that the “communication to the public by telecommunication” right does not apply to downloads of a musical […]
Without a background in horse racing, I feel comfortable expressing today as a “Fivefecta”. Since Monday’s announcement that the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) would release judgments in five critically important copyright appeals heard on December 6 and 7, 2011, there has been a growing excitement in the Copyright community. The decisions from these appeals, […]