Stan Benda, is adjunct faculty at Osgoode Hall Law School. He is Senior Counsel at Justice Canada acting for Agriculture Canada's Intellectual Property Office and Multilateral Science Relations Office (International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources, Convention on Biological Diversity, Cartagena). He recently completed his Ph.D. on the Labelling of GM Foods. According to a Globe […]
On April 24th the Minister of Industry, Tony Clement, tabled a government bill with the aims of protecting consumers and businesses from dangerous forms of spam and regulating activities that are believed to discourage the use of electronic means of carrying out commercial activities. Bill C-27, the Electronic Commerce Protection Act, contains provisions that prohibit […]
When I heard about Android Data, the first thing that came to my mind was the popular Star Trek android (robot) named Data. However, this case has nothing to do with Star Trek; rather it is about Erich Specht, founder of Android Dungeon Corporation, who obtained a trademark for “Android Data”. On April 28th, Erich […]
In his April 2008 report, ‘Between a Hard Rock and a Soft Space: Design, Creative Practice and Innovation’, Dr. John H. Howard discusses how the arts, humanities and social sciences can contribute to innovation systems and innovation policy by recognizing that design and creative practice play a central role in innovation. He argues that, while […]
It sounds like the subject of a Hollywood thriller or paperback science fiction novel. Hackers surrounded by glowing LCD screens watching as money drains from your bank account into theirs. Cybercrime: a new crime for the digital age. Or is it? Is cybercrime something new or is it just a new spin on the familiar […]
Twitter is a new Internet social networking phenomenon. It is a “service for friends, family, and co-workers, to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?" I have not yet jumped onto the Twitter bandwagon, but perhaps I should. At the very least, I […]
On April 17th, Taser International Inc. filed a 102-page complaint in the U.S. District Court (District of Arizona) against Linden Research Inc., creators of the wildly popular online video game Second Life. Taser (who manufactures the stun gun of the same name) alleges that Linden allowed its users to infringe on its trademark by creating […]
Although a patent is typically seen as a right to exclude others, the willingness of American courts to automatically provide that right through a permanent or preliminary injunction has been affected by the Supreme Court of the United States in Ebay v. MercExchange (547 U.S. 388 (2006)). In a recent article, Prof. Richard Epstein argues […]
Recent cases in the U.S. have spotlighted the growing concern over the ease with which technology can be improperly used by jurors and the impact this has on the fairness of trials. Specifically, the use of cell phones and PDA’s to disseminate confidential information, and even the use of search engines and online databases to […]
Richard Warman is an Ottawa-based lawyer active in human rights law and is well known for initiating complaints against white supremacists and neo-nazis for Canadian Human Rights Act violations in the realm of the Internet. One of Warman’s most recent targets is the controversial online forum, FreeDominion.ca. In the action, Warman claims damages for allegedly […]