A Leading Voice in Intellectual Property & Technology Law

The IPilogue is IP Osgoode’s online journal of IP Law and Technology. It publishes analysis and commentary on current pressing intellectual property, technology, privacy and related legal issues. The IPilogue features curated contributions from students, scholars, and experts within the Osgoode community, from our network of affiliated researchers and partners, as well as from professionals and scholars in disciplines outside of law.

Editor in Chief: Prof. Carys Craig (ccraig@osgoode.yorku.ca)
Submission inquiries: iposgoode@osgoode.yorku.ca


Exploring Depreciation of Goodwill as a New Ground of Trade-mark Opposition

Jan 28, 2009 2 min read
dummy-img

Sanjukta Tole is an Osgoode Hall alumnus and practiced with the IP Group of a large Vancouver law firm. In 2006, the Supreme Court of Canada released its decision in the case of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, Maison Fondee en 1772 v. Boutiques Cliquot Ltee, 2006 SCC 23 ("Veuve Clicquot"), in which the maker of the […]

Merchandising political images

Jan 27, 2009 2 min read
dummy-img

For the past year and a half, one political figure has evoked much publicity around the world that very few celebrities or politicians have enjoyed during their whole life. This political figure is the newly elected U.S. president, Barack Obama. The Obama craze has resulted in, what Megan Boler calls, a ‘merchandising mayhem’. In the U.S., […]

Digital Games, UGC, and the Mainstreaming of Virtual IP Conflicts

Jan 26, 2009 1 min read
dummy-img

Sara Grimes is a PhD Candidate with the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University. Digital games have evolved considerably in recent years, but from an IP perspective, one of the most interesting and significant shifts has been the introduction of user-generated content (UGC) into corporately-owned digital games and virtual worlds. Early evidence of the […]

Is there a right to clone Macs?

Jan 26, 2009 1 min read
dummy-img

In 2005, Apple publicly announced their transition from the IBM/Motorola PowerPC chipset to the Intel x86 chipset. In addition to the speed improvements, and efficiency gains (higher performance per watt) with the Intel processors, the transition also gave Mac users greater flexibility in the operating systems and programs that could be run without an x86 […]

Privacy watchdog proposes code of practice for privacy notices

Jan 23, 2009 1 min read
dummy-img

Do you remember the last time you made an online purchase from Amazon or the Apple Store? When you entered in all your personal information, do you remember reading Amazon or Apple’s privacy notices? If you clicked on it, did you read through the entire thing? It is quite likely that your answer would be […]

Landmark Case Favours Public Right to Electronic Records

Jan 22, 2009 1 min read
dummy-img

A six year quest of the Toronto Star has been finally put to rest by an Ontario Court of Appeal decision favouring a ‘freedom of information’ request filed by the Star. The landmark decision held that municipal government institutions, such as the Toronto Police Services Board (the "Board"), are required to produce electronically stored information that the public […]

Photos of Released Murderer Banned From Publication

Jan 21, 2009 1 min read
dummy-img

A Northern Ireland court has barred a Belfast newspaper, Sunday Life, from publishing unpixelated photos of the perpetrator of a sex related murder who is now being released after serving out his sentence. It had been the paper’s intent to publish pictures to enable the public to identify the man should he end up in […]

Patentees: Destroy Evidence at Your Own Peril

Jan 20, 2009 1 min read
dummy-img

In a recent U.S. patent dispute between two information technology players, a court has ruled that a patentee’s destruction of potentially relevant evidence may be sanctioned by a declaration of patent unenforceability. The ruling in Micron Technology, Inc. v. Rambus, Inc. (Civ. No. 00-792-SLR, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1260 (D.Del., Jan. 9, 2009)) penalizes Rambus, a […]

Are totipotent cells patentable in Canada?

Jan 19, 2009 1 min read
dummy-img

Greg Hagen is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Calgary. While James Thomson's claims to primate embryonic stem cells in U.S. Patent 5,843,780 (granted December 1st, 1998) were finally upheld on reexamination by the U.S. Patent and Trade-mark office in 2008, no Canadian patent was ever granted on these […]

Internet Textbook Businesses Could Help Curb Textbook Piracy

Jan 19, 2009 1 min read
dummy-img

Funding for higher education has always been a touchy topic for politicians.  While few dispute that an educated population is beneficial for society, it is often less clear who should foot the bill for this benefit.  Of course, a large part of the cost is tuition, but more and more, the costs of textbooks are […]