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
In 2005, two brothers in Kolkata, India launched Scrabulous, an online implementation of the board game Scrabble. With a few thousand regular players, it wasn’t about to replace World of Warcraft in the annals of online gaming. But in 2007, they took the suggestion of a regular player and spent just ten days writing a […]
Its not often that a small country like Belgium would have the bravado to take on the world's superpower. But earlier this year David literally crushed Goliath in a geographical indicators dispute between the old and new worlds. It was reported on January 10, 2008 that 3,200 bottles of André sparkling wine from California were […]
In October 2007, the Copyright Board of Canada rendered a decision regarding tariffs payable to SOCAN by online music services.[1] As part of the Board’s decision it concluded that music previews do not infringe copyright as they constitute fair dealing for the purpose of research. While I agree in principle that a prospective purchaser of […]
According to this story in the Globe and Mail, the music industry is keen on getting Internet service providers (ISPs) to block traffic for users who sharing copyrighted music files. Canadian ISPs like Bell and Rogers already shape traffic to some extent by limiting the amount of bandwidth available to file sharing (and you couldn't […]
With much fanfare last Monday, Amazon.com released their wireless e-book reader that uses e-ink technology and allows users to purchase books wirelessly over Sprint's cellular network in the United States. Though the product lacks the immaculate design of some other consumer electronics (read: the iPhone), it nevertheless hit the spot for many as the product […]
IBM is going to offer free programs to compete with Microsoft’s Office programs. A new attempt for some good old Microsoft-bashing, IBM failed in 1990 to compete head-on with its OS/2 system, and an ambitious plan to challenge one of the most lucrative businesses for Microsoft. The more important question here is, not if IBM […]
With the recent Copyright Board preliminary decision which incorporates digital recorders as an audio recording medium[1]; you would think that the CRIA would be jumping for joy as the inclusion of digital recorders would generate more revenue. Furthermore, the CRIA has been lobbying for a private copying levy for years. However, this was not the […]
Over a decade ago, the seminal article, “The Digital Silk Road,” by Norman Hardy and Eric Dean Tribble[1] conceptualized the Internet as “a flee-market where cash and anonymity prevail.” This vision helped spark a flurry of activity and multiple attempts to develop a successful model for collecting payments for small online transactions. After numerous failed […]
In June 2007, the BBC reported, that scientists from the J. Craig Venter Institute had applied to patent the method they plan to use to create their synthetic organism. According to the article, the Institute is claiming exclusive ownership of a set of 381 essential genes believed necessary to keep an organism alive and the […]
In March 2007, the district court in Alexandria, Virginia held that Vonage, a company which uses voice over IP technology, had infringed claims of three patents owned by Verizon Communications, and that those patents were not invalid as obvious. The judgement awarded $58,000,000 in damages and a royalty of 5.5% on any future infringing sales […]