Double standards for Business method patents? Drug dosage calibration v. Hedging risks in commodities trading

Nirav Bhatt is an LLM candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. Recently the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) in Prometheus Laboratories, Inc. v. Mayo Collaborative Services held that Prometheus’ patent claim methods for calibrating the proper dosage of thiopurine drugs, which are used for treating both gastrointestinal and non-gastrointestinal autoimmune diseases, […]

EU Advocate General: Google’s AdWords system does not violate trademarks

Nathan Fan is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. Luís Miguel Poiares Maduro, the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), concluded in a recent recommendation to the ECJ that Google’s AdWords system does not violate trademarks when it allows advertisers to select trademarks as keyword triggers for its advertisement service.

Claim construction and the scope of the word ‘animal’

George Nathanael is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School Are humans animals? The U.S. case of Martek Biosciences v. Nutrinova, which was recently decided by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, is an excellent example of how difficult patent claim construction can be sometimes. Interestingly, five judges sat on the panel […]

Interbrand’s Best Global Brands 2009: The Expected and Unexpected

Lorraine Fleck is a Toronto, Ontario lawyer and trade-mark agent who practices advertising and marketing, contest, copyright, packaging and labeling, privacy and trade-mark law. Interbrand has released its report of the 100 Best Global Brands 2009. The ranking is based on the following criteria: Publicly available financial data. This means that brands owned by privately […]

The Dominance of the Private Seed Sector and the Legislative Destruction of Farmers' Rights

Jasdeep Bal is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School and was an intern this past summer with the People’s Patent Group (PPG) in New Delhi, India. Currently, India’s domestic seed market is being overshadowed by the growing stature of Multinational corporations (MNCs), mainly due to their access to international germaplasm. Despite the dominant presence of […]

Copyright for the masses? It’s not quite as black and white

Brian Chau is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. Where do we draw the line between commercial and non-commercial uses? Is this view the same across content creators and users? A quick background Creative commons licences are designed to help content creators (who own the copyright) communicate to their users which rights they […]

Google and On Demand Books Bring the Public Domain to the Public

Brandon Evenson is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. Given Google’s internet footprint, it would be easy for any web surfer to mistakenly conclude that Google is out to rule the online world. These surfers must be reminded, however, that Google’s true mission is to “organize the world's information and make it universally accessible […]

Colleges aren't happy with Bud's school spirit

Billy Barnes is a JD candidate at the University of Toronto. Budweiser has begun selling beer cans in the colours of local college football teams in some markets in the US. For example, in parts of Michigan they are selling a maize (pale yellow) and blue "fan can" that matches the colours of Michigan State University. […]

No Liability for Hyperlinks, Online Free Speech Protected

Amanda Carpenter is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School Last Tuesday, the British Columbia Court of Appeal affirmed an important precedent-setting decision of the British Columbia Supreme Court regarding online defamation in Crookes v. Newton., 2009 BCCA 392. In the decision, Justice Saunders and Bauman found against the plaintiff Wayne Crookes who argued […]

The Intellectual Property Bargain: Consumer Perspectives in a Global Economy

George Nathanael is a second-year JD student at Osgoode Hall Law School On a beautiful Friday at the Schulich School of Business, IP Osgoode presented "The Intellectual Property Bargain: Consumer Perspectives in a Global Economy". This one-day conference brought together academics, practicing lawyers, and students to participate in presentations and discussions that aimed to infuse […]