Conference Date: Friday September 18, 2009, 9:30am to 3:30pm

Location: Room W132, Schulich School of Business (York University), 4700 Keele Street, Toronto

This conference is free of charge and anyone may attend.  Lunch will be served.

RSVP by Wednesday, September 16 to iposgoode@osgoode.yorku.ca

Intellectual Property Rights are commonly understood as being essential to stimulate innovation and creativity. In that vein, most intellectual property regimes have traditionally focused on IP rights holders as the main agents to ensure the deployment of innovation and creative works. To what extent does the Intellectual Property framework take into account users and consumer interests as part of the equation? Is there a need for a better articulation of consumer interests within the intellectual property regime? Is it not as equally important to a coherent innovation and information policy?

In this thought provoking roundtable, our panelists will approach patent, trade-mark, copyright law, and its interaction with competition law, from the perspective of consumers.

VIEW ARCHIVED WEBCAST

Part 1: Introduction by Professor David Vaver, and Presentations by Professor Robert Kozinets and Dr. Dev Gangjee

Part 2: Presentation by Professor Geertrui Van Overwalle

Part 3: Presentations by Pascale Chapdelaine and Professor Ariel Katz

Part 4: Panel discussion with all speakers (moderated by Drew Olsen)

AGENDA

8:45 to 9:30 - Registration and Morning Coffee with Breakfast Pastries

9:30 - Introductory Remarks from the Conference Chair

Professor David Vaver, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, formerly Director of the Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre, Emeritus Fellow of St. Peter’s College at Oxford

9:45 - The Online Consumer and Online Consumer Communities of Interests

Professor Robert Kozinets, Schulich School of Business, York University

Professor Kozinets will present the key characteristics and practices of online consumers as they interact as members of e-tribes (i.e. online communities focused into social meaningful collectives) based on more than fourteen years of ethnographic research in this area. In addition, Professor Kozinets will touch upon some of their most important ramifications for business and society.

Powerpoint slides: The Online “Consumer”

10:30 - The Consumer and Trade-Mark Law: the Construction of the Consumer in Keyword Advertising and Search Engine Trade-Mark Cases

Dr. Dev Gangjee, Lecturer, London School of Economics

Dr. Gangjee will look at how the consumer interest is legally constructed in keyword advertising and search engine cases. His analysis is based on recent case law, including five pending references before the European Court of Justice.

Powerpoint slides: W(h)ither the Consumer Interest? Search Engines and Keywords in EU Trade Mark Law

11:15 to 11:30 – Break

11:30 – The Consumer and Patent Law: the Consumer-User and the Consumer-Inventor

Professor Geertrui Van Overwalle, K.U. Leuven, Belgium

Professor Van Overwalle will examine the adequacy of the permitted scope of use of inventions by the consumer (the “consumer user”) through the analysis of current private, non commercial use exceptions to patent infringement. She will further describe how the current patent law regime is ill-suited to deal with single user innovation and share some thoughts on why and how it could better accommodate the innovative consumer or the “consumer inventor”.

Powerpoint slides: The Consumer and Patent Law: the Consumer-user and the Consumer-inventor

12:15 to 1:15 – Lunch

1:15 - The Consumer and Copyright Law: the Reasonable Expectation of the Consumer on the Permitted Scope of Use of Digital Musical Recordings

Pascale Chapdelaine, Ph.D. Candidate, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Adjunct Professor University of Toronto Faculty of Law (formerly Executive Director and Vice President, Intellectual Property, Bell Canada and BCE Inc.)

How can the reasonable expectation of the consumer clarify unclear terms of use of digital musical recordings? Pascale Chapdelaine will discuss the merits and pitfalls of applying traditional consumer law principles to digital musical recordings and how a well thought out innovation and information policy calls for a better articulation of consumer interests in copyright law.

Powerpoint slides: The Reasonable Expectation of the Consumer on the Permitted Scope of Use of Digital Music

2:00 - End-user Agreements as viewed from Competition Law, Innovation Policy and Individual Autonomy

Professor Ariel Katz, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto

End User License Agreements and Terms of Use routinely accompany the provision of digital goods and services, often restricting users beyond the dictates of IP laws.  While competition law at times has been invoked to challenge such restrictions, Professor Katz will discuss the limits of competition law, and propose two related alternative grounds for challenging them: one rooted in innovation policy and the other in ideas about individual autonomy.

Powerpoint slides: End-user Agreements: Competition Law, Innovation Policy and Individual Autonomy

2:45 to 3:30 - Panel discussion and questions from the audience

Panel Discussion Moderator:
Drew Olsen, Director, Legislation and Negotiations, Copyright Policy, Canadian Heritage

3:30 - Conference ends

Conference venue provided by the Schulich School of Business and the Hennick Centre for Business and Law