The rise of broadband internet for home-users within the last 10 years has caused important changes to the internet. Users of broadband services are able to consume and produce large amounts of internet content at very high bit-rates for a modest flat fee. At the same time, the number of ISPs serving broadband internet to […]
According to a recent article in The Globe and Mail, a pilot project called The Best of B.C. Books Online will endeavour to make about 1000 non-fiction titles, both new and back catalogue, available as electronic books. This will be achieved by purchasing electronic rights to non-fiction books from B.C. publishers, and making them accessible […]
Ever wondered who is the most responsible for flooding the US courts with frivolous patent litigation suits over the past decade? While most fingers will inevitably point towards the so called “patent trolls”, the recent study proposed by Nathan Myhrvold in collaboration with the Stanford University Law Professor Mark Lemley is determined to bring the […]
The WTO recently released its panel report on the US-China dispute over intellectual property rights. The panel found in the US’s favour on certain issues, with China winning out on others. Regardless of one’s views of the merits and politics of the dispute, it serves to highlight the difficult challenges faced in pursuing global intellectual […]
Industry responses to the European Commission (EC) preliminary report on pharmaceutical competition (see the IPilogue blog of Dec. 15, 2008) are becoming available, and criticism has been abundant. In no uncertain words professional associations are wondering aloud whether the EC properly interpreted the facts or, more generally, misconstrued the purposes of the current patent system. […]
Alberto Musso is Full Professor of Intellectual Property Law and Competition Law and Deputy-Dean of the School of Law at the University of Bologna. He also teaches Copyright and Publishing Law in the Masters program directed by Prof. U. Eco. Professor Musso is a member of IP Osgoode's international advisory council. Bologna-Rome: Zanichelli-Il foro italiano, 2008, […]
Nicole Aylwin is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Communication and Culture Graduate Programme at York University. "Cultural policies, in brief, are those that regulate what has been called the marketplace of ideas" -- Paul DiMaggio It may seem questionable to preface a post on intellectual property with a quotation that addresses cultural policy rather than […]
Internet users are familiar with the current top level domain structure of the World Wide Web. .com, .edu, and .org, amongst others, are all part of the common vocabulary used to navigate the wealth of information available online. Recently, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved a plan to add more top […]
Over the past year, authoritarian governments have been cracking down on “subversive” Internet activity, attracting disapproval from human rights groups. However, U.S. technology companies have played an important role in such incidents. In the case of Chinese dissident Shi Tao, Yahoo! surrendered identifying information that allowed the Chinese government to arrest and jail him. To […]
A few weeks ago, the Honourable Paul Michel sat down for an interview with Professor Doug Lichtman from UCLA School of Law. Judge Michel is the current Chief Circuit Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and in that capacity he has much experience dealing with patent litigation cases. Much […]