Should Canada Adopt an “Innovation Patent System” to Promote Small to Medium Enterprises?

The “innovation patent system”, a second-tier patent system unique to Australia, was introduced in 2001 by the Australian Parliament to promote the growth of small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) by providing a relatively quick and cost-effective process to obtain patent protection for lower-level or incremental inventions. The World Intellectual Property Office refers to Australian-type “second-tier patents” as […]

Privacy and Proportionality: The Supreme Court finds Alberta Privacy Legislation Unconstitutional

Privacy legislation frequently pits the importance of safeguarding personal information against the constitutional protection of freedom of expression. In Alberta (Information and Privacy Commissioner) v United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 401 (“UFCW”), the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") has made an important statement about the permissible extent of privacy protection, and the importance of […]