Thinking Outside the (Legal) Box: IP Osgoode’s Orphan Works Licensing Portal Hackathon

The Event Over the course of three days in early February 2016, IP Osgoode played host to the Orphan Works Licencing Portal Hackathon, a multidisciplinary and international event that resulted in a memorable proposal for an “Orphan Hunter.” While that may sound more like a discarded Stephen King draft than a solution to an important […]

The General Data Protection Regulation: From Promises to Reality

The re-posting of this comment is part of a cross-posting collaboration with MediaLaws: Law and Policy of the Media in a Comparative Perspective. In December 2012, the Commission put forward its proposal for a General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). According to the Commission’s own words, “The Regulation is an essential step to strengthen citizens’ fundamental […]

IP in 3D: How IP Owners Should Respond to 3D Printers

Although intellectual property (IP) law adequately protects many forms of IP, the coming commercialization of cheap 3D printers may facilitate new means of mass pirating that existing law cannot prevent. Though legal reform is the common strategy used to deal with IP challenges, the efforts of IP owners might be better spent finding new ways to monetize […]

IP Intensive: A Semester at Innovation, Science and Economic Development (formerly known as Industry Canada)

As the title of this blog alludes to, I joined the Copyright and Trademark Directorate (CTPD) at Industry Canada (IC) later transforming into the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (DISED or ISED? the jury is still out on the acronym) at a time of constant flux. I arrived at my internship a mere […]

IP Intensive: Stranger in a Strange Land - Or, How a Semester at CodeX made me Comfortable With “Think [Like a Lawyer, but] Different”

Grok means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed—to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience. It means almost everything that we mean by religion, philosophy, and science—and it means as little to us (because of our Earthling assumptions) as color means to a blind man. - Robert […]

IP Intensive: Ottawa - The Best of Both Worlds

Living and working in Ottawa is a unique, and often dual, experience. Every morning as I head to work at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO), I cross the border from Ontario into Quebec. Conversations often begin in English and end in French. Ottawa itself has features of a large city, but the friendly dynamics […]

IP Intensive: A Semester at TEVA Canada

This past fall, I had an opportunity to work with the patent strategy group at Teva Canada as part of Osgoode’s Intellectual Property Law Intensive Program. Teva Canada is the Canadian branch of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., a company commonly known as one of the largest generic pharmaceutical companies in the world, though it also […]

IP Intensive: Supporting Innovation and Entrepreneurship - A Semester at ventureLAB

Before I participated in Osgoode’s Intellectual Property Law and Technology Intensive Program, I thought legal pro bono work only pertained to human rights, criminal, and refugee matters. However, after completing my internship with ventureLAB, a non-for-profit organization that helps technology entrepreneurs with their business development, I realized that entrepreneurs and small businesses are also groups […]

IP Intensive: 3, 2, 1... And We're Rolling – A Semester at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Think you have what it takes to provide legal advice to the newsroom with five-minutes left until they go to air? Are you ready to tell the folks at Dragons’ Den what they can and cannot do (and not many people tell them what they cannot do); do you think you are Canada’s Smartest Person? […]

IP Intensive: Reflecting on (C)anadian Heritage - Copyright Conundrums in Our Nation’s Capital

Prior to my placement at the Department of Canadian Heritage, Copyright and International Trade Policy Branch as part of Osgoode's Intellectual Property Law and Technology Intensive Program I had a fairly limited understanding of copyright law. I thought I at least knew the basics. And while I am certainly no expert now, my time at […]