Fashion’s Response to COVID-19 and the Regulatory Considerations in Producing Face Masks

Personal Privacy in a Digital Age: Examining Current Intellectual Property & Privacy Obligations

Canadians have privacy rights associated with their personal information. This even applies when one’s personal information is held by someone else – like with hospital medical records. Patient ownership of personal data was illustrated in the 1992 Supreme Court of Canada (‘SCC’) decision, McInerney v. MacDonald, where the Court verified that despite the physician having […]

Tech, Tykes and Teens (or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love GAFA)

As the 2020 Presidential Primary begins to gather steam south of the border, US Senator Elizabeth Warren’s plan to break up big tech (Google, Amazon, and Facebook – she followed up later with a plan for Apple), has once again brought tech regulation into the political realm. But the real crux of the problem, the […]

The Dark Side of Wearable Technology

In an earlier post, I discussed how wearables are becoming prominent in modern life, with Toronto being a notable hotspot for technology development and related interest. From a legal perspective, there are two main concerns with wearable technology: privacy and product liability. This instalment in the Toronto Wearables Series will focus on the former. The […]

Moral Ethics of Artificial Intelligence Decision-Making – Who Should be Harmed and Who is Held Responsible?

As autonomous vehicles begin their test runs and potential commercial debuts, new liability and ethical questions arise. Unlike other computer algorithms which are already available to the public, a fully automated car divorces the authority of the device from the driver, instead vesting all power and decision-making into the car and its software. Accidents may […]

Regulating by proxy, restricting rights, and reducing competition? Pitfalls of the EU copyright directive.

On September 12th, 2018, the European Parliament voted in favour of legislation that purports to be an important step toward integrating EU copyright law in the internet age. Generally, the goal of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (“the Directive”) is to give rights holders direct control over their copyright on internet […]

How the IP Strategy Could Transform Canadian Innovation

This article was originally published by The Centre for International Governance Innovation. It was a “hallelujah moment,” so to speak, when the Government of Canada announced its national Intellectual Property (IP) Strategy, highlighting IP as a priority for the country. After decades of neglect, IP is finally getting the attention it rightly deserves from Ottawa. […]

Use of Facial Recognition Software at Calgary Malls Raises Privacy Concerns

This article was originally published by The Lawyer’s Daily (www.thelawyersdaily.ca), part of LexisNexis Canada Inc. It is a common occurrence to see people checking the directory in a mall to get the location of the most popular stores. But what is less well known is that some malls have begun using those directories to identify […]

Breaking Up With Big Tech?

This week, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg will make a long-awaited appearance on Capitol Hill. With Facebook under new and increased scrutiny in the United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK) following the Cambridge Analytica data breach, Facebook’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer is set to be grilled by representatives of both the Senate and the […]

Spotlight on Prof. Daithí Mac Síthigh's New Book "Medium Law"

According to Daithí Mac Síthigh, Professor of Law and Innovation at Queen's University Belfast, making distinctions between media technologies matters a lot for regulation and law. During a talk at Osgoode Hall Law School on November 6, Prof. Mac Síthigh elaborated on this idea, arguing for the importance of medium-specific approaches to media law and […]