"The Price of Innovation": Report Suggests that the Cost of Drug R&D is Inflated

Adrienne Ng is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. Donald Light and Rebecca Warburton (hereafter LW), in February 2011, published a paper entitled “Demythologizing the high costs of pharmaceutical research”.  The paper suggests that the US$802 million price tag of pharmaceutical innovation estimated in a 2003 report is inflated.  A more sound estimate would be US$43 […]

Digital Books Monopoly: What Will Happen When Google Passes 'GO'?

Back in November 2008, I wrote about the challenges that Google faced in their Google Books Library Project and their proposed settlement in response. To refresh, the Google Books Library Project is a hugely ambitious initiative to catalogue the millions of books in the collections of several major libraries and include them into Google Book […]

Wal-Mart: Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde?

Oh Wal-Mart. I can't live with you and I can't live without you. You are that big bad department store having driven one too many mom and pop shops out of business. Yet you are my wallet's saviour. It's a love-hate relationship. I would not be surprised if the United Food and Commercial Workers Union […]

Is 11 the Magic Number?

Infopaq, founded in Denmark in 1998, is a media monitoring and analysis company. One of their services is the monitoring of keywords that appear in newspaper text. To achieve this, Infopaq scans newspaper pages and the uses software to turn the image of the page into text. If pre-determined keywords that clients want monitored appear […]

Balancing Act: IP Rights vs. Global Public Health Goals

The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) was established under the United Nations Charter as the principal organ to coordinate economic, social, and related work of the 14 UN specialized agencies, functional commissions and five regional commissions.  The ECOSOC is responsible for promoting higher standards of living, full employment, and economic and social progress; […]

Joining the Fight Against Intellectual Property Theft

The Alliance Against Intellectual Property Theft (AAIPT) is a unique coalition of trade and enforcement organizations, providing a single voice for those who share an interest in preventing counterfeiting and piracy in the UK. Recently, the AAIPT has campaigned for a national crackdown on the sale of counterfeit goods at street markets and boot fairs. […]

A Fine Balance: Protecting and Giving-Away Content

In general, intellectual property (IP) rights encourage innovation by providing creators with an economic incentive to develop and share ideas through a form of a temporary monopoly. Proponents of traditional IP rights believe that individual creators should not only have a chance to profit from their works but also control how they are used. In […]

Parody As Fair Dealing, Eh?

s. 29.1 of Canada's Copyright Act provides that fair dealing for the purpose of criticism does not infringe copyright if the source is mentioned. The main issue then is whether parody - the use of humor or ridicule to point out some particular feature of the original work - is an acceptable form of criticism as per […]

Twitter Squatters: What are you doing?

Twitter is a new Internet social networking phenomenon. It is a “service for friends, family, and co-workers, to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?" I have not yet jumped onto the Twitter bandwagon, but perhaps I should. At the very least, I […]

Doctrine of First Sale in Our Digital World

On March 26, 2009, the Queen held a reception for leaders attending the G-20 summit. President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle were the first dignitaries to meet the Queen. During their private meeting, President Obama and the first lady presented the Queen with a gift. The gift was a personalized iPod - complete with […]