'Women and IP: is everything rosy in here or is the glass ceiling tinted pink?’ – IP Osgoode takes the lead in addressing gender issues in the IP field

On Friday, November 7, IP Osgoode, the Institute For Feminist Legal Studies, and Putting Theory To Practice (An International Speakers Series At Osgoode Hall Law School) held a unique event: a roundtable of numerous female leaders in the IP field discussed and reflected on the opportunities and challenges that women face in this area of […]

Addressing one does not solve all: the government fails to legislate against some digital lock abuses

Digital locks[DLs] are ‘virtual fences’ put around digital content.1 An example is a password authorizing the access to an online music store such as iTunes. The government, through legislation, has the responsibility to discourage abuses of DLs. There are at least two types of DLs abuses that harm society. The first involves the actions of users […]

Patenting a novel's plot could deprive users of their rights under the Copyright Act

Andrew Knight, a US novelist and a patent agent, was the first to apply for a patent on the unique plot of his novel. Although the US patent office rejected Knight’s application, the author intends to appeal to the Federal Circuit. Knight espouses that patent protection is crucial because copyrights are not enough to keep […]

An Apple, The Apple, Whose Apple?

The famous company Apple Inc is ready to take a ‘bite' at Victoria School of Business and Technology. The dispute ‘centers around a piece of fruit'. The ‘apple' could be one of the most litigated issues in history. The story begins in 1978 when Apple Corps, a recording company owned by The Beatles filed a […]

Copyrights may not mean many rights

On September 8, 2008, a New York federal court ruled that Steven Vander Ark is permanently enjoined from publishing his ‘Harry Potter Lexicon’. The Lexicon is an A to Z encyclopedia that consists of 2437 entries. The entries describe the creatures, characters, objects, events and places that exist in the world of Harry Potter. The […]