Following three years of empirical research in eight different countries throughout Africa, I'm thrilled to be a member of the team that has produced a new, pathbreaking book: "Access to Knowledge in Africa: The Role of Copyright." The book is available for purchase in hard copy from University of Cape Town Press, or openly accessible online from a variety of sources. It will soon be archived in IDRC's digital library; meanwhile you can download it from the ACA2K Project's website, or the LINK Centre at Wits University.
I've just published in The Lawyers Weekly an article that provides a snapshot of some of my recent research into biotech patent infringement remedies. Together with a team of students and other scholars, I'm investigating the implications of infringement remedies for various stakeholders in the patent system. After being neglected for many years, the issue of remedies has been attracting more attention lately. Just in the past few months, articles related to this topic have been posted on SSRN here, here and here.
The very short piece I just published is a preview of a much more thorough analysis forthcoming in the Osgoode Hall Law Journal this summer. It seems this work is also very timely because of Federal Court of Appeal hearings to take place June 16 in Ottawa in the important cases of Monsanto v. Rivett and Monsanto v. Janssen.
On Tuesday, February 9, 2010, I'll be co-hosting an event to celebrate the publication of two new books. Debra Steger's edited collection, Redesigning the World Trade Organization for the Twenty-first Century, proposes practical ways of modernizing the World Trade Organization (WTO) to adjust to the rise of the emerging economies, cope with the effects of the global economic crisis, and respond to the challenges of the twenty-first century. My own edited collection, Implementing the World Intellectual Property Organization's Development Agenda, focuses on the implementation of a potentially pathbreaking Development Agenda by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) that could greatly affect critical international issues of public policy relating to intellectual property.
Both books resulted from collaborative research projects of the EDGE Network on the Emerging Dynamic Global Economies, funded by Networks of Centres of Excellence Canada and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and are published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press, IDRC and the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).
The event will feature a Roundtable with the following speakers: Thomas A. Bernes, Vice-President of Programs and Acting Executive Director, CIGI; Jennifer Hillman, Member, WTO Appellate Body, and Senior Transatlantic Fellow, German Marshall Fund; Rohinton Medhora, Vice-President, Programs, IDRC; Sisule F. Musungu, Executive President, IQsensato; and Don Stephenson, Assistant Deputy Minister, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada.
I was in Tunis last week to participate in a WIPO seminar on implementation of the development agenda by Arab member states. Most of the delegates were representatives of national IP offices, though there were also some international diplomats. It was surprising (though in hindsight, it shouldn't have been) that most of the people there had not even heard of WIPO's development agenda, let alone understood its purpose and effect. By the end the seminar's third day, however, people began to see how the agenda might influence their activities at the national level, and what might be done to promote its underlying values. The experience proved to me the need for and value of WIPO's work in this area.
My remarks were mostly based on the content of my recently published collection of essays in Implementing the WIPO's Development Agenda. A summary of what I had to say during my four presentations follows:
Yesterday I delivered the opening presentation at ALAI Canada's conference celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Copyright Board. I argued that the Board is probably the most practically important copyright institution in Canada, though too few people realize the breadth or depth of its impact. It is far more than a rate-setting body; it is heavily involved in either making or implementing copyright policy. While Parliament and the courts have and exercise the power to determine the law, increasingly these bodies are relying on the Board to apply it in practice.
The presentation is embedded below. Use the arrows on the bottom right to move through. Click the hyperlinks to jump to the underlying source materials.
I am an Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law. My expertise is in the area of technology and intellectual property law. Read more details or follow me on twitter.
