Accounting of Profits to Remedy Biotechnology Patent Infringement
A number of important agricultural biotechnology patent disputes have arisen in Canada since the 2004 Supreme Court of Canada decision in Monsanto v. Schmeiser. Typically, defendants no longer contest issues of patent validity or infringement. Instead, the controversies have shifted to discussions about applicable remedies for infringement. The companion cases of Rivett v Monsanto and […]
Implementing the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Development Agenda
The Development Agenda presents a real opportunity to revolutionize the international governance of intellectual property law and policy…
The Future of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Development Agenda
Will WIPO’s “Development Agenda” be a game-changer for the global knowledge economy, or will it fail to bring about fundamental reforms? That’s the question that I convened a group of academics, diplomats, activists, and industry experts to answer at a retreat outside of Geneva in 2010. The Development Agenda for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was […]
Remedies for Biotechnology Patent Infringement
A pair courts decisions have a big impact on remedies available for biotechnology patent infringement. Defendants in biotech patent lawsuits seem to be better off than previously thought. The result could mean revaluing Canadian patent portfolios based on enforceability issues, and revising business and intellectual property practices accordingly. Read the details in my article in The […]
Access to Knowledge in Africa: The Role of Copyright
This book gives the reader an understanding of the legal and practical issues posed by copyright for access to education and learning materials in Africa, and identifies the relevant lessons, best policies and best practices that would broaden and deepen this access. The emergence of the Internet and the digital world has changed the way […]
Orphan Works in Canada: Copyright Licensing for Owners Who Can’t Be Found
Copyright lasts for a long time. Because there’s formal registration requirement, owners are often unlocatable. Their works become orphan works. The issue of orphan works is one of the most pressing copyright law and policy problems of the 21st century. My co-author Mario Bouchard and I were the first experts to empirically study and then explain […]
Implementing WIPO’s Development Agenda in North Africa and the Middle East
The World Intellectual Property Organization invited me to speak about my trade and development research, specifically my book Implementing the WIPO’s Development Agenda, during an outreach and capacity-building seminar in Tunis, Tunisia. It was surprising (though in hindsight, it shouldn’t have been) that most of the representatives from WIPO’s Arab country member states had not even heard […]
The Copyright Board’s Legal History Making
The Copyright Board 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 the law in practice. The Copyright Board is probably the […]
Exhaustion of Intellectual Property
Though the scope of the doctrine of exhaustion, and the terminology used to describe it, is somewhat different in the contexts of copyrights, trade-marks, and patents, and in different jurisdictions, the concept and function are universal in intellectual property law. In Canada, the applicability of the exhaustion doctrine to copyrights, trade-marks, and patents seemed clear. But […]
Intellectual Property & Traditional Knowledge: My Interview on CBC Spark
Indigenous communities from India to South Africa to Canada have seen their traditional knowledge misappropriated and commercialized. In some cases, intellectual property rights are the root of the problem. In other cases, intellectual property rights can be part of the solution.
