How do consumer contracts deal with copyright and data on the Internet of Things? That’s the question Jules Bélanger, Mohit Sethi, and I addressed in a report prepared for the Government of Canada. The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) has the potential to generate a number of...
Vulnerable: The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19, a global collaborative project on the pandemic. Our contribution to the work examines the role of intellectual property rights, trade law, and domestic research in Canada’s preparedness for this pandemic. We identify issues that hindered Canada’s response and suggest reforms to...
The central objective of this study, prepared for Industry Canada, is to explain what “open” innovation is and how policymakers might respond to it. More specifically, this study aims to: Clarify the meaning of terms describing new forms of innovation, with examples.Describe the relationship between open innovation and intellectual...
Is there a role for intellectual property rights to play in the informal economy? What formal and informal strategies do informal sector actors use to appropriate benefits from their innovation? I’ve been exploring these questions through my co-leadership of the Open AIR project, and as an expert consultant on...
Knowledge and Innovation in Africa: Scenarios for the Future grapples with the complex and dynamic forces that will shape innovation systems over the next two decades. The report distills three different but equally plausible future scenarios: one a world of “wireless engagement,” another where “informal is the new normal,”...
Innovation and Intellectual Property: Collaborative Dynamics in Africa is a book of real-world case studies that show how intellectual property can play a positive role in collaborative innovation systems if policymakers prioritise the public interest. Editors: Jeremy de Beer, Chris Armstrong, Chidi Oguamanam & Tobias Schonwetter ISBN: 978-1-919895-99-4 Published by UCT Press, 2013 The...