Intellectual Property
Control over, and access to, knowledge determines how the benefits of scientific, technological, and other advancements are realized and distributed throughout our information society. How exactly does protection of intellectual property rights shape the global knowledge economy? Better understanding and then influencing the law of patents, copyrights, trademarks, secrets, and many related legal rules are among my top research priorities.

Featured Articles
CETA Shows Canada’s Need for an IP Strategy
My CETA testimony to the Senate Committee on International Trade highlighted how Canada can learn from the failure to strategize about intellectual property.
The Future of Intellectual Property
We start by laying out some “laws” of the futures, including this one by the legendary Jim Dator…
Featured Audio & Video
Jeremy de Beer discusses the smartphone patent wars on cbc radio
Latest Articles
Intellectual Property Rights in the Recreational Cannabis Market
“Intellectual Property Rights in Recreational Cannabis: Craft or Commodity”, explores patents, trademarks, plant breeders’ rights, and legal measures to decriminalize and regulate cannabis.
CETA Shows Canada’s Need for an IP Strategy
My CETA testimony to the Senate Committee on International Trade highlighted how Canada can learn from the failure to strategize about intellectual property.
All Articles
A Property Law Reader
Studying property law for the first time? Here’s Canada’s most widely used casebook on the subject, including cases, questions and commentary on a range of fundamental and cutting-edge property law issues.
Intellectual Property and Innovation: My Testimony to Parliament
The Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology integrated several of my recommendations…
Intellectual Property Issues in CETA: The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement
The Canada-EU Trade Environment Technology Exchange, a project led by Jeremy de Beer and Debra Steger Key intellectual property issues being negotiated in the Canada-EU CETA may be hard to implement, given the constitutional law governing Canada’s federal system. In “Implementing International Trade Agreements in Federal Systems” I explain...
L’accès au savoir en Afrique : Le rôle du droit d’auteur
L’accès au savoir en Afrique Ce livre, L’accès au savoir en Afrique : Le rôle du droit d’auteur, permet de mieux saisir les enjeux juridiques et pratiques que posent les droits d’auteur pour l’accès au matériel didactique en Afrique et cerne les leçons apprises, les politiques et les pratiques...
How Intellectual Property Jurisdiction Impacts Biomedical Innovation for Better Health
The future of health care is being shaped by biotechnology. New technologies are providing patients with earlier diagnoses and superior treatment options. At the same time, developers of these technologies are seeking ways to maximize financial and strategic returns on their investments, and intellectual property is a primary vehicle...
Who Has Jurisdiction Over Intellectual Property Law and Policy in Canada’s Federal System?
In 2009, SSHRC granted me more than $65,000 over 3 years to support groundbreaking research on intellectual property and Canadian federalism.
Courts Play a Key Role in Regulation and Governance of Agricultural Innovation
Our courts, through litigation, can shape the regulation and governance of agricultural innovation, especially biotechnologies. As part of the University of Saskatchewan College of Law‘s Guest Speaker Program, I presented some of my new research: “Judging Biotech: How the Courts Control Our Crops,” explores how agricultural biotechnologies policy can be affected...
Network Governance of Biofuels: Can Policymakers Coordinate Multi-level Regulation?
Biofuels, by Steve Jurvetson, on Flickr. “Network Governance of Biofuels” promotes a regulation and governance framework for biofuels that, while not necessarily simpler, let alone harmonized, is more coordinated and better rationalized. The analysis in this working paper is presented in two major sections, following a more detailed discussion in...
La Commission du droit d’auteur: L’histoire juridique
“La Commission du Droit d’Auteur du Canada: vingt années à « faire » l’histoire juridique,” (2010) Vol. 22, nº 3 Les Cahiers de propriété intellectuelle 593-627, est la traduction française de mon article, “Twenty Years of Legal History (Making) at the Copyright Board of Canada.” Le présent article pose principalement...
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. Mid-season Soybean...