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
Best Practices for Intellectual Property in International Trade Deals
Intellectual property provisions in international agreements should not be negotiated secretly, but transparently…
Present Thinking About the Future of IP: A Literature Review
The way we think about the future influences how we think and behave in the present. Truly informative work…
Featured Audio & Video
Jeremy de Beer discusses the smartphone patent wars on cbc radio
Latest Articles
Canada’s Copyright Tariff-Setting Process
My empirical research findings deliver unique understanding of Canada’s tariff-setting procedures, enabling more informed debate about copyright issues…
Best Practices for Intellectual Property in International Trade Deals
Intellectual property provisions in international agreements should not be negotiated secretly, but transparently…
All Articles
Who Really Owns the Stanley Cup?
As most of you remember, there was one year where the Stanley Cup was not awarded because of a labour dispute between the National Hockey League and its players. This dispute resulted in the 2004-2005 lockout, as well as a lawsuit over the ownership of the Stanley Cup. The...
Rights and Responsibilities of GMO Patent Owners
How Digital Rights Management Backfired on Sony BMG Music
When Sony BMG snuck restrictive contractual terms and digital rights management technologies onto tens of millions of CDs in 2006, the strategy backfired by alienating consumers as well as artists and leading to class action litigation against the company. My article explains, “How Restrictive Terms and Technologies Backfired on...
Private Copying Levies and the Digital Music Market
Are private copying levies the best way to deal with the challenges and opportunities that arise in Canada’s digital music market? I don’t think so, and explain why in this article.
Genetic Information Technologies, Property Rights and Tort Liabilities
At the IT.CAN Annual Conference in Montreal in October 2005 I presented my research drawing parallels between digital rights management technologies used in the context of information communications technologies, and genetic use restriction technologies used to control...
How to Compensate Artists for Private Copying
My work on the topic of artist compensation in Canada was presented to the Uniform Law Conference of Canada’s annual meeting in St. John’s, Canada in August 2005. The ideas presented were incorporated into an article on the role of levies in Canada’s digital music marketplace, published in the...