| April 20-22, 2016
WIPO Conference on the Global Digital Content Market
In Geneva, Switzerland. Click for details. May 2-8, 2016
Canadian Music Week
Industry conference and music festival held over tens in Toronto. Click for details. May 6, 2016
Open Source and 3D Printing
An ALAI-Canada event. Click for details. May 16, 2016
CPD and Annual IPIC Update
CPD session with members of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys followed by IPIC annual update. Click for details.
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| Government introduces Bill C-11 entitled, “An Act to amend the Copyright Act (access to copyrighted works or other subject-matter for persons with perceptual disabilities)” to implement the Marrakesh Treaty. Click for details. July 1, 2016
Canada’s IP Writing Challenge 2016
The Intellectual Property Institute of Canada (IPIC) and IP Osgoode invite submissions from law students, graduate students, and professionals. Click for details.
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| York U celebrates the official opening of the Bergeron Centre for Engineering Excellence. Known for its stunning architectural design, the Bergeron Centre for Engineering Excellence is the physical home of the Lassonde School of Engineering, which is dedicated to educating and inspiring the next generation of engineers by fostering creativity and hands-on learning.
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| The IPIGRAM (18 April 2016)
Feature Posts
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| More Money, More Problems: The Science, the Law, and the Fight over CRISPR Patents
April 14, 2016 by Sebastian Beck-Watt and Daniel Quainoo
From Lab Bench to Court Bench: The Science, the Law, and the CRISPR Patent Dispute
Whenever a new technology has the potential to be ground-breaking and extremely valuable, there are bound to be disputes about invention and ownership. From Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison to the new space race, scientists and inventors are often driven into competition and conflict. Recently, one such conflict has arisen over one of the biggest scientific discoveries of the Twentieth Century.
Clustered regularly interspaced palindromic repeats (CRISPR) are a molecular system whose harnessing is transforming the science, with important applications in medicine, biotechnology and other areas. By repurposing the natural biological system, scientists are able to target and make precise changes to specific strands of DNA at a more cost-efficient and faster rate than ever before. While CRISPR has spurred the development of a host of new technologies, there has been significant controversy over who actually owns the “invention.” A winner-takes-all dispute over the technology’s patent rights is in full swing between the Broad Institute and the University of California, Berkeley, and the spoils are plenty.
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Sebastian Beck-Watt and Daniel Quainoo are IPilogue Editors and JD Candidates at Osgoode Hall Law School.
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| In Fond Memory of Prof. Denis Borges Barbosa
April 8, 2016 by Giuseppina D'Agostino
IP Osgoode is saddened to hear of the recent passing of Prof. Denis Borges Barbosa and would like to express our sincerest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Prof. Barbosa. He will be fondly remembered by IP Osgoode for his support and guidance as an IP Osgoode International Advisory Council member. As a widely recognized and respected leading IP professor, researcher and attorney in Brazil, Prof. Barbosa’s light in the IP community will be greatly missed.
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Giuseppina D’Agostino is the Founder & Director of IP Osgoode, the IP Intensive Program, and the Innovation Clinic, the Editor-in-Chief for the IPilogue and the Intellectual Property Journal, and an Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School.
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| | | Life After BitCoin: The Future of Banking May Be in the Blockchain
April 11, 2016 by Graham Haynes
In the past 6 months, the US Patents & Trademark Office (USPTO) has published more than 200 patent applications filed by Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and other top-tier financial institutions for their own proprietary blockchain systems. Previously the territory of online anarchists and drug dealers, why are banks suddenly so interested in protecting this technology? It’s quite simple: it could save them a lot of money transferring money. A report co-authored by UK-based Santander, the worlds tenth largest bank according to Forbes, estimated that blockchain technology could reduce banks’ infrastructure costs by up to $20 billion dollars per year. While the blockchain is so much more than a bank’s cost-cutting measure, I endeavored to investigate for this purpose. Read more Graham Haynes is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School and is currently enrolled in the course “Legal Values: Commercializing IP” (Winter 2016). As part of the course requirements, students are asked to write a blog on a topic of their choice.
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| RECENT POSTS The Right to Be Forgotten, A "Bad Solution to a Very Real Problem"
April 11, 2016 by Nazli JelvehJonathan Zittrain[1] calls the right to be forgotten a “ bad solution to a very real problem.” This article sets out to answer two questions. Firstly, what is the problem that the right to be forgotten is trying to solve? Secondly, why is the right to be forgotten a bad solution to this problem?
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Nazli Jelveh is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School.
Fashion Labels and Inuit Designs: When Law is Not Enough
April 8, 2016 by Jasmine GodfreyA recent incident involving replication of an Inuit design by a UK fashion label raises interesting questions regarding whether businesses should be required to go beyond the scope of law and consider what is ethical within the culture being borrowed from. Salome Awa, an Inuit woman, was outraged to discover a sweater made by fashion label Kokon To Zai (KTZ), which appeared to be an exact replica of her great-grandfather Ava’s Inuit design. According to copyright laws in Canada, copyrights from original literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work can be automatic upon creation, and last for the life of the creator and 50 years following the end of the calendar year of the creator’s death. In this case, it is likely that Ava died more than 50 years ago, thus the design is in the public domain. So, what is the problem?
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Jasmine Godfrey is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School and is currently enrolled in the course “Legal Values: Commercializing IP” (Winter 2016). As part of the course requirements, students are asked to write a blog on a topic of their choice.
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