Post Tagged with: "innovation"

Troll under the Bridge by ngader (CC BY 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/miZWe

Canada’s Innovation Strategy Must Stop Tech Trolls

Developing a national innovation strategy has been a top priority of Navdeep Bains, Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development. Bains has created an expert panel, held meetings across the country, and launched a public consultation in the hope of identifying policies that might enhance Canada’s lacklustre innovation record.

While some have used the consultation to call for expanded intellectual property rules, the reality is that Canada already meets or exceeds international standards. The more pressing innovation issue is to address the abuse of intellectual property rights that may inhibit companies from innovating or discourage Canadians from taking advantage of the digital market.

My technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes the benefits of an anti-IP abuse law could be used to touch on the three main branches on intellectual property: patents, trademarks, and copyright.

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August 16, 2016 Comments are Disabled Columns
Betamax by Joel (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/7vT7o1

Why the Federal Court Crackdown on Set-Top Boxes Threatens to Chill Canadian Tech Innovation

The ability to record television programs is a feature that most consumers take for granted today, but when the Sony Betamax was first introduced in the 1970s, it revolutionized television and sparked high profile lawsuits by the major Hollywood studios who wanted to block its availability. The battle between Universal Studios and Sony ultimately made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that Sony was not liable for contributing to copyright infringement since its product had substantial non-infringing uses.

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that the battle between established players and distributors of disruptive technologies has since played out many times in courtrooms and legislatures around the world. From the introduction of the portable MP3 player (which the recording industry tried to stop in a 1999 case) to disputes over the availability of virtual private network services, judges and policy makers often return to the U.S. Supreme Court’s recognition that stopping the distribution of new technologies merely because they are capable of infringing copyrights would create an enormous barrier to new products and services that have many different uses.

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June 20, 2016 16 comments Columns
Innovation House by Michael Coghlan (CC BY-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/aYb4b8

Why an Australian Study Could Provide Canada with an Innovation Roadmap

From the moment that the Liberal government renamed Industry Canada as Innovation, Science, and Economic Development it sent a clear signal that innovation is a top policy priority. Indeed, in recent months Minister Navdeep Bains has repeatedly called for bold policies focused on addressing Canada’s dismal innovation record.

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that while the specifics of the Canadian innovation policy have yet to be revealed, a recent Australian government backed study provides a potential roadmap. The Australian Productivity Commission, which functions as an independent “think tank” for the government, released a 600 page draft report in April that proposes a myriad of changes to its intellectual property system.

The government asked the Commission to report back on whether the current legal frameworks “ensure that the intellectual property system provides appropriate incentives for innovation, investment and the production of creative works while ensuring it does not unreasonably impede further innovation, competition, investment and access to goods and services.” The result is a comprehensive report based on hundreds of submissions and consultations representing a broad range of views.

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June 6, 2016 Comments are Disabled Columns
DEMO-Michelle-Zatlyn-0796 by The DEMO Conference (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/rYwugJ

Canada’s Innovation Challenge: Keeping The Billion Dollar Club At Home

From the moment the Liberal government took office last fall, it left no doubt that innovation was going to be a top priority. Gone was Industry Canada, replaced by the Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development, with Navdeep Bains, a close confidant of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, installed as the responsible minister.

Last week’s budget continued the emphasis on innovation, promising $150 million in 2017-2018 for an innovation agenda. The full details have yet to be revealed, but the budget also added tax reforms to create investment incentives (and quietly dropped a tax change that would have hurt start-up companies), support for innovation clusters, and increased dollars for scientific research.

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that the government says its goal is to make Canada a “centre of global innovation”, a significant challenge given that studies persistently point to Canada’s innovation gap. Last year, the Science, Technology and Innovation Council (STIC), a government-backed group, concluded that Canada “was not globally competitive” and that “it is falling further behind global competitors and facing a widening gap with the world’s top five performing countries.”

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March 29, 2016 4 comments Columns

Canada’s Lack of Innovation an Emerging Crisis

The political world may have been focused last week on crises at the Senate and the Toronto mayor’s office, but a new report from the government’s Science, Technology and Innovation Council quietly pointed to a serious, emerging economic crisis. The STIC reported that Canada’s research and development performance is lagging behind the world’s leading economies, continuing a disturbing decade-long decline.

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes the STIC report is the third produced since 2008, but the first to sound an unmistakable alarm on worrying trends that could have dire long-term consequences for the Canadian economy. Simply put, based on the latest data, Canada cannot be regarded as a serious player when it comes to innovation.

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May 30, 2013 11 comments Columns