Articles by: Michael Geist

Last Call on C-11: My Appearance Before the Senate Committee on Banking, Trade & Commerce

Today is copyright day at the Senate, where the Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce is devoting seven hours to hearing from over 20 witnesses on Bill C-11, the copyright reform bill that passed the House of Commons earlier this week. I was asked to appear and participated in the first session of the day. My opening statement is posted below. The discussion focused primarily on the digital lock rules with a good opportunity to focus on the dangers of the current approach. My recommendation was to use the regulation power found in Bill C-11 to create a digital lock exception linking circumvention to copyright infringement.

June 22, 2012 — 82 comments — Committees, News

Big Pharma Spending Ratio on Canadian R&D Continues To Decline As IP Demands Increase

The large international pharmaceutical companies continue their campaign for new patent rules that the provinces fear will cost taxpayers billions of dollars in additional costs. The lead lobby for the companies, RxD, brought former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney to Ottawa earlier this month to praise reforms from the 1980s that he argued have worked well for Canada. Yet those reforms came with a condition: in return for reforms that granted the companies far stronger patent rights, RxD companies promised to increase their spending on research and development in Canada so that it would rise to 10% of total sales by 1996.

Now the same companies are lobbying relentlessly for a new round of patent reforms that they say will lead to further growth in research and development. However, a new report from government’s Patented Medicines Prices Review Board shows that RxD spending to sales ratio continues a decade-long decline, hitting its lowest level since the 1987 reforms.

June 21, 2012 — 6 comments — News

Internet Domain Name Land Grab More Than Just “Fools Gold”

Last week, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the California-based non-profit corporation charged with the principal responsibility for maintaining the Internet’s domain name system, revealed that it has received nearly 2,000 applications for new domain name extensions. While many applications may be abandoned or face objections that stall their approval, my weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes it seems certain that there will be hundreds of new domain name extensions in the not-too-distant future, a change that will fundamentally reshape the way we think about domain names.

June 21, 2012 — 6 comments — Columns

Internet Domain Name Land Grab More Than Just “Fools Gold”

gtld expansion Appeared in the Toronto Star on June 17, 2012 as Internet Domain Name Land Grab More Than Just “Fools Gold” Last week, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the California-based non-profit corporation charged with the principal responsibility for maintaining the Internet’s domain name system, revealed […]

June 21, 2012 — Comments are Disabled — Columns Archive

European Parliament’s INTA Committee Votes to Reject ACTA

The European Parliament’s INTA committee, the lead committee studying the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, has voted to reject ACTA. The 19-12 vote against the agreement means that all five EP committees that studied ACTA voted against ratification. I appeared before the INTA committee’s workshop on ACTA earlier this year and submitted […]

June 21, 2012 — Comments are Disabled — News