Michael Geist

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“One of the Most Extraordinary Weeks in the History of Canada – U.S. Relationship”

U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson appeared on CTV’s Question Period on Sunday and characterized last week as “one of the most extraordinary weeks in the history of the relationship between the U.S. and Canada.” Asked to justify the statement, he identified four developments: the Detroit bridge, Bill C-11, TPP, and the […]

June 25, 2012 — 3 comments — 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

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

Canadian Privacy Gets Toews-ed Again: Why a PIA on Airport Eavesdropping Isn’t Good Enough

For the second time this year, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has found himself at the centre of a major privacy backlash. In February, Toews was the lead on Bill C-30, the Internet surveillance legislation that sparked a huge public outcry that forced the government to shelve the bill within ten days. While Toews maintains the legislation will return (and implausibly argues that it could have assisted in the Magnotta investigation), it hasn’t moved in months.

The toxic connection between Toews and privacy escalated over the weekend with a report that Canada Border Services has installed surveillance equipment in the Ottawa airport that will allow for eavesdropping on traveller conversations. The report led to immediate questions in the House of Commons with Toews defending the practices and even revealing that the eavesdropping activities may be more extensive than initially reported. A day later, Toews was backtracking, announcing that the eavesdropping plans were on hold pending a review from the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

That’s a start (the federal commissioner’s office expressed concern that no privacy impact assessment (PIA) has been filed), but frankly it isn’t nearly good enough to address the privacy concerns associated with this issue.

June 20, 2012 — 8 comments — News