Michael Geist

Latest Posts

U.S. Court Sides With Artist in Royalty Dispute, Record Label Vows To Fight

The WSJ reports on a legal battle between Eminem and Universal Records over royalties due for downloads from iTunes. The court sided with the artist, which would result in a significantly higher royalty rate. The music label has vowed to fight the decision.

September 7, 2010 — 4 comments — News

Federal Court Decision Raises Questions About Need for New Making Available Right

Howard Knopf posts on new decisions from the Federal Court of Appeal which suggest that there is effectively a making available right in the case of musical works in Canadian copyright law and no need for further reform on the issue.

September 7, 2010 — 2 comments — News

CIRA and the Public Interest

Zak Muscovitch, a Toronto domain name lawyer running for the CIRA board, has an interesting article on the dot-ca administrator and the public interest.

September 7, 2010 — Comments are Disabled — News

ACTA Text Leaks: U.S. Concedes on Secondary Liability, Wants To Go Beyond DMCA on Digital Locks

Given the history of ACTA leaks, to no one’s surprise, the latest version of the draft agreement was leaked last night on KEI’s website. The new version – which reflects changes made during an intense week of negotiations last month in Washington – shows a draft agreement that is much closer to becoming reality. Square brackets have been removed from many sections, leaving the core issue of scope of the agreement as the biggest issue to be resolved when the next round of negotiations begins in a few weeks in Japan.

Perhaps the most important story of the latest draft is how the countries are close to agreement on the Internet enforcement chapter. The Internet enforcement chapter has been among the most contentious since the U.S. first proposed draft language that would have globalized the DMCA and raised the prospect of three strikes and you’re out. In the face of opposition, the U.S. has dropped its demands on secondary liability but is still holding out hope of establishing digital lock rules that go beyond the WIPO Internet treaties and were even rejected by its own courts.

The key takeaways from the Internet chapter, noting that Canada has reserved the right to revisit elements of this chapter at a later date:

September 6, 2010 — 21 comments — News

Commercialization of IP In Canadian Universities: Barely Better Than Break Even

Last week, Statistics Canada released its latest report on the commercialization of intellectual property in Canadian universities. Canada spends billions of public dollars on research funding each year and the government has been increasingly focused on how best to commercialize the results. While there are several possible approaches to doing this, the government and some universities have been focused on building patent and IP portfolios as part of a conventional commercialization strategy. The alternative could be an open access approach – encourage (or require) much of the intellectual property to be made broadly available under open licences so that multiple organizations could add value and find ways to commercialize. The universities might generate less income but would better justify the public investment in research by providing the engine for larger economic benefits.

Which approach is better? The full commercialization approach has been tried in the U.S. with legislation known as Bayh-Dole and studies (here and here) have found that patents to universities have increased, but the increase has been accompanied by harm to the public domain of science and relatively small gains in income.

The Canadian Science and Technology Strategy similarly places its faith in commercialization through IP portfolios and licencing, yet the Statscan data suggests that this has also been ineffective.

August 31, 2010 — 18 comments — News