Post Tagged with: "IP"

EU Demands for Trade Deal Would Reshape Canadian IP Law

More than 20 years ago, Canada negotiated a free trade agreement with the United States that attracted enormous public attention. The first FTA – to be followed a few years later by the North American Free Trade Agreement that brought Mexico into the mix – played a pivotal role in a national election and ultimately resulted in dramatic changes to the economy and Canadian law.

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes that earlier this year, Canada and the European Union announced plans to negotiate a Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), possibly the biggest Canadian trade negotiations since NAFTA. The first round of talks took place in Ottawa in October, yet the treaty has generated practically no public scrutiny. That may change following the leak last week of the European Union's proposed intellectual property chapter.

December 21, 2009 — 18 comments — Columns

Reporting on WIPO IP Enforcement Meeting

As delegates were meeting in Seoul, Korea on ACTA, WIPO was holding an IP enforcement meeting. Details from KEI and IP Watch.

November 6, 2009 — Comments are Disabled — News

Govt Responds To IP Enforcement Criticism, Proposes Changes to Proceeds of Crime Rules

One of the longstanding demands from lobby groups seeking reforms to Canada's IP enforcement rules has been changes to the Proceeds of Crime Program. The POCP permits the forfeiture of wealth accumulated through criminal activities. While many statutes qualify, the Copyright Act does not. The rationale for excluding the Copyright […]

November 3, 2009 — 2 comments — News

Trosow on Wal-Mart Using IP To Shut Down Union Site

Sam Trosow reports on Wal-Mart's efforts to shut down a union website by using intellectual property claims based primarily in trademark.

August 8, 2009 — 3 comments — News

The Return of Captain Copyright? CIPO Launches “Promoting Respect for IP Rights”

Longtime readers of this blog will recall Captain Copyright, the ill-fated Access Copyright copyright "education initiative" that was withdrawn in 2007 following intense criticism. Copyright education initiatives have remained a focus of some rights groups, who believe that convincing kids of the value of copyright can lead to greater respect for copyright law. In fact, in my earlier writing on copyright policy laundering, I noted that a consistent theme has been calls for the government to create and fund public education and awareness programs.

It now appears that the government is laying the foundation to do just that. The Canadian Intellectual Property Office, which falls under Industry Minister Tony Clement's mandate, has quietly launched a "Promoting Respect of Intellectual Property Rights" initiative that involves "exploring ways it can contribute more actively to promoting the respect of intellectual property rights." According to documents obtained from a source recently consulted by CIPO, it is starting the initiative by conducting a gap analysis to identify existing IPR respect promotion programs, key messages, and how CIPO might partner with these efforts. The scope is described as follows:

CIPO's mission is to accelerate Canada's economic development by fostering the use of intellectual property systems and the exploitation of intellectual property (IP) information. The IP rights delivered by the Office enable its owner to profit from the creative endeavour. However, inventors and innovators will only avail themselves of the IP system if this value is respected, i.e., the greater the IPR is respected, the greater the value.

The focus for our IPR promotion work, we believe, will be on awareness-raising and educational programs highlighting the benefits to owners, economic development and Canadians at large, more so than the narrower concept of IPR enforcement. We define “respect of IPR” as: “Understanding what is IP, knowing of the existence of an IP right and affirmatively respecting that right.”

July 28, 2009 — 13 comments — News