Another Patent Infringement Lawsuit: Yahoo vs. Facebook

We learned last week that Yahoo has launched a patent infringement lawsuit against Facebook. Facebook is alleged to have infringed 10 of the more than a thousand patents Yahoo holds. Here is the list of the patents in question and some details.

The 10 patents in question touch on Facebook’s social networking concept, privacy controls, messaging function, advertising model and user customization capabilities. Indeed, nearly every aspect of Facebook as an online service is being challenged. This patent infringement lawsuit is so broad in scope that Yahoo claims that “Facebook’s entire social network model, which allows users to create profiles for and connect with, among other things, persons and businesses, is based on Yahoo!’s patented social networking technology.”

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SCC Judgement: Hyperlinking to Content Does Not Constitute Republication

Last Wednesday (October 19th, 2011), the Supreme Court of Canada released its judgement on Crookes v. Newton (2011 SCC 47). The case focused on whether or not liability existed when one post hyperlinks to allegedly defamatory material on the internet. The court’s decision was succinctly summarized by Justice Abella, who stated, “I would conclude that a hyperlink, by itself, should never be seen as “publication” of the content to which it refers.”  Read the rest of this entry »

Google-Motorola Deal: the Patent Portfolio Factor

So we’ve all heard how Google recently bought Motorola for a hefty $12.5 billion on Monday. Aside from the synergies Google gains from end-to-end control, as Google now has hardware, software and service arms to create their mobile products, perhaps just as importantly, Google has also purchased one of the largest patent portfolios of its kind in the mobile industry. Read the rest of this entry »

Ghost Authorship of Medical Articles Considered Fraud

An article published yesterday in PLoS Medicine, and first presented at an event hosted by the CILP, by Professors Simon Stern and Trudo Lemmens has been receiving considerable media attention. Titled “Legal Remedies for Medical Ghostwriting: Imposing Fraud Liability on Guest Authors of Ghostwritten Articles“, Stern and Lemmens argue that “guest authorship is a disturbing violation of academic integrity standards, which form the basis of scientific reliability.” They continue, “The false respectability afforded to claims of safety and effectiveness through the use of academic investigators risks undermining the integrity of biomedical research and patient care.”

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Patent Troll on Steroids: How America’s Patent System May Hurt Innovation

This American Life (TAL) is running a story this week that is well worth tuning in for. Some may have heard of Nathan Myhrvold during his time as IBM’s chief strategist and chief of technology or from his $600, six-volume cookbook. But few outside IT circles would know of his “innovative invention company” Intellectual Ventures, and how it is regarded by many in the field as the leader of patent trolls, having amassed roughly 35,000 patents since its inception in 2000. Read the rest of this entry »

Canada’s Telecom Policy Quadruple Play 101

TekSavvy CEO Marc Gaudrault recently wrote an op-ed piece for the Financial Post, encouraging Canadians to stay on top of current, major telecom developments, as it so passionately did in its fight against UBB, because the outcome of these issues will have tangible and far-reaching effects on all Canadian telecom consumers. The best part of the piece, is the succinct outline of those issues, which Gaudrault dubbed the “telecom-policy quadruple play”, four major telecom issues currently facing either regulatory or government scrutiny. Here they are again, with a little more detail, a brief 101 on the major telecom issues Canada faces. Read the rest of this entry »

CRTC’s Net Neutrality Regulation: Superficial

Enforcement has always been the bane of any regulatory agency’s existence. Regulation without teeth hardly merits real attention, or compliance, from those being regulated. In documents released on Friday, Professor Geist of the University of Ottawa, has found the CRTC’s well-publicised Telecom Regulatory Policy (2009), policy which is supposed to regulate net neutrality in Canada, to be rather, well, toothless.   Read the rest of this entry »

Recording Industry to SCC: Scale Back Fair Dealing

In a factum submitted last week, the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) is arguing that the Supreme Court of Canada should substantially narrow the scope of Canada’s fair dealing standard, a standard established in the seminal CCH v. Law Society of Upper Canada decision in 2004.

Last year, the Federal Court of Appeal  upheld a decision (SOCAN v. Bell Canada) by the Copyright Board that the provision of 30-second previews of songs, used by online music services, functions as consumer research and thus are eligible as fair dealing according to s.29 of the Copyright Act. In response to this, the CRIA is claiming here that the definition of “research” according to the Federal Court of Appeal, in the context of the fair dealing exception, is in error because that definition creates too broad and liberal of an exception, thereby conflicting with the object and purpose of the Act (to balance the interests between consumers and rights-holders). Read the rest of this entry »

Vancouver Riot: Why E-Evidence May Not Be Enough

In the aftermath of the downtown Vancouver riots that took place after the Canucks’ Game 7 loss to the Boston Bruins on Wednesday, we all heard about how a social media movement took root, with angry and embarrassed Vancouverites posting images online, asking for and giving help in identifying perpetrators. The Facebook page “Vancouver Riot Pics: Post Your Photos“, started on Thursday, provides a site on which people can upload their riot photos. Vancouver police are now combing through more than one million photos and a thousand hours of video footage submitted as evidence following the Stanley Cup riot. But sometimes, a photo is just a photo. Read the rest of this entry »

Canada’s Pharmaceutical IP Laws Stronger Than You Think

As globalization shrinks our world, new connections are being made in unexpected areas. One such connection is a proposed trade agreement between Canada and the European Union that could have substantial implications on the domestic costs of pharmaceutical drugs if passed. As part of the the trade negotiations, the E.U. has proposed changes to Canada’s drug patent system, which could potentially add billions to Canada’s prescription drug plan per year, an area where Canadians already spend spend $22 billion annually. Read the rest of this entry »