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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GRAFSTEIN LECTURE- Prof. Radin on Boilerplate – Monday (March 21) at 5 p.m.

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The Private market in online privacy services and the emergence of data as an asset class

One of the most common concerns arising out of the use of the internet is privacy. The use and interaction with online materials provides opportunities for marketers to surreptitiously collect data and sell it to advertisers looking to target certain consumer groups. Read the rest of this entry »

Supreme Court of Canada Will Lead Technology Law in 2011

In an interesting piece in today’s Toronto Star, Michael Geist asserts that the Supreme Court of Canada will be the main source of action in Canadian technology law in 2011. This is partially because of the possibility of an election, in which case a number of current bills, on subjects including privacy, copyright and lawful access, will likely die. However, the Court also has a particularly large number of technology cases on its docket this year, which have the potential to have major effects on current Canadian law.

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Internet Monopolies

The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article describing how the natural efficiencies of large networks can yield an undesirable long term outcome: the monopolization of the internet by a small number of firms. The article draws comparisons to earlier technological monopolies. If the internet is inf fact moving into a similar age of monopolistic behaviour there may be a renewed interest in antitrust action.

UN Treaty against Biopiracy adopted in Japan

As reported by IP-Watch (http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2010/10/29/compromise-un-protocol-treaty-against-biopiracy-adopted-in-japan/), in Nagoya Japan, members of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity adopted an international treaty to help ensure that benefits from using genetic resources are more fairly shared with their source country.  The Access and Benefit Sharing Protocol or “Nagoya Protocol,” will presumably work to combat “bio-piracy.” Biopiracy is when a first world country commercially uses a naturally occurring biomaterial without fairly compensating the source (http://www.answers.com/topic/biopiracy).

U.S. considering new online privacy regulations

The U.S. Commerce Department and the Federal Trade Commission are preparing independent reports on online privacy regulatory measures, which will be considered by the government. The agencies are likely to advocate different approaches, from a laissez-faire self-regulation based on agreements between users and websites, to binding “do not track” lists which would regulate online privacy using an approach similar to “do not call” lists. A clash seems likely over competing proposals, with each agency hoping to get the support of lawmakers.

In Praise of Copying

A York University English professor is convinced that copying is good for society.

In his new book, In Praise of Copying, Professor Marcus Boon argues that copying is necessary for the advancement of society and has long contributed to cultural progress. Boon asserts that the philosophical concept of copying is still poorly understood and must be revisited in today’s knowledge-driven economy. He uses a comparative perspective, analyzing various cultures and time periods, to examine what copying has come to mean and why it both intrigues and frightens people. He looks not only at economic motivations for preventing copying, but also at more fundamental social norms that reinforce the notion that copying is a bad thing, such as the fact that people frown on copying another person’s actions or gestures.

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Microsoft sues Motorola over Android Phones

Microsoft is suing Motorola saying that Motorola phones that use Google Inc.’s Android software infringe some of Microsoft’s smart-phone patents. Email synchronization, calendar and contacts are some of the functions in question. Motorola had licensed some of the technology from 2003 to 2007 and had failed to renew the licenses despite continuing to use the technology.

Access Copyright proposes costly new licencing scheme

In a recent article for the Toronto Star Michael Geist reported that Access Copyright is proposing a new licencing scheme to cover copying and course packs at post secondary institutions. Access Copyright is a copyright collective licences copying and course packs across the country. The proposal would see the fee set at $45 per university student, which represents a substantial increase over current fees. Geist finds the proposal surprising considering “the myriad of ways teachers and students access materials that fall outside the Access Copyright licence” and wonders if the proposal will cause universities to forget the collective altogether and consider individually licenced materials where needed.