Just because I’m too old to believe in Santa Claus, doesn’t mean I’m too old to make a wish list. In fact, I have many of them. Keeping in mind that tongue is largely firmly planted in cheek, my wish list this year might look something like this:

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A recent ruling from the Copyright Board of Canada suggests that unless certain universities and colleges that have opted out of the Access Copyright tariff produce information about their use of protected works, they could be subpoenaed to do so.

Professor Giuseppina D’Agostino will be running Osgoode's new IP clinic.

Students are gearing up to open a new intellectual property law clinic at Osgoode Hall Law School this month.

TORONTO — Valuable broadband and networking patents developed by bankrupt Nortel Networks go up for sale today, with tech giants like Google, Apple, and Intel heading the list of would-be buyers.

Amendments to the Federal Court rules on expert witnesses were adopted on Aug. 4, 2010. Overall, the amendments are designed to encourage experts to be more objective and allow the court to be more efficient when dealing with expert evidence. It will require the co-operation of counsel for the more radical changes of having experts confer before trial and/or testify concurrently at trial — commonly known as “hot tubbing” — to become standard practice. At a recent conference among intellectual property practitioners, Justice Roger T. Hughes of the Federal Court, one of the architects of the amendments, issued a challenge to the bar to do just that.

Although the technology is actually not that new, I was recently reintroduced to 3-D printing, and what a technology it is. Imagine being able to build the tools to drill a well or build a school, in the third world, using a printer? Pretty revolutionary stuff in my opinion, which is why 3-D printing is sure to create a global stir the likes of which we haven’t seen in a long time. Consider the implications to manufacturing, intellectual property law, accessibility, the environment and employment — to name just a few. It goes without saying that at this point the business, philanthropic, and yes, legal opportunities are seemingly endless.

Concentrated expertise and substantially fewer conflicts have helped boutique firms secure a permanent spot in Canada’s legal services landscape, with firms in the litigation and intellectual property fields enjoying particular success over the years.

 

When some people hear about Second Life, a three-dimensional virtual world built by its residents, they joke about how those residents should get a first life. But some law firms have been exploring the potential of virtual worlds, social media, and “Web 2.0” technologies — even if they’re not sure what the possibilities are just yet.

Danone isn’t used to getting roughed up. The French company is the world’s largest yogurt maker and owns Evian, the world’s best-selling mineral water, too. Then it got the bright idea to invest in China.

If Canada joins the international trademark registration system, the Madrid Protocol, it will significantly impact the nature of work at intellectual property firms. The Madrid Protocol is often touted as a cost effective, one-stop way for companies to obtain trademark protection in more countries, but adopting the system will be costly, will require massive changes to Canada’s trademark laws, and will only benefit a relatively small number of Canadian businesses, according to intellectual property lawyers.