E-TIPS

In order to update the Canadian Parliament and the public generally on the federal strategy regarding privacy concerns about the transborder and extraterritorial implications of the USA Patriot Act (Act) and the possibility that foreign legislation could affect the protection of Canadians' personal information, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat issued a report (Report) on March 28, 2006.

The convergence of the newly-released Report from the Telecommunications Policy Review Panel (Panel) and recent comments of the Minister of Industry make it likely that the Canadian telecommunications sector will soon undergo fundamental changes, including relaxation of foreign ownership restrictions.

On March 13, 2006, in Biovail Corporation v Canada (Minister of National Health and Welfare) 2006 FCA 105, the Federal Court of Appeal affirmed a decision of the Federal Court dismissing an application by Biovail Corporation (Biovail) for judicial review of the Minister of Health's (Minister) refusal to list a patent on the Patent Register.

On March 21st, French lawmakers approved legislation that would force Apple Computer Inc (Apple), Sony Corp, and other digital content providers to share copy-protection technologies with their rivals. The bill is designed to prevent the control of the online music market by any single music-playing technology.

On March 3, in Canadian Private Copying Collective v 9087-0718 Québec Inc, the Federal Court of Canada held that 9087-0718 Québec Inc (Numbered Company) was subject to penalty under section 88(2) of the Copyright Act (Act) for failing to pay the private copying levy under Part VIII of the Act in the amount of $900,123.77.

E-TIPS® recently reported (Vol 4, No 15, February 1, 2006) that the US Department of Justice (DOJ), in an effort to collect data to defend the Child Online Protection Act, had filed a motion to compel Google Inc (Google) to turn over information on millions of its users' search queries.

The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, has commissioned an Independent Review (Review) of the country's intellectual property regime to determine whether it is effectively encouraging innovation. Appointed to lead the Review is Andrew Gowers, the former editor of the London-based financial newspaper, Financial Times.

Research in Motion Inc (RIM) has settled its long-running patent dispute with NTP with a US$ 613 million licencing deal. The case has prompted some commentators to question the viability of certain aspects of the current US patent system.

Recently, Justice Roger Hughes of the Federal Court signaled that in considering whether to grant an extraordinary pre-trial inspection order (Anton Piller Order), such an Order should be granted "only in the most exceptional circumstances".

The new Spanish electronic National Identity Card aims to provide secure identification and authentication for a variety of online transactions, from e-government services to e-commerce and Internet banking. The card, about the size of a credit card, contains a microchip which will store an electronic certificate to authenticate the identity of the cardholder, as well as a digital signature, a digitized fingerprint and a photograph of the cardholder. The current cost estimate of the card rollout is nearly 150 million euros.

Recently, on February 21, the European Union's Working Party on the Protection of Individuals with Regard to the Processing of Personal Data (Working Party) adopted an Opinion on privacy issues related to the provision of e-mail screening services.

Toronto Hydro has announced that it plans to implement a city-wide system of low-cost, wireless Internet access for Torontonians. It intends to mount Wi-Fi transceivers on hydro towers and poles around Toronto, as part of a plan to implement smart hydro meters. In Canada, Fredericton has had a similar network since 2004, and a number of US cities, Philadelphia and San Francisco among them, are planning to implement wireless networks of their own.

In a unanimous (8-0) ruling, the US Supreme Court has overturned a long-held assumption that in competition law cases holders of rights to patents or copyright, by reason of their intellectual property rights, are exercising market power. In future anti-trust cases, plaintiffs who assert anti-competitive "tying" arrangements will have to tender convincing evidence that the alleged violator was in fact exercising power in the marketplace in relation to the protected product.

The Minister of Public Safety, Stockwell Day, said in a press interview published on February 22 that the implementation of some form of national identification card for Canadians is inevitable. The ID cards may contain biometric data or other technological features which would uniquely identify an individual. They would be used instead of a passport at the border, with the twin goal of letting law abiding citizens pass though quickly and keeping out those who pose a security threat.

Some of Canada's most influential business executives have called on the federal government to increase tax exemptions for income derived from intellectual property. The Canadian Council of Chief Executives (Council) argued that the tax burden on economic gains derived from artistic and cultural creativity affects not only business enterprises, but also has a negative impact on Canada's attractiveness as a destination of choice for skilled persons.

In an effort to increase the efficiency of the US patent examination process, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has recently proposed two significant changes to its rules of practice. One change affects the number of claims that may be filed in any application, and the other affects the number of add-on applications that may be filed by an applicant.

On a summary motion, a US District Court Judge in Minnesota has found that an employer was not negligent when an employee's laptop computer containing a customer's personal information was stolen from his home, and further found that there was no duty to see that the personal data was encrypted.

Officials from 113 countries met in Geneva in early February at the first session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (Convention). The Convention, which came into force a year ago, bans advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco products, blamed for millions of early deaths annually.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced on February 16, 2006 that $625.7 million, the proceeds of excess billings of telephone customers, would be used to fund the expansion of broadband services to under-served markets, primarily rural and remote communities, and to facilitate access to services by disabled customers. The excess billings were the result of a 2002 CRTC decision which, in order to allow telcos to recoup costs in attracting new entrants and encourage competition, allowed telcos to set telephone rates higher than necessary. The telcos were required to place the additional revenue in deferral accounts. It is these deferral accounts that were in issue.

The privacy commissioners of Canada, Alberta and British Columbia have agreed to conduct a joint probe into the long-standing requirement that Canadian students must provide a thumbprint when writing the ubiquitous law school entrance exam, known as the Law School Aptitude Test (LSAT). The probe is the first-ever joint action by Canadian privacy commissioners and will investigate the practices of the administrator of the LSAT, the US-based Law School Admission Council (LSAC), during a period when the existence of the USA Patriot Act has heightened fears of outsourcing personal information across borders.