E-TIPS

Identity Theft in Canadian Criminal and Regulatory Statutes (PDF) By Andrei Edwards

Online Privacy Laws: Lessons From the Canadian Pharmaceutical Industry (PDF Format) By Jason Young

Lawful Access – Cybercrime and Punishment (PDF Format) By Jason Young

The Canadian Trade-marks Regulations have been amended. Beginning on June 2, 2007, parties to opposition proceedings can use couriers as a means of service. In the past, courier services were only acceptable if the other party consented. Otherwise, they had to generally resort to service by registered mail. The new amendments now set out four acceptable ways of service. They include registered mail, personal service, courier or any other means as agreed by the parties.

On June 7 2007, Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner (Commissioner) issued an order under the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA) which provides guidance on the use of wireless technologies by health information custodians.

In a 2-1 split decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Court of Appeal) upheld a decision of the Trademark Appeal Board (Board), ruling that the proposed mark ASPIRINA is merely descriptive for analgesic goods [In Re Bayer Aktiengesellschaft, 2006-1279 (Fed Cir 2007)]. The Board concluded that consumers would view ASPIRINA as a mere variation or misspelling of aspirin, a generic term for a class of analgesic goods composed of acetyl salicylic acid.

As the leading destination for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), India's BPO sector employs over one million people and accounts for approximately 5% of the country's GDP. Despite this, there is no general data protection law in India such as that in force in the UK, Europe and elsewhere.

New York State continues to enact legislation aimed at protecting online consumers (see E-TIPS, Vol 5, No 8, October 11, 2006, "New York State Enacts Three Identity Theft Laws" for earlier examples).

Having the world's second-largest population of Internet users, 137 million people online, makes it a challenge for the government of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) to regulate this level of activity.

On June 1, 2007, the Canadian federal government introduced Bill C-59 in Parliament to criminalize unauthorized camcording in movie theatres.

On May 16, 2007, amendments to the Patent Rules (Rules), the Trade-marks Regulations (1996), the Industrial Design Regulations, the Integrated Circuit Topography Regulations, and the Copyright Regulations were published in the Canada Gazette, Part II.

On June 1st., Hong Kong enacted a comprehensive law to combat spam and other forms of unsolicited advertising such as pre-recorded voice messages, faxes, and text messages. The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Ordinance (UEMO) will come into force in two phases. Phase I, which came into effect immediately, prohibits the use of electronic address harvesting software to send commercial messages to recipients without their consent, or to automatically generate electronic addresses to send unsolicited electronic commercial messages. Offences carry a maximu m penalty of a HKD$1 million fine (about CDN$138,000) and five years' imprisonment.

On May 22, 2007, the World Trade Organization (WTO) formally adopted an earlier WTO Compliance Panel's report (WTO Report) regarding the gambling issues between the tiny Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda and the USA. The WTO Report found that the measures taken by the US with respect to the cross-border provision of gambling and betting services are illegal restrictions under the WTO.

The US Senate has voted 93 to 1 to pass Bill S-1082, and renew the Prescription Drug User Fees Act (PDUFA), which would otherwise expire on September 30, 2007. Similar legislation is expected to be passed by the House of Representatives and become law, re-authorizing and extending the PDFUA until 2012.

On May 16, 2007, the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit (Court) handed down its decision in Perfect 10 v Amazon et al and related actions. Perfect 10 Inc (Perfect 10) had sued both Google Inc (Google) and Amazon.com Inc (Amazon) for copyright infringement by allegedly facilitating access to infringing photographic images. Google was sued because Perfect 10's protected works were displayed as thumbnails in Google search results, whereas Amazon was sued because its own search engine outsourced its queries to Google.

On May 16, 2007, amendments to the Patent Rules (Rules), the Trade-marks Regulations (1996), the Industrial Design Regulations, the Integrated Circuit Topography Regulations, and the Copyright Regulations were published in the Canada Gazette, Part II. (Most of the amendments came into force on June 2, 2007. Sections 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9 of the Regulations amending the Trade-marks Regulations (1996), however, will come into force on October 1, 2007).

In Sanofi-Aventis Canada Inc v Novopharm Limited (2007 FCA 163), a three-judge panel of the Federal Court of Appeal held by a 2-1 majority that it was an abuse of process for the holder of a pharmaceutical patent to defend an allegation by a generic manufacturer after the same allegation, made by a different generic manufacturer in an earlier proceeding, had been found to be justified.

On May 2, the English House of Lords decided Douglas et al v Hello! Limited et al [2007] UKHL 21, the end of a six-year battle between rivals OK! Magazine (OK) and Hello! Magazine (Hello) over the publication of photographs taken at a celebrity wedding at which all unauthorized photography had been banned.

A US court has declared no prejudice to a petitioner (Mullins) in a case in which an Administrative Judge of the United States Merit System Protection Board used Google to research Mullins' prior disciplinary hearings, where the knowledge did not affect the Judge's decision.

In a recent speech to broadcasters, Konrad von Finckenstein, the newly-appointed Chair of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), suggested that in the future the CRTC will pursue "a lighter approach" to regulating Canadian radio and TV industries, so long as they provide support for Canadian programming.