E-TIPS

The famous board game Scrabble has been played by generations of people around the world for more than 50 years. But two brothers from India, Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, decided to bring the Scrabble game into the 21st century by creating an online version for Facebook, the social networking web site.

Copaxone, a drug used in the treatment of multiple sclerosis, is distributed by Teva Neuroscience GP-SENC (Teva). Teva applied for a patent in 1995 and Copaxone was first sold in September 1997 in vial form. At the time of the first sale, Staff of the Patented Medicines Price Review Board (Board) notified Teva that its price of $36 for a one-day vial dosage of 20 mg/1.0 mL was likely not excessive; however, because the patent had not issued, Copaxone was not then under the Board's jurisdiction.

A dispute between Lakehead University (University) in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and its faculty association over the University's outsourcing of it e-mail system has highlighted a simmering cross-border information security issue.

The Federal Court of Appeal has ruled in Wyndowe v Rousseau, 2008 FCA 39 (Wyndowe) that an insured person has the right under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) to access personal information contained in the handwritten notes of a doctor taken during an independent medical examination (IME) of the insured person, conducted at the request of an insurance company. The dispute in question arose before Ontario’s Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 (PHIPA) came into force.

Chris Gregerson, a Minneapolis photographer who was unrepresented by an attorney has successfully sued in the US District Court for the District of Minnesota related companies that used for advertising purposes two of his photographs without permission.

ITC Limited and ITC Hotels Limited (collectively, ITC) were owners of the Bukhara restaurant in New Delhi, India. ITC had opened or franchised other Bukhara restaurants internationally, including in several locations in Asia and North America. A US trade-mark registration for the Bukhara mark was issued in 1987, but since 1997 no Bukhara restaurant has operated in the US. As of May 2004, only four Asian locations remained in operation.

In a preliminary ruling, Justice Barry Davies of the BC Supreme Court has held that evidence gathered by police (presumably electronically) under section 184.4 of the Criminal Code of Canada violates the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure under section 8 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The full effect of the ruling has been suspended by the Court for 18 months in order to give Parliament time to react and re-cast the legislation.

On March 6th 2008, the British Conservative Party announced a comprehensive and wide-ranging platform to combat what it terms the growing threat of online crime, including internet violence, hacking and online fraud.

The European Union (EU) has declared that Microsoft Corp (Microsoft) is finally in compliance with its landmark 2004 antitrust ruling, but has fined Microsoft €833 million for its conduct prior to October 2007. One aspect of the original decision required Microsoft to charge reasonable royalty rates to software developers who wish to develop software that uses aspects of the Microsoft Windows operating system. The EU had ruled that the rates that Microsoft charged prior to October 2007 were prohibitively high, and were designed to limit or prevent independent developers from developing software for Windows. Microsoft had been resisting the decision, but has since acquiesced and has changed the way it licenses its software and patents in order to comply.

The Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC), the representative voice of Canadian songwriters, has proposed an amendment to the Copyright Act for the establishment of a new right – the “Right to Equitable Remuneration for Music File Sharing”.

Pursuant to a settlement agreement between Haldex Brake Products GmbH (Haldex) and Knorr-Bremse Systeme für Nutzfahrzeuge GmbH (KBS GmbH), KBS GmbH agreed not to infringe two of Haldex's patents over pneumatic control valves and also not to challenge the validity of those patents.

The US Court of Appeals of the Federal Circuit has decided to rehear the In re Bilski case en banc. The Court heard the case on appeal from the Patent Board of Appeals in October. Instead of rendering a decision, they have decided to rehear the case before the full slate of judges of the Court.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has refused to rehear In Re Petrus A.C.M. Nuijten appeal. The original appellate decision found that a "signal" does not fit within the four statutory categories, and is thus unpatentable. The court could not place it as a process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter.

European Union (EU) internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy supports extending the length of copyright protection terms for singers and musicians to 95 years.

The Federal Court of Appeal, in Bayer Healthcare AG v. Sandoz Canada Incorporated [2008 FCA 25], dismissed Bayer's appeal regarding the issuing of a notice of compliance (NOC) to Sandoz for ciprofloxacin.

The Judiciary Committee of the US Senate has unanimously approved a version of the Patent Reform Act of 2007 with a provision that would eliminate liability of financial institutions for infringement of patents by a cheque collection system. The bill would directly impact many pending infringement suits filed by DataTreasury Corporation ("DataTreasury") against various banks and other financial institutions.

On February 5, 2008, the California Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the patent contract case City of Hope National Medical Center v Genentech Inc (S129463). The case involves an appeal of a $500 million damage award against Genentech, for breach of a fiduciary relationship arising out of a 32-year old patent agreement. The central issue in the appeal is whether the confidential information in patent agreements changes the agreements into fiduciary relationships.

User Fees in Canada: A Review of Current and Proposed Fees (PDF Format) By Sue Diaz

Several major corporations including IBM, Sony, Pitney Bowes, and Nokia have donated a number of patents for eco-friendly inventions to an international patent-sharing project called the “Eco-Patent Commons”.

In a recent UK decision of the Patents Court, Astron Clinica Ltd v The ComptrollerGeneral of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, Justice Kitchin ruled that the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) cannot automatically reject claims to computer programs.