E-TIPS

Provincial and Territorial governments released the National Pharmaceuticals Strategy Progress Report (Progress Report) on September 21, 2006. Drafted cooperatively by the federal, provincial and territorial (FPT) governments, the Progress Report recommends a multi-year strategy to improve access to drugs and ensure their affordability, and to encourage the sustainability of the public health care system. Quebec chose not to participate in the process and will maintain its own pharmacare program.

The Governor of New York State, George Pataki, recently signed into law three bills that are intended to enhance consumer protection and strengthen consumer privacy, relating to what has been commonly referred to as "identity theft".

Canada's National Research Council (NRC) and its Institute for Information Technology (NRC-IIT) have published the first results of its 3D, high resolution, colour laser examination of Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece, Mona Lisa.

Many US states are considering enacting laws to protect their citizens from the some of the potential perils of online dating. While it is impossible to legislate an end to broken hearts, States including California, Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia and Texas are looking at ways to lessen the risk a user may end up on dates with felons or those already married. New York already regulates the practice as an aspect of consumer protection law.

A State employee in Virginia has successfully grieved a disciplinary finding against him over his blogging in the workplace.

The Milken Institute, an independent economic think tank, recently released its study of the biotechnology transfer process taking place at universities worldwide. The study, entitled "Mind to Market: A Global Analysis of University Biotechnology Transfer and Commercialization", confirms the importance of intellectual property protection and technology transfer for the viability of the biotechnology industry. For Canadians, the study suggests that Canadian universities lag behind their US counterparts in technology transfer.

A key committee of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), its Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (Committee), has approved a draft proposal of a treaty to protect broadcasting rights. The Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations (WIPO Treaty) seeks to prevent broadcasting and cable signals from being stolen and retransmitted elsewhere.

The debate over net neutrality may prevent a massive communications bill from making it through the US Senate. The proposed legislation would bring widespread changes in many areas, including the introduction of copy protection for digital radio broadcasts by embedding a "broadcast flag" in those signals that prevents them from being recorded.

The formerly secret surveillance by US authorities of international financial data via SWIFT (the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) exemplifies the potential for conflict between privacy regulation and anti-terrorism initiatives.

In case it is thought that weblogs are merely a "vanity press" sideshow on the Internet, a recent article in The Financial Times is a reminder that blogging has become part of the financial mainstream.

Health Canada has published the proposed Organic Products Regulations in the Canada Gazette Part I. These long-awaited Regulations will create what amounts to a federal certification scheme for the third-party organic certifying bodies already at work under provincial regulation in British Columbia and Quebec and as a voluntary system in other provinces. The overall scheme will be called the "Canada Organic Regime"

The value of shares in Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb (collectively, Plaintiffs) rose after a US District Court Judge issued a preliminary injunction against Canadian manufacturer Apotex, ruling that it must cease selling its generic version of blood thinner Plavix (clopidogrel bisulphate) until trial, which is expected to take place in January 2007. With $5.9 billion of sales in 2005, Plavix is currently the second best selling drug in the world.

In a recent decision (Telecom Decision CRTC 2006-53), the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has confirmed that Canada's major telephone companies will continue to face pricing and competition controls on their Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services.

Xanga.com Inc (Xanga), an online social networking web site, has been fined $1 million by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

The discretion of the Canadian Commissioner of Patents to correct errors in official Patent Office records was the subject of a recent Federal Court decision, The Procter & Gamble Company et al v The Commissioner of Patents.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is soon expected to begin reviewing a proposed treaty to prevent the unauthorized retransmission of broadcast signals, called the "Protection of the Rights of Broadcasting Organizations". Treaty drafting began in 2003 and it still has not been completed.

The British Columbia Privacy Commissioner has criticized the adoption of municipal by-laws that require businesses to share personal information of their customers with police.

The US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) has released its draft five-year strategic plan for 2007 to 2012. The strategic plan sets out these three goals for the upcoming years: (i) the optimization of patent quality and timeliness, (ii) the optimization of trade-mark quality and timeliness, and (iii) the improvement of intellectual property protection and enforcement, domestically and abroad.

US regulators, including state Attorneys General, recently rejected a three-way patent settlement agreement between innovators Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb, and the Canadian generic manufacturer Apotex, relating to the anti-clotting agent drug Plavix. The agreement required approval from both the states Attorney General and the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Actors receive a fee each time a commercial they appear in is aired on television or radio. Traditionally, the actors have been compensated according to the rules set out in the Commercials Contract Collective Bargaining Agreement (CCCB Agreement) between the advertising industry's ANA/AAAA Joint Policy Committee on Broadcast Talent Union Regulations and the actor's union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) or the Screen Actors Guild (SAG).