E-TIPS

Internet search engine Google Inc (Google) has announced that it intends to crack down on use of its name as a verb. A representative for the search company recently said: "We think it's important to make the distinction between using the word "˜Google' to describe using Google to search the Internet and using the word "˜google' to generally describe searching the Internet. It has some serious trademark issues".

"Net neutrality" has emerged as new terminology in a growing debate over the future of the Internet. Generally, it describes a philosophy that all web sites should be treated equally so that ISPs cannot restrict users' access to web sites or web-based services. The concept has caused a major rift between big Internet firms such as Google and Yahoo which support it and large telecommunications companies which oppose it.

On a summary motion, a US Court has upheld a declaratory action against the media arm of the Major League Baseball Players' Association (MLBPA) to permit an online fantasy baseball business to continue to use real players' names and their associated baseball statistics.

In an apparent breach of its own privacy policy, America Online (AOL) posted the details of more than 2 million search queries performed by 650,000 of its subscribers between March 1 and May 31, 2006 to a web site. Intended to be used only by AOL researchers, the data was accessible to the general public. The user IDs for each search query posted on the AOL research web site were replaced with anonymous numbers, but some have raised concerns that users could be tracked based upon the content of their queries.

A newly-formed Canadian music rights collective, CSI, has proposed three new tariffs for online music. The proposed tariffs for permanent downloads, subscription-based downloads, and on-demand music streams stand in contrast to claims made by other industry stakeholders, including the Canadian Recording Industry Association, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, Apple Canada and Bell Canada, that digital music sales should be treated as record sales and not licences.

Direct-to-Consumer Drug Advertising in Canada (PDF Format) By Sue Diaz

In response to a complaint filed by the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC), the federal Privacy Commissioner has launched an investigation of the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), the Belgium-based cooperative that supplies messaging services and interface software to financial institutions in more than 200 countries.

In a case with potentially wide implications, the New Jersey Appellate Division has ruled that an employer owes a duty of care to third parties who might be harmed by an employee's use of the Internet.

Around the world, governments are now adding radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to passports as an anti-counterfeiting measure. Several European countries already issue passports with RFID tags although privacy advocates and some security experts have warned of possible threats from doing so.

Following two years of hearings and debate, US Senators Orrin Hatch and Patrick Leahy, Co-Chairs of the US Senate's Intellectual Property Subcommittee, have introduced the Patent Reform Act of 2006 (Patent Bill).

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently affirmed its rules for Access Broadband over Power Lines (Access BPL), with the goal of facilitating the take-off of the so-called "third pipe" for broadband Internet access in many remote areas unable to be reached by cable or DSL.

On August 3rd, the US Senate ratified the Council of Europe's Convention on Cyber-crime, a treaty intended to harmonize computer crime laws and make it easier for law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute crimes in cyberspace.

An appeal pending before the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (Perfect 10 Inc v Google Inc) will address important Internet copyright issues including deep-linking of web sites, framing of third party content, and use of copyrighted content for searching.

An Anton Piller order (court-supervised seizure before trial) can be a powerful weapon at a party's disposal in technology litigation. (See E-TIPS®, "A Federal Court of Canada Reminder: Anton Piller Orders are to be Granted Only in Exceptional Circumstances", Vol 4, No 18, March 15, 2006 for a summary of the Netbored v Avery Holdings case decided by Justice Hughes of the Federal Court of Canada).

Often, a company thinks of product development as a sieve – its developers throw in their ideas, most are filtered out, and a few pass through the sieve and eventually become marketable products. Increasingly, however, companies have come to think of the sieve as too rigid a model for modern times. Enter "Open Innovation".

The first phase of Toronto Hydro Telecom's Wi-Fi project was slated to blanket Toronto's financial district by June or July at the latest (see E-TIPS®, "Toronto Hydro Plans City-Wide Wireless Hot Spot", Vol 4, No 18, March 15, 2006). With August now upon us, Toronto's financial district is still lacking Wi-Fi capability. The delay was sparked by a number of factors, including technical and health and safety issues.

As recent patent disputes such as the RIM-NTP case have made headlines, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is now working with IBM, Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) and others to improve the examination of software patents. The group has decided to use a searchable database with an index of open-source code, as one of its leading tools to aid in the process.

From two recent articles in The Globe and Mail, it appears that Canadian applied research is alive and well and on the threshold of moving to production in two key sectors: basic materials manufacture and health science.

On July 6, 2006, the US District Court for the District of Colorado ruled that companies that produce sanitized copies of Hollywood films on DVD are violating copyright law and must stop editing out the content they find offensive.

In the decision Suzanne's Inc v Auld Phillips Ltd, 2005 FCA 429, the Canadian Federal Court of Appeal recently affirmed a trial decision in which an owner lost its trade-mark rights because a single competing user began to use the name extensively, and, as a result, the trade-mark lost its distinctiveness.