E-TIPS

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).

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).