E-TIPS

Tiffany & Co, the luxury jewelry company, recently filed suit in US District Court against eBay Inc, the online auction company, alleging that eBay had assisted in diluting the TIFFANY brand by allowing fake items to be sold on its web site. Tiffany claimed that eBay has profited from the sale of counterfeit products and demanded an accounting of profits. It also wants eBay to stop listing any TIFFANY product that is known to be counterfeit.

PayPal, the Internet payments arm of eBay Inc, has announced a policy of "fining" customers who use its services to pay for gambling, pornography and buying or selling prescription drugs from uncertified sellers of pharmaceuticals.

The Canadian Privacy Commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart, has recently released a public response regarding the impact of the USA Patriot Act (Patriot Act) on the privacy rights of Canadians. The BC Privacy Commissioner had made a request for such a statement after launching an inquiry into growing public concern about the ability of the US government to gain access to the personal information of Canadians dealing with US companies.

On August 19, 2004, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth District upheld a lower court decision that peer-to-peer (P2P) software developers are not liable for vicarious and contributory copyright infringement (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer v Grockster, 04 CDOS 7624). A coalition of movie studio and record company copyright owners sued defendants Grokster Ltd and Streamcast Networks Inc in an effort to shut down trading of pirated files. The plaintiffs argued that they were entitled to monetary and injunctive relief from the companies who write and distribute file-sharing software because people use the software to illegally trade in copyrighted works.

A recently released paper by the Fraser Institute links government policies to relatively high prices of generic and non-patented drugs in Canada. The paper compares the pricing of generic drugs in Canada to that in other countries, and asserts that pricing generic drugs at median international levels, as is already done with patented medicines in Canada, would bring savings of $810 million a year to Canadian consumers.

The 2004 Olympic Games in Athens have now come to an end, but during the period of the Games, it was clear that the International Olympic Committee Olympic (IOC) and its affiliates were prepared to take action to protect the Olympic name and trademarks. Corporations pay millions of dollars for international rights to use the Olympic name and the five interlocking rings in marketing campaigns and, naturally, they and the IOC are concerned about any unauthorized use. During the period that Olympic-related TV ads appeared, the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) approached a number of major corporations because their ads could violate exclusive Olympic intellectual property rights.

In an effort to reduce the cost of prescription drugs for its citizens, some American states and cities have introduced Canadian drug importation plans. However, the US federal government has opposed such plans, often citing safety as a major concern. In developing their own state drug importation system, officials of the State of Oregon believe they have addressed the safety issues raised.

On August 25, 2004, the Bank of Canada unveiled a new $20 bill for distribution after September 29. Apart from a striking new graphic design, the note contains seven features intended to make it both more difficult for counterfeiters to reproduce it and easier for consumers and merchants to verify its authenticity.

As of July 26, 2004, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) has become the competent International Search Authority (ISA) and International Preliminary Examination Authority (IPEA) for international patent applications filed by Canadian applicants under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). Applications filed before July 26 will still be searched and examined by the European Patent Office. The upcoming change was noted in an earlier issue of E-TIPSâ„¢, Vol 2, No 4, July 31, 2003 (see "Fees and Administrative Changes at CIPO").

In a move that highlights the value of patents in the field of internet software tools, Google recently settled claims by Yahoo that Google's advertising ranking software violates a patent issued to Yahoo subsidiary Overture Services Inc. According to an article in The New York Times, the payment of 2.7 million Shares of Google will also help settle a dispute between the companies regarding an earlier investment. If the Google IPO proceeds as anticipated, the shares will be valued at approximately $300 million.

In a move applauded by open source proponents, IBM has announced that it has no plans to assert its patent portfolio against the heart of Linux kernel, which is the heart of the Linux operating system. Nick Donofrio, a senior vice president at IBM, made the announcement on August 4, 2004 in a speech at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo. Mr. Donofrio further challenged other companies in the patent race to follow its example.

In an effort to drive its IP licensing program, it appears that Microsoft will dramatically increase its patent filings in the coming year. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates announced recently that the company expects to file 3,000 patent applications, up from just over 2,000 last year and 1,000 per year in recent years. Gates noted that his company is not just interested in the numbers, "We think"”patent for patent"”what we are doing is, if anything, more important than what others are doing."

The US State Department is proceeding with its plan to have all domestically-produced passports equipped for identification based on facial recognition by the end of 2005. In July 2004, it issued a request for proposal for vendors to bid on the necessary components for the proposed biometric passport (or biometrically enabled passport).

According to a KPMG/MMK Consulting study, Canada is a highly cost effective place in which to undertake IT development. As reported by ITBusiness.ca, the study measured the economic attractiveness of 11 countries using the US as a baseline. For example, in IT research and development, Canada was first overall, with a 21% cost advantage over the US, followed by Australia.

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted on August 4, 2004 to ban spam sent over the Internet to mobile devices. This had represented a gap in the US anti-spam legislation and regulations, the Can-Spam Act. All unsolicited messages sent to mobile devices are prohibited, but non-profit groups are exempt from the ban.

In Merck Frosst Canada & Co v The Minister of Health Canada [2004 FC 956], the Federal Court of Canada recently considered the accessibility of information contained in a New Drug Submission under the Access to Information Act ("AIA"), the primary legislation by which the public can seek disclosure of information held by the federal government.

In a case that will have far reaching implications for patent practitioners and owners, on July 21, 2004, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ordered an en banc re-hearing of a previous three-member panel decision (Phillips v AWH Corp, 363 F 3d 1207 (Fed Cir 2004)). The plaintiff had sued the defendant for infringement of its patent (US Patent No 4,677,798) directed to vandalism-resistant building modules with internal baffles.

In an effort to ensure Canadian passports continue to be travel identification which is "internationally respected", the federal Passport Office has announced the introduction of the next generation of passport – a so-called "e-passport", containing embedded microchips to store images and personal information.

CAPPS II, the US plan to prescreen and rank airline passengers according to risk level, is being dismantled, but another plan may be introduced in its place.

Digital Media Europe reports that the UK government has launched a new central database project for civil registrations – births, deaths and marriages – which will allow citizens to register online or by telephone. The database will hold up to 250 million records, making it one of the largest such IT projects in the world.