E-TIPS

The Federal Trade Commission has begun proceedings against D Squared Solutions LLC (D Squared), a US-based software company, for engaging in unfair trade practices.   The FTC alleges that D Squared created a computer virus that exploited Microsoft's MSN Messenger, an instant messaging program, and then sold a program that would remove the virus.   The complaint was filed in a Maryland US District Court on October 30, 2003, and a temporary restraining order was granted that same day. The FTC sought an immediate restraining order and other ancillary damages.

The Intellectual Property Caucus of Congress recently sent an open letter to House of Representatives leaders stating its view that reforms to the US Patent and Trade-mark Office (USPTO) would stall if a proposed fee bill is not passed this year. The bill, United States Patent and Trade-mark Fee Modernization Act of 2003, proposes to increase patent-related fees across a wide spectrum of items. The resulting increase in cost for a patent application, estimated from 15 to 25 percent, is designed to finance a five-year strategic plan of the USPTO for addressing problems of quality and pendency (the time the patenting process takes) that have plagued the patenting process.

One of the infringement provisions within the European Union's Trade Marks Directive was recently interpreted by the European Court of Justice ("ECJ"), in Adidas-Salomon AG and Adidas Benelux BV v. Fitnessworld Trading Limited.  

Amazon.com recently introduced a new feature to enable book shoppers to conduct full-text searches of more than 120,000 books sold on its online store.   In addition to displaying matches for books based on title, author, or publisher, search results using Amazon's "Search Inside the Book" feature will produce a list of books containing the search term and provide excerpts from the text.   Users can follow links from the excerpts to view the specific page of a book in its entirety.   This feature will also allow users to browse forward and back two pages from the linked page.

© 2003, Deeth Williams Wall LLP. All Rights Reserved. By: Colin Adams, Student at Law (November 20, 2003) Legislative efforts to combat spam persist around the globe. While initiatives continue in the UK, the US, and Australia, Canada is taking tentative steps to join the anti-spam movement.

With the recent damages award of US$521 million for patent infringement against Microsoft Corp. (Microsoft), the web community, including the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), has rushed to support the position of the software company.

In a majority decision, the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit affirmed that the damage inflicted on computers belonging to subscribers following the release of a version of America Online's (AOL) access software fell outside the company's Commercial General Liability (CGL) insurance policy.

In a move expected to bring about an industry-wide shift away from traditional paper-based cheque-clearing, the Royal Bank of Canada recently announced its plans to implement digital imaging technology for cheques.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has set aside a lower court's decision which had held that the trade-mark DOUBLEMINT was registrable because it was not "exclusively descriptive".

The US Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit affirmed the decision of a lower court holding that Michigan's statutory fair reporting privilege can shield tortfeasors from liability involved in the posting of allegedly libelous court documents on the Internet, provided that no additional false or libelous statements are added to the posting.

Luo Yongzhong, a Chinese dissident, was given a three-year jail sentence for subversion after expressing his political opinions online.   He published more than 150 articles in online discussion forums, articles which criticized the socialist system and advocated greater human rights and democracy.   The People's Intermediate Court found the articles to be "an incitement to subversion" and to create "a negative influence on society."   After serving his sentence, Luo will be stripped of his civil rights for an additional two years.

The US Federal Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed in part a lower court decision that Cable & Wireless Internet Services, Inc. (C&W) had infringed a patent (the MIT patent) owned by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and exclusively licensed to a third party.   The MIT patent was directed to a global hosting system and methods for decreasing congestion and delay in accessing web pages on the Internet (commonly known in the industry as content distribution networks or CDN, a network of servers delivering content on behalf of an origin site).

All good things come to an end – including the cell phones, PDAs and computers that have become an integral part of our wired and wireless world.   A growing concern arising from this reality is the burgeoning amount of hazardous waste represented by discarded electronic equipment.   Computer components, for example, contain lead and mercury, both of which are considered highly toxic.

Two independent pharmacies recently filed lawsuits against the four largest US Pharmacy Benefits Managers (PBMs) alleging illegal business practices aimed at driving small pharmacies out of business.

IBM's participation in the budding open source software market continues to grow, as it recently concluded deals for the use of its Linux-based open source software with the governments of the United Kingdom, Russia, and Brazil.

NBIC is an acronym for nanoscience and nanotechnology, biotechnology and biomedicine (including genetic engineering), information technology, and cognitive science and neuroscience.   This cluster of related technologies is expected to have significant implications for society and, therefore, for the legal profession.   The NBIC concept, named in late 2001, was the result of a meeting that explored the social implications of nanotechnology research.   It represents a "multidisciplinary blending of science, engineering, technology and medicine" and the Canadian government has noted that this convergence will have an estimated global market worth of US $260 billion by 2005.

Instead of watching a movie mechanically projected from 35mm film, cinephiles may soon be able to watch a movie retrieved in the real-time from a hard disk similar to those in existing desktop computers.   The digital projection technology has arrived and is being tested in several countries.   The technical benefits are substantial:   the picture is clear, sharp and steady, and gone are the traces of dust and scratches in the projected image.

Microsoft's dominance in software could lead to serious consequences for the nation's cybersecurity, warns the business-technology consultancy, Gartner.   This is not because Microsoft's operating systems are inherently less secure, says a Gartner report.   Rather, it is that complete reliance on Windows for information infrastructure could result in a full system failure in a manner similar to an electrical blackout.   To prevent such a failure, Gartner suggests that by "spreading the critical business functions across multiple desktop platforms or by maintaining key operating groups on separate platforms, an organization can enhance its ability to keep at least some of its key personnel and processes functioning should a failure result."

Bill C-36 (previously reported in E-TIPS on July 3, 2003), underwent third and final reading in Parliament on October 6, 2003.   Despite controversy over whether the copyright amending provisions in it should have been included in legislation merging two federal institutions (the National Archives and the National Library), Canadian law is now more generous in its protection of rights to the unpublished works of deceased authors.

In August, the World Trade Organization (WTO) announced a decision to allow member countries to export generic copies of patented drugs to impoverished countries that have been overwhelmed by the global health emergency caused by HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.   Members' obligations would be waived under the TRIPS Agreement that currently limits the ability of countries lacking manufacturing facilities from importing cheaper generic drugs. Spurred in part by the energetic advocacy of a former Canadian politician, Stephen Lewis (who is now the UN's Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa), on September 25, the federal Government announced its intention to make the necessary changes to the Patent Act.