Past Projects

Abuse of Right of Intellectual Property in Canadian Law, 2007 – 2011

Project Information

This research project will explore the doctrine of abuse of right as it applies to intellectual property law. This project offers researchers at the CIPP a unique opportunity to combine the study of both civil law and common law principles in order to better understand the existing expansion of intellectual property rights in today’s society. The project investigates the nature and flexibility of “statutory” or specifically designed rights in situations where applying the legislative text would result in the forfeiting of copyright or patent law. The project hypothesizes and will explore whether the abuse of right doctrine could serve as a justification for judiciary interventionism in situations where judicial deference usually prevents the finding of a cogent and socially sound solution.

 

Project Output

 

L’Abus De Droit: L’Anténorme – Partie 1 (Abuse of Right: The Antenorm – Part I)

L’Abus De Droit: L’Anténorme – Partie II (Abuse of Right: The Antenorm – Part II)

 

Project Members

  • Pierre-Emmanuel Moyse, Principal Investigator

 

Project Funding

This project is funded by the Fonds de Recherche sur la société et la culture.

International Expert Group on Biotechnology, Innovation and Intellectual Property, 2003-2008

Project Information

The International Expert Group on Biotechnology, Innovation and Intellectual Property is a research group of international, transdisciplinary researchers organized through the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy. International Expert Group researchers from law, management, economics, ethics, philosophy, political science and the life and medical sciences are engaged in a comprehensive effort to expand our understanding of intellectual property protection for biotechnology.

The International Expert Group seeks to help policymakers around the world determine how best to calibrate intellectual property systems to achieve desired policy goals in biotechnology to benefit society. Specific objectives include: enhancing policymakers’ understanding of how laws, practices and institutions actually function; and developing creative strategies for designing and using better and more effective intellectual property systems.

The International Expert Group uses a rigorous empirically-based research process to address the central challenge of intellectual property systems: the need to balance conflicting interests to ensure a dynamic cultural, scientific and economic environment. International Expert Group researchers identify how laws, practices and institutions actually work to create or block the creation of new knowledge and they are building a map of how laws, practices and institutions work together. In addition, the International Expert Group is collecting empirical data to interpret this map. At the end of this process, International Expert Group will build a framework for understanding how IP systems work in the real world, based on real data. This kind research is innovative, unique and necessary.

The International Expert Group on Biotechnology, Innovation and Intellectual Property is releasing its findings on September 9, 2008. One of the principal conclusions of the International Expert Group was the need to create an honest, independent broker to provide training, advice and mediation in the area of intellectual property. This has led to the creation of The Innovation Partnership (TIP), a non-profit consulting firm based in Montreal but with experts from around the world, to meet this need. The findings will be disseminated through TIP.

 

Project Output

To access findings of the International Expert Group, click here.

 

Project Members

 

Project Funding

The International Expert Group is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for Canada to carry out the project titled Legal Models of Biotechnological Intellectual Property Protection: A Transdisciplinary Approach. It is also funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to conduct a sub-project entitled Intellectual Property Governance and Non-State Actors: the Case of Bill C-9.

The preliminary project titled Reconciling Growth with Ethics: Models of Intellectual Property Protection for Biotechnological Innovation was also funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

 

Russian Civil Law Reform Project, 2001-2007

Project Information

The Russian Civil Law Reform Project provided expert legal advisory support to the Russian civil law reform process and promoted the effective implementation of recent civil law reforms. The Russian project partner was the Research Centre for Private Law of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation (RCPL).

This project followed upon the Russian Civil Code Reform Project (which took place from September 1996 to March 2001). While both projects were broadly similar in their goals, partners and activities, the earlier project focused more on legislative drafting while the latter focused more on the implementation of recent reforms.

The Russian presidential administration has stated that civil law reform advisory assistance provided by Canada through McGill since 1996 has been the most effective of all international consultations undertaken with RCPL in this period. Canada has been credited both for strengthening Russian legislation and for helping to accelerate the Russian reform process.

The main development goals of the project were to assist Russia’s transition to a market-based economy by contributing Canadian expertise to the development of the legal framework for private commercial relations, and to strengthen capacity within Russia to promote the sustained success of legislative reforms.

 

Project Output

Publications and reports produced as part of this research project are located in the Publications section of the website.

 

Project Members

  • David Lametti, CIPP, McGill University, Principal Investigator
  • Wen Adams, CIPP, McGill University
  • Tina Piper, CIPP, McGill University

 

Project Funding

This project is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency.

 

Inventors as Investigators: An Empirical Study of Patent Holding and Ethics in Human Gene Transfer Research, 2006-2007

Project Information

This project is a co-operative initiative between the Department of Biomedical Ethics and the CIPP at McGill University. The project investigates whether medical researchers fully reveal conflicts of interest arising from their ownership of patents when they seek approval to conduct clinical studies.

 

Project Output

Publications and reports produced as part of this research project are located in the Publications section of the website.

 

Project Members

  • Dr. Jonathan Kimmelman, McGill University, Principal Investigator
  • Karen Lynne Durell, McGill University
  • E. Richard Gold, McGill University
  • Dr. J. Nalbantoglu, McGill University

 

Project Funding

This project is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

 

Impacts of Private Sector Representations of Genomics on Media Coverage, Public Perceptions and Health Policy, 2006

Project Information

This project is a collaborative initiative between the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta and the CIPP at McGill University. The project explores the way in which genetic risk is communicated to the public by the private sector. A variety of methodologies will be used ranging from interviews, to the analysis of biotechnology sector advertising, press coverage, public statements and policy documents, to newer methodologies such as knowledge domain visualization.

 

Project Output

Publications and reports produced as part of this research project are located in the Publications section of the website.

 

Project Members

  • Tania Bubela, University of Alberta, Principal Investigator
  • Jennifer Argo, University of Alberta
  • Tina Piper, McGill University

 

Project Funding

This project is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

 

Improvisation, Law and Justice, 2007

Project Information

Centered at the University of Guelph, and in partnership with McGill University, the University of British Columbia, and Université de Montréal, this international research project explores musical improvisation as a model for social change. This project plays a leading role in defining a new field of interdisciplinary research to shape political, cultural, and ethical dialogue and action. The project research focuses on issues raised by seven areas related to improvisation: law and justice, pedagogy, social policy, transcultural understanding, gender and the body, text and media, and social aesthetics. McGill researchers at the CIPP will contribute to this project by looking at the way intellectual property does and should protect improvisation and by examining the role of intellectual property in mediating the community and social practice aspects of improvisation.

To visit the project website for more detail click here.

 

Project Output

Publications and reports produced as part of this research project are located in the Publications section of the website.

 

Project Members

  • Ajay Heble, University of Guelph (Principal Investigator)
  • AGeorge Lewis, Columbia University
  • Ichiro Fujinaga, McGill University
  • E. Richard Gold, CIPP, McGill University
  • David Lametti, CIPP, McGill University
  • Eric Lewis, McGill University
  • Desmond Manderson, McGill University
  • Tina Piper, CIPP, McGill University
  • William Straw, McGill University
  • Kevin McNeilly, The University of British Columbia
  • Julie Smith, The University of British Columbia
  • Daniel Weinstock, Université de Montréal
  • George Lipsitz, University of California
  • Georgina Born, University of Cambridge
  • Frederique Arroyas, University of Guelph
  • Daniel Fischlin, University of Guelph
  • Ellen Waterman, University of Guelph
  • Sherrie Tucker, University of Kansa

Project Funding

This project is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada’s Major Collaborative Research Initiatives (MCRI) program.

 

IsSpace, 2007

Project Information

The IsSpace project will create a virtual simulation that will determine what motivates creators to innovate within their communities. To date, no such simulation has been created in Canada or elsewhere in the world. The results of the simulation will be used to propose improvements to Canadian innovation policies, to intellectual property laws and to business entrepreneurs and NGOs. This project will place Canada and Quebec as a leader of the development of efficient innovation policies with the potential to revolutionize the method by which we reward creativity and creators.

 

Project Output

Publications and reports produced as part of this research project are located in the Publications section of the website.

 

Project Members

  • Tina Piper, Principal Investigator

 

Project Funding

This project is funded by The Canadian Foundation for Innovation.

 

Bill C-9, 2006 – 2009

Project Information

This research project will provide policy-makers and researchers with a greater understanding of how best to bring concerned citizens, non-governmental organizations and industry associations into decision-making around health care innovation. It will do so by examining the role of a group of citizens, non-governmental organizations and industry associations in bringing about one of Canada’s most recent and novel contributions to Canadian and international health care: Parliament’s passage of Bill C-9 that permits the government to give licenses to pharmaceutical companies to manufacture and sell medicines to developing and least developed countries facing health crises despite the existence of a patent held by someone else.

Through this research, scholars, policy-makers and non-governmental organizations will gain a better understanding of the following issues:

  • Conflicts between globalization, trade and public health as it relates to patent law;
  • How a group of non-governmental organizations were able to link issues of health with patent rights;
  • How this group of organizations worked with governments to create new rules internationally and within Canada; and
  • The context for patent and health policy within Canada after the passage of Bill C-9.

The research will be based on a case-study developed through multiple means including examining published material, interviewing key players and analyzing texts for trends. A case study is particularly appropriate for this study as it enables researchers, policy-makers, citizens and non-governmental organizations to better understand from past experience how to act in the future. Given the complexity of interests involved in health, access to medicines and patents, one of the best ways to fully understand the context in which strategies and decisions were developed is through a case study.

This project will provide policy-makers, non-state actors and academic researchers with a critical understanding of the ways in which citizens and non-governmental organizations contribute to and shape health policy at the national and international levels. It will be of particular relevance to those involved in the process of developing patent policy by providing them with insight into the role of citizens and non-governmental organizations in reconciling seemingly conflicting health and innovation policy goals. Policy-makers will be able to turn our research results and policy recommendations into concrete policy options to address barriers to access to health care in general, not only with respect to essential medicines, but new technologies based on genetics, genomics, proteomics and nanotechnology.

 

Project Output

Publications and reports produced as part of this research project are located in the Publications section of the website.

 

Project Members

  • E. Richard Gold, McGill University (Principal Investigator)
  • Tania Bubela, University of Alberta
  • Cécile Bensimon, University of Toronto
  • Jean-Frédéric Morin, McGill University
  • Jennifer J. Argo, University of Alberta

 

Project Funding

This project is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research as a sub-project of the CIPP’s Intellectual Property Modeling Group Project.

 

RMEthNet

Project Information

The RMEthnet research program is a Canada-wide network of researchers that are examining the ethical, environmental, economic, legal and social issues arising out of research and development of regenerative medicine. The rights to control the use and dissemination of regenerative medicine innovation are an important element in Canada’s ability to encourage an active research and development sector, to provide the financial stability to Canadian industry, and to ensure access to new health technologies. Consequently, the CIPP is examining how to structure intellectual property to address the concerns of researchers and entrepreneurs while optimizing access to health care products by the public.

 

Project Output

Publications and reports produced as part of this research project are located in the Publications section of the website and the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health‘s website.

 

Project Members

  • Abdallah S. Daar, University of Toronto (Principal Investigator)
  • Adrian Ivinson, Harvard University
  • Judy Illes, Stanford University
  • Timothy Caulfield, Health Law Institute
  • Michael Sefton, University of Toronto
  • Bartha Knoppers, University of Montreal
  • E. Richard Gold, McGill University
  • Keith Stewart, Mclaughlin Centre
  • Randal Johnston, Genome Prairie
  • Peter Lewis, University of Toronto

 

Project Funding

This project is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

 

[on hold] Copyright’s Cross-Currents: The Evolution of Copyright’s Foundations and Copyright Governance, 2008

Project Information

The foundational discourse for copyright protection in Canada, and in common law jurisdictions, has been witnessing a slow and subtle shift. While critical to understanding copyright, the shift has largely gone unnoticed. The utilitarian origins of copyright law are gradually being displaced by rights-based paradigms. Internationally, this can be attributed to an increasing private property rights-rhetoric (emanating both from the United States and powerful copyright holders internationally). In Canada it is also explained by the formal presence of a droit d’auteur discourse grafted onto our English-derived Copyright Act. This research project sets out to understand and clarify this conceptual shift, and its practical implications for current copyright issues.

In particular, this project will re-examine the comparative philosophical foundations of copyright law, and their particular roles in justifying portions of the current Canadian Copyright Act, judicial decisions, scholarly writing and government policy documents. It will also examine the ways in which the mix of justifications is evolving over time particularly in light of conflicting traditional justifications, in the face of technological changes and challenges, in view of changing societal views towards rights and private property, and understanding general attitudes towards intellectual property generally and copyright in particular. Lastly, this project will re-calibrate the foundations of copyright discourse to better approximate the ways in which our society understands the intellectual resources protected by copyright norms. From this researchers will articulate a radically new normative structure to govern the terrain traditionally covered by copyright that better reflects these cross-currents, integrating them into a more coherent whole.

 

Project Output

Publications and reports produced as part of this research project are located in the Publications section of the website.

 

Project Members

  • David Lametti, Principal Investigator

 

Project Funding

This project is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

This content has been updated on November 10, 2018 at 20:48.