Law and Technology Institute
6061 UNIVERSITY AVE., HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA | CANADA B3H 4H9 | +1 (902) 494-1469

Law and Technology Institute

News and Events

  • April 2009: Professor Oguamanam serves as a consultant, resource person and facilitator of an IDRC co-sponsored African Regional Workshop on African Indigenous Knowledge and Intellectual Property Rights: Implications for Nigeria at the instance of Indigenous Knowledge Study Group and proposed Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Development at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria

  • March 2009: Professor Oguamanam was an invited speaker to the Bioethics Department Speaker Series at the Faculty of Medicine. His talk was entitled: "Farther Apart or Closer Together? Biomedicine and Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the Age of Genomics"

  • March 2009: Professor Oguamanam was an invited resource person to the Maritime Aboriginal Peoples Congress and the Congresss of Aboriginal Peoples Learning and Consultation Session on Traditional Knowledge and Access and Benefit Sharing. His talk was titled "Traditional Knowledge and Intellectual Property: The Convention on Biological Diversity and Biopiracy"

  • March 2009: Professor Oguamanam published an invited contribution to a feature edition of the Lawyer's Weekly on Intellectual Property. His contribution was published on the title of "The World Needs a Humane Global IP Order"

  • February 2009: Professor Oguamanam was an invited speaker and participant at the 2009 Intellectual Property Scholars' Roundtable at the Intellectual Property Law Centre, Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa. His paper was titled "Patent: Innovation or Market Success? Pharmaceutical Research and Global Public Health Crises"

  • Graham Reynolds, "Google Book Search settlement may benefit Canadian authors" Lawyers Weekly (28 November 2008). The article can be found online: Lawyers Weekly.

     

  • "Nanotechnology: The Tragedy of the Anticommons", Lecture to be given by Professor Reynolds on 26 November 2008 at the University of Ottawa, Torys Technology Law Speakers Series. The lecture will address patent issues in nanotechnology.

     

  • In 2008, Professor Oguamanam was appointed Distinguished International Visitor and Fellow of the Case Abroad at Home Program at Frederick Cox International Law Center, Case Western Reserve School of Law, Cleveland, Ohio. As an Adjunct Faculty at Case Western, Professor Oguamanam will teach a special course on Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Knowledge and Intellectual Property.

     

  • In August 2008, Professor Oguamanam was an invited participant at the 77th Annual Couchiching Institute on Public Affairs Conference: titled "The Power of Knowledge: The New Global Currency", at YMCA Geneva Park, Orillia, Ontario. He spoke on "Intellectual Property: Patents, Profits or People?"

     

  • In March 2008, Professor Oguamanam was a guest speaker at the 2008 University of Toronto Health Law and Policy Seminar Series, where he spoke on "Personalized Medicine and Complementary and Alternative Medicine: In Search of Common Grounds", paper presented.

     

  • Professor Oguamanam was a lead author on a commissioned project on Novel Aquatic Organisms in Canada by Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans in November 2007.
  • Professor Oguamanam, was a participant at the 2007 Annual Intellectual Property Scholars Round Table at Drake University, des Moines, Iowa, where he presented his research on: "Patents and Traditional Medicine: Towards a Paradigm Shift?"

     

  • Professor Michael Deturbide recently completed a study for the federal Department of Justice on the Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts. He presented his pre-implementation Report at the annual meeting of the Uniform Law Conference of Canada in Quebec City in August 2008.

     

  • Professor Deturbide will be speaker and panellist at a conference in Halifax on November 15, entitled "A Free Press and an Independent Judiciary." He will participate in a session addressing the challenges of emerging technologies.

     

  • The Canadian Journal of Law and Technology has a new publisher. Thomson-Carswell will publish 2-3 issues per year. Professor Deturbide is a co-editor of the CJLT.

     

  • On September 3, 2008, Professors Rob Currie and Steve Coughlan delivered an invited talk to Nova Scotia Department of Justice lawyers entitled "Electronic Evidence: Brave New World or Cyber-Dystopia?" They covered a range of current and emerging developments regarding electronic evidence, including: electronic evidence-gathering in criminal and regulatory investigations; e-discovery and the new Nova Scotia Civil Procedure Rule regarding disclosure of electronic documents; e-disclosure in criminal cases; and the admissibility of electronic documents at trial.

 

  • Professors Currie and Coughlan are the joint authors of a chapter on Canadian law relating to electronic evidence in a major international study on this topic: Stephen Mason, ed., Electronic Evidence: Disclosure, Discovery & Admissibility (London: LexisNexis Butterworths (UK), 2007).

 

  • Directed Research Project (DRP) on Intellectual Property Fall 2007.

    The Law and Technology Institute (LTI) in collaboration with Dalhousie University’s Industry Liaison and Innovation (ILI) office have limited openings for student Directed Research Projects (DRP) to be undertaken at ILI offices under the joint supervision of ILI staff and LTI faculty beginning this fall. Qualified student(s) will have the opportunity to work with technology transfer and legal professionals at ILI to further their knowledge of intellectual property and participate in the process of commercialization of research on a first hand basis in order to write a DRP regarding their experience of this process. The DRP project this fall is a prelude to a planned Intellectual Property and Commercialization Placement to be offered by the LTI and ILI in the 2008/09 academic year.

    ILI commercializes research at Dalhousie, the IWK Health Care Centre and provides its expertise to other universities in Atlantic Canada as part of the Springboard Atlantic Network. In addition, ILI manages and facilitates collaborations between companies and university researchers and assists in the creation of spin-off ventures. ILI also helps companies to find and develop relationships with researchers to meet business requirements and to expand the researchers' potential to participate in cutting edge projects. ILI has a staff of 8 individuals, including an Associate Director for Intellectual Property and Life Sciences, three technology managers in the Life Sciences, Sciences and Engineering sectors, a Senior Manager, Legal, Office Manager, Data Base administrator and an Executive Director.

    The nature of work required of students during the DRP will depend on the current activities and programs at ILI but generally students will be expected to work with ILI staff on, among other things, the assessment of new technologies created by Dalhousie researchers, the protection, management and marketing of the intellectual property assets of Dalhousie and the licensing of university technology to corporate partners. As part of these activities, students will be asked to conduct research and prepare memoranda on various aspects of intellectual property law, to search online business and intellectual property databases for relevant intellectual property and market information and to assist with the preparation and negotiation of agreements regarding intellectual property. Such agreements may include license agreements, research and development contracts, material transfer agreements, confidential disclosure agreements, and option agreements.

    Interested students will be selected on the basis of academic standing, demonstrated interest in intellectual property, previous industry, research or practical business experience. Priority will be given to students enrolled in or who have completed Intellectual Property Law (Laws 2184.04) or Intellectual Property II (Laws 2203.03). Students should contact Professor Chidi Oguamanam, Ag. Director, Law and Technology Institute: Chidi@Dal.Ca, Phone: 494-7125 for further details.

  • International Law and Indigenous Knowledge:  Intellectual Property, Plant Biodiversity and Traditional Medicine by Chidi Oguamanam has been published by the University of Toronto.  From the preface: "This is the first such study to my knowledge to address an intersection of issues which are extremely important in international law and policy. The scholarship is sound and the author is to be commended for his capactiy to link legal, ethnobotanical, and anthropological literatures." (Rosemary J. Coombe, Canada Research Chair in Law, Communication, and Culture, York University) 
  • Consumer Protection Online by Michael Deturbide has been published by Butterworths/LexisNexis. Consumer Protection Online is the first book to collect and review ALL of Canada's legislation protecting both buyers and sellers in online environments, as of April 2006. Author Michael Deturbide also indicates critical gaps in Canada's laws and draws on legislation from the United States and the European Union to recommend urgently needed reforms.

Members of the Law and Technology institute complete their report on Privacy and Radio Frequency Identification Technology under Federal Privacy Commissioner's Contributions Program. In the fall of 2004, the Law and Technology Institute was the successful recipient of funding through the newly created Contributions Program of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. The project proposed by the Institute was to explore the legal and technological privacy implications of RFID technology. This technology, which is poised for widespread deployment in consumer products at the retail level over the next few years, raises a range of privacy concerns. The Dalhousie team, which included a colleague from the Faculty of Computer Science, produced an extensive report (clidk on link above).

The Report examines the underlying technology, current uses and deployments of RFID technology, and proposed and potential uses. The Report also studies the privacy issues that arise with respect to the use of RFIDs, particularly in the consumer context, and looks at attempts in other jurisdictions to deal with privacy and RFIDs through law or policy development. The Report considers the extent to which Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act would apply to the use of RFIDs, and concludes with a series of recommendations relating to RFIDs in Canada.

The first talk in the 2006-2007 McCarthy Tetrault Eminent Speakers Series will be presented on Thursday, September 28, 2006, in Room 105 of the Weldon Law Building from Noon - 1:30 p.m.

Following are the details for the Speakers (follow links to read Biographies) in the 2006-2007 McCarthy Tetrault Eminent Speakers Series:

Speaker 1.
Jon FESTINGER, September 28, 2006, Noon - 1:30 PM. Title: Major Trends in Video Game Law: The Collision of Freedoms in Virtual Worlds & Mods

Speaker 2.
Peter YU, October 12, 2006, Noon - 1:30 PM. Title: Elegant Offenses, Digital Opium and the Sinicyberspace

Speaker 3.
Stanley COHEN, January 25, 2007, Noon - 1:30 PM. Title: Privacy, Crime & Terror

Speaker 4.
Barry SOOKMAN, February 8, 2007, Noon - 1:30 PM. Title: Copyright and "Users' Rights": Rights? Metaphor? Red Herring?