Monday 2 March 2015 12:00pm to 1:00pm
TBC
About
Speaker: Rob McDonald Q.C. (Dentons Canada LLP)
Location:
The seminar will take place in G11 on Monday 2nd March at 1pm. A light lunch will be provided at 12.45pm.
Abstract: This talk will consider three recent pieces of Canadian legislation: the Copyright Modernization Act (in force as of November 2012), the Combating Counterfeit Products Act (in force as of January 1, 2015), and the Budget Implementation Act, which is not yet in force, but is expected to be law this year (and which eliminates the requirement of use for Canadian filings, a significant change to our current regime). The Acts attempt to bring Canada's legislative regime into conformance with various international IP treaties as well as to modernize and update certain aspects of the law. In particular, the Copyright Modernization Act introduces provisions dealing with Internet Service Provider liability, circumventing Technological Protection Measures, private uses, new exceptions for education, parody and satire, and new damages provisions. It also contains a user generated content provision (commonly known as the "Youtube clause) that is the first of its kind in the world. The Combating Counterfeit Products Act, proposes to grant greater powers to our border and customs officials to prevent unlawful importation, exportation and distribution of counterfeit goods.
Speaker: ROB McDONALD is a partner at the Edmonton office of Dentons Canada LLP, chair of Dentons' National Intellectual Property Group and member of Dentons' National Technology Transactions Group and Franchising Group. He practices primarily in the areas of intellectual property protection, licensing and litigation, with a focus on copyright, trade-mark, patent and confidential information issues. Rob has litigated copyright, trade-mark, and patent infringement actions at various court levels and advises clients with respect to all aspects of the protection, licensing, exploitation and enforcement of their intellectual property and technology. He also has litigation experience in the areas of domain name disputes, franchise disputes, counterfeit goods and misappropriation of confidential information and trade secrets. Rob provides IP support with respect to mergers and acquisitions, cross border and international business, financing and other commercial transactions, including conducting due diligence on IP portfolios, analysing ownership and validity issues, and assessing the strength and breadth of trade-mark and patent registrations. Rob represents a broad range of clients worldwide in a variety of industries, including media and entertainment, telecommunications, oil and gas, energy, computer technology and life sciences. He has significant experience with respect to copyright collectives, having acted as legal counsel for the Society of Composers Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) and having served as a director of Access Copyright (formerly CANCOPY). Such work has included hearings before the Copyright Board and the negotiation of tariffs, royalty rates and structures. Rob received a LL.B. in 1988 from the University of Alberta and was called to the Alberta Bar in 1989. Rob is a registered trade-mark agent in both Canada and the United States, manages many IP portfolios and brands for clients, and is an experienced arbitrator and mediator of IP disputes. Rob is recommended by numerous publications including The Best Lawyers in Canada, 2009–2014, The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory 2010–2014, and The National Post, and is recognized as one of Canada’s leading lawyers in the area of IP law (Trade-marks). He is a member of several professional organizations including the International Trademark Association, the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada (Fellow) and the Licensing Executives Society (Co-chair, Edmonton Chapter). Rob is also a sessional instructor of the IP Law Course at the University of Alberta Faculty of Law and has taught this course since 1990.