Traditionally, intellectual property (IP) law is said to balance (a) giving a just reward to rights holders for inventiveness (patent), creativity (copyright) or unique reputation in the marketplace (trademark); and (b) encouraging fair public access to knowledge of inventions, to creativity and information, and to recognizable symbols associated with specific products and services in the marketplace.
Questions to be tackled include whether recent IP developments skew toward IP features (including corporate asset identification, investment value and marketability) benefitting rights holders. If so, is this true for all devices considered to be part of IP? Are the goals of copyright exceptions, for instance, matched in modern patent law or in recent IP protections for secrets and technical data? Are current differences, if any, unavoidable (for instance for technological reasons)? Is it necessary, to be defined as IP, that each IP device be similarly balanced? If so, how could this be accomplished?
Mistrale Goudreau is an expert in intellectual and industrial property. She also teaches statutory interpretation and legal theory. Professor Goudreau’s research focuses primarily on the Canadian federal law on intellectual property and its interaction with general rules of civil law. She is also a member of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society.
Congratulations to Mistrale Goudreau and Margaret Ann Wilkinson !