Archive for the 'Publications' Category
Guest post by Jacob Kojfman (Vancouver Tech Law Blog)
This past summer, I wrote about how slow the law is to catch up to changing technologies. Companies, such as private-limousine operator Uber and Airbnb are finding their attempts to disrupt their industries to be faced with legal challenges.
By its very nature, innovation will always be one step ahead of the law; most laws are usually written as a reaction to some change in the markets. Even old-fangled laws, such as Glass-Steagall, or the more contemporaneous Dodd-Frank legislation, were a result of changes in the market, albeit, not necessarily innovations.
For those companies, such as Uber, Airbnb, Getaround, their founders have all tried to solve a problem that was facing them; and in certain instances, there’s been a lot of hiccups along the way. Getaround couldn’t operate until it finally got an insurance company to agree to insure it, which also required a change in the laws regarding insurance.
Materials from the 2nd International Competition Law Forum held on September 27, 2012 are being uploaded now. Speakers included the Vice-President, Commissioner of Competition for the European Commission (Joaquin Almunia), private practitioners, the head of the Competition Division of the OECD’s Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs (John Davies), head of the Antitrust and Mergers Unit of the EC (Kris Dekesyser) and UNCTAD and OECD officials. For more information and copies of the conference materials see: 2nd International Competition Law Forum.
A few new Canadian competition, advertising and regulatory law books caught my eye recently including:
The Canadian Marketing Law Handbook, 2nd ed. (H. Lue & S. Punniyamoorthy) (Carswell). See: Carswell – Newly Published.
There are several forms of intellectual property law that are associated with marketing and advertising law. These include patents, trade-marks, copyright and industrial designs. Generally, trade-mark and copyright law have had the most impact when it comes to marketing and advertising issues. The introductory chapters discuss various types of intellectual property law. The remaining chapters provide an IP perspective on advertising and marketing issues including the personality rights, comparative advertising, grey marketing and counterfeit goods, pharmaceutical advertising, Quebec advertising, advertising standards, packaging, Internet advertising and ambush marketing. Canadian Marketing Law Handbook, Second Edition provides a practical handbook as well as an update on the possible remedies that can be used by the legal practitioner in cases involving advertising and marketing issues.
Defamation Law: A Primer (R.E. Brown) (Carswell). See: Carswell – Newly Published.
Defamation Law: A Primer provides basic and concise coverage of the substantive law of defamation. Raymond E. Brown, the author of The Law of Defamation in Canada, 2nd Edition, articulates both the diversity and similarity of the common law of defamation in Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States. He has included the leading decisions in each of these countries, and quotes extensively from leading jurists. This book also includes a chapter outlining the impact of the United States constitution on the law of defamation, as well as a chapter devoted to recommending a variety of changes in the law.
“Therefore, the argument against Google collapses to the following nonsensical proposition: Google is sacrificing a monopoly profit in general search to gain market share in a more competitive market. This strategy is economic nonsense because it would lower Google’s total profits. In addition, as Google reduces its share in general search, it will reduce its ability to direct consumers to its specialized search products. That behavior is not likely to be profitable. Ultimately, the notion that Google is manipulating general search results to expand its market share in specialized search45 is not plausible. For Google, this practice would entail great risk and little reward. There is no reason to believe that Google is doing anything beyond competing in the search market.”
“The Chicago School of law and economics teaches—and the Supreme Court has long affirmed—that antitrust law exists to protect consumers, not competitors. Penalizing Google’s practices as anticompetitive would violate that principle, reduce dynamic competition in search, and harm the consumers that the antitrust laws are intended to protect.”
Our friends at the A38 Journal of International Law have issued a call for papers. From A38:
The A38 Journal of International Law (ISSN 2277-9361) is a quarterly academic journal, published online, that seeks to provide an international forum for the publication of articles in the field of International Law. The Journal is currently soliciting submissions for Volume I, Issue 4, which will be published January 2013. The submission deadline for Issue 4 is November 30, 2012. We welcome submissions from academicians, practitioners, students, researchers and experts from within the legal community. We have a strong preference for articles that assert and defend a well-reasoned position. Issue 4 will be devoted to “Diplomatic and Consular Immunities, Privileges and Protection under International Law”.
The OECD has published a new report on global competition law compliance entitled Promoting Compliance with Competition Law. The OECD’s new report, which is the result of a roundtable in 2011 on competition law compliance, includes submissions from more than twenty competition/antitrust enforcement authorities including Canada, as well as Australia, the EU, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK and United States. Introduction:
“Over the past 20 years, courts and competition authorities have imposed fines and, in some jurisdictions, imprisonment with sharply increasing severity, yet there does not seem to be solid evidence that anti-competitive conduct – particularly cartel conduct – is declining in response. Then again, it is impossible to observe the number of undetected cartels, so it is possible that deterrence has increased. The delegates identified and assessed numerous factors that influence compliance, such as competition advocacy, financial penalties, imprisonment, leniency programs and the establishment of a culture of competition. There was general agreement that authentic corporate competition compliance programs can be helpful, but substantial variation among the delegates on whether and how such programs should be rewarded.”
For a copy of the OECD’s new report see: Promoting Compliance with Competition Law
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The Conference Board of Canada has published a new briefing entitled “Who Dimmed the Lights? Canada’s Declining Global Competitiveness Ranking” that examines Canada’s current competitiveness in light of the recent World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013, which ranked Canada 14th globally. Canada dropped two positions this year in the WEF’s report, with some of the critical commentary in the report including:
“Canada falls two positions to 14th place in this year’s rankings. Although Canada continues to benefit from highly efficient markets (with its goods, labor, and financial markets ranked 13th, 4th, and 11th, respectively), well-functioning and transparent institutions (11th), and excellent infrastructure (13th), it is being dragged down by a less favorable assessment of the quality of its research institutions and the government’s role in promoting innovation through procurement practices. In a similar fashion, although Canada has been successful in nurturing its human resources compared with other advanced economies (it is ranked 7th for health and primary education and 15th for higher education and training), the data suggest a slight downward trend of its performance in higher education (ranking 8th place on higher education and training two years ago), driven by lower university enrollment rates and a decline in the extent to which staff is being trained at the workplace.”
Top 10 “most problematic factors for doing business in Canada” in the WEF’s report were: an inefficient government bureaucracy, insufficient capital to innovate, inadequate access to funding, inadequately educated workforce, tax rates, tax regulations, restrictive labor practices, inadequate infrastructure, a poor work ethic and policy instability.
The Canadian Society of Association Executives (CSAE) is offering a number of new trade and professional association related books. From the CSAE:
“Books to help your Board, your staff, and you. If you lead an association or not-for-profit organization, these publications will help. The following publications are new to the CSAE Bookstore”:
199 Ideas: Creative Marketing & Public Relations
Return on Impact: Leadership Strategies for the Age of Connected Relationships
Templates/precedents and checklists to run promotional contests in Canada
Templates/precedents and checklists to comply with Canadian anti-spam law (CASL)
