International Law

Howard Knopf has been uninvited to the Public Policy Forum on intellectual property reform in Canada, as he explains on his blog:

I have now been uninvited to the Public Policy Forum (?PPF?) IP program entitled INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY REFORM: INNOVATION AND THE ECONOMY on April 28, 2008, which will now proceed without me on the program.

It seems that strong pressure was brought to bear on PPF to have me removed from the program and that PPF capitulated.

The presentation that I would have made would have been based upon the presentation I gave at the 16h Annual Fordham conference in NYC on March 28, 2008 entitled:

WHY CANADIAN COPYRIGHT LAW IS ALREADY STRONGER AND BETTER THAN THAT OF THE USA - AND WHY THE USA SHOULD LOOK IN THE MIRROR RATHER THAN AT ITS ?SPECIAL 301" WATCH LIST

Here is that paper, which documents several weaknesses in American copyright law and some 15 areas in which Canadian copyright law is already stronger and better than American law, many of which result in very substantial outflows of money to the USA. The paper also points out hypocrisy and inconsistencies in American positions on IP, including with respect to the US ?301" mechanism. I was also asked to address a some points in patent and trade-marks law.

However, it seems that some interests do not want to hear about these points at this conference. I have done a lot of research in this area, and nobody has suggested that anything in the Fordham paper was inaccurate in any respect. In fact, it was well received.

Read more here.  This seems to be a strange and unfortunate decision by the PPF.  I saw Howard's presentation at Fordham and although it was typically provocative, it is an interesting and well researched paper that deserves to be heard.