Canadian Lawyer

w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m J U N E 2 0 1 6 3 E D I T O R ' S D E S K @canlawmag gail.cohen@tr.com Director/Group Publisher: Karen Lorimer karen.lorimer@tr.com Editor in Chief: Gail J. Cohen gail.cohen@tr.com Staff Writer: Yamri Taddese yamri.taddese@tr.com Copy Editor: Patricia Cancilla Art Director: Bill Hunter Production Co-ordinator: Sharlane Burgess sharlane.burgess@tr.com Contributors: Jean Sorensen, donalee Moulton, Pascal Elie, Geoff Ellwand, Marg. Bruineman, Jim Middlemiss, Jennifer Brown, Ava Chisling, Michael McKiernan Canadian Lawyer is published 11 times a year by Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents may not be reprinted without written permission. The opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily those of the publisher. Information presented is compiled from sources believed to be accurate, however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Canadian Lawyer disclaims any warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or currency of the contents of this publication and disclaims all liability in respect of the results of any action taken or not taken in reliance upon information in this publication. Advertising Sales Representatives Joseph Galea Tel: (416) 649-9919 E-mail: joseph.galea@tr.com Steffanie Munroe Tel: 416-298-5077 E-mail: steffanie.munroe@tr.com Kimberlee Pascoe Tel: (416) 649-8875 E-mail: kimberlee.pascoe@tr.com Grace So Tel: (416) 609-5838 E-mail: grace.so@tr.com Canadian Lawyer Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. One Corporate Plaza, 2075 Kennedy Rd., Toronto, ON. M1T 3V4 Tel: (416) 298-5141 Fax: (416) 649-7870 E-mail: cl.editor@tr.com Web: www.canadianlawyermag.com Linkedin: linkd.in/179bx8t Twitter: @canlawmag Publications Mail Agreement #40766500 ISSN 0703-2129 © 2016 HST Registration #R121349799 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESS TO: CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy RD., Toronto, ON. M1T 3V4 RETOURNER TOUTE CORRESPONDANCE NE POUVANT ÊTRE LIVRÉE AU CANADA AU SERVICE DES PUBLICATIONS One Corporate Plaza, 2075 Kennedy Rd., Toronto, ON. M1T 3V4 Circulation/Address Changes/ Subscriptions Keith Fulford Tel: (416) 649-9585 Fax: (416) 649-7870 E-mail: keith.fulford@tr.com Subscription rates: Canada1 year print and digital $99 plus HST, 1 year digital only $99. Outside Canada 1 year print & digital $99 USD, 1 year digital only $99. For all circulation inquiries and address changes send a copy of your mailing label or labels along with your request in writing to Canadian Lawyer, One Corporate Plaza, 2075 Kennedy Rd., Toronto, ON. M1T 3V4 Indexed in the Canadian Periodical Index little over a year ago, I read an article in The Globe and Mail by Jim Balsillie, the co-founder of Research in Motion, called "Canadians can innovate, but we're not equipped to win." The gist of it was that Canadians can't succeed on the global stage in the new knowledge economy, in part, if not in whole, because this country does not have sufficient policies and infrastructure to help entrepreneurs make money from their ideas. "Canada's current infrastructure and our public and private leadership do not foster the needed capacity to contend effectively in the complex, predatory and state-sponsored ideas ownership game," wrote Balsillie. He knows a thing or two about the knowledge economy and building a successful company, I mused. It got me thinking about the role of intellectual property and how the law, lack of laws, need for laws, and just generally how law and IP together should and do play a major role in the global economy and that it would be kind of interesting to examine it all in a bit more detail. And from that came the idea for this issue's special report on intellectual property. For me, it's always been important to go into a story, or stories, with an idea of where you're going but not so married to a point of view or thesis that you can't change course if your sources have much better ideas (very often the case) or you realize what you thought was the story really wasn't. This whole process is even more pronounced when you're an editor who's assigning stories to writers. So giving you a bit of an eye into the process in this case, I wanted to look at the idea of IP and the law from a few different directions. I'm not sure if I was on a flight somewhere or just dozing off one night, but either way those are the times my mind is most open and the idea of looking at how current IP laws are affecting knowhow from the past, will affect ideas in the future, and how we're preparing for that future seemed a wide-open way to examine the issue. The three feature stories in this issue only scratch the surface of what's going on with intellectual property law — IP into the future, IP back to the future, and IP preparing for the future — both in Canada and globally, but I I do hope they'll make you think about the issue in different ways. One of the biggest debates I see is whether more or less protection either benefits or hin- ders innovation and the potential for both commercial and personal success. There are definitely arguments on both sides of the debate. Canadian Lawyer has presented some thoughts from practitioners, innova- tors, business people, and academics, but by no means were we able to cover all points of view and ideas in the area. I find it all fascinating and urge read- ers to continue the discussion in the pages of our publication and web site. Got a theory, an idea, an argument, an amusing tale? Get in touch with me and let's keep the conversation going. Let's talk about IP, baby By Gail J. Cohen A

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