Open Data’s Effect on Food Security
Agricultural data is a vital resource in the effort to address food insecurity. This data is used across the food-production chain. For example, farmers rely on agricultural data to decide when to plant crops, scientists use data to conduct research on pests and design disease resistant plants, and governments make policy based on land use data. As the value of agricultural data is understood, there is a growing call for governments and firms to open their agricultural data.
Le Big Pharma a-t-il raison de freiner des quatre fers ?
Par Abdelhamid Benhmade
Sans pour autant être d’un optimisme béat ni sombrer dans un pessimisme démesuré, il est clair que la dérogation aux droits de...
Open AIR NERGs successfully defend PhD theses
This fall, two Open AIR New and Emerging Researchers Uchenna Ugwu and Sileshi Hirko successfully defended their PhD theses at the University of Ottawa.
Food...
Is Creativity and Innovation All About Intellectual Property?
In the recently concluded ‘African Ministerial Conference: Intellectual Property for an Emerging Africa’ organized in part by WIPO (here), one cannot help but think that all roads leading to creativity and innovation are paved with intellectual property (IP) laws and institutions. Put differently, the level of creativity and innovation in a society is dependent solely on how we tinker with and enforce IP laws. This ‘IP parochialism’, as I call it, is manifest in the conference program. Of course, the response would be that the conference was solely about IP and as such there was no need to look beyond IP. This is an erroneous view.
Shifting Horizons Conference
By Michael Dao
On March 28th, 2019, the University of Ottawa
hosted the Shifting
Horizons: Managing Your Research Data Conference, a day-long series of
workshops for researchers. I...
Open AIR NERG Attends WIPO-WTO Colloquium
Just last month, I had the opportunity to participate in the 13th WIPO-WTO Colloquium for Teachers of Intellectual Property held at World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and World Trade Organization (WTO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland from 13 to 24 June, 2016. I am beyond thankful for this scholarship and enjoyed an intense two week programme, covering eighteen substantive topics touching on all areas of intellectual property (IP) law. There were thirty-nine experts from WIPO, WTO, WHO, UNFCCC, UPOV, NGOs ,and industry who took part in the Colloquium as speakers and I was among twenty-six participants selected from approximately 160 applicants from developing countries around the world.
Genetic Resources, Justice and Reconciliation: Canada and Global Access and Benefit...
Edited by: Chidi Oguamanam. When the oral history of a medicinal plant as a genetic resource is used to develop a blockbuster drug, how is the contribution of Indigenous Peoples recognized in research and commercialization? What other ethical, legal, and policy issues come into play? Is it accurate for countries to self-identify as users or providers of genetic resources?
Attention aux accords internationaux d’investissement !!
Par Abdelhamid Benhmade
À quelques semaines près, l’Organisation mondiale du commerce tiendra sa douzième conférence ministérielle pour discuter de plusieurs dossiers tant complexes qu’épineux, entre...
Evidence-based Intellectual Property Policymaking
Authored by: Jeremy de Beer
Abstract: Governments have long been interested in making intellectual property (IP) policy based on sound evidence. There is a large...
Open AIR Presents at Fourth Global Congress on IP and the...
By Victor Nzomo
In the midst of two decades of TRIPS and three decades of openness, more than 400 delegates from over 50 countries converged...












