Crowne on the Amazon Decision

On November 24, 2011 the Federal Court of Appeal released the much anticipated decision in Commissioner of Patents v. Amazon.com Inc., 2011 FCA328 (which generally upheld the patentability of business methods in Canada).

A few days later, on November 28, the Financial Post covered the decision and cited Professor Emir Crowne’s article on the subject. His article, available on his SSRN page, examines the decision and, while he agrees with it generally, he suggests that the Federal Court of Appeal has inadvertently introduced several ambiguities into the patentable subject matter landscape. The article, which he produced within 3 days of the decision’s release, has been downloaded over 40 times in 4 days. (Indeed, his overall ‘Author Rank’ on SSRN is 10,077 out of 174,573, which places him within the top 6% of all authors).

In recognition of his work in the area of patentable subject matter, Professor Crowne has been invited to speak at several engagements:

• On December 1, Professor Crowne was both a moderator and presenter for a Roundtable at the Canadian IT Law Association on the decision. The Roundtable, entitled Preserving the Amazon (Patent): Business Methods Patentable in Canada According to Federal Court of Appeal (named after Professor Crowne’s paper), also featured Robert Wilkes and Kelly Miranda, both of Ridout & Maybee LLP.

• On December 14, Professor Crowne will also speak about the decision at the Toronto Computer Lawyers’ Group year-end reception at Norton Rose OR’s Toronto Office. Along with Brian Gray, a Senior Partner at Norton Rose, the talk is entitled “Academia v. Bay Street: both sides weigh in on the Federal Court of Appeal decision in Amazon”.

• Lastly, on December 16, Professor Crowne will discuss the decision at a webinar for the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada.  He will present along with Christopher C. Van Barr of Gowlings, and Natalie Raffoul of Clancy P.C. + Brion Raffoul. The panel will be moderated by Michael Crichton of Gowlings. He will deliver his presentation from Gowlings’ Toronto Office.

At the end of those speaking engagements, Professor Crowne would have discussed the Federal Court of Appeal’s decision in Amazon to members of the IT Law Bar, Computer Law Bar and Intellectual Property Bar, respectively.