Articles by C. Donald Brown

In the midst of the civil unrest in Egypt and throughout the Middle East, U.S. Senate-proposed legislation that has become known as the "Internet kill switch bill" was recently reintroduced. The controversial bill, first introduced by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn, in June 2010, seeks to empower the president and, in...

On October 14, 2010, the Federal Court of Canada handed down its much-anticipated decision regarding Amazon's patent application for an invention entitled "Method and System for Placing a Purchase Order Via a Communication Network," or what has more colloquially been referred to as the "Amazon 1-Click Patent." While the Federal Court did not explic...

A few months ago, the Globeandmail.com's Barry McKenna reported that "Canada has earned a dubious distinction as a world hub for illegitimate file-sharing websites and a leader in Internet piracy." In addition, Canada is in the "embarrassing position of harboring five of the top eight remaining unauthorized BitTorrent sites, including the new numb...

In a recent decision by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the controversial Amazon 1-Click Patent (US 5,960,411) was finally approved following a four year re-examination The 1-Click Patent has been the subject of much criticism and debate since it was originally filed back in 1997. Many critics cite concerns with the breadth o...

While patent practitioners are well familiar with and accepting of the phrase that patentable subject matter may include "anything under the sun that is made by man," the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York recently heard arguments that may call the rationale behind that famous quote -- or rather infamous quote -- into question. ...

Interested parties the world over anxiously wait as the U.S. top court prepares its ruling regarding the patentability of business methods. The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard arguments in the matter of Bernard Bilski and Rand Warsaw v. David Kappos in an appeal from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which upheld the United States Patent Office decision last year. ...

While the term "startup" is often associated with high-tech companies, it can readily be applied to any company that is in an early phase of development and market research From a financial perspective, startups may have more potential for rapid growth -- compared to established businesses -- due to their lower costs, higher risks and higher potent...

Since its conception in 1996, Google's search engine has played a key role in redefining not only the role of the Internet, but also the accessibility of the Internet to the end-user. This characteristic can be further exemplified by the company's unofficial slogan "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."