The committee held two meetings this week, one in camera and one in public. The Minutes for the in camera meeting of 16 October can be found here.
On 18 October, the committee resumed its study on the Intellectual Property Regime in Canada. Two witnesses were present: Diane Lank, General Counsel, Desire, Learn Incorporated, and Jason Kee, Director, Entertainment Software Association of Canada. The major issues discussed were the costs of filing patents in Canada and the piracy of electronic games. Diane Lank recounted the lawsuit which affected her organization in 2006 and subsequently reduced the annual growth for her organization. She also discussed how much more expensive filing patents in Canada is compared to the U.S. She emphasized the urgent need to have efficient communications (e.g via education) with trading partners such as the U.S and Europe so that the Canadian e-learning markets can be as competitive and better equip to penetrate into emerging remote markets such as Brazil, China and Colombia. Jason Kee stressed the importance of having a more formal law enforcement system within the Canadian market to combat the rising threats from piracy & counterfeiting within the electronic games industry. He mentioned a form of IP coordinator (as in the U.S) who would assist in prioritizing problems such as piracy. Among other issues discussed between the committee members and witnesses included lawsuit fees, improving innovation in the industry, government incentives (e.g grants & tax credits), piracy & trademarks challenges, systems of patent processing and patent filing disclosure.