National Treatment, National Interest and the Public Domain

Abstract

"The importance of exploring emerging concepts in intellectual property and cyberlaw in a comparative context like this symposium is that, of course, not every country is perceiving or grappling with the emerging 'information age' from the same perspective. As Ronald Bettig points out, 'The global proliferation of communications technologies and the expansion of the realm of intellectual property is a process that clearly benefits the advanced economies of the United States, Europe, and Japan.' Bruce Doern and Markus Sharaput agree entirely with this characterization in the conclusion of their policy study about Canada. Indeed, '...the main impetus for change in Canada has come ultimately from U.S. corporate and political forces seeking to strengthen IP protection at the expense of IP dissemination. The analysis has shown that Canada initially resisted such pressures but then ultimately adopted them as being in the national interest in the new innovation age. In an overall sense, Canada has become more of a policy-taker than a policy-maker on matters of IP.' Doern and Sharaput based these conclusions on analyses completed prior to July 199913 and I am certain that the symposium speakers will take the opportunity to comment on Canada's more recent policy directions. Regardless, there can be no doubt that Canada is in the position of an information-importing country, next to the world's largest information exporter. Bearing these differing perspectives in mind, let us begin an examination of the notion of the 'public domain' in order to try to discern whether its meaning implies a common theoretical construct which can usefully frame intellectual-property policy debate."