Keynote Lectures > Keynote Teresa Scassa

Intellectual Property Rights in Ethically Open Science

ABSTRACT

Building upon the success of the open source movement in creating a collaborative space for the creation and sharing of software, the open access movement took on copyright as a barrier to access to works of creativity and the intellect. The movement has had a significant impact on how academic work is shared; many national granting agencies now embrace the concept of open access, requiring funded researchers to publish their results in open access formats.

Drawing on the values that inform the open access movement, open science is now gaining ground as a new approach to sharing research outputs. Open science speaks to the sharing of the research data, lab notes and other research processes that inform the scientific work. Its objectives include broad dissemination and access, but go beyond this as well, addressing issues of transparency and accountability.  Yet even as many researchers – and granting agencies -- embrace the underlying values, questions remain about the risks and challenges of open science.

 This presentation examines the complex role of intellectual property(IP) rights in the creation and advancement of academic knowledge. While IP rights can create barriers to access, reuse and transparency, they can also further creativity and innovation by providing revenue, and by protecting other values such as privacy/confidentiality, and integrity/authenticity. IP rights can also, in some circumstances, protect against the exploitation of individuals and communities. Framing IP rights in terms of a sometimes complex web of relationships, this presentation asks what role IP rights should play in ethically open science.

BIO

Dr. Teresa Scassa is the Canada Research Chair in Information Law and Policy at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. She is the author or co-author of several books, including Canadian Trademark Law (2d edition, LexisNexis 2015), Law Beyond Borders (Irwin Law, 2014), and Electronic Commerce and Internet Law in Canada, (CCH Canadian Ltd. 2012) (winner of the 2013 Walter Owen Book Prize). She is a past member of both the External Advisory Committee of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, and the Canadian Government Advisory Committee on Open Government. She is a member of the GEOTHINK research partnership, and has written widely in the areas of intellectual property law, law and technology, and privacy. Teresa Scassa is also a senior fellow with CIGI’s International Law Research Program. She is a founding member of the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Law, Technology and Society, is cross-appointed to the School of Information Studies at the University of Ottawa, and is a member of the Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre at Carleton University.