In a landmark decision just 24 days after April 1, the Canadian Trade-marks Office has clarified the definition of “fish”. Constitutional lawyers continue to wrangle over whether this stunning policy reversal will be given retroactive effect.

Subject: Mise à jour Manuel de marchandises et services – Wares and Services Manual Update

Dans le but d’éviter toute ambiguité que ‘poisson’ est un terme spécifique et en termes ordinaires du commerce, l’entrée ‘Poissons pour l’alimentation’ dans le Manuel de marchandises et services sera remplacée par ‘Poisson’ seul, avec la note suivante: Cette entrée fait référence à la définition la plus courante de

The Sunlight Foundation launched a beta version of Scout today, a free service which compiles information from a variety of sources to let you search through bills and speeches before Congress, State bills, and Federal regulations. The site allows the creation of custom alerts when a specific issue is going before Congress, as well as tracking these issues over time.

The Sunlight Foundation is a a non-profit who “uses the power of the Internet to catalyze greater government openness and transparency, and provides new tools and resources for media and citizens, alike.” Sounds like powerful stuff. You can see more . . . [more]

Today is World Book and Copyright Day, initiated by UNESCO and promoted by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA).

Here is a message from Ingrid Parent, President of IFLA and University Librarian at the University of British Columbia:

The full quote is actually, “(t)here are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics”; it is on odd quote to lead off with in a post where I am going to urge you to attend a session on getting, “Behind the Numbers: Statistics for Librarians”, but I believe it is appropriate. The line could be interpreted in several ways, one way to interpret the quote, the positive way, is that understanding statistics allows you to understand a given set of data or information in a multitude of ways, not just: “52% percent of people say blank” that . . . [more]

Risk management has been a hot topic in the corporate community for about 10 years, springing mostly from scandals such as Enron, Worldcom and more recently the financial crisis of 2008. The devastation that these events wrought forced boards of directors to devote significant resources to managing risk and to keep abreast of what is happening in the world at large.

When one looks at law firms, we see that attention is paid to risk management only in the micro-sense; controls are put in place to prevent lawyers and staff from stealing trust funds, there are some controls over who . . . [more]

From Gov’t of Canada Publications: “… the decision has been made to completely transition all publications published by the Publishing Program and publications provided by departments to the Depository Services Program from traditional print to exclusively electronic publication in two years. “ My first question is, does this include primary materials such as bills, gazettes and acts?

While we may have been expecting this transition to occur in the future, the question was always when does that future become the present? For now, that time looks like it is 2014, the question being is this the right time to make . . . [more]

CALL/ACBD’s 50th annual conference is only weeks away. The CPC, our volunteers and the CALL Executive are looking forward to welcoming you to Toronto’s Royal York Hotel, and to the many events we have planned. I’ve already raved about the program and the social events. This conference also offers a few innovations which I hope you will enjoy.

CALL/ACBD launched a new website earlier this year, and the 2012 CPC was the first group to use the new conference templates. Feedback on its usability and structure would be very welcome, and will go into our report to the Executive and . . . [more]

Seems the US DoJ thinks so. If you’ve ever wondered how publishers can charge more for an ebook that for a print version, this is part of the answer. Here is a good roundup of recent coverage. With three of five defendants already having settled, the interest seems to have turned from the question of whether there is price fixing, to the rationale: what strategies are open to publishers in the face of Amazon’s stranglehold on distribution? The obvious answer, as an alternative to breaking the law, is to abandon print-based business models, and pull a Louis CK. . . . [more]

This weekend near midnight on Saturday, will mark 100 years since the unsinkable ocean liner hit an iceburg on its maiden voyage and sank; which around these parts is a big deal. The magnitude of the event was so great that it resonates 100 years later. This event has entered our popular conciousness as it is common to hear of something that did not go well, that it was a disaster of “titanic proportions”; in a way the sinking of the Titanic has become the standard by which disasters are measured. Have you ever felt that you were “arranging . . . [more]

[UPDATE (April 20, 2012): I’m happy to report that I was incorrect in assuming that the Legal Journals Index (LJI) would be discontinued along with the Current Legal Information service. The LJI will continue as part of Westlaw UK. Please see the comments from Westlaw UK below.]

Like most law librarians I’ve been a strong advocate of the use of journal indexes in research. While full-text searching on Hein, Lexis and Westlaw is the fastest and preferred way of finding journal literature, especially if you know exactly what you are looking for, I think there is still a place for . . . [more]

My family and I are very busy riding roller coasters this week. We got on a plane very early last Friday. Due to some unfortunate loss of power to the jetway, our flight was delayed leaving Edmonton for over an hour. Of course this meant a missed connection to our second leg of the journey.

Delay is a concept that comes up in litigation. Parties argue that a delay prejudices their client or that a delay is necessary to promote fair adjudication of a matter.

I was reminded that delay can sometimes mean an unexpectedly good time in a city . . . [more]