Gareth Spanglett

The emergence of advanced AI and the real possibility of future systems approaching Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is not merely a new factual scenario for old statutes. It signals a structural challenge to the Canadian intellectual property framework itself. Canadian legal culture has long been guided by the “Law of the Horse”, Frank Easterbrook’s warning that technology-specific legislation is usually unnecessary. This narrative holds that the Copyright Act and Patent Act can absorb...

Canada was first out of the gate with a national AI strategy, but now risks being outpaced in the global race to implementation. How does the nation that pioneered foundational AI research translate its academic prestige into tangible, trustworthy innovation for all Canadians?

In November 2024, several Canadian media companies sued OpenAI, alleging it circumvented technological protection measures to scrape their sites, infringed copyright by copying their works, and was unjustly enriched.