Howard Knopf points to a Hill Times article that quotes Geoff Norquay as stating that the copyright lobby will be out in full force with the resumption of Parliament and that he expects a new bill within months. Norquay, who is registered to lobby on copyright on behalf of both Microsoft and the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, points to recent registrations by CRIA and the Canadian Private Copying Collective. While those groups will undoubtedly be active, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce has emerged as one of the most active lobbyist on intellectual property. Despite some dissension within the Chambers themselves, the national body formed a lobby specific group and it has been very active. Another counterfeiting event is planned for next week where the "best practices" and special presentations come from the United States.

More interestingly, the Chamber continues to lobby government directly. According to the latest lobbying reports, Chamber President Perrin Beatty was active late last year, meeting with Assistant Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham to discuss copyright and digital rights management, as well as with senior Industry Canada officials to discuss copyright and the report on intellectual property by McGill professor Robert Gold that concluded that IP laws may be stifling innovation and that increased patent protection may hamper future innovation (the Gold report has also been the subject of an industry-led access to information request).

As for other IP lobbying, the pharmaceutical industry continues to meet regularly with policy makers and politicians, while the CPCC did pull together a major lobby effort at Canadian Heritage in support of the private copying levy last December. Other meetings included Quebecor and the Canadian Association of Broadcasters with a senior Canadian Heritage official as well as eBay with Industry Canada on copyright.

Other interesting meetings include an eBay meeting with Canadian Heritage on network management issues, Bell CEO George Cope with Jean-Pierre Blais, ADM at Canadian Heritage on new media issues, and Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski meeting with Industry Minister Tony Clement on November 12th.

Michael Geist is a law professor and the Canada Research Chair in Internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa.