Canadian Research Center Admits Plagiarism in 3 Reports on Intellectual Property

The Conference Board of Canada admitted in a statement on Wednesday that its three recalled reports on intellectual property were unbalanced and contained plagiarized material. The board said that, after a review, it had concluded that “plagiarism did occur, and it wasn’t detected due to insufficient oversight of this project.”

“The evidence indicates,” the statement continues, that “there was undue reliance on feedback from a funder who was deemed to have important technical expertise. We failed to seek similar feedback from a broad range of stakeholders. The reports relied heavily on too few sources and lacked sufficient balance. Moreover, the reports did not follow our internal quality-review process. Over all, there was inadequate monitoring of this entire project.”

The independent think tank recalled the reports after Michael Geist, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, pointed out the shortcomings.

The board has also announced that Ruth Corbin, an adjunct professor of intellectual property at Osgoode Hall Law School, will write a new report on intellectual property. —Karen Birchard