Canada Post claims rights to term ‘postal code’

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/E ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

OTTAWA — At a time when the federal government is pushing to provide Canadians with more access to public data, Canada Post is digging in its heels over the use of postal code information — and even over the words “postal code.”

The Crown corporation has been locked in a legal battle with Internet firm GeoCoder.ca for more than a year because the Ottawa company collects postal code data and uses it to recommend restaurants and other nearby services to subscribers.

Geocoder.ca has been collecting postal code data from Canadians on a volunteer basis since 2004.

In a statement of claim amended on March 9, Canada Post suggests that GeoCoder.ca is infringing on its intellectual property. The Crown corporation sells postal code data to businesses at a starting fee of $5,000. Canada Post also maintains that it possesses the trademark to the term “postal code,” which, pending the outcome of the litigation, could make commercial use of the term by anyone outside the Crown corporation illegal.

The legal proceeding has been filed before the Federal Court. No court date has been set.

Canada Post is seeking to prevent GeoCoder.ca from providing any form of postal code location data without its consent. It also wants to prevent the firm from “adopting without the consent of the plaintiff (Canada Post), in connection with a business, as a trademark or otherwise, the official Postal Code Mark or any other mark consisting of or so nearly resembling as to be likely mistaken for the Official Postal Code Marks.”

Repeated attempts to reach officials at Canada Post to explain the lawsuit were denied. A spokeswoman said Canada Post can’t comment on litigation before the courts.

The legal struggle continues even as Treasury Board Secretariat president Tony Clement travels across Canada touting the benefits of the federal government’s “open data initiative,” which aims to make government-controlled information such as safety recalls, business licences, food inspection reports, Statistics Canada research and hundreds of other data points accessible. It has set up a website at data.gc.ca to provide access to government information that is already available.

Clement’s office would not comment on the Canada Post ongoing litigation. However, in a March 11 speech in Toronto, he spoke of the importance of sharing government controlled data with Canadians.

“Open Data is about using new and emerging technologies to access raw, previously unavailable government data and reimagining it in ways that spur innovation and improve people’s lives,” he said.

Ervin Ruci, founder of Geocoder.ca, said the hassle Canada Post has presented over the collection and use of postal code data should act as a warning to any business trying to using government-created data for financial gain. He pointed to several other businesses, including Canadian Tire and Walmart, that ask for postal code information in order to present customers with a local store’s sale flyer.

“It’s very odd. This isn’t happening in other countries,” said Ruci. “In England, the postal code is in the public domain. Government created these codes and people now have to use them. If they try to create what I call a ‘postal code tax,’ it will be preposterous.”

The Canadian government’s open data initiative is patterned after a similar initiative in Britain in 2010. Britain opened its stores of government data to citizens in hopes of seeing people use that data to create new notification systems, public awareness campaigns and businesses based on statistics that were previously accessible only to bureaucrats. Postal codes were included in the information opened to public consumption.