Communications Law
Week 7: Video & Slides – February 26, 2021
Slides & video below… Jon
PC v. PC: Pampered Chef Succeeds Once Again in Trademark Infringement Battle: Smart & Biggar prevails in dismissal by Federal Court of Appeal.
Hi everyone, Came across this decision that reminded me of the Taylor Swift Evermore case and our brief discussion around the concept of confusion. Thought it’s pretty relevant since we are looking at passing off and trademark content right now in class. It’s about Loblaw’s private label brand, President’s Choice, with Loblaw alleging that another […]
News of the Week; February 17, 2021
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY A consultation on how to implement an extended general term of copyright protection in Canada (Canada) Copyright Term Extension – March 12 2021 Deadline to Respond to Very Disappointing Document (Howard Knopf) Afraid to Lead: Canadian Government Launches Timid Consultation on Implementing Copyright Term Extension (Michael Geist) The Copyright Bill That Does Nothing: […]
Reverse Engineering in the Digital Context
Hi everyone, I was wondering about the right to reverse engineer in the digital context and came across the following paper and blog entry via the links provided. I find the paper helpful in getting to know a bit more about the background of reverse engineering in IP. It is claimed that reverse engineering is […]
Proud Boys trademark owner surrenders registration over “toxicity”
Hi everyone, I just wanted to share something I found during a late night Reddit crawl. The owner of the trademark for Proud Boys — now a designated terrorist organization — has reportedly surrendered the organization’s trademark to the USPTO after leaving the group. As the article says, “The use of a trademark is notable […]
Kim Dotcom: Caught on the Web
Hello! This week I watched “Kim Dotcom: Caught on the Web”, a documentary about the founder of MegaUpload – a file-sharing business that profited largely from users illegally downloading music, movies and TV shows. It follows the buildup to his extradition hearing, which was claimed to be the largest copyright case the world has ever […]
Data Copyrighted in Pharmaceutical Sale
Hello everyone! I came across this interesting article today: https://thedeepdive.ca/pharmather-revive-complete-psilocybin-intellectual-property-transaction/ Although IP in the medical / drug setting is nothing new, I found it interesting that part of the IP bought by Revive Therapeutics was data related to getting FDA approval for the use of psilocybin. This reminded me of the issue raised in Geophysical […]
“Facebook blocks users in Australia from sharing news”
Hi Everyone! I’d like to share some recent developments in the European Union and Australia regarding controversial moves to make internet giants pay to post any news media on their platforms. Based on my understanding, in 2019 the European Union overhauled their copyright regime. A strict Copyright Directive was upheld by the courts which sought […]