Copyright & Social Media
Communications Law
“Super Hero” Trademarks Canceled
A United States Trademark Office tribunal recently canceled Marvel and DC’s trademarks of “Super Hero” and “Super Heroes”. Superbabies Ltd. petitioned for this cancellation and Marvel and DC did not file an answer to the petition nor to the motion for default judgment for Superbabies. In turn, the tribunal granted default judgment which is allowed […]
Using Music on Social Media and Copyright Infringement
Came across this CBC story today https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7333706 discussing Sony’s lawsuit against SUVA Beauty, a local beauty brand. Sony alleges that SUVA was not authorized to use music by popular artists as the soundtrack in videos used to promote its brand on social media. Use of popular music in videos is not a rare occurrence on […]
Copyright over facts – could this be how the Slipknot legal dispute was resolved?
For context for those who don’t know Slipknot, they’re an extremely famous heavy metal band with an incredible legacy. However, in this post, I’ll be talking about their very early years. In their first album, titled Slipknot, they ran into a very interesting IP dispute. There were two songs on the album, titled “Purity” and […]
Patents on Plant Breeding: A Growing Threat to Innovation and Diversity
I wanted to share a quick summary of an interesting article I came across in NZZ (Swiss newspaper) about intellectual property issues related to plant breeding and patents in Europe. The article, written by Simon Degelo, highlights how patents on genetically engineered plants are becoming a growing problem, particularly for smaller breeding companies. Although patents on plant […]
Patent Abuse: How Drug Companies Inflate Prices by Patenting Inhaler Cap!
In the pharmaceutical industry, it’s standard practice for generic versions of a drug to be released once the original patent expires, leading to competitive pricing as manufacturers compete to offer the lowest cost, and the original patent holder loses their exclusive rights. However, in the U.S., this process is often disrupted. A recent FTC investigation […]
Interesting short segment from CBC’s the Early Edition on whether AI should be open sourced
I heard this short segment by chance the other day about whether AI should be open sourced. It includes an interesting suggestion that OpenAI has arguably increasingly deviated from their initial mission of increasing access to AI. Still not sure about my own opinion on this, as I think there could be valid arguments for […]
The White Stripes suing Trump for copyright Infringement
I have been the drummer and founding member of the internationally touring locally based Vancouver alternative rock/pop band Meltt since 2014. This has brought the complicated and expansive world of IP law in the music and entertainment industry into my day-to-day work life and has fascinated me ever since. This article (published yesterday Sept 9th, […]