Passing Off Scotch!

Passing Off Scotch!

I was picking up a bottle of scotch for my brother’s birthday earlier this week and I couldn’t escape comparing Scotch to the Institut National case we discussed. Of course Institut National was a case dealing with champagne and the goodwill in it. In Institut National, the facts describe how French Law provides a definition […]

IP in M&A: Microsoft and Activision Blizzard Acquisition

IP in M&A: Microsoft and Activision Blizzard Acquisition

We’ve been talking about trademark and passing off as the “law of the marketplace.” Some IPs are so lucrative in the marketplace that they attract synergistic opportunities – one recent example of this is Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. This acquisition has garnered criticism among video game competitors like Sony as Activision Blizzard owns the […]

AI Writing Tools? Lex.page

AI Writing Tools? Lex.page

I was on Twitter and came across lex.page, a supposed AI word processor that is soon to be released. According to a blog by Francesco D’Alessio, lex.page “is a web-based AI writing tool that helps you generate content quickly and easily. It uses machine learning to understand your writing style and then generates new content […]

Ordinary Marks and Packaging: When Public Policy says no?

Ordinary Marks and Packaging: When Public Policy says no?

Our introductory lesson into trademarks really got me thinking about ordinary marks and signs. In reflecting I turned to none other than Apple, a company who is notorious for having unique “signs.” As an aside, I was doing some quick research and came across Apple’s own (as they make clear “non-exhaustive”) trademark list. I encourage […]

Surveying Local Goodwill: Exotic Snack Shops

Surveying Local Goodwill: Exotic Snack Shops

In this blog post I will be taking more of a narrative approach as opposed to a strictly legal approach with respect to goodwill. Bear with me while I set the stage. It was a few weeks into the lockdown – a select group of us with the same “schedules” played Call of Duty almost […]

The Connector Model in Action: Copyright and Music Sampling

The Connector Model in Action: Copyright and Music Sampling

(image sourced from: https://open.spotify.com/track/4i5hLY7mNIp70YhZveeItm)   Hello IP Law Class! I thought I would use this post to contextualize our discussion earlier on in the course regarding the connector model. The intersection between creativity and copyright is something I’m incredibly interested in, especially with respect to music sampling. Hip-hop/rap is one of my favourite genres and […]