Copyright & Social Media
Communications Law
AO3 vs AI: Are copyright claims the solution to unauthorized data scraping of fanfiction sites?
Fanfiction refers to creative fiction produced by fans of a particular original work that derives from its characters, plot, settings, or themes. Fanworks are characterized by their transformative nature as creative reinterpretations and expansions upon the original source material. They are non-commercial in nature, crafted out of a genuine love for the source content and […]
Fanfiction writer sues author – loses lawsuit and loses his work
You have heard about authors suing fanfiction writers, you have heard about authors suing ChatGPT, but have you ever heard of fanfiction writers suing authors? In a rather bizarre case, Demetrious Polychron, an avid fan of the Lord of the Rings franchise, decided to sue the Tolkien Estate and Amazon for alleged copyright infringement […]
Trademark Nightmares
Posting this for any fans of Kitchen Nightmares who want to see an example of how trademarking can go wrong. Apparently in Baltimore the endearing term ‘Hon’ (short for honey) is very popular. This led one local café owner to trademark the name of her café, “Café Hon”. She also threatened to sue other people […]
Source Recourse? Intellectual Property and Fanfiction
When we’ve fallen in love with a story, a character, or a fantasy land, there is a tendency to want to dive deeper into this fictional universe. The original creative minds may spur out sequels and spinoffs in response to fan demand – or they may not. Either way, it is almost guaranteed that the […]
How Intellectual Property Has Prevented North America from Getting a Sequel to Earthbound
As the exam season draws to a close, I, like many of you, will be spending my time away from school playing video games. One of my favourite video games is Earthbound. This is a Japanese role-playing game, or JRPG, which has the protagonist Ness attempt to save the world from aliens. The game was […]
What happens when fanart gets too good?
As a lifelong musical theatre fan, my current obsession is Mozart, the Rock Opera (the “Musical”).[1] I recently came across some incredible Fanart that got me pondering all the copyright issues between fanart and the original Musical. The Musical is French, with no official adaptions to other languages. Yet, some very talented Chinese fans have […]
Apple’s Lost Patent Battle: Out of Time?
If you were planning to give a loved one an Apple Watch for Christmas this year, I hope that you are not a last-minute shopper, because the newest versions of the beloved smart watch are being pulled from the Apple website on December 21st and from store shelves on December 24th. The reason? A patent […]
Video game copycats – where is the line drawn?
Hi IP friends, in an attempt to wind down from the IP exam, I made myself a nice latte with some latte art and fired up my favorite game, ‘League of Legends’ but what do I see? IP issues again! On December 18th, a decision was made in California federal court for a Singapore-based video […]
The Rise of the Machines
“The rise of the machines is here, but they do not come as conquerors, they come as creators.”[1] This concept of creating is fundamental to Canadian copyright law. Indeed, copyright’s raison d’etre has been described as “encouraging the dissemination of works…and obtaining a just reward for the creator.”[2] Why then, have these machines divided […]
Trademarks and Freedom of Expression
In the 2016 Republican primary debate, Senator Marco Rubio and Donald Trump had an exchange where senator Rubio joked about the size of Donald Trump’s hands alluding to another part of his anatomy. Referring to this exchange, Steve Elster began selling merchandise using the phrase “TRUMP TOO SMALL” and applied to register the phrase as […]