Communications Law
“KIMONO” : Trademark Controversy between Kim Kardashian and the Japanese culture.
In the “season” of Trademark, I decided to share this trademark controversy that happened in 2019. On June 25, 2019, Kim Kardashian revealed her new shapewear called Kimono Solutionwear which caused an uproar on Twitter. “I’ve been passionate about this for 15 years,” the reality star wrote. “Kimono is my take on shapewear and solutions […]
Copyright and Mahayana Buddhist Sutras
I thought to write on this topic after reading the following, from the Wikipedia page on the Diamond Sutra: It is also the first known creative work with an explicit public domain dedication, as its colophon at the end states that it was created “for universal free distribution” Looking into the matter, this is somewhat misleading. “It” refers not to the […]
IP in Karate
I know Professor Festinger is probably hoping that someone will do an interpretive IP dance, and while I won’t be doing that here, this gets close! My contribution here relates to copyright and trademark issues in the creation of a hybrid kata based on two different styles of karate. For those not in the know, […]
A brief discussion of the philosophical justifications for intellectual property
Hey everyone! I wanted to briefly discuss the various dominant theories that are used to justify the grant of intellectual property rights and some of their shortcomings. Some of these theories have been mentioned during the course. Please see the discussion below: One of the prominent justifications for the grant of Intellectual Property rights […]
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 […]
IP in Daily Life
I am part of the LSS Social Council this year and am in charge of securing venues for our yearly events. In receiving an event quote from one of the venues this evening, something stood out to me that I otherwise wouldn’t have noticed had I not taken this course: It would be great to […]
“This smells familiar” – Copyright and fragrances: Zara perfumes
Let’s talk about fragrances. So recently I walked into a Zara store on Robson Street for my weekly shopping through my eyes (*inserts laugh). I made my way to the perfume section and the “ Red Temptation” caught my eye. I got to know from social media it was the dupe of “Maison Francis Kurkdjian […]
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 […]
Fairness and Fandom: The Uncertain Relationship of Fanfiction and Canadian Copyright Law
For my term project I chose to explore the legal status of fanfiction within Canadian Copyright Law. My focus on this topic was inspired by my long-time love for the Harry Potter series, which first introduced me to fanfiction, as well as Professor Festinger’s comments in his October 31 lecture, regarding the uncertain status of […]
“Derivative Works” in Canada?
When we learned from this course that academic exam papers count as literary works,[1] and student notes can be literary works too, I started to wonder if a student take notes for a course, sell the notes, and earn a lot of money (because the notes / the professor are so popular), can the professor receive […]