Communications Law
IP Law in China: From Imitation to Innovation
Thanks for clicking on my post, I am glad you are here! For my term project, I chose to record a presentation introducing IP law in China. Hope you enjoy! Recorded Presentation: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f14dWeOeO1381ASNYNfXYRA2dBlJncXm/view?usp=drive_link Slides (and Bibliography): LAW 422 IP Law – Presentation Slides
TDCommons and Defensive Patent Publications
Wired recently published this article about a website Google maintains where its employees and others can post about ideas and inventions. Its primary purpose is to document ideas that might be valuable but aren’t worth spending the money on to patent. The end goal is to establish “prior art” for the ideas posted in order […]
Are Patent Trolls Really Not a Problem in Canada?
Introduction Earlier this semester, I took a two-week intensive seminar titled Comparative Intellectual Property. One of the topics we covered which I found the most interesting was patent trolls. Patent trolls are entities who do not invent or develop anything, and whose business model consists instead of buying and asserting patents against legitimate companies [1]. […]
TaylorMade v. Costco: Patent law in the world of Golf
As of February 2, 2024, Costco is now involved in their second legal dispute involving major golf companies. Back in 2017, Acushnet, the owner of Titleist, sued Costco for patent infringement and false advertising concerning Kirkland’s Signature golf balls. However, the parties resolved all claims out of court the following year. Despite this, Costco finds […]
“C’mon plagiarism”: Squishmallows v Skoosherz
Jazwares, the company behind Squishmallows (which was acquired by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway in 2022), is suing Build-a-Bear over its new Skoosherz plush line for trade dress and copyright infringement. Squishmallows were launched in 2017, exploded in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, and have built a cult following of both children and adults. Social media […]
Cheap Replicas on Foreign Website (Temu)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/regina-woodworking-business-website-stolen-ornament-design-1.7082661 A Regina business is offering a cautionary tale about shopping on discount websites after finding a cheap replica of one of its designs for sale. Sticks and Doodles is a hand-crafted woodworking and ornament store in Regina. A customer informed the owners after finding a Sticks and Doodles design — a grain elevator ornament — […]
Pokemon with guns? Palworld versus Pokemon
Pitched as “Pokemon with guns”, Palworld is the hottest game of the new year. While it has garnered immense commercial success, having sold 5 million copies in just a matter of days, many have accused the developer Pocketpair of going a step further and ripping off the designs of some Pokemon. Take a look at […]
Lord of the Rings fans…take note!!
For anyone who missed this last month….a quirky case of copyright infringement regarding fanfiction writing: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/dec/18/copyright-claim-against-tolkien-estate-backfires-on-lord-of-the-rings-fanfiction-author
Get the latest Apple Watch while you still can!
In case some folks weren’t aware, Apple has gotten themselves into a patents dispute with a medical tech company named Masimo. The dispute has to do with the watches ability to read blood-oxygen levels, which allegedly belongs to Masimo. While the watches with this feature are still available for purchase in Canada, sales have been […]
“Style, no matter how creative, is an idea, and is not protectable by copyright.” – A win for my Aritzia girlies.
A federal judge in the United States has dismissed a lawsuit against Aritzia that accused the retailer of copying an artist’s work with hot pink, squiggle-shaped sculptures that appeared in stores in early 2023. Here is the link to the initial lawsuit made by Richard X Zawitz, the owner of Tangle Creations posted by pr1ncess.