Communications Law
Reverse Engineering in the Digital Context
Hi everyone, I was wondering about the right to reverse engineer in the digital context and came across the following paper and blog entry via the links provided. I find the paper helpful in getting to know a bit more about the background of reverse engineering in IP. It is claimed that reverse engineering is […]
Proud Boys trademark owner surrenders registration over “toxicity”
Hi everyone, I just wanted to share something I found during a late night Reddit crawl. The owner of the trademark for Proud Boys — now a designated terrorist organization — has reportedly surrendered the organization’s trademark to the USPTO after leaving the group. As the article says, “The use of a trademark is notable […]
Kim Dotcom: Caught on the Web
Hello! This week I watched “Kim Dotcom: Caught on the Web”, a documentary about the founder of MegaUpload – a file-sharing business that profited largely from users illegally downloading music, movies and TV shows. It follows the buildup to his extradition hearing, which was claimed to be the largest copyright case the world has ever […]
Data Copyrighted in Pharmaceutical Sale
Hello everyone! I came across this interesting article today: https://thedeepdive.ca/pharmather-revive-complete-psilocybin-intellectual-property-transaction/ Although IP in the medical / drug setting is nothing new, I found it interesting that part of the IP bought by Revive Therapeutics was data related to getting FDA approval for the use of psilocybin. This reminded me of the issue raised in Geophysical […]
“Facebook blocks users in Australia from sharing news”
Hi Everyone! I’d like to share some recent developments in the European Union and Australia regarding controversial moves to make internet giants pay to post any news media on their platforms. Based on my understanding, in 2019 the European Union overhauled their copyright regime. A strict Copyright Directive was upheld by the courts which sought […]
Distinction Between Methods in AI-Created Art
Hi everyone, This article on AI-generated art reminded me of the class discussion on AIs holding copyright. The article differentiates between two forms of AI art. In the first, the artist feeds specific images to the AI and then choses the best images out of the many that the AI creates. This process involves the […]
A very Canadian lawsuit: The Tragically Hip sue Mill Street Brewery in Toronto over their 100th Meridian Beer
I was scrolling through today’s news and came across something that is an interesting (and perhaps more compelling) Canadian complement to last week’s discussion on Taylor Swift’s Evermore trademark lawsuit. According to this CBC article and the Statement of Claim (found online), The Tragically Hip are suing a Toronto-based brewery (Mill Street Brewery) for trademark […]
California Cop Weaponizes Copyright Law to Avoid Accountability
Anyone who spends a reasonable amount of time online is probably familiar with copystrikes, the term given to a removal of (allegedly) copyrighted material from an individual’s website for an ostensible violation of copyright. “This media has been removed in response to a request from the copyright holder” isn’t an uncommon to thing while browsing […]
Brands – what are they? – chewing gums and their invented names
I was sitting at my desk zoning out when it struck me that the pack of Wrigley’s Excel gum I had in my line of vision shared the same name with Microsoft’s Excel. I wondered if there were any IP issues so I did a search on Canada’s IP database, which revealed that there were […]
“Want to Reverse Inequality? Change Intellectual Property Rules.”
I came across this interesting article about the effect of IP policies on inequality (in a US context). The author, Dean Baker, argues that terms of IP monopolies are perpetuating inequalities and causes “upward redistribution of wealth” in our society, and that there are other better ways to incentivize innovation and creativity. Baker also goes […]