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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 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 […]

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 […]

Hope everyone has been doing well and getting geared up for the upcoming exam on Tuesday! While I was immersing myself in the world of IP, I also started contemplating where I should treat myself to a well-deserved dinner after the exam. That’s how the Beijing Judian Restaurant Co. Ltd. v. Meng decision of the […]

A bit of a study break to write about some interesting news I came across this week – the iconic short film from Walt Disney, Steamboat Willie, is set to have its copyright expire and become part of the public domain next year. It got me thinking of how while copyright can’t be renewed through […]

This is not a post to explore some recent IP news or to discuss anything all that sophisticated or groundbreaking. I thought this might a bit fun and a good warm up for the exam on Tuesday. This could also be a great opportunity to squeeze in some last minute participation marks. So, I invite […]

Hi all, thought I’d share a couple stories I found were interesting.  The largest youtuber, Mr Beast, got sued for trademark infringement for the use of the name “Deez Nutz” on one of his candy bars by a peanut company called “Dee’s Nuts”. Lawyers for Mr Beast unsuccessfully argued that the term has been used […]

It all started when Lenz posted a YouTube video of her then-toddler-aged son dancing while Prince’s song “Let’s Go Crazy” played in the background, and Universal used copyright claims to get the link disabled. The case brought to the court is: whether a rightsholder can use the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to take down an obvious fair […]

The Andy Warhol decision released in May of this year reflects the US court’s latest interpretation of the fair use doctrine, and sparked controversy of what constitutes the first factor in the fair use doctrine, namely, “the purpose and character of the use”. The differences between the majority and dissent opinions highlight the tension between […]