Perverse Incentives

Hi all, I wanted to share a podcast episode I listened to recently. The podcast, “The Daily” by the New York Times, discussed how Gilead (a pharmaceutical company) delayed the release of a new version of a drug to maximize its profits from existing patents. Gilead initially developed a drug for H.I.V. treatment which had […]
Week 4 Fall 2023 – Slides & Video

Slides & video below…
A Copyright of a Copyright

Hello! I found this interesting article regarding a copy copywriting another copy! Humans of Bombay – one of the many unauthorized spin-offs of Humans of New York – is suing People of India for copyright infringement. Humans of Bombay is claiming that their photo format (posting a photo of an individual with an excerpt of […]
Google & AI

Hi everyone, I stumbled upon this update about Google’s use of generative AI and thought a deeper dive into some of their new uses of AI would be interesting. As seen in this news article, Google has joined Microsoft, Adobe, and others in pledging to protect consumers who use their generative AI products from IP […]
News of the Week: September 11 – October 11, 2023

Copyrightable Titles?

Looking at Francis, Day & Hunter Ltd v Twentieth Century Fox Corp Ltd [Francis] made me think of a few artists who could possibly challenge the general rule that there is no separate copyright in the title of the work, or rather, satisfy the exception. The quote regarding the exception to the rule: …provided that [the title] […]
Netflix vs Game Company – Rebel Moon

If you are like me and enjoy Sci-fi movies and games or messy contract disputes, this article will be an interesting one! Recently, California-based game company Evil Genius Games (“EG”) sued Netflix for breach of contract over the streaming giant’s forthcoming new science fiction series “Rebel Moon”. The contract between Netflix and EG agreed on […]
Week 3 Fall 2023 – Slides & Video

Afraid the cameras in the room were not working but all else was. Slides & video below…Jon
Week 2 Fall 2023 – Slides & Video

Slides & video below…
News of the Week: March 27 – September 10, 2023

Week 1 Fall 2023 – Slides & Video

Slides & video below. No sound for second half of class break. At this point almost a guaranteed first day of class mess-up my part after a summer away – forgetting to turn mic back on after the break. apologies to all…Jon
“Network Article 23”: The Major Stumbling Block to the Development of Copyright Protection in Hong Kong

With the rapid technological development, it is getting easier and easier for people to gain access to copyrighted materials, to download, alter and modify their content, and to share the copies online. To strengthen copyright protection in this technological era, the Hong Kong government has launched a consultation process in 2006 to make amendment to […]
8 x 8: It’s More Complicated Than You Think

This post was written by Braydon Massoud. He currently is knee-deep in tax law and couldn’t get access to post, so I’m posting for him. Hi everyone, in choosing which topic to write about I decided to pick chess, because it feels like a fun case study in which to apply the copyright laws […]
Do It Yourself: Did you really?

I recently watched Meghan Maulucci’s video linked in her IP Law post “Meg’s IP Law Knitting Circle: Protecting Crochet Creators”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQbF4o5uGII&ab_channel=MeghanMaulucci Meghan’s video examines whether we should revise the current legal understanding of what is copyrightable. She notes (starting at 2:30) that in the U.S. context, copyright doesn’t protect certain classes of works, like fashion […]
Rights, Raps, and Robots: Drake’s Voice Mimicked by AI – Is it a ‘Hotline Bling’ or a Copyright Sting?

By: James Miller and Ajay Partap Gill Canadian copyright law, as embodied in the Copyright Act of Canada, seeks to strike a delicate balance between the rights of creators and the public interest in accessing and using creative works. The advent of AI generated voices in music has challenged the objectives of Copyright law […]