Hi everyone, as we were studying about patents and due to the current climate, I feel it is only relevant to talk about the situation occurring between Russia, Ukraine and wider global involvement. I came across this article by Mark Mathison (Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP) which spoke about the western sanctions imposed on Russia due to […]

This paper is written as a piece for participation in the Intellectual Property (“IP”) Course, April 2022. It gives a summary of patent law in the UK. Following our first lecture on patents in Canada, I decided it might be a good idea to briefly discuss the requirement for granting patents in the UK and […]

Hi everyone! I’m Prince and I’m an exchange student over from Scotland, UK. I have attached my short piece on the role of copyright law in the Canadian music industry. I chose this particular topic as I am a musician myself and wanted to enlighten myself to the Canadian Industry. We didn’t cover too much […]

Video & slides below… Jon

Introduction In the time leading up to legalization of marijuana in Canada, a “green rush” swept the Toronto Stock Exchange. Money poured into companies starting up to service both the Canadian and U.S. markets. It has only been about 5 years post legalization and already there are clear signs of the impending psychedelic surge. Studies […]

By now, I am sure most of us have either heard of or played the daily brainteaser Wordle. The online 5-letter word game developed by Josh Wardle, a Brooklyn-based software engineer, is released daily. Players have six attempts to guess the word of the day. Simple enough. But, with any new internet craze, comes those […]

Hello everyone, I found this article describing a performance on the Ellen DeGeneres show that featured NFT animated dancers: https://decrypt.co/95735/nft-band-debuts-singer-kiesza-ellen-degeneres-show. The dance moves executed by the dancers (who are Chewbacca-like rainbow-coloured furry humanoids) are apparently stored on the blockchain.  What’s interesting in the context of this course is how the artist leading the performance suggests […]

Hi everyone, I’ve been loving the movie and soundtrack of “Encanto” lately, so I thought I’d do a dive into its trademark applications to the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office). Here are a few interesting and fun facts: I found 10 separate “Disney Encanto” trademark applications. 2 are of the “stylized script”: *click […]

Being an exchange student from Denmark I figured it would be interesting to give everyone a glimpse into Danish trademark law by looking at a case. The case will provide some insight into how trademarks are delt with in Danish law. I also find the aftermath of this specific case particularly interesting, because it shows […]

Yesterday, Young Adult novelist Laura Silverman tweeted that one of her candles she was selling was being taken down for Trademark infringement. Silverman’s candle, which she was selling on Etsy, had a label that read: “Go Away, I’m Reading Fanfiction.” This was allegedly an infringement on the “Harry Potter” trademark, but Silverman noted that she […]

Video & Slides below… Jon

Here’s the article: Canadian entertainment brand allows NFT holders to own their characters (VIDEO) We previously discussed in class the unfortunate case where a crypto investment / entertainment group purchased a copy of Dune for an exorbitant price, and the fact that ownership of the book did not confer copyright. Now we have entertainment brands […]

Hi all, Here is my presentation for this class. Please let me know if you are having trouble accessing it. The presentation is on Github Copilot and the copyright implications of AI-generated code. Here is some background material regarding Github, Github Copilot, as well as the GPL licenses implicated by the use of Github Copilot […]

*Please note that I wrote this to post before class 2, so it only covers the course material from class 1 and week 2 readings: Hey everyone, the Kenrick & Co v Lawrence & Co case from our first class about a drawing of a hand reminded me of one of the most memorable copyright […]

Hello everyone, Just as a follow-up to one of the most important topics from the last class, I would like to share this research showing that Ed Sheeran’s height in fact is not 4’11”. Rather, as the attached article shows, he is 5 feet and 7¾ inches tall. The author also points out that “[t]here’s nothing […]