If you have been in or around a Tim Horton’s in the past few weeks, you may have seen the current promotion involving Justin Bieber. Beanies, tote bags, Tim Bits boxes and even fanny packs bear the tim x biebs mark. This collaboration is incredibly bizarre to me. Aside from being famously Canadian brands, I […]

*(spoiler alert if you want to watch the Sex and the City Reboot)* I am sure many of you are familiar with this story, but in case some of us aren’t major ‘Sex in the City’ fans, I thought I would share a brief post on it about a recent trademark issue that came up […]

Hi All, I found this article on patent infringement quite intriguing. Lululemon is suing Peloton for patent infringement in US court on several of its apparel items, namely sports bras and leggings. Maybe this highlights the differences between American and Canadian patent law or maybe this highlights my own ignorance in fashion. However, in Canada, […]

It appears to be well established in Canadian courts that intellectual property law should not be used as a tool to stifle political criticism. But practically speaking … can it? In another course this semester I came across an incident that occurred with 2010 when Greenpeace initiated a protest campaign against Kit Kat. It got […]

Hello everyone, Upon seeing Trevor’s presentation on patent trolls earlier this term, I thought that it would be interesting to discuss the LOT (License on Transfer) Network, an organizational network of companies whose goal is to protect members from patent trolls. According to the Network’s website, all member companies of the LOT Network agree that […]

Hey all, there was some talk recently in the UK about changing their copyright laws that I figured I would share here. Basically, a few members of the United Kingdom House of Lords have been raising concerns about a loophole that has allowed some bettors to gain an advantage while gambling in horseracing. The ‘trick’ […]

BASIC OVERVIEW   Five publishers control more than 50% of all scientific publishing (ScienceDaily).   These publishers generally have had little to no role in either the funding or creation of the works that they publish, but they enjoy almost all the direct pecuniary rewards from their published material (Guardian). These works are guarded by […]

Hi everyone, We’d like to share with you our talk for our assignment on IP Law. We discuss the IP cases of the street artist, Banksy, and the implication on copyright and trademark law relating to the anonymous creators in the EU and the Canadian context. In the latter part of our discussion, we try […]

Please head over to UBC Canvas for the Course Review & Exam Prep. Modules. Because of the embedded audio they were too large to fit here on the course website. Thanks and sorry for any inconvenience… LAW 422/570C 001 2021W1 Jon

Video & slides below…Note that exam prep is towards the end of the class…. Jon

  Hi all, I saw this article in the New York Times this week about plagiarism and copyright in the world of recipes and cookbooks: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/29/dining/recipe-theft-cookbook-plagiarism.html The article discusses one recent high-profile instance of recipe plagiarism: A London chef published a cookbook based on the cuisine of her native Singapore, which turned out to feature […]

Video & slides below… Jon

Good Evening LAW422! Please find attached Trevor Hunt and I’s podcast titled “Unintellectual Property.” During the episode, we discuss the controversy surrounding the fashion brand “We Wore What” and social media influencer Danielle Bernstein. We dive into the issues surrounding Ms. Bernstein and her brand, and whether we think she could be found guilty of […]

Hello everyone, I have prepared a short presentation on the topic of patent trolls, you should be able to listen to the audio on slides.   Patent Trolls

In order to look deeper into the Indigenous Intellectual Property issues, let’s start with two anecdotes from Hugh Stephen’s blog (https://hughstephensblog.net/2019/10/08/can-copyright-law-protect-indigenous-culture-if-not-what-is-the-answer/). Great Bear Rainforest, is a pro-environment documentary film that was produced by Heiltsuk First Nation. Mr. Byron Horner holds the copyrights of the film and is legally entitled to use it. The issue raises […]