“Murda on the Beat, so it’s not nice”, “We got London on the Track”, “Young chop on the beat”. If you have listened to popular music in the past decade, particularly hip-hop, you have likely heard recurring phrases such as these included at the start of a song. These clips are known as “producer tags” […]

*This post is submitted as my final project for the course* AGAINST INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY         In this essay, I argue that intellectual property (“IP”) cannot be justified by property rights alone, as it is based on artificially created scarcity. IP rights are rights to intangible things, which, by definition, cannot be scarce. […]

Happy Taco Tuesday! While munching on some delicious tacos for dinner tonight, I ran across an interesting endeavor by Taco Bell to liberate the phrase ‘Taco Tuesday’ for restaurants nationwide. Recently, Taco Bell successfully resolved its dispute with a New Jersey based restaurant, Gregory’s Restaurant & Bar to abandon its trademark covering the phrase in […]

Hi all! For my participation component, I did a mini presentation on college athlete NILs in the States. To access via Google Slides, click the image below:  

Generative AI raises a host of interesting legal issues. An area of large controversy involves the creation of large language models to train systems such as ChatGPT. Professor Festinger has mentioned the case of  Margaret Atwood, specially the world-renowned author’s response when she found out pirated copies of her books were used to train AI. In […]

I got intrigued by the intersection of NFTs and IP: what intellectual property rights in the underlying work are granted to an NFT owner? Do NFT transactions impose particular IP infringement risks? How could creators and IP owners better protect their IP rights in the NFT world?     What are NFTs? NFTs (non-fungible tokens) […]

Since last summer, when wildfires blazed through my hometown of Kelowna, I’ve been thinking a lot about the role of the law in supporting action to mitigate climate change. And IP law has a big role to play. Decreasing global CO2 emissions will require not only mass deployment of existing clean technologies, but also the development […]

Slides & video below…

  Background Throughout 2023, an array of artists ranging from Bad Bunny, Daddy Yankee, and Pitbull have been in a legal showdown with the progenitors of Reggaeton. Steely and Clevie (“S&C”) –– two musical producers from Jamaica –– allege that more than 150 popular artists, songwriters and record companies have used their copyrighted works without permission. […]

I was reading the following post on the class site, and it reminded me of how technically complicated musical copyright could be at times. An issue that often comes is what makes music original enough to qualify for copyright protection? In the US, I found a case that does not give an exact answer, but […]

A few months ago, an Instagram account that looked like supermodel Kendall Jenner popped up on my feed and introduced herself as Billie. At first I was confused about this, wondering if it was a new advertisement or brand deal that Jenner was participating in. Wanting to know more, I clicked on the account to […]

In most Slavic languages, a tesla is a type of hammer (see main post picture). It’s great for pulling out nails and as a kid, grandma and I used teslas to plant potatoes on the farm. It’s also good for settling disputes. But can it be used in a lawsuit for IP infringement? Drumroll….: it […]

Why are these people dressed up as caterpillars? Why are they eating cake? Why are they fighting? If you are like me, you have been toiling over this mystery for several months. It has caused me many sleepless nights. I am sure you are all dying for an explanation. Luckily for you, I have investigated […]

There is a growing trend on the internet to use AI Image Generators to make memes. One prominent meme format is to have a movie poster generated in a style that resembles Disney Pixar posters. Many of these generated posters are intended to be offensive while prominently displaying the Disney Pixar logo, due to Disney’s […]