The DJ Girl Talk has won media attention for his new album “Feed the animals”. Besides positive reviews, Girl Talk has been put at the forefront of a phenomenon that challenged traditional restrictions in copyright law since his new album constitutes 300 clips from other artist’s songs. Pursuant to the Canadian Copyright Act, the owner […]
Former NFL star, Jim Brown’s recent lawsuit against Electronic Arts and Sony, highlights the unique challenges that modern day technology presents to our legal system. In his suit, Brown claims that his likeness is being used in the series of Madden NFL games without his permission. Although his name and image are not used in […]
In the wake of the Liberals unveiling of their new carbon tax plan, “A Green Shift for Canada”, Liberals were confronted by an 8.5 million dollar trademark lawsuit. The plaintiff company, “Green shift Inc” was trademarked in 2003 and provides services to help companies adopt environmentally friendly policies and practices. This suit was recently settled […]
In a recent article for the Globe and Mail entitled “Sticking to official Olympic brands – with duct tape”, Rod Mickleburgh discusses the various procedures “commercial rights management” officials will be taking during the upcoming Vancouver Olympic games in light of the practices which were enforced this past summer in Beijing. One of these customs […]
In a controversial decision, the Supreme Court of the State of New York held that the use of a music recording in a film falls under the protection of “fair use.”[1] The film in question defends the theory of Intelligent Design which refers to the idea that the world is created by an omnipotent designer […]
Forget superheroes and cartoon plumbers; the gaming public can now play Charles Darwin. In Spore, the long-awaited new game from the creator of The Sims, players can help a race of beings evolve from single-celled organisms in the primordial ooze to space-faring explorers. The game was epically hyped, and it garnered stellar pre-release reviews. But […]
Recent litigation has shown that misunderstandings relating to the nature of the online public domain are facilitating an increase in online illegal activity. The root of this problem is the presumption that uploading information to the internet makes it part of the ‘public domain’ where ‘ownership’ automatically ceases to exist. If this were unequivocally true, […]
When Steven Harper called a federal election on September 7th he effectively killed all bills progressing through parliament. Bill C-61, containing controversial changes to the Copyright Act, was amongst the casualties. While there is widespread support for remodeling the Copyright Act the direction taken by the Conservatives was not so popular. The government’s heavy emphasis […]
Although the merchandise that the jewellery giant Tiffany & Co. creates tends to sparkle and shine, its recent legal decision to appeal the U.S. federal court’s decision regarding its case against eBay appears much duller in comparison. I am referring to the appeal of that court's verdict that held that eBay was not under further […]
Issue 1: Search Engines Selling Ad Space For Keywords That Happen To Be Trademarked Brands Search engines, including Google, commonly sell Internet ad space on searches that are particular to the keywords used in the search. When the keyword is an actual trademarked brand, a competitor to that brand may purchase the ad space to that […]