Former NFL running back Jim Brown has filed a complaint against Electronic Arts (EA) and Sony for using his image in EA’s Madden NFL series without his authorization. He is claiming unspecified damages and an order to stop any such use. While modern athletes sign agreements to use their names and likenesses in games, video […]
Tiffany, a luxury goods retailer, is appealing the verdict in its case against eBay.com, an online marketplace, for, inter alia, contributory trademark infringement. Tiffany alleges that eBay facilitated and allowed the sale of counterfeit Tiffany jewellery and, as relief, seeks an order requiring eBay not to post more than five items of Tiffany merchandise from […]
Where does the fashion industry stand in intellectual property law in Canada? Quite frankly, it doesn’t. The fashion industry in Canada is an exception to the “protection rule”. It is a creative industry, arguably as creative as music, movies and novels, yet it has not established the protection of these other industries. The question therefore […]
Following the SCC decision in CCH there has been renewed focus in Canada on balancing the rights of users with those of creators.1 Furthermore, with the most recent reformation of our copyright laws poised to die on the order paper for the second time in as many elections we are presented once again with the ability to […]
August 13, 2008 was a day of vindication for plaintiff Robert Jacobsen, as the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in vacating and remanding a U.S. District Court decision, held that an “open source” software [1] copyright license can be enforceable. Jacobsen oversees the Java Model Railroad Interface (“JRMI”) project, which created DecoderPro, […]
On August 25, 2008, a New Zealand Judge made the unprecedented decision of banning publication of the names and images of the persons on a murder charge on news websites, while allowing newspapers, TV and radio to name them and publish photos.[1] The issue is whether banning online reporting could lead to infringement of copyright. […]
YouTube: Platform For Exchange of Original Videos or Copyright Infringement? In a suit filed by Viacom against Google for alleged illegal distribution of its copyrighted content, the Court has ordered YouTube to provide its logging database for discovery purposes. Viacom seeks access to this database in order to show that most YouTube viewers are […]
In August Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart spoke about the growing concerns surrounding the online publication of federal tribunal decisions containing the personal information of individuals.[1] Tribunals routinely publish the full text of their decisions online. Stoddart’s comments are part of a growing debate that pits the long standing “open court” rule against the rights of […]
On February 6th, 2008, the Ohio Supreme Court in Al Minor & Assoc. v. Martin,[1] held that memorized information can fall within the scope of trade secrets in accordance to the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA). The court’s desire to discard the written-memorized information distinction was principally to align the UTSA with like acts from […]
A U.S. appellate court recently held in Jacobsen v. Katzer that copyright holders who dedicate their work for free public use are entitled to enforce an open-source copyright license to restrict the work's future distribution and modification. The Court ruled that open-source licenses are enforceable under copyright law, not merely under contract law, thereby providing […]