“The fundamental purpose of trademark law, in the bricks-and-mortar world and on the Internet, is to protect consumers from being confused as to the source or affiliation of the products or services that they seek to buy”, announced American Airlines in American Airlines, Inc. v. Google, Inc. in August 2007. The airline brought the lawsuit […]
What happens when a corporation files for a trademark on a popular phrase? In the case of “The Last Best Place”, the cries from outraged Montanans were heard all the way into the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, where lawmakers took unusual steps recently to try and ensure that no one could have […]
In his New York Times Article “Steal This Hook? D.J. Skirts Copyright Law” Robert Levine presents Girl Talk, a D.J. “at the forefront of a group of musicians” who in Levine’s words “are challenging the traditional restrictions of copyright law along with the usual role of samples in pop music.” [1] Girl Talk, a.k.a. Greg Gillis, […]
In 2007, a coalition of 31 major media industry groups brought an action against Sébastien Brulotte (HYPERLINKs: http://torrentfreak.com/canadian-music-labels-take-on-bittorrent-trackers-071018/ AND http://torrentfreak.com/backdoor-to-banning-all-canadian-bittorrent-sites-071125/ )). On July 9, 2008, Mr. Brulotte received a permanent injunction from the Superior Court of Quebec, ordering the closing of his site QuebecTorrent, a peer-to-peer (p2p) network used to share files (HYPERLINK: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=648919 )). […]
Social networking sites can help users communicate with friends, find people with similar interests, facilitate professional networking and give exposure to lesser-known artists. With these sites becoming all the rage, there is now a question of who owns the information posted on user profiles. Once you create a profile and post your thoughts, do you […]
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, […]