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Remote storage digital video recorders in Australia

Billy Barnes is a JD candidate at the University of Toronto. MyTVR, a new remote storage digital video recorder (RS-DVR) service has recently launched in Australia. The service allows paying customers to record TV shows and stream them to their PC or mobile phone. It sounds great, but the legality of the service is far […]

The Concept of Life and Neocolonialism

Jasdeep Singh Bal is a J.D. candidate (2011) at Osgoode Hall and is taking the Patent Law course. There is a disconnect between patent laws, which are reflective of Western Industrial and commercial theories, and Eastern philosophies. According to Scheper-Hughes and Lock, there are essentially three different ways in which a body is viewed, two […]

Adding Some Obvious Flexibility

David Alli is a J.D. Law Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School, and is taking the Patent Law course. In 2008 the Supreme Court of Canada delivered a seminal decision in Apotex Inc. v. Sanofi- Synthelabo Canada Inc. et. al. (2008 SCC 61) [Sanofi] relating to Patents and the key factor of obviousness. The case dealt […]

Copyright Woes of a Games Designer

Amanda Carpenter is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. The British case Burrows v. Smith was recently noted by the 1709 copyright blog. In this case, a computer games designer (Stuart Burrows) tries to claim ownership of his own work after having already sold it to a prior employer. Burrows developed an initial […]

The Linguistic and Trust Functions of Trademarks

Ariel Katz is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto. Ariel holds the Innovation Chair in Electronic Commerce and is the Director of the Centre for Innovation Law and Policy of the University of Toronto. Modern trademark scholarship and jurisprudence view trademark law as an institution aimed at improving […]

Neither Fish Nor Fowl - Trade-mark and Copyright Protection for Titles

Bob Tarantino is a lawyer in the Entertainment Law Group of Heenan Blaikie LLP. He holds graduate degrees in law from Osgoode Hall Law School and the University of Oxford. A suitable name for an entertainment project can be critical to its success and can even enhance the aesthetic effect of the overall work.  In […]

Obama's Likeness Used to Sell Rain Coats

Stuart Freen is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama found himself in a strange place: Plastered across a 30-foot billboard in Times Square, hawking rain coats. The Weatherproof advertisement depicted a bold-looking Obama walking along the Great Wall of China with his hands dug into the pockets […]

Secure IPR essential for China's Growth

Virgil Cojocaru is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. Google recently surprised the world by announcing it may pull out of China. In the meantime, it would no longer enforce China’s information suppression and screening platform. Ultimately, if Google leaves China, it will do so because the country’s government would not tolerate Google […]

France and the Right to Forget

Peter Waldkirch is a second year LL.B. student at the University of Ottawa. The BBC recently reported on a proposed law in France about creating an online “right to forget” (Internet legislation would seem to be a hot issue in France; recent news includes the October 2009 acceptance of the graduated-response “3-strikes” HADOPI 2, and […]

SCOTUS releases 5-4 decision to shut out video streaming of Prop 8 trial

Nathan Fan is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. Advocates of greater media access to court proceedings were frustrated by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision to prohibit the live broadcasting of the controversial Proposition 8 trial in California. In a 5-4 majority decision released on 13 January 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court […]