On February 28th 2012, the Navajo Nation filed a lawsuit against Urban Outfitters Inc. and its subsidiaries in the District Court of New Mexico for ‘trademark infringement, trademark dilution, unfair competition and commercial practice laws violation and for the violation of The Indian Arts and Crafts Act’. The basis of the Navajo Nation's complaint was […]
There is little doubt that the protection of the patent system has been instrumental in the continued innovation in science and technology by allowing the inventor (or filer of the patent) to reap the benefits of their effort and creativity. The realm of public health is no stranger to these benefits, with such innovation having […]
On June 8th 2012, lawyers and artists will be converging in Ottawa for the Art + Law conference, hosted by CARFAC. One of the major topics of discussion will doubtless be the recently debated Artists' Resale Right (ARR).
This comment was prepared for the Harvard Law Review Forum “The New Private Law” Symposium (October 2011) as a response to Shyamkrishna Balganesh’s “The Obligatory Structure of Copyright Law: Unbundling the Wrong of Copying,” 125 Harvard Law Review 1664 (2012).
At the heart of the Rosetta Stone v Google lawsuit is whether the sale of trademarks as search keywords for sponsored links makes Google liable for trademark infringement. Recently, the United States Court of Appeal for the Fourth Circuit in Rosetta Stone Ltd v Google, Inc reversed a significant portion of a Virginia district court decision […]
Free online access to tax-funded scientific research is the most recent movement by American open-access advocate group Access2Research. The group calls for a policy similar to the one currently implemented by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). New scientific papers, which were funded by the NIH, are deposited in the online databank PubMED within a […]
Ceaseless lobbying on the behalf of Canadian artists frustrated by their ambiguous position in relation to other labourers subsequently culminated in the Federal Government of Canada proclaiming the Status of the Artist Act.
Previously cited as "the case that could shut down the internet", Roadshow Films Pty Ltd v iiNet Ltd [2012] HCA 16 (commonly known as AFACT v iiNet or the iiTrial) concluded with a unanimous decision from the Australian High Court ruling that the iiNet, an internet service provider, was not liable for copyright infringement from […]
A recent report by the UK Intellectual Property Office [IPO] draws attention to trade mark cluttering. Trade mark cluttering occurs “where firms hold trade marks that are overly broad or unused raising search costs for later applicants.”