Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. has survived a challenge against its “Display Device” patent by DSM IP Assets B.V. in a ruling by the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) that tries to clarify the law around public disclosure of a patent and the use of email.
Canada has been lobbying to enter the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and its efforts have seemingly paid off with an exclusive invite to the secretive nine-member club on June 19, 2012. With Ottawa championing its economic benefits and potential, there are many asking a simple question – what have we given up?
One of the recent pentalogy of copyright decisions that has forever changed Canadian copyright law is Alberta (Education) v. Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright), 2012 SCC 37. The decision focused on the concept of fair dealing, and its application to photocopying books for educational purposes.
Sometimes called “the Apple iTunes” case, SOCAN v Bell, 2012 SCC 36 was one of the five copyright rulings released by the Supreme Court of Canada last week. The case concluded that short preview clips streamed by online music retailers qualify as fair dealing for the purpose of research under s. 29 of the Copyright […]
On July 12, 2012, in a unanimous 9-0 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the appeal launched by Re:Sound, rejecting an application for Tariffs on soundtracks accompanying cinematographic works. The SCC held that a sound recording accompanied by a video is precluded from collecting the s.19 remuneration right.
The much anticipated Supreme Court of Canada ruling in Rogers Communications Inc v Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada, 2012 SCC 35 (Rogers v SOCAN), culminated with a unanimous Court holding that on-demand transmissions of music streams made available by online music services constitute communications “to the public”. Consequently, the on-demand streaming of […]
Entertainment Software Association of Canada v SOCAN was one of two 5-4 split decisions of the copyright pentalogy decisions released on July 12. Online media and software producers and distributors won a major victory. The Supreme Court ruled that the “communication to the public by telecommunication” right does not apply to downloads of a musical […]
In June, Google, Inc. received some welcome news in France after the lawsuits instigated by the French Publishers Association (Syndicat national de l’édition) and the French Author’s Association (Société des gens de lettres) were withdrawn following a successfully agreed upon “framework” settlement. Google wrote on its European Public Policy blog that the new arrangement gives […]
The United States Court of Appeals has handed down a ruling that tries to clarify the overlap of First Amendment protected artistic expression and unregistered and registered trade-marks.
Without a background in horse racing, I feel comfortable expressing today as a “Fivefecta”. Since Monday’s announcement that the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) would release judgments in five critically important copyright appeals heard on December 6 and 7, 2011, there has been a growing excitement in the Copyright community. The decisions from these appeals, […]