Home » 2012 (Page 14)

Whose Copyright Reigns Supreme? Copyright and Reality Television Shows

The battle’s heating up, but this time it’s not in kitchen stadium – it’s in the courthouse. Today’s secret ingredient – copyright which protects reality TV shows such as Iron Chef, American Idol, Real World, Most Extreme Elimination Challenge (MXC) and Big Brother.

A View to a Kill: Montreal ‘Body Parts’ Murder Brings Array of Secondary Legal Issues

When suspected Montreal “body parts” killer, Luka Magnotta, was detained in Berlin on June 4 following an international manhunt, only one small piece of a complex legal web was resolved. In addition to the ongoing murder investigation, digital issues involving web hosting of explicit content and concerns about trademark denigration have been thrust to the […]

Happy(?) Birthday, Bill C-11!

After years of debate (almost 15, to be precise) and numerous revisions and cancellations (4, to be precise), Bill C-11 or An Act to Amend the Copyright Act, arguably the most controversial set of changes to the Canadian Copyright Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42), has just been passed by a vote of 158 to 135. […]

Canada’s IP Writing Challenge 2012

The Intellectual Property Institute of Canada (IPIC) and IP Osgoode are delighted to announce our 2012 Canadian writing challenge in intellectual property law. We are pleased to be running our third annual writing challenge.  Our goal is to further enhance thoughtful and well-researched intellectual property public policy scholarship and discussion. We encourage a broad range […]

The Alphabet Soup of Transborder Intellectual Property Enforcement

In the past few years, policymakers, academic commentators, consumer advocates, civil liberties groups, and user communities have expressed grave concerns about the steadily increasing levels of enforcement of intellectual property rights. Many of these concerns relate to the “alphabet soup” of transborder intellectual property enforcement, which consists of the following: SECURE (Standards to Be Employed […]

AutoHop: A DISH that’s hard for networks to swallow

On May 10th, 2012 Dish network (hereafter “DISH”) announced that it would be adding a new feature named “AutoHop” to their digital video recorder (the Hopper).  The feature would allow viewers to automatically skip over advertisements in the shows that they record.  Large TV networks such as Fox, CBS and NBC have called the feature […]

The Other Shoe Drops

Zut alors!  Christian Louboutin is not having a good year with the judicial system and must be seeing red!   I have previously covered Christian Louboutin’s dispute with Yves Saint Laurent in the US, with respect to YSL’s use of the red-soled shoes.  Christian Louboutin suffered a blow when he was denied a preliminary injunction […]

Apple to Further Expand its Territory in the Chinese Market: With or Without the iPad

The trademark dispute over the “iPad” name rages on in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) between Shenzhen Proview Technology and Apple Inc. However, the Cupertino-based producer of the ever popular iPod, iPhone, and of course the iPad won’t let its legal issues in China get in the way of the brand’s overall  expansion into […]