On 19 August 2014, Register of Copyrights Maria A. Pallante released a draft of the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, Third Edition. This publication is a 1,200 page document that in many parts reads as a treatise on U.S. copyright law. Its size alone speaks to the complexity of identifying and protecting copyright and […]
With echoes of the blockbuster Apple v Samsung case (see past IPilogue coverage here, here and here), The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) announced on Oct 6th that it will move ahead with a section 337 investigation into patent infringement claims made against Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd by NVIDIA Corp. The plaintiff alleges infringement of seven of its patents. This claim could potentially […]
IP Osgoode and the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada (IPIC) are thrilled to announce the winner of the sixth annual edition of Canada’s IP Writing Challenge:
On October 17, 2014, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued its decision in Cambridge University Press et al. v. Patton et al. The case is about the posting of excerpts from copyright-protected works on a university’s e-reserve and course management systems.
Earlier this month, Twitter filed a lawsuit (Twitter v. Holder) against the US Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), claiming they prevented Twitter from publishing statistics pertaining to the number and type of US Government surveillance requests received. Twitter asserts that the publication ban is an unconstitutional violation of their […]
Under the Patent Act, an invention must be useful to be patentable. While in Canada the inventor does not need to describe the utility of the invention in the patent, where the patent makes a promise of utility, utility is measured against that promise. If the inventor does not make an explicit promise of a […]
This past spring, the Copyright Board of Canada issued its decision certifying Re:Sound’s Tariff 8 and setting the royalties collected for webcasting in Canada. Many parties of interest were incensed by the proposed rates, which are difficult to understand without the context of the entire royalty system in Canada.
With the rising popularity of video and computer games, a new form of user generated content ("UGC") and a whole new set of intellectual property issues is emerging. Science fiction web series such as Red vs. Blue use copyrighted graphics and characters from the popular Xbox video game Halo to create new comedic content parodying first person shooter […]
Recent research is shining a new light onto the Supreme Court of Canada’s (SCC) decision that is said to have “reconceptualized” fair dealing as an integral part of copyright law in Canada (Craig, p. 449). During a 29 September 2014 lecture in the IPOsgoode Speaks Series, Dr. Emily Hudson, the Career Development Fellow in Intellectual Property Law at the Oxford […]
Professor Jane C. Ginsburg will be at Osgoode Hall Law School on Monday, October 6 (2:30PM to 4:30PM) to give a presentation entitled: "The U.S. Supreme Court's Aereo decision and the U.S.' international obligation to implement the 'making available right': Are we there yet?". Click here for details. RSVP today to attend the talk! For […]