At first glance, art-marketplace websites like Redbubble and Society6—which print original designs uploaded by users on various consumer products—seem like ideal platforms for an artist to make some extra cash. However, a recent piece of artwork honouring the Humboldt Broncos, uploaded to Redbubble by a non-artist, raises moral and copyright issues with the commercial validity […]
Recently British photographer David Slater came to a settlement with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in a lawsuit over who owns the copyright to a selfie taken by a monkey, Naruto, who used his camera to take a photograph of herself on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. The photograph was taken in […]
Copyright ownership in Ellen Degeneres' famous Oscar Twitter Selfie, which holds the record for most retweets, might be unclear, but for the average citizen sharing the picture, it doesn’t matter much. Canada’s fair dealing and the United States’ fair use exemptions cover the most common types of sharing and dissemination of the image.
Video game developer King made headlines and the IPilogue last month when they applied for a trade-mark for the word CANDY in the United States. The move generated extensive commentary and negative backlash from game developers and the gaming community at large. While it is unclear if causing a news buzz was the impetus behind the application, King […]
BlackBerry is suing Ryan Seacrest’s iPhone keyboard case company Typo for patent infringement. The suit – which also alleges trade dress infringement, dilution, unfair business practices and unjust enrichment – has garnered headlines in Canada and the US.
Dubious and likely illegal image scraping is alive and well. And outside of particularly public, harmful cases like Rehtaeh Parsons’ photo ending up on a dating site, few organizations or governments seem to be effectively coordinating to stop the practice.
Beymen, the leading fashion brand in Turkey, has offered upscale men’s clothing since 1971, more recently adding women’s wear and home collections to its lines. But when it sought to register two of its design marks in Canada (possibly to herald its entry into the Canadian retail market), Beymen ran into serious issues with Canada’s […]
Tout arrive en France, especially for folks following recent intellectual property news. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) released a key judgment in January in a case that pitted copyright against freedom of expression.
I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Graham Henderson, President of Music Canada, who will be inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame on Thursday, March 21 as part of Canadian Music Week 2013. In addition to representing record labels such as Sony, Universal and Warner, Music Canada’s role is to […]
In the recent decision The Hebrew University of Jerusalem v. General Motors LLC, the US District Court of the Central District of California ruled that Albert Einstein’s publicity rights now belong to the public domain given that more than 50 years have passed since his death in 1955.