A recent incident involving replication of an Inuit design by a UK fashion label raises interesting questions regarding whether businesses should be required to go beyond the scope of law and consider what is ethical within the culture being borrowed from. Salome Awa, an Inuit woman, was outraged to discover a sweater made by fashion […]
A preeminent Canadian artist named Ann Phibian. Her shaded-in line drawing of a leaping frog titled “50 Shades of Green” and the public domain painting it was based on titled “One Giant Leap”. A graphic designer named Baron Greenback. The problem for the 2016 annual Harold G. Fox Moot was packed with as many amphibious […]
The U.S. Ninth Circuit court held in DC Comics v Towle ("Towle") that Mark Towle’s Batmobile replicas infringed DC Comics’ copyrights, and that the Batmobile was a "character" deserving of copyright protection.
The Honourable Mr. Marshall Rothstein is a tough act to follow, especially when recounting his own majority decision. At the recent UNPACK SODRAC: Technological Change and Copyright Tariffs after CBC v SODRAC (SCC 2015) symposium, the former Supreme Court justice stood firmly by his decision in the case during his keynote address. The panelists during […]
Although intellectual property (IP) law adequately protects many forms of IP, the coming commercialization of cheap 3D printers may facilitate new means of mass pirating that existing law cannot prevent. Though legal reform is the common strategy used to deal with IP challenges, the efforts of IP owners might be better spent finding new ways to monetize […]
Political attack ads are a Canadian electoral staple, compressing incriminating, damning and provoking footage into 30-second media bites. Typically, the subject matter is harvested from archived footage of the target captured under the media’s ever-watchful lens. Political parties have freely taken to exploiting news materials without the consent of originating news agencies. Broadcasters strongly condemn […]
In the recently released decision 1395804 Ontario Limited c.o.b. Blacklock’s Reporter v Canadian Vintners Association, the Ottawa small claims court ruled in an interesting way on fair dealing that might have some far-reaching implications if nothing overrules it. Reading a strict interpretation of CCH and the Copyright Act, deputy judge Lyon Gilbert reached the conclusion […]
At the Supreme Court of Canada, Google Inc. will be searching for a more favourable ruling than it got at the Court of Appeal for British Columbia in Equustek Solutions Inc. v. Google Inc. The appeal stems from the BC Supreme Court’s granting of an injunction requiring Google to de-index certain websites from its […]
In an interesting twist, arguably the two most common fashion design piracy defendants are pitted against each other. H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB (“H&M”) has issued a complaint against Forever 21, Inc., in the US District Court Southern District of New York. Below is a comparative image of the tote bags at issue:
After Starbucks, American Eagle and Roberto Cavalli, it is now Moschino and its designer Jeremy Scott’s turn (yes, again) to face the latest street art copyright infringement case. Joseph Tierny — a New York artist commonly known as Rime — is accusing Moschino and Scott of “inexplicably plac[ing] [his] art on their highest-profile apparel without his knowledge […]