What makes a fictional character who they are? Would Darth Vader be Darth Vader without being Luke Skywalker’s father? Would Harry Potter be Harry Potter without defeating Voldemort? An American court will be asked to decide just that in Klinger v Conan Doyle Estate.
So much for southern hospitality. Celebrated American author Harper Lee finds herself embroiled in a trademark clash for the right to register the title of her own 1961 Pulitzer-winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird.
In light of updates to the Copyright Act and the Supreme Court’s copyright Pentalogy rulings, the Association for Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) has released updated guidelines for their fair dealing policy.
Can the content of conversations between a famous criminal and police agents taking place in the backseat of a car be protected by copyright? This question, addressed to the Dutch courts in 2006, resurfaced in recent weeks after the decision of the Amsterdam Court of Appeals in the case Endstra Tapes.
From June 18- 28, nation states were conducting negotiations for an international treaty to secure copyright exceptions for the visually impaired and people with print disabilities. These discussions, hosted by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), may secure the ability of nation states to allow conversion of published works to braille, large print and audio […]
IP Osgoode would like to thank Douglas Pepper for taking part in our speaker series. His presentation provided an enlightening look at the publishing industry. For those who were unable to attend the event in person, coverage of the event by one of our editors is available here, and a video of the entire presentation […]
On February 13, 2013, enthusiasts of the written word were treated to a lunchtime talk by Mr. Douglas Pepper, a long-time veteran of the North American publishing industry and the current President of Random House/McClelland Stewart; additionally, Mr. Pepper has also recently co-founded a non-fiction imprint, Signal. The event, which took place as part of […]
IP Osgoode Speaker Series: “Books Are Dead. Long Live Books” Featuring Douglas Pepper Publisher, Signal/McClelland & Stewart Vice President, Random House of Canada February 13, 12:30pm Osgoode Hall Law School, York University
In a case that calls more for gold stars than gold doubloons, the government of Guyana and major British publishing houses have at last come to an agreement over textbook purchases—no copyright infringement necessary. This was the latest and hopefully final chapter of a plot in which the Guyanese government publicly called for tenders to provide pirated […]
In Abraham Moon & Sons Ltd v. Thornber and others, the Patents County Court (“PCC”) in London held that a firm called “Art of the Loom” and its partners (“defendants”) had infringed Abraham Moon’s (“claimant”) copyright in “Skye Sage”. This decision is noteworthy because it serves as an example of how copyright law relates to the […]