Earlier this month, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) released its annual “Special 301 Report,” which evaluates the intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and enforcement of its trading partners. Over the last few years, Canada has been listed on the “Priority Watch List”, which is reserved for countries that have the most deficient IP protection […]
This paper traces the emergence of a new res or object of protection within European trade mark law. Proprietary rights in trade marks have conventionally been premised upon the mark’s ability to communicate useful information; namely, indicating the commercial source of goods or services, also referred to as the essential function of a trade mark.
This chapter closely scrutinizes the intellectual property developments during the Beijing Olympics to determine whether this important world event has provided the much-needed example to show that China could effectively address the counterfeiting problem when national interests are at stake.
The re-posting of this analysis is part of a cross-posting collaboration with MediaLaws: Law and Policy of the Media in a Comparative Perspective.
We are now accepting submissions for our fifth annual writing challenge. The winner from each category will receive a prize of $1000 (CAD), publication on the IP Osgoode website, and consideration for publication in the Canadian Intellectual Property Review and/or the Intellectual Property Journal. The deadline to submit is 5pm, Monday July 1, 2013. Submissions […]
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 […]
Bill C-56, a new and inevitably controversial piece of proposed legislation, was introduced on March 1, 2013. With the short title, Combating Counterfeit Products Act, the message seems simple, but contained within it are extensive proposals to change both the Copyright Act and the Trade-marks Act in Canada.
A “gripe site” is a web site established to criticize an institution such as a corporation, union, government body, or political figure. Not surprisingly, powerful institutions often do not take kindly to being criticized, and they have invented a variety of ways to try to suppress the speech of their adversaries. – The Public Citizen[1]
When trade and intellectual property collide, strange things happen. In a dispute opposing Antigua and Barbuda to the United States at the World Trade Organization (WTO), that organization authorized Antigua and Barbuda to suspend the application of the its obligations under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement).
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single culture in possession of good traditional knowledge must be in want of intellectual property rights.”