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 […]
Embarrassing marketing gaffe or reasonable exercise of legal rights? Nintendo issues “Content ID match” claims on “Let’s Play” (LP) videos featuring their game franchises. Prolific YouTube user Zack Scott speaks out against the move.
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 […]
If at first you don’t succeed, Viacom, try try again? On April 18, 2013, Judge Louise Stanton of the 2nd Circuit District Court effectively wrote the last chapter in the epic one billion dollar copyright battle between Viacom and YouTube.
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.
TorrentFreak has reported that the first episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones season three broke historic download records, with more than a million as of April 1st, 2013. Canada ranked fourth internationally in terms of the highest number of TorrentFreak S3E1 downloads, representing 7.4% of total downloads at the time of reporting.
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.
Football Dataco Ltd and others v Stan James plc and others v Sportradar Gmbh and another (hereafter “Dataco”) involved the use of a database by an unauthorized person. While the decision itself deals primarily with database rights, the court makes one finding which has implications outside of the area of database protection.
Superman – the superhero known to be faster than a speeding bullet and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound – seems to be a magnet for lawsuits. The iconic superhero with the ‘S’ on his chest was the subject of another long legal battle that ended earlier this month. Had the case […]
Giuseppina D’Agostino is the Founder and Director of IP Osgoode, the Founder and Director of the IP Intensive Program, and an Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School. 2012 was an action-packed year in the world of intellectual property law. There were flurries of reports, decisions, and new legislation that confronted many core principles of […]