It must have been really nice to have worked as an IP expert for the US Trade Representative (USTR) during the 1990s. Almost everything they proposed would become law. The global maximalist agenda had the large international institutions on its side. The golden age of international maximalism saw the creation of the WTO, the TRIPS […]
Modern concepts of art and creativity pose a challenge for traditional notions of copyright law. Last March, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled on the legality of appropriation art.
Twenga, Societe Anomyme (“TSA”) owns the registration for the mark TWENGA in Canada, which was applied for in May 12, 2008 and registered on October 25, 2011. Prior to the issuance of TSA’s registration, on October 5, 2010, the Registrant registered the Domain Name. The Registrant’s contact information was protected by the privacy rules of […]
After a little over a year and two failed attempts, the Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency of Sweden (Kammarkollegiat) finally officially approved an application in January made by 19-year-old Swedish philosophy student Isak Gerson to recognize the Missionary Church of Kopimism (Missionerande Kopimistsamfundet), and thus ‘Kopimism’ as a religion.
With a well-deserved reputation for counterfeiting and knockoffs, we have rarely looked to China for innovation and invention. Nevertheless, as an ever-growing giant on the world’s economic stage, China has taken steps to remedy this deficiency. About a year ago, Thomson-Reuters released their second report on the nation’s patent prowess, suggesting that China’s patent will outpace Japan […]
Andrew Baker is a LLB/BCL candidate at McGill University Faculty of Law. A decision of the Cour de Cassation de la France has led to some uncertainty as to when a photograph constitutes an intellectual work subject to protection.
Teresa Scassa is the Canada Research Chair in Information Law at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law. The publication of the second edition of David Vaver’s Intellectual Property Law: Copyright, Patents, Trade-Marks is a welcome event. The first edition of this book, published in 1997,was a lucid and concise account of the three main […]
Alysia Lau is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. I spent this past summer interning with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Jakarta, Indonesia. Preparing to take part in the new Osgoode IP Law & Technology Intensive Program this coming fall gave me an opportunity to reflect on the intersection between IP issues […]
Jennifer O'Dell is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall and Denise Brunsdon is a social media writer and researcher. For anyone with family members at Apple, Research in Motion, Microsoft, Ericsson, Sony and EMC, don't forget to put "A Nortel patent" on your wish list this Christmas. There's at least 6, 000 to go around.
Robert Dewald is a J.D. Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School Canadian telecommunications giant Research in Motion (RIM), which manufacturers the popular BlackBerry, has reportedly offered information and tools to assist India’s government in monitoring encrypted emails and messaging services (Reuters). India, which had threatened to shut down the BlackBerry service, is the latest country to […]