Reaching Across the Cloud: Searching for Answers in Internet Trademark Issues

It seems that in the world of branding and trade-marks the Internet is turning into a genuine Wild West.  This truth becomes evident upon reading Steve Lohr’s article in the New York Times, as it addresses fundamental trademark issues arising in an increasingly Internet-saturated society.[1] These trends are primarily related to the development of new […]

Patent Royalties – a royal pain?

In the Supreme Court decision in Quanta Computer, Inc. v. LG Electronics, Inc,[1] the Court unanimously agreed to uphold the doctrine of patent exhaustion. The application of this doctrine is in the public’s best interest and therefore outweighs the detrimental impact of the doctrine on patent owners’ rights to control. LG Electronics (LG) had licensed […]

Craigslist sex prankster slapped with $75k lawsuit

Craigslist is a popular free online website where people can advertise or seek information about jobs, personals and goods and services. Over two years ago, Jason Fortuny posted a fake ad on Craigslist, claiming that he was a female bondage enthusiast looking for someone “to give intense pain and discipline.” He then took the 178 […]

Patching a Gap in Trademark Law the Hard Way

The United States Congress rescued citizens in the state of Montana from a Las Vegas businessman who attempted to expropriate, albeit legally via trademark registration, one of their cherished assets: a slogan “The Last Best Place”.  They achieved the right result, but I think they went about it incorrectly.  Congress blocked the possibility of trademark […]

Sampling a Song can be Fair Use, Rules US Court

On August 8, 2008, a US Court ruled that fair use can be used as a defence to the copyright infringement of sound recordings.  In this case, EMI Records, the owners of copyright in John Lennon's song "Imagine," sued film producers for using a short clip of the song in their documentary.  The court finds […]

Court Records a Danger to Privacy?

In a recent speech made at The CBA Canadian Legal Conference Expo, the Canadian privacy commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart, weighed in on the novel privacy concerns arising from advances in information technology. Of central concern in her speech is the widespread dissemination of personal information through online publication of judicial decisions. In some instances the names, […]

Patent Office finds voice, calls for software patent sanity

Recent public scorn concerning the faulty software patents approved by the United Stated Patent and Trade-Mark Office’s (USPTO) which led to the legal dispute between Research in Motion and NTP [1] may have been the cause for the recent shift in the USPTO’s stance towards a stricter and more onerous test for software patents. The […]

Facebook Free-For-All: Is the Media’s Use of Photos Fair Dealing or Freeloading?

The pervasiveness of the internet and the rise of online communities present new challenges to copyright law and the notion of fair dealing.  For instance - In the aftermath of the stabbing death of 14-year old Stefanie Rengel, all of Toronto’s daily newspapers ran photos of her taken from Facebook. Permission was not granted (or […]

"Functionally voluntary" music may lead to blanket licenses

The music industry which includes songwriters, performers, publishers and music labels, believes it is increasingly being shortchanged through technological advances, namely the internet and applicable software, which facilitate the sharing, transferring, dissemination of files and in effect, the pirating of copyrighted music.  A novel approach to addressing this concern, spearheaded by chief proponent on behalf […]

Triumph of Open Source: Yet to Play the Trumpet

I feel quite excited seeing people claiming a big triumph of open source on the decision of the U.S. court ruling on Jacobsen v. Katzer case. However, after a closer examination I felt that this is, as Prof. D’Agostino described Robertson v. Thomson, a case where it is hard to tell winner from loser.  The […]