In Cinar Corporation v Robinson, The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that a copyright protected work can be infringed not only by literal reproduction, but also by copying substantial features from a work. In the decision, which awarded damages to the author of a children's TV show, the court clarified the test for substantial reproduction... or did […]
It has been nearly twenty years since the Uruguay Round of World Trade Organization (WTO) trade talks that created the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. In the intervening decades, multilateral trade negotiations have stalled and international agreements relating to intellectual property (IP) law have trended towards bi- and plurilateral levels. And, […]
Giuseppina D’Agostino is the Founder and Director of IP Osgoode, the Founder and Director of the IP Intensive Program, the Founder and Director of the IP Osgoode Innovation Clinic, and an Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School. 2013 ushered in renewed changes to the intellectual property law terrain in Canada and around the world. […]
An American photographer has been making headlines after receiving a massive award for copyright infringement by a health supplement website in relation to two of his photographs. It took 5 years, but on October 11, 2013 Andrew Paul Leonard was awarded $1.6 million in damages to be paid by Stemtech Health Sciences and its distributor.
Dubious and likely illegal image scraping is alive and well. And outside of particularly public, harmful cases like Rehtaeh Parsons’ photo ending up on a dating site, few organizations or governments seem to be effectively coordinating to stop the practice.
The government of Antigua and Barbuda has recently published a press release detailing their plans on establishing a statutory body to oversee the monetization and exploitation of the suspension of American intellectual property rights. The World Trade Organization (WTO) authorized the suspension of US IP rights in the small twin-island nation earlier this year. The organization overseeing these developments, the WTO Remedies Implementation Committee, is in the […]
Most members of the public might be surprised to hear that “Happy Birthday to You” is apparently still subject to copyright protection in the United States, let alone that it is the subject of litigation aptly described by the New York Times as a “lawsuit for the ages.”
IP Osgoode would like to thank everyone who attended Justice Marshall Rothstein's lecture, titled "Advocacy in IP Litigation in the Supreme Court," on November 25, 2013 at Osgoode Hall Law School. The video of the lecture is available below.
Abstract: This study problematizes international copyright policy by using a case study that can be said to exist outside of the copyright paradigm. Using works of mas in Trinidad and Tobago as my case study, I examine what a policy with the potential to protect it as a cultural product with commercial value would look […]
In the latest installment of the legal saga surrounding Google's book digitization project, Judge Denny Chin of the Southern District NY court has granted summary judgement in favour of Google, Inc. following eight years of litigation.