In a long-anticipated court ruling on May 9th, a California judge upheld former Village People lead singer Victor Willis’s right to reclaim ownership of hit songs such as “YMCA” and “In the Navy.” Early last year, Willis invoked an amendment of United States copyright law which deals with inalienable “termination rights” with respect to recordings […]
This April, the United States Court of Appeals ruled that Sergey Aleynikov, former Goldman Sachs software developer-turned convicted thief and spy, was wrongly charged and convicted of theft and espionage under the rationale that software code is not physical property and thereby not subject to theft. This ruling sparks the debate about whether criminal courts […]
The issue at the heart of Sullivan v. Bristol Film Studios is not merely the trivial amount of damages. Instead, the analysis from this recent case puts the principle of proportionality front and centre.
Normally, doing something that breaks the law earns you a punishment, including a fine, community service, or even imprisonment. However, when Apotex Inc., a large generic pharmaceutical company, began producing and selling a drug that Servier Laboratories Limited, another large pharmaceutical company, had patented, Apotex was awarded $17.5 million.
When the Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) announced that it would be creating a digital representation of the Canadian Dollar in the form of MintChip, the digital currency sphere lit up with comparisons to numerous previous attempted forms of digital currencies – most notably Bitcoin, a decentralized electronic cash system developed by Satoshi Nakamoto.
Using a quote that he attributes to Pablo Picasso, the late Steve Jobs stated in a 1994 interview that “good artists copy, great artists steal.” It seems somewhat ironic that Apple Inc., the company he co-founded, now finds itself in an entrenched legal battle with Samsung over a number of alleged patent and trademark infringements. The twist? […]
Part of what makes studying the creative arts from a legal perspective so fascinating is the diversity of forms that art takes, and the ways in which law is sometimes underprepared to deal with issues brought forward through art. A classic instance of this problem is the case of Rick Gibson, a Canadian artist who […]
Global Health Challenges and the Role of Law: the 2012 National Health Law Conference: May 4 & 5, 2012; Metropolitan Hotel; Toronto. For the final program and registration, go to: http://nhlc2012.ca/. Legal scholars, lawyers, and human rights advocates are often prone to believe that global health and human rights issues can be best addressed through law […]
Today marks the 12th annual World Intellectual Property Day. This observance day was created in 2000 by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It is an opportunity to "celebrate the contribution that intellectual property makes to innovation and cultural creation." World IP Day is celebrated every year on April 26 in recognition of the day the WIPO convention […]
IP Osgoode's Professor Giuseppina D'Agostino is featured in Osgoode's April 2012 Research Byte: The Legal Implications of Commercializing Intellectual Property Rights. See the video embedded in the masthead or click here.