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.
The complicated position that subconscious copying occupies when establishing reproduction and infringement in copyright law was recently highlighted in a key decision by the Patents County Court (PCC) of the UK. In Michael Mitchell v. BBC, Judge Birss’s meticulous judgment focused on whether there existed the possibility of either conscious or subconscious infringement, the latter […]
I am pleased to join you from south of the border. My work has been focussed in the United States. Intellectual property laws are very powerful and important today. Yet they are but part of the larger body of law in any country. They are also part of a developing fabric of international commercial […]
On December 15, 2011, Advocate General Paolo Mengozzi gave his opinion to the Court of Appeal of England & Wales on whether soccer match schedules could be protected by copyright. This opinion is a companion of sorts, to a ruling of the Court in 2004 that said the “fixture lists” as they are referred to, […]
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 […]
Looking at the current state of trans-border licensing of music inEurope, the European example can teach mainly what to avoid. Even more so, many of the issues discussed in the EU might even be totally irrelevant for Canada. Unlike Canada, the EU currently consists of 27 member states, and as of today, there is […]
Last semester, I had the privilege of being a part of the inaugural class of the Intellectual Property Law & Technology Intensive Program at Osgoode Hall Law School. The program is a two week intensive seminar series, followed by a full time internship for the rest of the semester at a placement suited to our interests. […]
Ben Farrow is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. It was a big day in the copyright enforcement world today as US federal authorities moved to shut down website Megaupload. The crackdown included charges against seven people as well as the seizure of over 50 million dollars in assets. As the internet's most […]
Daniel Dawalibi is an articling student at McCarthy Tétrault LLP. The firm acted for the Appellant in this hearing before the Supreme Court of Canada. On January 16, 2011, the Supreme Court heard an appeal in the case of Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television & Radio Artists, et al. v. Bell Aliant Regional Communications, LP, […]