Without a background in horse racing, I feel comfortable expressing today as a “Fivefecta”. Since Monday’s announcement that the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) would release judgments in five critically important copyright appeals heard on December 6 and 7, 2011, there has been a growing excitement in the Copyright community. The decisions from these appeals, […]
At the Rio + 20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development -- which followed by forty years the Stockholm Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment and by twenty years the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development -- the negotiators sought to “reinvigorate political will and raise the level of commitment by […]
When suspected Montreal “body parts” killer, Luka Magnotta, was detained in Berlin on June 4 following an international manhunt, only one small piece of a complex legal web was resolved. In addition to the ongoing murder investigation, digital issues involving web hosting of explicit content and concerns about trademark denigration have been thrust to the […]
In an effort to draw a line in the sand in the smartphone market, an “innocent bystander” has been caught in the legal crossfire. Following a successful sales ban of the Xbox 360 in Germany, Motorola set its sights on the gaming console’s home turf, and currently, things are not looking good for Microsoft in […]
Previously cited as "the case that could shut down the internet", Roadshow Films Pty Ltd v iiNet Ltd [2012] HCA 16 (commonly known as AFACT v iiNet or the iiTrial) concluded with a unanimous decision from the Australian High Court ruling that the iiNet, an internet service provider, was not liable for copyright infringement from […]
Throughout last weekend’s second annual lawTechCamp, audience members interacted with each other using the Twitter hashtag #ltcto2012. While many participants chose not to hide their online identity behind a veil of anonymity, this possibility currently exists without privacy concerns. Sahar Zomorodi’s session, “Dissecting the term ‘lawful access’ in the proposed Online Surveillance Bill C-30,” illustrated Bill C-30’s privacy issues and […]
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? […]
In celebration of Canadian Music Week, the IP Osgoode Speaker Series presented a panel discussion on “Copyright and the Music Industry” on March 22, 2012 featuring Robert Levine and Dr. Brett Danaher. Levine spoke about the current state of copyright and the public discourse surrounding it. He argued the need for more effective enforcement mechanisms […]
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 […]