It is fascinating to observe how one common law judicial decision can have a ripple effect in another jurisdiction, especially one eleven thousand kilometres away. The Supreme Court of Canada’s (SCC) decision in Alberta (Education) v. Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright) [Alberta] had exactly such an effect on India.

“A picture is worth a thousand words.” That remark might be trite, especially in the era of selfies and Instagram, but a book is more than just words and a photograph is more than just ink– the sum of those parts will have meaning or will depict something beyond any constituent elements. When such a […]

Some people just can’t take a joke. Other people have taken jokes, and it has landed them in court. Two recent American copyright cases offer an opportunity to look at the difficulties of protecting comedy routines with copyright.

Flanked! Two Ed Sheeran songs now face copyright infringement actions. One alleges Sheeran’s “Photograph” copied a song called “Amazing” written for X Factor winner Matt Cardle. Richard Busch—also counsel for the Marvin Gaye estate in the “Blurred Lines” case—filed in June on behalf of “Amazing”’s copyright owner, HaloSongs, Inc. Another, filed in August on behalf […]

IP Osgoode and the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada (IPIC) are thrilled to announce the winner of the eighth annual edition of Canada’s IP Writing Challenge:

OVERVIEW Similar to other traditional industries, a digital revolution for financial services is underway. Financial technology, or ‘‘FinTech,” is an accelerating technical sector gaining in popularity with both traditional financial institutions and new market entrants.  Competitors are forming constructive partnerships to collaborate, efficiently develop, and deploy new FinTech products and services. Patents for core technology […]