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 […]

After years of debate (almost 15, to be precise) and numerous revisions and cancellations (4, to be precise), Bill C-11 or An Act to Amend the Copyright Act, arguably the most controversial set of changes to the Canadian Copyright Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42), has just been passed by a vote of 158 to 135. […]

The Intellectual Property Institute of Canada (IPIC) and IP Osgoode are delighted to announce our 2012 Canadian writing challenge in intellectual property law. We are pleased to be running our third annual writing challenge.  Our goal is to further enhance thoughtful and well-researched intellectual property public policy scholarship and discussion. We encourage a broad range […]

In the past few years, policymakers, academic commentators, consumer advocates, civil liberties groups, and user communities have expressed grave concerns about the steadily increasing levels of enforcement of intellectual property rights. Many of these concerns relate to the “alphabet soup” of transborder intellectual property enforcement, which consists of the following: SECURE (Standards to Be Employed […]

On May 10th, 2012 Dish network (hereafter “DISH”) announced that it would be adding a new feature named “AutoHop” to their digital video recorder (the Hopper).  The feature would allow viewers to automatically skip over advertisements in the shows that they record.  Large TV networks such as Fox, CBS and NBC have called the feature […]

Life in a Glass House, ABC’s forthcoming reality show that is noticeably reminiscent of CBS’ Big Brother, is poised to air in a number of weeks, irrespective of the vigorous legal efforts on the behalf of CBS to suppress its release.