Keyword Advertising: When are competitors allowed to use your trademark?

Robert Dewald is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School Online keyword advertising, using internet search engines such as Google and Yahoo!, continues to be a highly contentious area of the law.  Litigation involving trademark infringement by competing companies in keyword advertising campaigns continues in Canada and around the world.  In Canada, it appears […]

Online Keyword Advertising: Misleading Customers? Or Providing Alternatives?

Robert Dewald is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School Online advertising is a growing and lucrative business.  In 2009, $22.7 billion USD was spent on online advertising within the U.S. which is projected to grow to $25.1 billion USD by 2010.  A significant amount of this revenue is generated by Google, Yahoo and […]

The Linguistic and Trust Functions of Trademarks

Ariel Katz is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto. Ariel holds the Innovation Chair in Electronic Commerce and is the Director of the Centre for Innovation Law and Policy of the University of Toronto. Modern trademark scholarship and jurisprudence view trademark law as an institution aimed at improving […]

Neither Fish Nor Fowl - Trade-mark and Copyright Protection for Titles

Bob Tarantino is a lawyer in the Entertainment Law Group of Heenan Blaikie LLP. He holds graduate degrees in law from Osgoode Hall Law School and the University of Oxford. A suitable name for an entertainment project can be critical to its success and can even enhance the aesthetic effect of the overall work.  In […]

The Yes Men: Clever Parody or Fraudulent Opportunism?

Stuart Freen is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. The United States Chamber of Commerce (USCOC) recently filed a lawsuit against a group of self-proclaimed prankster activists known as the Yes Men. A few weeks ago the Yes Men staged a fake news conference where they posed as USCOC representatives and announced that they […]

That’s Hot: Hallmark Cards unable to slap Paris Hilton with Anti-SLAPP legislation

Nathan Fan is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. America’s favourite hotel heiress Paris Hilton can now proceed with her litigation against Hallmark Cards over the unauthorized use of her picture and catchphrase “That’s hot”, according to a recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  Paris Hilton, who […]

US COURT: ISPs not just tubes

Brandon Evenson is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. A recent case in the US has sent a clear message to US Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that they can be liable for secondary trade-mark infringement.  All that is required is that the ISP knows or ought to have known that their customers were […]

Australian Fast Track IP Litigation

Recently the Federal Court of Australia introduced a fast track IP litigation procedure which makes copyright and trademark litigation faster and more cost effective. Studying the Australian fast track procedure is fruitful because Canada also suffers from expensive and time consuming IP litigation and because similarities between the two legal systems means that following Australian […]

iPhones soon to find their way in China

Massive uncertainty looms around the future of Apple's iPhone as Apple hits a new pothole in its rough journey to release iPhones in the Chinese subscriber market. The reason behind this ambiguity is that the trade-mark "i-phone" for mobile handsets in China is already owned by a Chinese electronics firm Hanwang Technologies Co., thereby making […]

Facebook: A New Dimension to Cybersquatting

Ashlee Froese is an Osgoode Hall alumnus and currently practices intellectual property at the law firm of Keyser Mason Ball LLP. Facebook Inc.'s New Policy On June 9, 2009 Facebook Inc. announced that it would be releasing personalized URLs for Facebook profiles (i.e. "facebook.com/AshleeFroese" as opposed to previously used profile URLs "facebook.com/followed by a randomly […]