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Intellectual Property Law

Intellectual Property in Canada (ipblog.ca)

Intellectual property law, copyright, trademarks and Internet law in Canada.
By Richard P.W. Stobbe

Post Frequency: 39.2/day

Last Entry: January 07, 2020 at 08:00:07

Canadian ?Reverse Hijacking? Decision

Posted on May 05, 2009
Two Canadian domain name decisions: In the saga of the domain name forsale.ca, another chapter has been written. This domain name was the subject of an earlier battle between Globe Media and the then-owner, Dawn Internet (Globe Media International Corporation v...

Canadian Copyright Class Action

Posted on April 30, 2009
A Quebec Superior Court judge has approved a class action in the case of Electronic-Rights Defence Committee ERDC c. Southam Inc. 2009 QCCS 1473 (search for ERDC in Superior Court judgements), a copyright case dealing with the inclusion of freelance articles in online databases, which could prove to be as important as the 2006 Supreme [...

SCC Upholds Internet Defamation Decision

Posted on April 28, 2009
Last Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the decision in Fromm v. Warman, to award $30,000 in damages for internet defamation. The judgment of the Court of Appeal for Ontario, 2008 ONCA 842, handed down in December, 2008 [Link to Court of Appeal Decision] was upheld...

Proposed Canadian Anti-Spam Law

Posted on April 27, 2009
On Friday, the federal government introduced long-overdue draft anti-spam legislation, the Electronic Commerce Protection Act. The law would allow civil lawsuits against spammers, and is designed to target email spam, as well as spam directed to cellphones and mobile devices...

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Canadian Company Wins Round in Patent Battle

Posted on April 22, 2009
A year ago we posted a Patent Infringement Update on this case; earlier this month the USPTO rejected all 57 claims in a course-management software patent that US-based Blackboard Inc. used to successfully sue its Canadian competitor, Desire2Learn. The most recent rejection relates to claims added during the re-examination process [copies of the documents are posted here]...

Google AdWords and Trade-marks

Posted on April 14, 2009
A US appeals court has permitted an attack against Google’s (in)famous AdWords program by allowing a trade-mark infringement lawsuit to proceed. The lawsuit was brought against Google by Rescuecom Corp., a computer service and support company. Rescuecom alleged that Google?s AdWords program (its practice of selling the Rescuecom trade-mark to other advertisers, thereby triggering the appearance of a [...

Olympic Lawsuits

Posted on April 08, 2009
VANOC, the organizer of the 2010 Olympics, has launched another lawsuit in the lead-up to the 2010 Winter Games, this time to block ticket scalping. The suit filed in March against Coast2Coast Tickets alleges trade-mark violations in the effort to curb unauthorized ticket resales...

IP Licenses and Bankruptcy

Posted on March 30, 2009
What happens when a licensor becomes insolvent? When Body Blue Inc., a Canadian consumer products company, stumbled financially, a receiver was appointed in Canada under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. In its attempt to restructure the company and satisfy creditors, the receiver sold the company?s assets in May, 2006 for $7 million to a competitor consumer products [...

Departing Employees & Trade Secrets

Posted on March 11, 2009
A recent survey shows that departing employees are leaving the office with more than the photos of their kids - they’re walking off with trade secrets and confidential company information. A majority of the survey respondents said they burned confidential information onto a CD or DVD, around 40% dragged it to a USB drive or [...

?Netbook? and Generic Trade-marks

Posted on February 25, 2009
American computer giant Dell Inc. has launched a challenge against Canadian computer maker Psion Teklogix Inc. and its ownership of the trade-mark NETBOOK. Psion registered the mark NETBOOK in both Canada and the US in 2000 (based on its original application filed in 1996), and now Dell is challenging that registration...

US Clickwrap Decision

Posted on February 23, 2009
UPS has a label-printing and shipment-tracking software program that is installed on a customer’s computer. So what happens when the UPS technician (rather than the customer’s own employee) installs the software, scrolls past the license agreement, and clicks “I accept”? This situation was reviewed in the recent case of Via Viente Taiwan, L...

Facebook?s About Face

Posted on February 19, 2009
A few weeks ago, Facebook attempted to revise its Terms of Service - the online contract that governs the relationship with Facebook users. Revising a contract can be tricky at the best of times, let alone an online contract with 175 million users from around the world...

Canadian Trade-marks Opposition Procedure

Posted on February 18, 2009
The Canadian Intellectual Property Office has announced that the Trade-marks Opposition Board will be changing its practice, effective March 31, 2009, pursuant to the new Practice in Trade-mark Opposition Proceedings. Here’s a summary of the changes: The new practice will simplify the procedure and time-lines for granting extensions of time, and will clarify when extensions of time can [...

Transborder Privacy Guidelines

Posted on February 17, 2009
In January, the federal Privacy Commissioner released Guidelines for Processing Personal Data Across Borders (PDF Copy of Guidelines). These guidelines set out the Commissioner’s view of how the Federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) will be applied to transfers of personal information across borders...

Government of Canada & Open Source

Posted on February 10, 2009
The Government has issued a Request For Information on open source software to assist it in developing guidelines related to the “planning, acquisition, use and disposal of No Charge Licensed Software (NCLS).” The term NCLS is apparently intended to include all forms of software which is available without charge - from “true” open source software, freeware, [...

Trade-mark Tempest in a Teacup

Posted on February 07, 2009
In a recent story that made national newspapers here, it was suggested that McGill University’s new advertising campaign had somehow stepped on the toes of American Larry Smith, editor of an online magazine. Mr. Smith raised an allegation that somehow the idea of a six-word summary was protectable under intellectual property laws - trade-marks, or copyright, [...

US Patent Jurisdiction Decision

Posted on February 02, 2009
The Eastern District of Texas has gained notoriety as a magnet for patent lawsuits. Plaintiffs will commence lawsuits there with the hope that pro-patent-owner juries will be convinced to decide the case in favour of the patent owner and award significant damages...

The Whisky Caper: Scotch Whisky Association vs. Glenora Distillers

Posted on January 26, 2009
Some people take their whisky seriously. The Scottish Whisky Association takes the topic very seriously. They were concerned that the use of the word “Glen”, in connection with a Canadian whisky, would mislead consumers into thinking the drink was from Scotland...

Open Source Update: Cisco Sued & New Ruling in Jacobsen vs Katzer

Posted on January 23, 2009
In December, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) launched a lawsuit alleging that Cisco has breached the terms of the GNU GPL and LGPL (the General Public License and Lesser General Public License), thereby infringing copyright in the licensed programs...

E-Commerce & Internet Jurisdiction

Posted on January 20, 2009
Lawyers are often criticized for arguing over semi-colons and prepositions. Here is one case where the word “of” and “in” were debated up to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal. In the recent decision in Doe 1 v. AOL LLC, 2009 WL 103657 (9th Cir...

IP & Internet Law in 2009

Posted on January 05, 2009
To follow-up on our post last year [IP and Internet Law in 2008 ], here are a few issues to watch in ‘09: US Patent Reform Although the US Patent Reform Act of 2007 stalled in the US Senate in 2008, it is expected to be brought back onto the government agenda in 2009 as part of the Obama administration’s [...

Copyright Infringer Hit with Fine

Posted on December 10, 2008
It’s clear that Microsoft has been monitoring an infringer who made headlines last year when he was hit with a substantial damage award for selling pirated Microsoft software. At the time Mr. Cerrelli, the director of the corporate defendant, was personally liable due to his direct involvement and knowledge of the copyright infringement...

Chinese IP Enforcement

Posted on December 03, 2008
Many Canadian companies are hoping that sales to China’s growing consumer class will help cushion the blow of the US economic downturn. Any penetration into the Chinese market will inevitably involve brand battles for consumer products. Take this recent example, where a Chinese distiller was fined for infringing the famous Johnnie Walker Black Label brand...

Email Communications As Contracts

Posted on November 21, 2008
Can an exchange of email form a contract? To create an enforceable contract, the parties have to intend to be bound by their agreement at the moment the contract is formed. This can happen in different ways, including via email. In the recent decision in Basis Technology Corporation v...

First Conviction Under Anti-Camcording Law

Posted on November 16, 2008
Alberta has produced what appears to be Canada’s first anti-camcording conviction. Revisions to the criminal code, which target movie piracy in theatres, were used to obtain a conviction against a Calgary man who was banned from movie theatres for a year and fined $1,500...

SCC Decision on Selection Patents

Posted on November 11, 2008
In the battles between generic and brand-name pharmaceutical companies, this decision can be considered a major clarification of the law. Last week the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) released its decision in Apotex Inc. v. Sanofi-Synthelabo Canada Inc...

The Obama Trade-mark Surge

Posted on November 05, 2008
It was announced last night that Barack Obama will become the next US President. Entrepreneurial Americans across the nation are taking the opportunity to file trade-mark applications inspired by the President-elect. Here are a few of the more interesting ones filed in the USPTO in the last year: BROCCOLI OBAMA ? filed for “A vegetable recipe” OBAMALLAMA - [...

Generic Domain Names in Canada

Posted on November 01, 2008
When are domain names so descriptive or generic that they can’t function as a trade-mark? A Montreal lawyer registered and used the domain name canadavisa.com for immigration law services. He then challenged the owner of canadavisa.ca claiming that the use of the dot-ca domain name for similar services would constitute bad faith contrary to the dispute resolution policy...

Defamation Update: Hyperlink Is Not Publication

Posted on October 28, 2008
We have previously commented on the series of defamation lawsuits commenced by Wayne Crookes. These lawsuits are resulting in court judgements which have established some guidance in this emerging area. The latest decision, Crookes v. Wikimedia Foundation Inc...

US Decision Hits Canadian Company with ?Google Damages?

Posted on October 16, 2008
It is very common for Canadian companies to expand their customer base into the US, and it is also common for Canadians to encounter difficulties when they discover that they have the same brand name as a US competitor. Trade-mark law permits the same trade-mark to owned by different companies in different countries...

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