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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

Google vs. Groovle

Posted on February 05, 2010
Even Google can’t win them all. In a recent domain name arbitration decision, Google Inc. v 207 Media, a small Canadian company has prevailed against a challenge by almighty Google Inc. Google objected to the registration of the domain name GROOVLE...

Slide to Unlock: Apple?s Trade Secrets

Posted on January 27, 2010
The Apple rumour mill - which usually spins at an alarming rate even on a slow day - has been at risk of popping a gasket over the past few months with speculation over Apple’s latest product release: a tablet-like device which is expected to do to the handheld tablet category what the iPod did [...

Intellectual Property & Agriculture

Posted on January 25, 2010
In the 1990s, researchers at the University of Saskatchewan developed a transgenic variety of flax known as CDC Triffid, which was genetically designed to be herbicide-resistant. The crop received regulatory approval in the mid-1990s, but was never adopted by Canadian farmers for commercial use, because of fears that its use would close export markets such as the [...

CleanTech Funding Opportunities

Posted on January 20, 2010
Clean technologies continue to be a significant source of investment capital in 2010. Provincial governments in Canada are looking for ways to attract and retain both the investment dollars as well as the technical and business expertise that flows from those investments...

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Ambush Marketing: The Names That Cannot Be Spoken? (Part 2)

Posted on January 19, 2010
With a few weeks to go before the Winter Olympics, VANOC’s anxiety about official marks (what you might call “brand-wringing”) continues. The list of protected terms was expanded in December (curiously, this order managed to pass before Parliament was shut down) to include the mascots like Quatchi, at right, and various other symbols of the [...

CIPO Updates: Patents & Trade-marks

Posted on January 15, 2010
There a few recent updates from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO): Trade-marks: Is Canada finally going to join the Madrid Protocol? CIPO has just a opened a consultation on a Proposal to amend the Trade-marks Act. The proposed amendments focus on ?new business practices and improved international standards?...

Another Microsoft Appeal in i4i Case

Posted on January 13, 2010
The court injunction preventing infringing sales of Microsoft Word (see: Microsoft Loses Patent Appeal) went into effect on Monday. While the company says it is complying with the court order, MS has submitted another appeal in the patent infringement case, asking a panel of 11 judges of the US Federal Circuit Court of Appeals to review [...

Ambush Marketing: The Names That Cannot Be Spoken? (Part 1)

Posted on January 11, 2010
2010. Winter. Games. As the 2010 Olympics reach a frenzied pitch in Vancouver, the contests on the ice and snow will be matched by brand battles on billboards and posters. You will recall that in Beijing, the “Brand Police” (see: Olympics and the Trade-Mark Police) covered up offending trade-marks with duct tape...

Licensing Apps

Posted on January 07, 2010
A mobile app is just like any other software application and should be properly licensed to end-users. Even for free versions, the app developer is not giving it away, but merely making a copy available to the user under certain conditions. Recent updates to the iTunes Store software have made it possible for app developers to make [...

Google, Apple, Nokia? Let the Litigation Begin!

Posted on January 05, 2010
Apple launches a cellphone. Nokia releases a laptop. Apple buys an online advertising division and Google moves aggressively into software and hardware. With the release today of Google’s nexus one phone, which positions itself as an iPhone competitor, the ongoing battle for the smartphone market heats up another few degrees...

IP and Internet Law in 2010

Posted on January 04, 2010
2009 was a fascinating year in the world of intellectual property and internet law. Here are a few issues to watch in 2010: Olympic Marks: The next few months will focus attention on the uses and abuses of both Olympic marks, as well as the Olympic and Paralympic Marks Act...

Microsoft Loses Patent Appeal

Posted on December 23, 2009
On Tuesday, Microsoft lost at the U.S. federal court of appeals in a landmark case that will force the software maker to redesign its flagship word-processing program. The US appeal court upheld a $290-million US judgment against Microsoft in the patent battle launched by Canadian company i4i Inc...

The Original iPhone

Posted on December 21, 2009
Way back in 1998 - almost prehistoric when it comes to technology - a US inventor registered a design patent for “Computer display with an iPhone window” in a prescient move that saw a device with email, telephone, internet services all arranged by handy icons in a rectangular screen called an “iPhone”...

Canadian Copyright Class Action? Against the Recording Industry

Posted on December 17, 2009
The irony of this one won’t be lost on consumers. After years of lecturing and lawsuits by the recording industry about the sins of copyright infringement, the tables are turned in this class-action lawsuit. The estate of jazz musician Chet Baker has sued the major record labels - Sony BMG Music, EMI Music, Universal and Warner Music [...

Update on Trade-marks

Posted on December 14, 2009
A few trade-mark stories are worth noting: Trade-mark Opposition is a process where one brand owner can oppose the trade-mark application of another. Take these two recent examples which illustrate why you need good advice when arguing your case before the Trade-marks Opposition Board (TMOB): PIZZA SPOT vs WHITE SPOT: the owners of the well-known White Spot chain of restaurants opposed [...

CleanTech Fast Track in the US

Posted on December 10, 2009
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has announced a pilot project to provide accelerated examination of certain clean technology (cleantech) patent applications. The program is aimed at “green technology” though so far there are no details on what inventions will qualify...

Data Mining Decision

Posted on December 08, 2009
An organization has collected a wealth of online data including names, addresses, prices, photos, specifications, geo-location data, text, links and more. Can you access their system, scrape the data and then repackage it for your own business? In this case, the answer is no...

Trade Secrets: Zynga vs. Playdom

Posted on December 04, 2009
Earlier this year, iPhone app developer Zynga Game Network Inc. sued rival game-maker Playdom Inc. and a number of ex-employees in California state court. Among the causes of action were: misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of contract, breach of the duty of loyalty, tortious interference with contracts and unfair competition...

Patents: Update in Canada

Posted on December 04, 2009
Canadian patent examiners will now be assessing patent applications under a new guideline which applies a four-part test on obviousness. This flows from the 2008 Supreme Court of Canada decision in Apotex Inc. v. Sanofi-Synthelabo Canada Inc., 2008 SCC 61...

Tips and Trends in CleanTech Licensing

Posted on December 04, 2009
Richard Stobbe’s article “Tips and Trends in CleanTech Licensing“ is published in this week’s edition of the Lawyer’s Weekly (Vol. 29, No. 28; November 27, 2009). It discusses the issues of: pre-license preparation; licensing; improvements and enhancements; the regulatory environment; and patents and litigation...

Domain Name Decision

Posted on December 04, 2009
In a story that reads like a law-school exam, a company with a German trade-mark took a California man to arbitration to try and win the domain name project.me, which is registered under the rules for the country code top-level domain for Montenegro. iPhone app developer Project...

Launching applaw.ca: App Law in Canada

Posted on December 04, 2009
We’re launching applaw.ca.? Businessweek’s recent article “Inside the App Economy“ shows that mobile applications are evolving from a geek-niche to a powerful industry sector. Not convinced? Consider the case of Zynga, a US app developer that has gone from zero to $100 million in revenues in just 2 years...

eBay Terms Upheld

Posted on December 04, 2009
In a recent US lawsuit Tricome v. eBay, Inc., 2009 WL 3365873 (E.D.Pa. Oct 19, 2009), a user sued eBay in Pennsylvania and eBay invoked the “forum selection clause” in its online agreement. That clause specifies that disputes under the agreement have to be brought in California, eBay’s home turf...

IP in the News

Posted on December 04, 2009
There is no shortage of intellectual property stories in the media. What used to be a “special interest” story is now mainstream news. Here are a few recent stories worth noting: The Globe and Mail® has posted a podcast on How to protect your intellectual property from the Canadian entrepreneurs at i4i who locked horns with Microsoft...

Internationalized Domain Names

Posted on December 04, 2009
ICANN announced on Friday that it has approved - in principle - the creation of domain names made up of non-Latin characters. The protocols that run today’s internet recognize domain names and internet addresses made up of numbers and A-to-Z Latin characters...

Business Method Patents: Debate Continues

Posted on December 04, 2009
The battle over patentability of software and business-methods is continuing in both Canada and the US. In the US, the Bilski case and its “machine-or-transformation” test is currently undergoing review at the Supreme Court level. Earlier this month the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and Red Hat each submitted amicus curiae briefs in support of the proposition that [...

Executives Depart with Secrets and IP

Posted on December 04, 2009
Four key employees of a software company resign and start up a competing venture. The former employer stumbles. The new company aggressively targets the customers of the former employer, and develops into a successful and profitable business, twice the size of the former employer...

Update: Changes to Canada?s Bankruptcy Laws

Posted on September 23, 2009
As we posted in IT Outsourcing during the ?Climb Out? and IP Licenses and Bankruptcy, Canada’s bankruptcy laws have historically permitted certain contracts - including intellectual property licenses - to be “disclaimed” in the course of the bankruptcy of the licensor...

Is a Website Operator Liable for User Comments?

Posted on September 21, 2009
Two recent decisions tackle this issue: In the US decision of Cornelius v. DeLuca, 2009 WL 2568044 (E.D. Mo. Aug. 18, 2009), bodybuilding.com (an online retailer of fitness and bodybuilding products), was sued over the content of certain comments posted to the bodybuilding...

E-Commerce & Online Terms

Posted on September 17, 2009
Blockbuster operates an online movie rental service in the US, which is subject to a user agreement. In the recent US decision in Harris v. Blockbuster Inc., 2009 WL 1011732 (N.D. Tex. April 15, 2009), Blockbuster tried to deflect a customer’s lawsuit by using a standard mandatory arbitration clause in the user agreement...

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