The reasonable expectation of the consumer in her personal use of musical recordings: how much weight does it have in the balance?

Pascale Chapdelaine is a Ph.D. candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School and a member of IP Osgoode. Pascale's thesis focuses on the interaction between consumer law and copyright law.  What is the consumer entitled to do with musical recordings for her own personal use? Asking this question may appear to some, including consumers, as looking […]

A short overview on the tort of appropriation of personality

In this blog, I examine the ambit of protection given to personality rights in Canadian law. I focus, in particular, on the common law tort of appropriation of personality. The tort was first articulated by the Ontario Court of Appeal in Krouse v. Chrysler Canada Ltd., (1973), 1 O.R. (2d) 225 (Ont. C.A.)  It allows […]

“Fair Use” Helps in Battle Against Plagiarism of Student Papers

Afroditi Theodoridou is a PhD student at Osgoode Hall Law School. On April 16, 2009, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court's decision in favour of iParadigms who operates the "Turnitin Plagiarism Detection Service". This online system evaluates the originality of submitted written assignments by comparing them with […]

The People's Patent Group: Generic Pharmaceuticals, Agricultural Biotechnology and International Human Rights

Justin Lim is a student at Osgoode Hall Law School (J.D. Class of 2010) and Student Director of the International Legal Partnership I'm very excited to announce the collaboration between IP Osgoode and the International Legal Partnership (ILP) that will see the placement of Research Fellows with the People's Patent Group (PPG) in Delhi, India. From […]

Online Video Privacy

Jacqueline Lipton is a Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University.  She is Co-Director for the Center of Law, Technology, and the Arts, and the Associate Director of the Frederick K Cox International Law Center.  Professor Lipton is also an IP Osgoode Research Affiliate.  As Facebook welcomes its 200 millionth active user, now is […]

AP’s heated campaign over ‘Hot News’

A recent pronouncement by Associated Press (AP) to adopt a more aggressive effort to “fend off copycat competition and “misappropriation” in the dwindling market for timely reporting,” has stirred the online news-outlet community and its players. In his capacity as the CEO of MediaNews Group Inc., and the Chairman of Associated Press board of directors, […]

Garbage and Our Reasonable Expectations of Privacy

Court decisions relating to privacy matters have been in the news quite a bit recently. On April 9th, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in garbage that has been left close to the edge of one’s property line. The case, R. v. Patrick, was unanimous at 7-0, […]

The Commercial Value of Woody Allen’s Image

Last year, writer/director/actor Woody Allen launched a $10 million suit against clothing maker and retailer American Apparel over their unauthorized use of his image on a billboard advertisement. The trial is set to go before a jury on May 18th. However, on April 15th it was reported that Allen brought an additional complaint to the court […]

Not so bizarre, Pirate Bay Operators found guilty

Sundeep Chauhan is currently Vice-President and General Counsel to the NRCC. The Swedish courts have rendered a landmark verdict against the largest peer-to-peer site in the world.  The four men behind Pirate Bay, the Swedish file-sharing site used by an estimated 22 million users to freely exchange copyright protected movies, music, software, and video games, […]

Are Trade-marks Recession Proof?

Ashlee Froese is an Osgoode Hall alumnus and currently practices intellectual property at the law firm of Keyser Mason Ball LLP. In today's tough economic times, downsizing and cutting costs has become the global universal mantra.  But is this strategy necessarily applicable to intellectual property?  Given that trade-mark rights can exist in perpetuity, their value […]