Brand Expectations in the Restroom: 4th Circuit Applies Contributory Trademark Infringement Doctrine to Post-Purchase Confusion Case

When one approaches the self-serve fountain drink machine at any given fast-food joint, it is usually safe to expect that the liquid beverage sputtering out of the “Coca-Cola®” nozzle would indeed be filling your cup with a Coca-Cola® product. But would one expect the same brand name association to be upheld in the restroom? In […]

Yes, Patents Do Have Gender

Michael John Long is an LLM candidate advancing to the PhD at Osgoode Hall Law School In his recent essay, Do Patents Have Gender? , intellectual property scholar Dan L Burk admits upfront that the title question ‘strikes many readers as improbable, even nonsensical.’  However, the posited question aims to introduce just how an intellectual property system, […]

Fashion IP Revisited: The Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prevention Act

Steven Zuccarelli is a 2012 JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. New York Senator Charles Schumer has recently unveiled the latest U.S attempt to protect innovative and novel fashion designs.  The Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prevention Act (IDPPPA), an amendment to the U.S Copyright Act, aims to curtail knockoffs of new fashion designs.  […]

RIM’s Battle for Information Privacy, Market Share, and its Reputation

Robert Dewald is a J.D. Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School  Canadian telecommunications giant Research in Motion (RIM), which manufacturers the popular BlackBerry, has reportedly offered information and tools to assist India’s government in monitoring encrypted emails and messaging services (Reuters).  India, which had threatened to shut down the BlackBerry service, is the latest country to […]

Transnational Regulation: Rough Consensus and Running Code

While practitioners have long considered the transnational sphere an anarchic Wild West, Rough Consensus and Running Code: A Theory of Transnational Private Law reveals elaborate regulatory foundations comprising both "hard" and "soft" law. In the book, Peer Zumbansen--professor and Canada Research Chair in Transnational & Comparative Law of Corporate Governance at Osgoode Hall Law School--explores […]

IP Osgoode: Call for Editors (2010-2011)

IPilogue (www.iposgoode.ca) is the first online review of its kind, featuring thoughtful intellectual property and technology law commentary by its student editors as well as scholars and other experts from around the world. As an interdisciplinary forum, we explore issues ranging from biotechnology to telecommunications, media to privacy, antitrust to tort, and beyond. Based at […]

Sizing Privacy Harm

Michael John Long is an LLM candidate advancing to the PhD at Osgoode Hall Law School In a recent blog posted on the IP Osgoode website I considered the ruling in City of Ontario v. Quon; a case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the issue of the privacy of employee text messages […]

The Internet Age: The Culprit for a Rise in Plagiarism?

Amanda Carpenter is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. The New York Times has recently published an interesting article about academic plagiarism. Within the article, a couple of examples of plagiarism are provided. The first example involves a freshman student who copied and pasted from a Web site’s frequently asked questions page, and […]

USPTO Issues Post-Bilski Guidelines for Patent Examiners

Stuart Freen is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. Following the release of the much anticipated U.S. Supreme Court decision of Bilski v. Kappos, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has recently published some interim guidelines on subject matter patentability. Titled Interim Guidance for Determining Subject Matter Eligibility for Process Claims in View […]

Trade Marks and Freedom of Expression: A Call for Caution

Dr. Dev Gangjee lectures at the London School of Economics, with a primary research interest in intellectual property, including trademarks, geographical indications and domain names. Robert Burrell and Dev Gangjee have recently completed some research into the potential of free speech as a response to overreach in trade mark law. While the general tone of […]