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Copyright Infringement of Tiny Photos Leads to Gigantic Award

Copyright Infringement of Tiny Photos Leads to Gigantic Award

An American photographer has been making headlines after receiving a massive award for copyright infringement by a health supplement website in relation to two of his photographs. It took 5 years, but on October 11, 2013 Andrew Paul Leonard was awarded $1.6 million in damages to be paid by Stemtech Health Sciences and its distributor.

Happy Holidays from IP Osgoode!

Happy Holidays from IP Osgoode!

Giuseppina D’Agostino is the Founder and Director of IP Osgoode, the Founder and Director of the new IP Intensive Program, and an Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School. IP Osgoode wishes everyone a very Happy Holiday and a Stellar New Year! We appreciate your interest and support over the past year and look forward to […]

Should Canada Adopt an “Innovation Patent System” to Promote Small to Medium Enterprises?

Should Canada Adopt an “Innovation Patent System” to Promote Small to Medium Enterprises?

The “innovation patent system”, a second-tier patent system unique to Australia, was introduced in 2001 by the Australian Parliament to promote the growth of small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) by providing a relatively quick and cost-effective process to obtain patent protection for lower-level or incremental inventions. The World Intellectual Property Office refers to Australian-type “second-tier patents” as […]

Privacy and Proportionality: The Supreme Court finds Alberta Privacy Legislation Unconstitutional

Privacy and Proportionality: The Supreme Court finds Alberta Privacy Legislation Unconstitutional

Privacy legislation frequently pits the importance of safeguarding personal information against the constitutional protection of freedom of expression. In Alberta (Information and Privacy Commissioner) v United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 401 (“UFCW”), the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") has made an important statement about the permissible extent of privacy protection, and the importance of […]

An Interview with James Williams and Michael Power: Putting Privacy and Data Protection Under the Lens

An Interview with James Williams and Michael Power: Putting Privacy and Data Protection Under the Lens

The course Comparative Law: Privacy and Data Protection is offered this coming term at Osgoode Law School. IP Osgoode interviewed the course co-professors, James Williams (Osgoode site, personal site) and Michael Power (Osgoode site, personal site) for their insight on the exciting contemporary debates in the field.

Pirates of the Caribbean: US Intellectual Property Rights to Walk the Plank?

Pirates of the Caribbean: US Intellectual Property Rights to Walk the Plank?

The government of Antigua and Barbuda has recently published a press release detailing their plans on establishing a statutory body to oversee the monetization and exploitation of the suspension of American intellectual property rights. The World Trade Organization (WTO) authorized the suspension of US IP rights in the small twin-island nation earlier this year. The organization overseeing these developments, the WTO Remedies Implementation Committee, is in the […]

Canadians #TalkTV: The Question Surrounding Digital Content Licensing

Canadians #TalkTV: The Question Surrounding Digital Content Licensing

For the past month the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has been attempting to open its policy and regulation processes to the Canadian public. On October 24, CRTC Chair Jean-Pierre Blais launched A Conversation with Canadians with speeches and discussions at the Université Laval and Ryerson University. As Mr. Blais stated during his presentation at Ryerson, this conversation is designed to […]

Happy Birthday to Whom?: New Litigation Challenges Copyright Ownership in “the World’s Most Popular Song”

Happy Birthday to Whom?: New Litigation Challenges Copyright Ownership in “the World’s Most Popular Song”

Most members of the public might be surprised to hear that “Happy Birthday to You” is apparently still subject to copyright protection in the United States, let alone that it is the subject of litigation aptly described by the New York Times as a “lawsuit for the ages.”