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A Good Ad is Hard to Find…Especially One that is Non-infringing
April 26, 2010 by Brandon Evenson (IPilogue Editor) Brandon Evenson is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. Most advertisements are disappointing. They suffer from gimmicky jingles, exaggerated punchlines, and fake endorsements. Yet every once-in-a-while there comes an ad that is witty, sophisticated, and original. Such an ad, more often than not, parodies popular culture. But what happens when the ad runs headlong into the law of trademarks and personality rights?
US Supreme Court: Federal courts have jurisdiction over copyright infringement cases
March 29, 2010 by Brandon Evenson (IPilogue Editor) Brandon Evenson is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. The United States Supreme Court recently decided the case of Reed Elsevier v. Muchnick, holding that § 411(a) of the Copyright Act is not jurisdictional. At issue were the rights of freelance authors in their unregistered works. This case is part of the aftermath from the Supreme Court’s decision in New York Times Co. v. Tasini.
Apple v. HTC Offers Opportunity to Examine the Nature of Computer Programs
March 12, 2010 by Brandon Evenson (IPilogue Editor) Brandon Evenson is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. Technology blogs are still buzzing over Apple’s recently filed lawsuit against HTC for patent infringement. In their filing, Apple claims that various HTC phones (including but not limited to phones running the Google Android OS) infringe a number of Apple’s patents currently used in the iPhone. Engadget’s Nilay Patel completed a good lay review of the Apple patents allegedly infringed by HTC.
Maturation of the Software Industy and the Need for Software Patents
February 26, 2010 by Brandon Evenson (IPilogue Editor) Brandon Evenson is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School and is taking the Patent Law course. A patent system is a balancing act. On one hand, a patent system provides incentives to innovate, commercialize, and disclose innovations to society. On the other hand, a patent system discourages the proliferation of innovations in society by giving a monopoly on disclosed inventions. Opponents have long argued that the deleterious effects of a patent system on society outweigh the beneficial effects. Indeed, there was a period in the 1860s and 1870s when patent systems all around the world were abolished. Prussia abolished their patent system in 1863, the Netherlands abolished their system in 1869, and Japan in 1873. The US’s attempt to abolish their system barely failed at the Senate by 3 votes. |
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