More of a cautionary winter’s tale than a midsummer night’s dream, an Indiana farmer facing legal action from a certain biotech and chemical multinational behemoth recently reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The case is called Bowman v. Monsanto, and with all that hangs in the balance, a herbicide-resistant rose by any other name would, in [...]

Posted in Commercialization, Competition Law, Contracts, Infringement, Patentability, Patents, Technology, US
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With markets in real property, personal property, and intellectual property quite cornered, the future-savvy lawyer might consider their cutting-edge cousin, if France’s data-mining tax proposal has its way: what could be termed existential property*, courtesy of Google, Facebook, Amazon, and the like. Or rather, courtesy of their users, whose digitally collected personal data may be wholesale [...]

Posted in Competition Law, European Union, Internet, Privacy, Regulatory Policy, Social Media
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Put this in your pipe and smoke it: The High Court of Australia recently ruled that the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act withstands constitutional scrutiny, in JT International SA v Commonwealth of Australia. Retailers and smokers will thus soon find themselves scrutinizing things as well, in order to distinguish between identical cigarette packages stripped of all branding and trade-marks.

Posted in Competition, Competition Law, Design, Freedom of Speech, IP, Ownership, Regulatory Policy, Trademarks
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The commitment to culture by our Francophone neighbours in Quebec has put their provincial government in the center of a legal battle with 6 major retailers.

Posted in Canada, Competition, Competition Law, Famous Marks, Jurisdiction, Trademarks
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