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Facebook Photos and Media Freeloading: An Unfair Deal

Facebook Photos and Media Freeloading: An Unfair Deal

The user-oriented approach to copyright law expressed in CCH Canadian Ltd. v. Law Society of Upper Canada cannot be used to justify media freeloading under the guise of fair dealing.  After the death of Stefanie Rengel, four major Toronto newspapers ran photos of the victim that were taken from Facebook.  Does this practice falls under […]

Patent Grid Lock: Clearing Traffic

Patent Grid Lock: Clearing Traffic

Trying to get from point A to B can be frustrating, particularly when stuck in gridlock. A situation Michael Heller likens to the American (and by default, the Canadian) patent system. Heller argues in his article titled “Where are the Cures” [1], that the current patent laws hinder researchers’ abilities to develop medical cures. The […]

Social Networking and Profile Ownership in Hays

Social Networking and Profile Ownership in Hays

In a recent blog post, Judith Kirkpatrick discusses two British cases dealing with profile ownership on the social networking websites LinkedIn and Facebook [1].  According to Kirkpatrick, the decision in Hays Specialist Recruitment (Holding) Ltd. v. Ions suggests the conclusion that “your LinkedIn profile if used in the course of your employment might not belong […]

Branded: The Battle for Trade-marks on the Web

Branded: The Battle for Trade-marks on the Web

Steve Lohr’s article “A New Battle is Beginning in Branding for the Web” highlights the trade-mark issues that are emerging in response to the ever expanding realm of internet technology. As David Vaver explains, trade-marks exist “to identify the trade source of products and services to potential customers.”  However, as Lohr points out, those products […]

Good for PR or just going soft? Making patents public for the greater good

Good for PR or just going soft? Making patents public for the greater good

The following is based on the Globe and Mail article "Major companies agree to make anti-pollution patents public," by Martin Mittelstadedt. Since January 2008 patents developed with the goal of fighting pollution have been put into the public domain by a growing number of large companies, such as DuPont and Xerox. Dubbed the "eco-patent commons," […]

Ohio Supreme Court Holds that Retained Memory Can Constitute a Trade Secret

Ohio Supreme Court Holds that Retained Memory Can Constitute a Trade Secret

In the past courts have drawn a distinction between trade secrets that were tangible or written and those that were retained in memory, offering protection for the former. That is, if employees held in their memory certain secret information from a previous job, they were able to disseminate or use said information with impunity in […]

Reaching Across the Cloud: Searching for Answers in Internet Trademark Issues

Reaching Across the Cloud: Searching for Answers in Internet Trademark Issues

It seems that in the world of branding and trade-marks the Internet is turning into a genuine Wild West.  This truth becomes evident upon reading Steve Lohr’s article in the New York Times, as it addresses fundamental trademark issues arising in an increasingly Internet-saturated society.[1] These trends are primarily related to the development of new […]

Patent Royalties – a royal pain?

Patent Royalties – a royal pain?

In the Supreme Court decision in Quanta Computer, Inc. v. LG Electronics, Inc,[1] the Court unanimously agreed to uphold the doctrine of patent exhaustion. The application of this doctrine is in the public’s best interest and therefore outweighs the detrimental impact of the doctrine on patent owners’ rights to control. LG Electronics (LG) had licensed […]

Patching a Gap in Trademark Law the Hard Way

Patching a Gap in Trademark Law the Hard Way

The United States Congress rescued citizens in the state of Montana from a Las Vegas businessman who attempted to expropriate, albeit legally via trademark registration, one of their cherished assets: a slogan “The Last Best Place”.  They achieved the right result, but I think they went about it incorrectly.  Congress blocked the possibility of trademark […]