The Era of Digital Pirates and Why Anti-Piracy Ads Have Failed to Make a Difference

Intellectual Property Protections of Olympic Proportions: A Look at Tokyo 2020

Potential Sabotage: Is that What’cha Want?

Michael "Mike D" Diamond, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz and the estate of the recently deceased Adam "MCA" Yauch (“the Beastie Boys”) have launched an action against Monster Energy Drink (hereafter “Monster”) for the use of approximately 3 minutes of their music in a video promoting the “Ruckus in the Rockies” event.

Keyword Advertising: When are competitors allowed to use your trademark?

Robert Dewald is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School Online keyword advertising, using internet search engines such as Google and Yahoo!, continues to be a highly contentious area of the law.  Litigation involving trademark infringement by competing companies in keyword advertising campaigns continues in Canada and around the world.  In Canada, it appears […]

Online Keyword Advertising: Misleading Customers? Or Providing Alternatives?

Robert Dewald is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School Online advertising is a growing and lucrative business.  In 2009, $22.7 billion USD was spent on online advertising within the U.S. which is projected to grow to $25.1 billion USD by 2010.  A significant amount of this revenue is generated by Google, Yahoo and […]

Obama's Likeness Used to Sell Rain Coats

Stuart Freen is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama found himself in a strange place: Plastered across a 30-foot billboard in Times Square, hawking rain coats. The Weatherproof advertisement depicted a bold-looking Obama walking along the Great Wall of China with his hands dug into the pockets […]

What does it mean if everyone is ‘the best’?

Brian Chau is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. If everyone is the best, as per their advertising, would that mean that all products are merely average? This is a conundrum that serves as a key point of consumer frustration: How do we differentiate amongst products who all seem to be claiming the […]