In the latest high profile case involving alleged fair use of Pablo Picasso’s work in a book on the subject, The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a 2019 federal district court’s ruling deeming French court’s judgment in that matter was unenforceable under U.S. law. The case is notable for the …
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The New York Court of Appeals has ruled that \”Happy\” the elephant has no human writ of habeas corpus rights that would allow her to challenge her imprisonment at the Bronx Zoo. The 5-2 decision was written by Chief Judge Janet DiFiore with Judges Rowan Wilson and Jenny Rivera dissenting. \”Because the writ of habeas …
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Section 16.1(1) of the Patent Act was last amended in 2016 to extend privilege to communications made for the purpose of seeking or giving advice with respect to any matter relating to the proection of an invention. In Janssen Inc and Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp v. Sandoz Canaa Inc., 2021 FC 1265, the Federal Court …
Inducement of copyright infringement is a novel cause of action recognized for the first time in Bell Canada v. L3d Distributing where the Federal Court awarded a group of media broadcasters over $25M in statutory damages for the streaming of unauthorized content on defendants pre-programmed set-top boxes. In cases of \”whack-a-mole\” patterns of infringement where …
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In re: Zoom Video Communications Inc Privacy Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 20-02155. Zoom shared personal information with (Microsoft\’s) Linkedin, Google, and Facebook (something Microsoft Teams does every second) resulting in hackers taking control of meeting rooms with racial slurs and porn, a practice known as zoombombing. In reaching the settlement …
Courts are progressively moving away from their passive caution in matters of patent or copyright infringement where serial infringers are thriving on the slowness and inefficiency of the justice system to keep infringing in the course of proceedings. One way to curtail the modus operandi of Canadian infringers who rarely have a valid defence as …
Read more “Summary Judgments in Copyright Claims: The War Has Changed”
Ever since Equustek, Google fails to convince Canadian courts of its \”non-commercial\” business model and its \”freedom of expression\” rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Unlike the USA where Google always wins (remember Oracle and fair use not so long ago), Canada maintains a tough stance on the search engine giant. Just …
Read more “Google Indexing Of Personal Information Is Subject to PIPEDA (2021 FC 723)”
One in 6 Ontario class actions allege privacy violations. This dynamic may change following the Divisional Court\’s determination in Ohsianik v. Equifax that collectors and guardians of personal data (“Database Defendants”) cannot be liable for intrusion upon seclusion when third parties steal or access that data. Liability is suppressed even where database defendants are alleged …
The main regulator of the legal profession has issued its predictive report on where the practice of law is headed by 2030. Not surprisingly, the future of the legal profession will be dominated by Data, AI, Tech, and Climate Change. https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/en/topics/research/future-worlds-2050-images-of-the-future-worlds-facing-the-legal-profession-2020-2030 These areas of expertise are almost entirely outside the scope of law societies\’ exclusivity …
Earlier this month, Subway scored a legal victory in a trademark infringement claim against Budway Cannabis Store who didn\’t bother showing up at trial (blame it on the \”bud\”, I guess). https://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/fc-cf/decisions/en/498525/1/document.do The court based its analysis on a previous ruling Toys R Us v. Herbs R Us, 2020 FC 682 flowing from very similar …