Intellectual Property
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February 23, 2024
Ottawa files its appeal of Federal Court’s ruling that gov’t illegally invoked emergency powers
Citing multiple grounds of appeal, Ottawa has asked the Federal Court of Appeal to overturn last month’s Federal Court judgment that the federal Liberal government acted unreasonably and illegally two years ago when it declared a public order emergency and purported to arrogate to itself under the federal Emergencies Act extraordinary powers to end truckers' disruption of the capital and ports of entry in protest of government-mandated pandemic measures.
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February 23, 2024
Two new associate chief judges for Nova Scotia
Judge Ronda van der Hoek and Judge D. Shane Russell have been named associate chief judges, who can, in addition to hearing matters in court, assist the chief judge with responsibilities related to the administration of the Nova Scotia Provincial Court.
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February 20, 2024
Alta.’s Justice Mary Moreau welcomed at celebration of first female-majority Supreme Court of Canada
The milestone appointment of Justice Mary Moreau was celebrated in Ottawa, where the ex-chief justice and former criminal lawyer and constitutional litigator from Alberta was lauded for her “unparalleled work ethic,” “great intelligence” as well as for her “humility” and “compassion.” “For the first time in the history of our country, the majority of judges sitting on the Supreme Court are now women,” federal Justice Minister Arif Virani said
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February 16, 2024
Safeguarding from corporate cyber-threats: Good old-fashioned compliance not good enough
Recent news about a 26 billion-record mother of all breaches prompted, among other discussions, a flurry of water cooler conversations in the days that followed the headlines. Among the sources of compromised data were big names like Tencent, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Evite, Adobe, and records from government organizations in the United States and around the globe. This news has left many business leaders and personal users wondering if they should consider reverting to in-house storage of sensitive data, as they believe this would provide them with more control. My response is, “But would it?”
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February 14, 2024
Court rules PM, justice minister ‘failed’ litigants & courts with many tardy judicial appointments
A Federal Court judge has refused to order the Trudeau government to fill the present high level of 75 superior court vacancies within specified timeframes; instead the judge recognized a “constitutional convention” that judicial vacancies “must be filled within a reasonable time” and declared his “expectation” that Ottawa will begin to discharge its unfulfilled constitutional duty to fix the country’s “untenable and appalling crisis and critical judicial vacancy situation,” including by reducing the vacancies to the mid-40s “within a reasonable time.”
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February 14, 2024
Securities regulator issues report on use and harms of AI in financial sector, seeks feedback
The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), Quebec’s securities regulator, has released a new issues and discussion paper titled Best practices for the responsible use of AI in the financial sector “for the purpose of engaging in an open dialogue about the opportunities and issues associated with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the industry.”
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February 13, 2024
SCC’s output fell to 34 judgments in 2023, renewing questions, concerns within the bar
Is the Supreme Court of Canada giving enough legal guidance to Canadians, particularly in private law cases? It’s a question simmering within the legal community, one that attracts the attention of academics and litigators and that might benefit from the court shedding some light, especially because the numbers of cases the nine judges hear and decide have been trending down for more than a decade, without explanation.
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February 12, 2024
Federal Court dismisses action alleging patent infringement by new Apotex heartburn drug
The Federal Court has dismissed claims that a new Apotex drug infringes a patent, finding the asserted claims as invalid and not infringed by the new drug.
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February 09, 2024
Access to information requests ‘more than just numbers on a chart’: B.C. commissioner
B.C.’s information and privacy commissioner is calling out the provincial government for its response time when dealing with access to information requests, flagging thousands of incidents where officials exceeded the time allowed to respond to a request without having any legal authority to do so.
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February 09, 2024
Federal Court denies amendments to claim in copyright case, finds them inadequately specified
The Federal Court has rejected certain proposed amendments to a statement of claim in a copyright action, finding that the changes would expand the list of allegedly copyrighted and infringed works at issue to an unknown number of unidentified and unspecified works.