Intellectual Property
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August 02, 2024
Canada, U.S. come to terms on Technology Safeguards Agreement for space industry
Global Affairs Canada has announced that Canada and the United States have concluded “substantive negotiations” on the Technology Safeguards Agreement (TSA) for space launch technology.
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August 02, 2024
New principal appointed at Smart & Biggar
A recent news release from Smart & Biggar announced that David Walters was appointed a principal in the firm’s EICT Patents practice.
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August 01, 2024
Court approves sale of carwash, finding patent rights in facility were exhausted in earlier sale
The Alberta Court of King’s Bench has approved the sale of a car wash owned by an insolvent company, dismissing a former owner's claim that any new owner must enter into a licensing agreement with it due to patented technology in the facility’s design.
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August 01, 2024
5 senior associates announced at Smart & Biggar
Recent news releases from Smart & Biggar announced the promotion of Tierney GB Deluzio, Olivier Jean-Lévesque, Nora Labbancz, Matthew Norton and Michael Sgro to senior associate.
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July 31, 2024
Federal political parties collecting sensitive voter data in a regulatory void, warns report
In a British Columbia courtroom this past May, the country’s three main political parties came together in common cause: to maintain unregulated access to sometimes sensitive voter information collected by a mushrooming industry of political consultants.
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July 31, 2024
Recent copyright developments: Statutory damages
In Vidéotron Ltée v. Konek Technologies Inc., 2023 FC 741, 202 C.P.R. (4th) 311, the court said the purpose of the subsection 38.1 is to prevent a mechanical application of the section from leading to the awarding of disproportionate sums. It would be paradoxical if the purpose of the provision could be frustrated by interpreting it in a too technical or mechanical fashion. The concept of “medium” must be applied while considering the wide variety of types of works that can be subject to copyright and the growing diversity of technological means of reproducing or retransmitting these works. A pragmatic approach is called for.
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July 31, 2024
New partner and IP expert at Blakes
Fiona Legere has joined Blakes as a partner and leader of the firm’s intellectual property litigation practice.
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July 30, 2024
Federal Court reinstates trademark based on new evidence of sales in Canada
The Federal Court has overturned an administrative decision expunging a registered trademark based on evidence filed on appeal that established that the owner of the mark was the first link in the chain of distribution of third-party sales of the relevant products in Canada.
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July 30, 2024
Counsel contend Ottawa’s spate of judicial appointments might make novel constitutional appeal moot
Lawyers who won a groundbreaking Federal Court declaration that recognized a “constitutional convention that judicial vacancies on the provincial superior courts and federal courts must be filled within a reasonable time” contend Ottawa’s appeal should be dismissed as moot if the Trudeau government gets federal judicial vacancies down to the reasonable level set by Federal Court Justice Henry Brown last February.
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July 29, 2024
Recent copyright developments: Eye-appealing features applied to useful articles
Based on statements and debates from around the time that subsection 64(2) was introduced into the Copyright Act, the broad purpose of the provision was to limit the scope of copyright and moral rights for designs applied to certain products reproduced in industrial quantities. The general idea was that such designs should instead be protected by registration of an industrial design, which has a much shorter life than copyright.