Insights

“Fashion Santa” – A Very Seasonal Intellectual Property Dispute

For two Christmas seasons in a row the chic white-bearded 50-something-year-old model, Paul Mason, has donned designer garb and paraded around Yorkdale mall calling himself “Fashion Santa”. Just as we enter into…

New Guidelines for Paid Endorsements and Incentivized Marketing

In a world where businesses are aggressively competing for the attention of consumers, paid online reviews and endorsements are now popular and even commonplace forms of advertisement and promotion. However, this form…

Boaden Catering Limited v. Real Food for Real Kids Inc. – Some IP with your lunch?

Boaden Catering Limited v. Real Food for Real Kids Inc. is a recent decision from the Ontario Superior Court that includes a healthy plateful (pun intended) of intellectual property related issues, both substantive…

The line between facts and expression in two recent copyright cases

It is a basic tenet of copyright law that copyright does not protect facts or ideas. Data, information, facts, systems, opinions, or broad common themes cannot be anyone’s exclusive property. Copyright does,…

Cautionary notes on settling your trademark or copyright dispute

The vast majority of disputes over intellectual property rights, including trademarks, patents and copyright, settle before reaching a courtroom. There are many advantages to resolving your dispute through a settlement agreement instead…

Hand over that domain!

As the e-commerce space becomes ever more crowded, disputes over confusingly similar domain names are becoming ever more common. One issue that has been particularly vexing is whether a court can order…

The importance of policing your trademarks: The need to “Strike Back”

I was recently asked by the Toronto Star to comment on Lucasfilm’s decision to serve a charitable organization called Newmindspace with a cease and desist letter demanding that they stop all use…

The ABC’s of Section 6(5)(a)-(e): Back to basics on trademark confusion

In its recent decision in Home Hardware Stores Limited v Benjamin Moore & Co Limited, 2015 FC 1344, the Federal Court has taken us back to the basics of assessing the likelihood…

IP response to Online Brand and Reputation Attacks

Online threats to commercial reputations are on the rise. These include “attack sites”, “gripe sites” (e.g. RipOff Report), cyber-libel via social media, domain name high-jacking, meta tag high-jacking and defamatory email campaigns….

Initial interest confusion in Canada: recent developments

Back in April, we wrote about the history in Canada of a U.S. trademark infringement doctrine called “initial interest confusion” – see “A brief history of passing off, websites and “initial interest…

Combating Online Infringement and Disparagement of Your Trademark

You’ve spent years building goodwill in your business and translating it into your brand name. You’ve registered your brand name as a trademark which you use as the domain name for your…

Richard Prince, fair dealing and “owning” your content on Instagram

U.S. artist, Richard Prince, has generated considerable mainstream publicity by appropriating images he found on Instagram and featuring them in his “New Portraits” collection. A number of copyright lawyers in the U.S….

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