Now, Why Didn’t I Think of That?

Yesterday’s Trade-marks Journal had a number of amusing trade-mark applications advertised, including:

NAUGHTY MONKEY - 1,186,441, for wearing apparel, shoes, sweatshirts, T-shirts and the like;

BIG WANG - 1,219,203, for alcoholic beverages, beer, drinking glasses, clothing and a variety of other wares; and

BUTTOCKS PASTE BY PANTA - 1,230,455, for paste for the treatment and prevention of diaper […]

Michael Geist has a good overview article on the whole Canadian copyright reform issue. He notes that in the planned reforms announced last week (see my previous post) the government rejected virtually every recommendation made by the Canadian Heritage Standing Committee last May.

For example, the Committee recommended the immediate ratification of WIPO’s Internet […]

Today, Minister of Industry David Emerson and Minister of Canadian Heritage Liza Frulla released a Statement outlining proposed amendments to the Canadian Copyright Act that will address the challenges and opportunities of the Internet and will fulfill our Government’s commitment to address the short-term group of copyright reform issues.

Some of the more noteworthy of […]

In one of my posts last week I noted that Canada’s two main beer giants are trying to market something new — caffeinated beer.

Now, Canadian NewsWire reports that Molson unveiled the world’s first draught tower that can continuously pour beer at temperatures below freezing. It’s being marketed under the trade-mark SUB ZERO.

According […]

Canadian-based company Mega Bloks Inc. stated, in its press-release of today (pdf version here), that it has learned of a decision of the German Patent and Trademark Office canceling a 2x4 stud block design trademark registration in the name of an affiliate of the Lego group of companies.

Only a few short days ago, on March […]

I’m doing a bit of patent searching today (in the field of exercise equipment) and I came across US 4,688,789 for an exercise method. With the aid of this device, the user can walk or run on all fours, without squatting or bending the knees appreciably, thereby exercising the arms and the legs at […]

Canoe Network’s CNEWS reported yesterday that Technicoil Corp., and partner oil rig operator Nabors Canada, filed a lawsuit over alleged patent violations against Savanna Energy Services Corp. regarding coiled tubing technology. Coiled tubing is an oil field technology useful in oil well stimulation and underbalanced drilling.

Nabors and Technicoil claim that a patent for the […]

Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM), the Canadian-based maker of BlackBerry wireless e-mail devices, said today that it will pay $450-million (U.S.) to resolve litigation with NTP Inc., a Virginia company which said the devices infringed on in its U.S. patents.

RIM claimed that because its BlackBerry relay server — through which all e-mails pass — […]

My wife pointed this out to me - Canada’s two main beer giants are trying to “Shok” and “Kick” Canadians into trying something new — caffeinated beer. See today’s news story on CTV.ca entitled “Major breweries put caffeine kick in their cans”.

For the relevant pending Canadian trade-mark applications see: Labatt Brewing’s SHOK and SHOK! […]

The latest Lowdown Column in CANOE - JAM! Music quotes ex-CRIA president, Brian Robertson criticizing Canada’s copyright laws as “embarrassingly inept”.

I don’t think our copyright laws are either embarrassing or inept. There’s probably room for improvement (as with most things). Also some of the exemptions from copyright infringement, such as that […]

Audionautes.net in their blog report that:

On Thursday, the French Court of Appeal of Montpellier released a 22 years old Internet user free of charges after he was sued for copying nearly 500 movies on Internet, burning them on CDs and sharing them with friends. The Court based its decision on the article L-122-5 of the […]

The trade name versus trade-mark issue had come up a number of times this week, for a variety of my clients; so I deemed this issue worthy of a posting.

Often I see clients who have registered their proprietorship or partnership name, or even incorporated a company with a distinctive name, at the Provincial Registry. […]

Yesterday’s Trade-marks Journal had a number of amusing trade-mark applications advertised, including:

NUDIE - 1,222,240. Not only does this trade-mark sound naughty, the application is for a very extensive list of wares and services, ranging from beer, to plants, to chow mein, to breads, to poultry, to party hats, to surfboards, to wallets, to televisions, […]

Yesterday I posted that a coalition of Canada’s leading security research businesses had delivered a letter to Canadian Minister of Industry David Emerson and Heritage Minister Liza Frulla expressing serious concerns about proposed new Canadian copyright legislation.

There is now more coverage on this issue by the mainstream news. See articles by the Toronto Star […]

P2pnet.net reports that yesterday a coalition of Canada’s leading security research businesses delivered a letter to Canadian Minister of Industry David Emerson and Heritage Minister Liza Frulla expressing serious concerns about proposed new Canadian copyright legislation.

The proposed amendments are to introduce new rights to prohibit the circumvention of technological protection measures (TMP’s). Not unlike […]