Now, Why Didn’t I Think of That?

Further to my earlier posting “Best Buy, maybe not”, it looks like Tri-Vision International Ltd. has now discontinued its patent infringement lawsuit against Best Buy Co. Inc. and Best Buy Canada Ltd. See today’s press release on Yahoo Finance.

Tri-Vision, owner of the patent covering V-chip television technology, had taken the uncommon step in […]

If you’re in Ottawa tomorrow the Techlaw Copyright Summit is scheduled to begin at 12:00 noon. This event is open to the public at large.

To start off the Summit, the new Creative Commons licensed book entitled In the Public Interest: The Future of Canadian Copyright Law and edited by professor Michael Geist, will be […]

Interesting little article on Bloomberg.com, entitled Canada Patent Ruling Curbs Competition Enforcement, Lawyer Says.

Apparently our Federal Court of Appeal today heard the case between Eli Lilly & Co. and Apotex Inc. about whether Lilly and Japanese drug maker Shionogi & Co. were engaged in conduct that was contrary to section 45 of our […]

There was a neat article the other day about Canadian Inventor Steve Lapp who modified his Toyota Prius hybrid car to accept additional power input from a set of solar panels he installed on the top of the car’s roof.

The inventor estimates that this complementary technology could result in a 25% to 33% reduction in […]

This week’s Trade-marks Journal had a few amusing trade-mark applications advertised, including:

BRA STRAP - 1,207,627, by Paul Glover, trading as Fun Time Fishing, in relation to… fishing lures and fishing accessories;

HEAVENLY HOOKERS - 1,221,567, by Heavenly Hookers Inc. in relation to… (no not that)… crochet hooks and crochet craft patterns;

NAKED BLUE CULTURE - 1,222,244, by […]

I received a nice email this morning introducing me to a new free patent searching site, www.FreePatentsOnline.com.

It allows one to search the USPTO patents and published applications, and some European patents, at the same time. It also provides one with free multi-page PDF downloads.

Via Greg Aharonian’s Internet Patent News Service.

Apparent there was a provocative article in a recent edition of Forbes, entitled Box Office Patents, which suggest that movie scripts should be patentable subject matter. The article notes that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office already approves patents for software, business methods and role-playing […]

This week’s Trade-marks Journal had a few amusing trade-mark applications advertised, including:

BADASS WINES - 1,245,869, by Niagara Cellars Inc. in relation to, what else, wines;

NAUGHTY NOIR - 1,245,874, also by Niagara Cellars Inc. in relation to wines;

BELCHER - 1,236,165, by Go Fast Sports & Beverage Company in relation to soft drinks and clothing. Maybe […]

In a press-release today, the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) welcomed a Federal Court of Australia ruling that effectively outlaws the Internet file-swapping operator Kazaa in Australia.

From a Canadian perspective, however, this same case might have had a very different outcome if tried under our copyright law.

For one, there is no “making […]