Now, Why Didn’t I Think of That?

There hasn’t been a new posting on CopyrightWatch.ca for a while now, but they sure cracked me up with their posting just a bit ago Truth in trademarking.

Luckily, the Olympic and Paralypic Marks Act is not yet in force (as far as I’m aware), so I think we’re still safe to refer to […]

PATSCAN’s Bizarre Patent Calendar for 2008 (pdf) is now available.

I like the entry for December (i.e. US 6,490,999) for a leash and collar combination to walk one’s snake. It even includes a feature for reducing the snake’s concertina movement through the collar

For more details on this particular invention, see the inventor’s website at […]

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office has recently added features to the online patent database.

CIPO states that the new features include:

Highlighted search term: terms defined in the original query will be highlighted on document detail pages.
Improved navigation: search results pages are now numbered for easier access to specific pages.
Toggle between languages: Switching from English […]

Recently, Nicholas Weston, Lawyers & Trade Marks Attorneys, celebrated the launch of the Australian Trade Marks Law Blog.

According to their About page, Nicholas Weston is an unstuffy Australian law firm delivering trade marks and other commercial legal services to clients worldwide.

I’ve added their RSS feed to my newsreader and I’ll be following their […]

Howard Knopf has an interesting post today, entitled Canada’s Stronger Copyright law - a baker’s dozen examples, wherein he lists thirteen examples of why Canadian copyright law is much stronger than U.S. copyright law. My favourite is his number 3:

3. We pay a fortune to SOCAN for performances in countless bars, restaurants, retail […]

Just released via Google News, it appears that Access Copyright is suing retailer Staples/The Business Depot for copyright infringement, claiming $10 million in damages over unauthorized photocopying by store customers.

Access copyright is a Canadian copyright collective. Regular readers of my blog might remember my previous posting about Access Copyright’s superhero Captain […]

Rob Hyndman, in his post entitled Your Leopard is Eating My Self-Esteem, comments on the flurry of comments he received on his previous post yesterday (81 comments at the time of writing) and how it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that some folks have too much of their self-esteem tied up in their choice […]

CTV.ca reports that an Australian man was fined for pirating “The Simpsons Movie” to the Internet after recording it on his cell phone. His fine was about US$888.00 (or roughly $832.59 CAD).

The man’s defence lawyer was quoted as saying:

“It would appear that this young man had the sophistication of a dead fish, … I […]

Duke University’s The Chronicle reports that the Honourable Mr. Justice Michel Bastarache, of the Supreme Court of Canada, criticized that court for the 2004 decisions in the Monsanto Canada Inc. v. Schmeiser case, which he said implies that a higher life form is patentable.

Duke University School of Law held an ABA Animal Law […]

CNN reports that Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. has sued Sears Canada Inc., alleging that the Canadian company failed to pay required royalties for use of the trademark “MARTHA STEWART EVERYDAY” on a line of merchandise.

The CNN article further notes that the lawsuit was filed Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan, New York. I […]

The Court, a blog where Canadian scholars, practitioners and law students comment on recent decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada, has posted a free video lecture by David Vaver, Professor of Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law, University of Oxford.

The video lecture assesses how the Supreme Court is interpreting Canada’s intellectual property […]

It’s been a while since I’ve had a Fun Trade-marks posting, but both this week’s (pdf) and last week’s (pdf) Trade-marks Journal had a number of amusing trade-mark applications advertised:

GETTING DIRTY IS GOOD - 1,341,164, by Unilever Canada Inc. for proposed use in relation to laundry detergent. Seems like […]