http://www.gelsing.ca/blog A Canadian patent, trade-mark and copyright blog, by Sander Gelsing Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:20:43 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Toronto based firm i4i, Inc. has been getting a fair bit of press lately as the tiny firm that took on Microsoft Corp. and succeeded in winning an injunction against sales of certain versions of Microsoft Word software in the United States as well as a US$290-million award for damages, ... http://www.gelsing.ca/blog/?p=274 The Globe and Mail reports today that the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) quietly applied to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office for trade-mark rights to the phrase “with glowing hearts” which is part of the well-known refrain in our national anthem O Canada: “With glowing hearts we see thee rise, ... http://www.gelsing.ca/blog/?p=273 There was an interesting article in yesterday’s Report on Business, entitled As patent cases clog courts, drugs are a lawyer’s best friend, which describes how the Federal Court of Canada judges are swamped with a rising tide of complex patent litigation and how law firms are scrambling for talent to ... http://www.gelsing.ca/blog/?p=272 CBC News reports that Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach is defending his decision to send lawyers after blogger Dave Cournoyer who owns the domain name edstelmach.ca (note: that domain previously redirected to his blog daveberta.ca, now redirects to a wikipedia entry). Reading the blog, it seems like Mr. Cournoyer is not willing ... http://www.gelsing.ca/blog/?p=271 It’s not often that I come across news about Canadian trade-mark assets being sold, so I was intrigued when I saw the headline Electrohome completes the sale of the corporation’s trade-marks on CNW Group’s new releases. Electrohome Limited announced that, effective yesterday, it completed the sale of its trademarks to SYNNEX ... http://www.gelsing.ca/blog/?p=270 I wish all my readers a Happy Holidays! From Red Deer, Alberta, Canada http://www.gelsing.ca/blog/?p=269 The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) release a warning yesterday, noting that it has been made aware of companies offering alternative methods of protecting inventions. CIPO recommends that inventors contact a registered patent agent for advice. Hmmm, sounds familiar. See here, and also here, about my previous blog entries ... http://www.gelsing.ca/blog/?p=268 See the Globe & Mail’s recent article about why copyright is cool and sexy. http://www.gelsing.ca/blog/?p=267 For something that’s still mostly speculation (both Michael and Howard acknowledge not yet having seen the actual contents of the upcoming copyright reform Bill), there has a remarkable outpouring of interest from numerous individuals on the issue of Canadian copyright reform, not the least of which is: The Facebook group Fair ... http://www.gelsing.ca/blog/?p=266 Further to my earlier posting, and a nice email from Strategis’s Web Information Quality Assurance staff just now, Industry Canada has merged strategis.gc.ca with ic.gc.ca to provide a single point of entry to Industry Canada’s programs and services at the ic.gc.ca domain. Industry Canada’s notice about the merger can ... http://www.gelsing.ca/blog/?p=265 Back a couple of years ago I blogged about how Canadian industrial design registrations were made publicly available through the launch of CIPO’s (then) new Canadian Industrial Designs Database. At that time over 10,000 Canadian industrial designs were made public through this new database (i.e. those registered as ... http://www.gelsing.ca/blog/?p=264 In addition to my periodic postings about fun trade-marks, I thought it might also be amusing to see what new trade-mark oppositions are being filed. Looking back through CIPO’s database for the last couple of weeks, I note the following interesting new oppositions and proposed oppositions: FACEBOX - ... http://www.gelsing.ca/blog/?p=263 This week’s (pdf) and last week’s (pdf) Trade-marks Journal had a number of amusing trade-mark applications advertised: NAKED MINERALS - 1,336,605, by Yem Inc. for cosmetics and mineral make-up that, according to their website, is so light and comfortable a wearer won’t know she/he ... http://www.gelsing.ca/blog/?p=262 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 ... http://www.gelsing.ca/blog/?p=261 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, ... http://www.gelsing.ca/blog/?p=260