Post Tagged with: "trademark"

Should the Vancouver Olympic Organizers Own “Winter”?

With the 2010 Winter Olympic Games scheduled for Vancouver, the Canadian Olympic Committee has set the goal of "owning the podium."  Today the Olympic Committee took the first step toward another form of ownership – language.  Industry Minister Maxime Bernier introduced Bill C-47, the Olympic and Paralympic Marks Act, legislation that provides the Vancouver Olympic organizers with remarkable power over the language and symbols associated with the Olympics.  The legislation is supposedly intended to deal with ambush marketing, which are attempts by businesses to associate themselves with the Olympics without becoming official sponsors.  Similar legislation has been introduced in other countries that have hosted the Olympics, though there are questions about the effectiveness of the approach.

While it is understandable that the Olympic organizers want to maximize the marketing potential of the games, the bill raises several concerns. 

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March 3, 2007 28 comments News

Supreme Court Rules Against Overbroad Trademark Rights

The Supreme Court of Canada continues to distinguish itself as the leading high court in the world for recognizing the need for balance in intellectual property law matters.  The latest example is this morning’s pair of trademark decisions involving Mattel’s Barbie trademark and champagne maker Veuve Cliquot.  In both cases, […]

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June 2, 2006 Comments are Disabled News

Supreme Court Nominee Could Have Big Impact on IP

My weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) examines new Canadian Supreme Court nominee Mr. Justice Marshall Rothstein, whose lengthy record on patent, copyright, and trademark matters suggests that he may very well challenge the status quo at Canada' s highest court. The column uncovers several speeches by Justice Rothstein that reveal a candid judge who is uncomfortable with incorporating policy into the legal decision making process, who is willing to examine intellectual property laws of other jurisdictions, and who recognizes the limits of intellectual property law.

Justice Rothstein, who appears before a House of Commons committee today, has emerged as a prominent jurist on intellectual property cases at the Federal Court of Appeal.  His best-known decision is the Harvard Mouse case, which addressed the question of whether higher life forms, in this case the "oncomouse", could be patented.  Justice Rothstein ruled that it could, concluding that there was nothing in the definition of "invention" under the Patent Act to preclude such patents.

Justice Rothstein has also presided over leading copyright and trademark cases.  He wrote a concurring opinion in Law Society of Upper Canada v. CCH Canadian, a copyright case that focused on the photocopying of legal decisions.  He sided with the majority in a high-profile trademark battle between Lego and Montreal-based Mega Blocks.

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February 26, 2006 2 comments Columns

The Court That Gets It

The Supreme Court of Canada yesterday issued its much-anticipated (by trademarks practitioners anyway) decision in the trademark battle between Mega Blocks and Lego (the case is formally known as kirkbi ag v. ritvik holdings inc.) The unanimous court found for Mega Blocks, ending Lego' s attempts to use trademark law […]

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November 18, 2005 4 comments News

Watch Tower Society Sues Canadian Site For Posting Religious Text

The Watch Tower Society, used by the Jehovah's Witnesses to promote religious worship, has sued a Canadian website for posting religious works online. The statement of claim (TIFF format) argues both copyright infringement (for the materials posted online) as well as trademark infringement (for the use of the domain watchtower.ca). […]

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September 14, 2005 15 comments News