Trends, analysis and insights in IP Law
The Federal Court of Appeal recently released its decision in Voltage Holdings, LLC v Doe #1, in which the court affirmed the minimum evidentiary requirements to establish direct and authorizing copyright infringement and clarified the extent to which an adverse inference may be drawn in the context of online copyright infringement.
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The concept of a piece of art that is architectural in nature or an artistically designed building being copyrightable might seem fairly self-explanatory, but what about the design plans for that architectural creation? Do the drawings created by an architect designing how a building will look ever attract its own separate copyright protection? Can those designs be used by someone else trying to create a similar looking building? Continue reading for a look at the ways in which architectural designs and plans are protected under the Canadian Copyright Act and Canadian caselaw.
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Copyright in graffiti is an interesting and relatively unexplored area of law in Canada. It is still unclear what kinds of protections a graffiti artists’ work can be afforded, but by looking at the relevant sections of the Copyright Act and examples of caselaw on related topics, it is possible to make predictions about how some of the main issues surrounding the subject might be dealt with by Canadian law. Continue reading for an exploration into the issues relating to reproduction and moral rights that graffiti might pose for Canadian courts and what they might consider if such issues were to appear before them.
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In a time when online sharing is becoming more and more complicated thanks to an ever increasing number of social media platforms cropping into existence and an equally ever increasing amount of time people are spending online, various copyright issues are bound to arise. Continue reading to learn more about the common Canadian copyright limitations and issues users may face in sharing and living in an online world.
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As detailed in Part I of this blog post, despite the fact that Canadian courts have not yet grappled with a case related to copyright and tattoos, the Copyright Act and foreign caselaw suggests that copyright very likely subsists in tattoos and that the rights to tattoos most likely reside with the tattoo artists who design and ink the tattoos on individuals’ skin. This copyright can create a host of legal problems for tattooed individuals, particularly public figures whose tattoos could end up on display and recreated across many different platforms. Continue reading for a discussion of some of the options available to those individuals who are concerned about the consequences of not owning their own tattooed image.
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