Tag Archives: Copyrights

Analysis

“Making Available”– The Supreme Court Rules That There Is Only One Royalty Fee To Be Paid

picture of the the entrance of the Supreme Court of Canada, or Cour Supreme du Canada, in Ottawa. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada, the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. Its decisions are the ultimate expression and application of Canadian law and binding upon all lower courts of Canada

Fasken successfully represented several of the respondents before the Supreme Court of Canada in Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada v. Entertainment Software Association, 2022 SCC 30. In its recent decision, the Supreme Court conclusively rejected attempts by SOCAN to “double dip” on copyright royalties via the making available of copyrighted works and in the process helped clarify a number of important legal issues. Some of these issues are unique to copyright law, while others have broader relevance, including issues related to determining the standard of review post-Vavilov and how treaties should be used to interpret statutes.

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Analysis, Canada, Copyrights, Intellectual property, Patent Prosecution, Trademark

Trademark Owners and Franchisors Beware: in Milano Pizza Ltd. v. 6034799 Canada Inc., Lack of Licensor Control Leads to Invalidation of Trademark

Neon sign of a pizza over a city's view

In its recent Milano Pizza Ltd. v. 6034799 Canada Inc. decision, the Federal Court ordered the expungement of a trademark registration because the plaintiff did not exercise sufficient control over the use of the trademark by its licensees. This decision provides a helpful reminder of the dangers of relying on verbal agreements instead of written trademark licenses, and the need for trademark owners to maintain control over their licensees.

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Analysis, Canada

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation v. Conservative Party of Canada Decision and Fair Dealing

TV camera

The Federal Court recently released its decision in Canadian Broadcasting Corporation v. Conservative Party of Canada, 2021 FC 425 [CBC] in which it found that the Conservative Party’s use of CBC’s copyrighted materials in their political campaign fell under the fair dealing exception in the Copyright Act. The court deemed the Conservative Party’s use of substantial sections of CBC’s original works to be fair because the usage fell under the category of criticism. In making this decision, the court left the door open for future users of copyrighted materials to argue that their use falls under the fair dealing exception for criticism even when the reproduced work itself is not the target for criticism.

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Analysis, Canada

Are Recipes Protected by Copyright Law?

food on forks

As it currently stands, Canadian courts have not yet addressed the issue of copyright in recipes, but what can we learn from the leading caselaw on the subject from the United States? Although there are important differences between copyright law in Canada and the U.S., it seems likely that Canadian courts would at least consider the state of the law in the U.S. should the issue ever appear in front of them.

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Analysis, Canada, Copyrights

The Winkler v. Hendley Decision and Copyright in Non-Fictional Books

IP Copyrights

The Federal Court recently released its decision in Winkler v. Hendley, 2021 FC 498 [Winkler] in which it found that an author who claims to have published a non-fictional work cannot later claim that the work was in fact fictional in order to get around the principle that facts are not protected by copyright law.

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