Articles 2020

Facial recognition technology has become increasingly popular among businesses for various applications, including security, marketing, and customer service. However, with the widespread adoption of this technology, there are growing concerns over its potential impact on privacy, human rights, and data protection.

Personality rights of deceased celebrities have been the subject of debate for many years due to the continued popularity of these individuals beyond their death. Recently, two events have sparked renewed discussions on the matter. These events raise ethical and legal issues related to publicity, privacy, and intellectual property. This article will explore these issues through the lens of prior case law.

Hollywood-esque special effects that allow anyone to become any person with the click of a few buttons: this is the reality of deepfakes. Deepfakes are a form of technology that uses artificial intelligence (“AI”) to allow a person to impersonate someone else’s appearance and voice. A person only needs a phone or a computer, and an image or video of the desired target.

This article explores how, if at all, digitizing and/or restoring a film is treated under copyright law in Canada. More specifically, if the film in the public domain and copyright has expired, is the digital restoration of the film result in a copyright in the digitally restored version?

In acknowledgement of International IP Day on April 26, this article will address some examples of focused government initiatives that are being taken in Canada to help financially support IP protection. This is not a comprehensive survey, just highlighting some bright spots that lawyers should be aware of for their clients.

In the fourth of a five-part series of posts on foundational faults in Bill C-11, Michael Geist argues that its regulated discoverability requirements are likely to harm Canadian creators, resulting in lost audiences and potentially millions in lost revenues.

My first post on Bill C-11 focused on the virtually limitless reach of the CRTC’s jurisdictional power over audio-visual services. The expansive approach in Bill C-11 isn’t limited to its jurisdictional reach, however. Not only does the law have few limits with respect to which services are regulated, it is similarly over-broad with respect to what is regulated, featuring definitions that loop all AV content into the law by treating all AV content as a “program” subject to potential regulation.

The Quebec Court of Appeal decision in Constellation Brands US Operations Inc. v. Société de vin internationale ltée 2021 QCCA 1664 has received a lot of attention for its discussion of when comparative advertising constitutes infringement and whether comparative advertising can depreciate goodwill. However, the case is noteworthy for its consideration of the court’s discretion to refuse to grant an accounting of profits after having found infringement, and this merits more discussion.

Much has been done to protect public interest speech, like in Canada the judicial adoption of the new defence of responsible communication and the introduction of anti-SLAPP legislation. However, little has been done to address the harm caused by the malicious and defamatory use of platforms like Google, Facebook and Twitter.

Facebook’s recent re-branding to Meta has significantly increased interest in the “metaverse”. Although the concept of the metaverse is still evolving, it is generally understood to be a persistent virtual environment where users can interact with each other, and increasingly with brands. This new environment will pose both challenges and opportunities for brand owners seeking to extend their engagement with consumers to the virtual world.