Articles 2023

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North Brewing Company Ltd. v DLA Piper: What is use of a trademark?

  • October 02, 2023
  • Sabrina Salituro, Associate at Lomic Law

In the recent decision of North Brewing Company Ltd. v DLA Piper (Canada) LLP, 2023 FC 1188, the Federal Court clarifies the extent to which variations of a registered trademark will constitute use of the mark by the owner in cancellation proceedings pursuant to section 45 of the Trademarks Act.

Student Forum, Information Technology and Intellectual Property Law

Get to Know Your Execs in Five Minutes (or Less) (Part 2)

  • September 27, 2023
  • M. Imtiaz Karamat

In this ongoing series, we will profile each of the members of the OBA IT/ IP Law Section Executives to learn about them in five minutes or less. It’s five minutes or less because we know that a lot of you docket in six minute increments! Meet this year's Vice-Chair: M. Imtiaz Karamat!

Student Forum, Information Technology and Intellectual Property Law

Get to Know Your Execs in Five Minutes (or Less) (Part 1)

  • September 27, 2023
  • Paul Lomic

In this ongoing series, we will profile each of the members of the OBA IT/ IP Law Section Executives to learn about them in five minutes or less. It’s five minutes or less because we know that a lot of you docket in six minute increments! Meet this year's Chair: Paul Lomic!

Student Forum, Information Technology and Intellectual Property Law
head-shot photo of author Andrew Shaughnessy

Mentorship Corner - Part 1

  • September 27, 2023
  • Andrew Shaughnessy, partner at Torys LLP

In this new series, we ask senior lawyers to provide practice tips for junior lawyers in the OBA IT/ IP Law Section! In Part 1, we asked Andrew Shaughnessy, Partner at Torys LLP, for tips.

Student Forum, Information Technology and Intellectual Property Law

Energizer v Duracell: Comparative Advertising Battery Battle

  • September 26, 2023
  • Shany Raitsin, law student at Lomic Law

In the recent decision Energizer Brands, LLC v Gilette Company, 2023 FC 804, the Federal Court ruled that Duracell’s use of Energizer’s registered trademarks ENERGIZER and ENERGIZER MAX in comparative advertising on its sticker labels depreciated the goodwill in Energizer’s registered trademarks.

Student Forum, Information Technology and Intellectual Property Law

Artificial Intelligence in Western English Fiction – A Quick Take

  • May 02, 2023
  • Sairam Sanathkumar, Aird & Berlis LLP

Authors of science fiction are sometimes unduly credited with predicting giant leaps in sci-tech, but the joy of reading them remains. Technology fiction came to be regarded as a serious literary sub-genre in the mid-20th century. The advent of the earliest computer, Alan Turing’s “Turing Machine,” and advancements in space exploration largely coincided with the works of Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein.

Student Forum, Information Technology and Intellectual Property Law

Get to Know Your Execs in Five Minutes (or less) – Part III

  • May 02, 2023
  • Anastassia Trifonova

In this ongoing series, we will profile each of the members of the OBA IP/ IT Law Section Executive to learn about them in five minutes or less. It’s five minutes or less because we know that a lot of you docket in six-minute increments!

Student Forum, Information Technology and Intellectual Property Law

Recyclability to Patentability: The Coca-Cola Company v. Canada (AG), 2023 FC 424

  • May 02, 2023
  • Jose Garcia-Bonilla

In The Coca-Cola Company v. The Attorney General of Canada, 2023 FC 424, the Coca-Cola Company appealed a decision of the Commissioner of Patents refusing to grant a patent on Canadian Patent No. 2,718,279 on the basis that the claims in the Application were obvious. The Federal Court allowed the appeal in part. It held that the Commissioner erred in its obviousness assessment of one of TCCC’s claims and referred the matter back for redetermination.

Student Forum, Information Technology and Intellectual Property Law

Specialist or Generalist Judges in IP: Is the Jury Still Out?

  • May 02, 2023
  • Andrew Shaughnessy, Torys LLP

On March 2, 2023, the Federal Court announced a pilot program to create 'Chambers' of judges in the areas of: 1) IP/Competition; 2) maritime and admiralty; and 3) class actions. The notice indicated that the Chief Justice will assign IP, competition, and maritime and admiralty matters to members of the Court who have expertise in those areas, with the stated objective of developing expertise within those silos in the Court.

Student Forum, Information Technology and Intellectual Property Law

ChatGPT: The Hottest Toy of 2023

  • May 02, 2023
  • Jennifer R Davidson, partner, Deeth Williams Wall LLP, and Sharan Johal, articling student, Deeth Williams Wall LLP

ChatGPT, developed by Microsoft-backed research lab OpenAI, has occupied the artificial intelligence news stream since its initial launch in December 2022. ChatGPT is a natural language processing generative AI tool that, depending on the model a user can access, can generate text-to-text, or image-to-text, output in a formula which mimics human conversation. The first publicly available tool of its kind, ChatGPT has become one of the fastest-growing consumer applications of all time.

Student Forum, Information Technology and Intellectual Property Law