Articles 2021

At the December Brown Bag Lunch meeting, OBA members gathered to discuss interesting practice questions, including participants’ views on mutual Will agreements, and the Court’s recent treatment of affidavits in support of a request to dispense with a bond.

Following are our summaries of the civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario for the week of February 20 to 24, 2023.

The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology recently released version 1.0 of its Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework. The goal of the framework is to provide a voluntary, rights-preserving, sector- and use-case agnostic guide for AI actors to implement in order to promote trustworthy and responsible AI systems.

This article provides an update on the winner of the 2022 Ron Ellis Award.

This article provides an update on the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal's Decision No. 1169/20I2, an appeal adjudicating the issue of deeming within the Ontario labour market for workers within the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program.

This article highlights Decision No. 1483/21 as a reminder to advocates of the documents that must accompany an expert report. Without the appropriate accompanying documents, advocates risk their expert reports being given little or no weight in the weighing of evidence.

There was only one substantive civil decision released by the Court of Appeal for Ontario for the week of February 13, 2023, Boliden Mineral AB v. FQM Kevitsa Sweden Holdings AB.

The metaverse is an elusive concept, but can be broadly described as a rapidly growing extension of the tendrils of the internet, redefining what constitutes social media. As an ever growing and immersive network of technologies, the metaverse attempts to close the gap between society and the media which serves as its vehicle. As it exists now, the metaverse is a multi-platform virtual ecosystem with an integrated economy that evolves and grows in real time.

In Puma SE v. Caterpillar Inc., 2023 FCA 4, the Federal Court of Appeal (“FCA”) declined to set aside the Federal Court’s decision to refuse Puma SE’s (“Puma”) application to register its trademark “procat”. The FCA held that Puma failed to demonstrate any palpable or overriding error in the Federal Court’s analysis that “procat” would be confusing with Caterpillar Inc.’s (“Caterpillar”) CAT & Triangle Design Mark (the “Design Mark”) for use in association with athletic footwear and headgear.

On January 13, 2023, a final judgment was issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in adidas America, Inc., et. al., v. Thom Browne, Inc., 1:21-cv-05615. The defendant, Thom Browne Inc. (Thom Browne), was found not liable for trademark infringement and trademark dilution as brought by the plaintiffs, adidas America Inc. and adidas AG (Adidas). Adidas has since filed a notice of appeal.