E-TIPS

On March 27, 2024, the Federal Court of Appeal (the FCA) released its decision in French v Royal Canadian Legion (Dominion Command), 2024 FCA 63, that clarifies the scope of application of Subsection 64(2) of the Copyright Act which provides a defence against copyright and moral rights infringement in a design applied to a useful article produced in a quantity of more than 50.

On March 28, 2024, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) published a Privacy Act Bulletin (Bulletin) summarizing key takeaways from its investigation into the 2020 cyber breach that affected the Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA’s) sign-in portal and Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC’s) “GCKey” authentication service.

On April 2, 2024, the Federal Court of Canada (FC) and the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) published an invitation to participate in a global review of the Federal Courts Rules (the Rules). The invitation states that the 2024 Global Review Sub-Committee of the Federal Courts Rules Committee (the Sub-Committee) will conduct the global review.

On March 21, 2024, the Ontario Government announced that it had passed the Working for Workers Four Act, 2024 (the Act), which implements legislative amendments to various employment statutes in Ontario, creating further protections for workers in Ontario and imposing additional responsibilities on employers, such as a requirement for employers to disclose the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the hiring process.

On March 13, 2024, the European Parliament approved the Artificial Intelligence Act (the Act), positioning the EU to have the world’s first binding comprehensive law on artificial intelligence (AI).

On March 13, 2024, the Federal Court of Appeal (the FCA) issued its decision in Google LLC v Sonos Inc., 2024 FCA 44, upholding the Federal Court’s decision (in 2022 FC 1116) that Sonos Inc. (Sonos) did not infringe claim 7 of Google LLC’s (Google) Canadian Patent No. 2,545,150 (the 150 Patent).

On March 6, 2024, the General Court of the European Union ( the Court) released its decision in Puma SE v European Union Intellectual Property Office (T 647/22), finding Puma SE’s (Puma’s) registration for a sneaker design (the Contested Design) invalid because it was disclosed on social media by singer, Rihanna, prior to Puma’s filing to register the Contested Design.

Facial recognition (FR) technology has the potential to significantly improve the speed and scale of police-operated mugshot databases. However, the use of FR technology by law enforcement raises legal, privacy, and ethical questions that are not fully resolved by Canada’s current laws relating to the identification of criminals.

On March 1, 2024, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) issued its decision in R. v Bykovets, 2024 SCC 6, in which a 5-4 majority held that an Internet Protocol (IP) address attracts a reasonable expectation of privacy and that a request by the state for an IP address constitutes a “search” under Section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the Charter).

On February 28, 2024, the Federal Court of Canada (the Court) in Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne v Coors Brewing Company, 2024 FC 169, dismissed an appeal of a decision of the Registrar of Trademarks (the Registrar), finding that the Registrar committed no error in concluding that special circumstances excusing non-use existed for recently acquired trademarks.

On March 12, 2024, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the United States Copyright Office (collectively, the Offices) published the results of a joint study they conducted regarding issues of intellectual property (IP) and policy arising from the use of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Ultimately, the Offices concluded that NFT-specific IP laws are not necessary or advisable at this time.

On February 14, 2024, the British Columbia Civil Resolution Tribunal (the Tribunal) issued its decision in Moffatt v Air Canada, 2024 BCCRT 149, finding Air Canada liable for damages after failing to take reasonable care to ensure the accuracy of its website chatbot.

On February 26, 2024, the Government of Canada introduced Bill C-63, the Online Harms Act (Bill C-63). Bill C-63 aims to hold social media platforms accountable for harmful content hosted on their platforms and create stronger online protections for everyone in Canada, especially children.

On January 15, 2024, in Keezio Group, LLC v The Shrunks’ Family Toy Company Inc., 2024 BCSC 64, the Supreme Court of British Columbia (the Court) awarded damages for false and misleading trademark and copyright infringement complaints filed with Amazon.

On February 13, 2024, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued its Inventorship Guidance for AI-Assisted Inventions (the Guidance). The Guidance was issued pursuant to President Biden’s executive order from October 30, 2023, tasking the USPTO with publishing guidance for stakeholders on how it will analyze inventorship issues relating to artificial intelligence (AI) (as previously reported by the E-TIPS® Newsletter here).

On February 7, 2024, the Federal Court of Canada (the Court) issued its decision in Takeda Canada Inc. v Apotex Inc., 2024 FC 106, dismissing Takeda Canada Inc.’s (Takeda) claims for infringement of its Canadian Patent No. 2,570,916 (the 916 Patent) by Apotex Inc. (Apotex).

On January 31, 2024, the Ontario Court of Appeal (the Court) issued its decision in Del Giudice v Thompson, 2024 ONCA 70, considering the tort of intrusion upon seclusion in the context of data misuse and rejecting the appellants’ arguments seeking class action certification.

On January 29, 2024, the Québec Superior Court of Justice (the Court), in 4207602 Canada Inc. (Cameo Knitting) c Kodiak Group Holdings, 2024 QCCS 292, granted a provisional injunction enjoining the Defendants, Kodiak Group Holdings Co. and IW Apparel, LLC, from terminating their agreement for cause.

On January 22, 2024, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) published a strategic plan (the Plan) that offers a high-level overview of the OPC’s vision for the next three years, including the types of initiatives that the OPC will be undertaking, areas in which it will focus its efforts, and outcomes that it intends to achieve.

On January 1, 2024, the amendments to section 61.1 of the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA) and its accompanying regulation (the Regulation) took effect, providing the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC) with additional enforcement power to impose administrative monetary penalties (AMPs) on those that contravene the legislation.