E-TIPS

On October 28, 2022, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (the OPC) announced that data protection authorities around the world endorsed resolutions on facial recognition technology (FRT) and cybersecurity at the 44th Global Privacy Assembly (GPA) in Istanbul, Türkiye.

On October 21, 2022, the Federal Court of Canada (the Court) in Bell Media Inc. v. John Doe 1, 2022 FC 1432, issued a dynamic site blocking Order requiring Third Party Respondent internet service providers (ISPs) to block or attempt to block access to streaming servers that provide unauthorized streams of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup Qatar 2022 matches.

On October 21, 2022, the High Court of the Republic of Singapore (the Court) issued its reasons in Janesh s/o Rajkumar v Unknown Person (“CHEFPIERRE”), [2022] SGHC 264, explaining its decision in May 2022 to grant an injunction to prevent any potential sale of the non-fungible token (NFT) in issue and finding that NFTs are a form of property.

On October 6, 2022, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (the Commissioner) issued a statement concerning a new report from the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics (the Committee), following its study on the use and impact of facial recognition technology (FRT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

On October 6, 2022, the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) released new draft Guidelines (the Guidelines) to give effect to the July 1, 2022, amendments to the Patented Medicines Regulations (the Regulations). If implemented, the Guidelines will modernize and simplify how the PMPRB monitors and reviews the prices of patented medicines in Canada.

On September 29, 2022, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (the OPC) published the results of its investigation into the 2018 data breach involving Marriott International, Inc. (Marriott), finding many of the hotel giant’s privacy controls inadequate and recommending remedial steps to prevent future breaches.

On September 7, 2022, the Federal Court of Canada (the Court) in Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V. v Apotex Inc., 2022 FC 1262, granted a protective order in the form presented by Apotex Inc. (Apotex) with respect to the exchange of documents and information with Janssen Pharmaceutica (Janssen) during the discovery process.

On October 3, 2022, the United Kingdom’s (UK) Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Michelle Donelan, announced that the UK Government intends to replace the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) with its own “business and consumer-friendly, British data protection system”.

On October 3, 2022, the United States Supreme Court (the Court) granted certiorari in Gonzalez v. Google LLC, 2 F.4th 871 (9th Cir. 2021), to consider whether section 230(c)(1) of the Communications Decency Act immunizes website operators and other online service providers when they make targeted recommendations of information provided by another information content provider, in this case terrorism-related videos posted on YouTube.

On October 7, 2022, United States (US) President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order setting out the steps that the US will take to implement its commitments under the European Union-US Data Privacy Framework (the EU-US DPF). This comes after the March 2022 announcement that the European Commission and the US reached a new deal in principle on cross-border data flows, as previously reported by the E-TIPS® Newsletter here.

On September 29, 2022, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (the OPC) tabled its 2021-2022 Annual Report to Parliament (the Annual Report) on the Privacy Act and Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). The Annual Report provides an overview of the work done by the OPC during the last year.

On September 21, 2022, Canada’s privacy regulatory authorities (the Privacy Regulators) passed a resolution to secure public trust in digital health infrastructure (the Resolution). The Resolution calls on governments and health institutions across Canada to cooperate to implement a “modern, secure and interoperable digital health communication infrastructure” in order to phase out the use of unencrypted email and fax communication practices when sharing sensitive personal health information.

The British Columbia Provincial Court (the Court) in Whitehall Entertainment Incorporated v Kafka Pictures Inc, 2022 BCPC 184, recently found the Claimants, Ms. Whitehall and Whitehall Entertainment Inc., had established copyright infringement against the Defendant, Ms. Kaffka, in relation to an independent short film, “Hey, That’s My Bike!” (the Film).

On August 17, 2022, the Federal Court of Canada (the Court) in Bayer Inc. v Sandoz Canada, 2022 FC 1187, granted Sandoz Canada Inc. (Sandoz) leave to amend its Statement of Defence to add new allegations, contingent on an adjournment of the trial and an extension of the 24-month stay under the Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance) Regulations (the Regulations).

On September 20, 2022, the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio Eastern Division (the Court) issued its decision in Hayden v 2K Games, Inc., et al., 1:17CV2635, granting in part the Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment and denying the Defendants’ motion for summary judgment, relating to the depiction of tattoos in NBA 2K video games.

On August 4, 2022, the Federal Court of Appeal of Canada (the FCA) issued its decision in Gemak Trust v Jempak Corporation, 2022 FCA 141, in which it allowed the appeal, and dismissed Jempak Corporation’s (Jempak’s) motion for summary judgment, finding that there is a genuine issue for trial.

On August 17, 2022, the Federal Court of Canada (the Court) issued its decision in AbbVie Corporation v Canada (Health), 2022 FC 1209, dismissing AbbVie Corporation’s and AbbVie Biotechnology Ltd.’s (collectively, AbbVie) applications for judicial review concerning: (i) the Minister of Health’s (the Minister) determination that JAMP Pharma Corporation (JAMP) did not constitute a “second person” for the purposes of Section 5(1) of the Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance) Regulations (the Regulations) in respect of its new drug submission (NDS); and (ii) the Minister’s decision to issue a Notice of Compliance to JAMP permitting it to market three drugs in Canada under the brand name SIMLANDI.

On September 7, 2022, Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry (the Minister), issued a statement on Canada’s Telecommunications Reliability Agenda following the nation-wide Rogers network outage that took place on July 8, 2022. As part of the statement, the Minister provided details on a formal agreement between Canada’s major telecommunications service providers to lend support in the event of another major network outage.

On August 24, 2022, the Supreme Court of British Columbia (the Court) in Ari v. Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, 2022 BCSC 1475, found that the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) was liable for its employee’s violation of its customers’ privacy under the British Columbia Privacy Act (the Act).

On August 17, 2022, the Australian High Court (the Court) in Google LLC v Defteros, [2022] HCA 27, allowed an appeal by Google LLC (Google) of a decision from the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria (the Appeal Court) which Google liable for publishing defamatory material by linking an article (The Age article) on Mr. George Defteros, the Respondent, in its search results of the Respondent’s name. The Court found that Google did not “publish” The Age article by hyperlinking the article in its search results.