E-TIPS

On October 11, 2023, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) launched a public consultation on draft guidance relating to the handling of biometric information for both public and private sector organizations.

On October 6, 2023, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) announced the release of joint resolutions by Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial information and privacy authorities (collectively, the Regulators) calling for greater legal privacy protection for employees and young people. The announcement notes that each group is significantly vulnerable in its own way to the increasing influence of digital technologies.

On September 27, 2023, the Federal Court of Appeal (the Court) in Voltage Holdings, LLC v Doe #1, 2023 FCA 194, dismissed an appeal that sought to hold internet account holders whose IP addresses had been linked to copyright infringement activities liable for copyright infringement. The Court found that linking an IP address involved in infringing activities to the identity of an internet account holder was insufficient to prove that the account holder was the person responsible for the infringing activity associated with their account.

Changes are coming on December 1, 2023, to contentious trademark proceedings before the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO). The changes will shorten timelines for oppositions and summary cancellation (s. 45) proceedings.

On October 3, 2023, the Minister of Innovation, Science, and Industry (the Minister) sent a letter to the Chair of the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology that summarizes the areas in which the Government of Canada will propose amendments to Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act. In the letter, the Minister highlights key proposed changes to the Consumer Privacy Protection Act (CPPA) and the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA) that are based on feedback received from stakeholders.

On September 29, 2023, the Federal Court of Appeal (the FCA) issued its decision in Google LLC v Canada (Privacy Commissioner), 2023 FCA 200, dismissing Google LLC’s (Google's) appeal and finding that Google’s search engine is subject to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), as it does not fall under PIPEDA’s journalistic purposes exemption.

On September 27, 2023, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) published Canada's Voluntary Code of Conduct on the Responsible Development and Management of Advanced Generative AI Systems (the Code). The Code is the result of extensive stakeholder consultations (as previously reported by the E-TIPS® Newsletter here), and is intended to provide voluntary guidance for those developing or managing the operations of generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems before future AI-specific regulation comes into force.

On September 19, 2023, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) released the results of its investigation into whether Canada Post’s collection of personal information located on the outside of delivered envelopes and parcels for use in its marketing program violated the Privacy Act (the Act). The OPC found that Canada Post did not obtain proper authorization for this practice and, therefore, violated the Act.

On September 19, 2023, the Authors Guild (a professional writers’ organization) and several individual authors (collectively, the Plaintiffs) filed a class action complaint against several OpenAI entities (the Defendants) in Authors Guild v OpenAI LP, S.D.N.Y., No. 1:23-cv-08292, alleging copyright infringement under the US Copyright Act.

On September 19, 2023, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) tabled its 2022-2023 Annual Report to Parliament (the Annual Report) on the Privacy Act and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). The Annual Report underlines the OPC’s efforts over the past year to protect and promote the fundamental privacy rights of Canadians in the digital era.

On September 1, 2023, the Federal Court of Canada (the Court) in Industries Certico Inc. v Mastrandrea Commercial Bakeries Limited, 2023 FC 1193, dismissed an appeal brought under section 56 of the Trademarks Act (the Act). The appeal contested the Trademarks Opposition Board’s (TMOB’s) finding that the FORNO MAGNIFICO & DESIGN mark (the Mark) was unregistrable based on a likelihood of confusion with the registered FORNO & DESIGN mark and previously used FORNO CULTURA SQUARE & DESIGN mark.

Certain amendments to Canada’s federal Competition Act (the “Act”), came into effect on June 23, 2023. The purpose of this advisory is to provide an overview of the: (i) changes under the Act prohibiting wage-fixing, non-solicit, and no-hire agreements; and (ii) requirements for compliance under the Act.

Regular readers of the E-TIPS® Newsletter will know that the backlog of the examination of Canadian trademark applications has been a source of commentary for the past several years. 2024 may bring with it some reason for optimism.

Earlier this year, Health Canada published a proposal relating to a cost-recovery regime for natural health products (NHPs). Health Canada proposes to start charging fees for NHP regulatory activities on April 1, 2025.

On August 28, 2023, the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (the Centre) released its cyber security guidance document entitled “Baseline Cyber Threat Assessment: Cybercrime” (the Assessment), which describes the historical and current threat that global cybercrime poses to Canada and Canadians.

On August 24, 2023, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada issued a joint statement on data scraping and the protection of privacy (the Joint Statement).

On August 16, 2023, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) launched a public consultation seeking stakeholder feedback on a new code of practice (the Code) for generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems. The Code is meant to offer interim guidance for companies currently developing and using AI systems until the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA) comes into force.

On August 15, 2023, the British Columbia Court of Appeal (BCCA) in Insurance Corporation of British Columbia v Ari, 2023 BCCA 331, upheld the Supreme Court of British Columbia’s finding 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.

On August 1, 2023, the Government of Canada published its “Privacy Implementation Notice 2023-03: Guidance pertaining to the collection, use, retention and disclosure of personal information that is publicly available online” (the Notice) pursuant to paragraph 71(1)(d) of the Privacy Act.

On July 21, 2023, The Biden-Harris Administration (the Administraiton) announced that seven leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) companies have committed to managing the risks posed by AI by moving towards the safe, secure and transparent development of AI technologies (the Announcement).