E-TIPS

On June 3, 2020, the UK-based Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) published a position paper calling for clarity over the patenting of innovations created by artificial intelligence in the United Kingdom (the Paper). The Paper is part of CIPA's work to resolve uncertainties and limitations regarding the inventorship of innovations created using artificial intelligence (AI).

The US Copyright Office (the Office) has announced the initiation of a public study to determine the extent to which copyright owners are experiencing infringement by states without adequate remedies under state law.  The Federal Register notice regarding the study indicates that the Office will also be assessing the extent to which such infringements appear to be based on intentional or reckless conduct.

On May 18, 2020, the Oregon District Court (the Court) released its decision in Leonard v Nike, Inc (Case No. 3:19-cv-01586-MO), holding that Nike, Inc (Nike) owns the “Klaw” Logo (Logo) and the right to register copyright in the Logo.

On May 14, 2020, the U.S. Senate passed the USA Freedom Reauthorization Act of 2020 (the Bill) to renew a number of lapsed surveillance powers, including reauthorizing section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act (the Act) which allows the U.S.

On May 7, 2020, the Canadian Government Standing Committee on Finance met to hear from stakeholders impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This included publishers of Canadian newspapers and media outlets, who have called for an urgent overhaul of the Broadcasting Act to have digital media platforms share their advertising revenues with Canadian media companies.

On July 1, 2020, The United-States-Mexico Canada (USMCA) trade agreement will come into force. This agreement has led to the enactment of a new Criminal Code of Canada (CCC) provision, Article 391, which provides protection to help deter the theft of trade secrets.

On May 15, 2020, in Bauer Hockey Ltd v. Sport Maska Inc (CCM Hockey) (2020 FC 624), the Federal Court of Canada (the FC) considered section 53.1 of the Canadian Patent Act, which is a provision recently added to the Patent Act which allows for patent prosecution history to be admitted into evidence in court proceedings.

Presentation by Hashim Ghazi of Deeth Williams Wall LLP and Nancy Shapiro of Koskie Minsky LLP exploring key considerations in drafting and maintaining effective employment and contracting agreements, including what employers need to know about the post-pandemic working world.

On May 6, 2020, Thomson Reuters and West Publishing Corporation (the Plaintiffs) filed a claim for copyright infringement against ROSS Intelligence Inc. (ROSS) alleging that ROSS used artificial intelligence to obtain proprietary data from the Westlaw database to create a competing product. 

On May 4, 2020, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) launched an online intellectual property marketplace – Patents 4 Partnerships (the Platform) – to help connect patent licensors and licensees in key technologies.

On May 7, 2020, the Federal, Provincial and Territorial Privacy Commissioners in Canada released a Joint Statement on contract tracing apps, entitled “Supporting public health, building public trust: Privacy principles for contact tracing and similar apps.”  The Statement invites the various levels of government, if they plan to use apps for contact tracing or for notifying individuals that they have been in close proximity of someone who is or is likely to be a carrier of COVID-19, to respect a set of principles.  These principles include:

On April 22, 2020, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) denied the petition to recognize DABUS as the inventor of patent application No 16/524,350 (’350).

On April 23, 2020, the Ontario Superior Court of Canada (the Court) released its decision in Wiseau Studio, LLC et al v Harper et al (2020 ONSC 2504), dismissing the plaintiffs’ action for copyright infringement against the creators of a documentary entitled “Room Full of Spoons”. 

There has been a recent increase in licenses granted by Health Canada for “hand sanitizer products” amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to qualify as a hand sanitizer, Health Canada has specified that the product must contain at least 60% ethanol alcohol. Furthermore, in order to use the terms “hand sanitizer” or “disinfectant”, evidence that the products meet these standards needs to be included in an application to Health Canada. 

On April 17, 2020, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) published a privacy assessment framework to assist federal government institutions in understanding their privacy-related responsibilities for the collection, use and disclosure of personal information during the COVID-19 outbreak.  This framework builds on the previous OPC guidance issued last month (as previously reported by the E-TIPS® Newsletter 

On April 22, 2020, in York University v The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright) (2020 FCA 77), the Canadian Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) allowed the university's appeal, holding that although the actions of York University (York) were not fair dealing, the payment of tariffs to Access Copyright as set by Canada's Copyright Board (CCB) was not mandatory.

On March 3, 2020, in Bayer Inc v Apotex Inc (2020 FC 325), the Federal Court (the Court) determined that questions on discovery about a party’s “position” were improper discovery questions.

On April 20, 2020, in The Clorox Company of Canada, Ltd v Chloretec S.E.C. (2020 FCA 76), the Canadian Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) dismissed an appeal by The Clorox Company of Canada (Clorox) from a decision of the Federal Court (FC) rejecting Clorox’s opposition to the trademark applications for JAVELO and JAVELO & Design (collectively, Marks).

Recently, 3M, the American respirator manufacturer, sued two Canadian students for allegedly selling N95 face masks at grossly high prices amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The FDA-approved N95 mask developed by 3M has surged in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic due to its ability to protect mask wearers from air particles, including those the size of the novel coronavirus. There is a current shortage of these masks in Canada and many consumers are urgently searching online for sellers with N95 inventory.

In Georgia et al. Public Resource.Org, Inc. 590 U.S. _ (2020), the Supreme Court of the United States (the Court) held that the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (the OCGA) is not entitled to copyright protection.  The OCGA contains the text of the every state of Georgia statute and non-binding annotations.  There was no dispute that copyright protection did not extend to the text of statutes, however the state argued that the annotations were entitled to copyright.