Intellectual Property

  • August 24, 2026

    Carney government says judicial pay hikes it rejected would cost almost $321 million over 6 years

    A $28,000 lump sum salary boost recommended for Canada’s 1,200 judges and associate judges last year would have cost Ottawa almost $321 million over six years had the government not rejected the advice from an independent judicial pay commission, the Carney government asserts in defending a novel lawsuit launched by the Canadian Superior Courts Judges Association (CSCJA) and the Association of Federal Court Associate Judges.

  • August 24, 2026

    The case for and against restricting AI use in the legal classroom

    As generative artificial intelligence becomes more capable, law schools at some Canadian and American universities have announced bans on laptops, tablets and mobile phones in classrooms. Supporters say restrictions protect academic integrity and restore focused learning. Critics counter that blanket bans are difficult to enforce, disadvantage some students and avoid the challenge, that of teaching future lawyers to use AI responsibly.

  • August 21, 2026

    Court allows injunction in dispute over ownership of software source code

    The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has granted an interlocutory injunction in a dispute over ownership of source code that a startup said it needed to continue operating, finding that the company would suffer irreparable harm from the loss of its business.

  • August 19, 2026

    Appeal tossed over AI-faked transcript as more counsel, clients & courts grapple with gen AI misuse

    The growing burdens that generative AI misuse in court is imposing on lawyers, litigants and courts are illustrated by a recent Nova Scotia Court of Appeal judgment that threw out a self-represented litigant’s appeal following his use of uncertified AI-generated trial transcripts containing multiple inaccuracies that opposing counsel identified through vigilant verification.

  • August 19, 2026

    U.K. High Court weighs in on copyright exposure of Temu e-commerce marketplace in Shein dispute

    In this case, the principal issue seems to have become whether the defendant’s operation of the Temu platform amounted to copyright infringement or was protected by the hosting defence. On a more practical level, title to the copyrights in issue was a key factor.

  • August 18, 2026

    Quebec Appeal Court dings family self-rep $1K plus costs for ‘deliberate’ use of bogus ChatGPT cases

    Quebec’s top court has ordered a self-represented family law appellant to pay $1,000 to his ex-wife plus her legal costs on the appeal, following his “deliberate” citation in court of ChatGPT-generated fake case law, including fictitious quotations.

  • August 13, 2026

    The smarter AI gets, the more human art becomes

    Speed has dominated how we talk about artificial intelligence. AI can generate an image in seconds, draft a song before lunch or produce a dozen variations of a story without getting tired. AI can make artistic production faster and more accessible, but the arts have never been valuable simply because they are difficult to produce. We value them because someone chose to make them, because a human being noticed something, felt something and found a way to share it. With AI becoming more capable, human skills behind art do not disappear. They become easier to see, and, increasingly, easier to defend, since copyright itself now turns on identifying the human contribution in a work.

  • August 07, 2026

    Proposed settlement of $300K reached in chocolate product class action

    A proposed national class action settlement has been reached with defendant Chocmod Canada Inc. relating to the marketing and sale of Truffettes de France cocoa and chocolate products in Canada.

  • August 07, 2026

    Court overturns trademark ruling that adopted plaintiffs’ draft order, including errors

    The Federal Court of Appeal has set aside a trademark infringement judgment after concluding that the Federal Court’s decision was almost identical to the plaintiffs’ draft order, including its errors, and did not adequately explain its conclusions.

  • August 06, 2026

    ‘Solicitor’s eyes only’ orders in trademark litigation: Protecting sensitive competitive information

    In an action for trademark infringement, an associate judge of the Federal Court allowed the defendant’s request to protect certain confidential information by means of a “solicitor’s eyes only” (SEO) designation. The designation would prevent the plaintiff from accessing specified confidential information produced in the litigation (Northern Reflections Ltd. v Aritzia Inc.).