Intellectual Property

  • September 03, 2026

    Closing the loopholes: The HEAR Act of 2025 and the battle for merits-based art restitution

    In the early years of art restitution, after the signing of the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art in 1998, several museums in the United States launched pre-emptive strikes against claimants of looted artworks who expressed an interest in discussing or resolving their claim. Examples include the Toledo Museum of Art v. Ullin, 477 F. Supp. 2d 802 (N.D. Ohio 2006); the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston v. Seger-Thomschitz, 623 F.3d 1 (1st Cir. 2010) and The Museum of Modern Art v. Schoeps, 549 F. Supp. 2d 543 (S.D.N.Y. 2008). The first two cases were dismissed in favour of the museums and in the latter case an out-of-court settlement was reached.

  • September 02, 2026

    SOCAN sues AI music platform Suno over allegedly infringing music outputs

    Canada’s largest member-owned music rights organization, SOCAN, has filed a lawsuit against Suno Inc., alleging that its AI music-generation platform generated and streamed outputs that copy songs in SOCAN’s repertoire, infringing the performing rights in those works.

  • September 02, 2026

    Geo-blocking, copyright and the right to make works available online

    In Anne Franks Fonds v. Anne Frank Stichting Case C-788/24, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), the highest court of the EU, considered the right to make a work available on a website and the impact of technical protection measures implemented to restrict access to the work. The decision should be helpful to online content providers.

  • September 02, 2026

    ‘Alle Menschen werden Brüder’ and access to justice

    “Alle Menschen werden Brüder” translates to “all people become brothers” and is one of the most recognizable lines from Friedrich Schiller’s poem Ode to Joy, immortalized in the final movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. In modern, inclusive language, its meaning might be expressed as “all people become kin.”

  • August 27, 2026

    Jade Benson-Poitras joins Langlois in Montreal

    Jade Benson-Poitras has joined Langlois’ business law group in Montreal.

  • August 27, 2026

    Counsel should check that trial transcripts filed on appeal aren’t AI-created fakes, lawyer advises

    As AI-generated court filings by self-represented litigants proliferate, appellate counsel should read trial transcripts that are ostensibly “certified” more closely than ever and do so earlier in the appeal process as they might be AI-created fakes, advises a senior family law practitioner.

  • August 26, 2026

    Crocs’ EU design loss and the challenge of protecting product shape

    A recent decision of the General Court of the European Union dismissed Crocs’ appeal from a decision invalidating its EU design registration for its highly recognized clog (Crocs, Inc. v EUIPO, General Court, Case T-228/25).

  • August 25, 2026

    Federal Court permits new evidence in trademark appeal, citing transition to new rules

    The Federal Court has allowed the owner of an expunged trademark to file new evidence on appeal despite failing to explain why the evidence was not provided to the Trademarks Opposition Board, finding that admitting it was in the overall interests of justice.

  • August 25, 2026

    MLT Aikins adds 3 associates in Vancouver

    MLT Aikins has added Melissa Creech, Allie da Silva and Jeffrey Williams as associates in its Vancouver office.

  • 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 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.