Intellectual Property
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April 08, 2026
Restituted art: ‘Seated Man With a Cane’ returns home
The Nahmad family is one of the leading collectors of artworks in the world and are said to have amassed approximately 4,000 paintings worth about $4 billion, most of which I understand is stored in the Geneva Freeport in Switzerland. The patriarch of the family is David Nahmad, while his son Helly runs the Helly Nahmad Gallery in New York. Other members of the family are involved in different galleries in London and New York.
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April 08, 2026
The rule of law is not a given
Most of us who have grown up in Canada, whether we realize it or not, have always taken the rule of law for granted. We never really thought about it, or what it even was, but that is precisely the point. It has always just been there, like oxygen. You don’t think about oxygen until you have trouble breathing. We as a society are now having trouble breathing.
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April 07, 2026
McCarthy Tétrault adds IP litigator Denise Brunsdon
McCarthy Tétrault has added Denise Brunsdon as a partner in its national litigation and dispute resolution group in Calgary.
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April 02, 2026
Ontario decision clarifies when employee can keep ownership of work under Copyright Act
Ontario’s top court has ruled against a company that claimed software developed by an employee belonged to them, with the judges saying the work was not done in the normal course of employment. Nexus Solutions Inc., a London, Ont.-based company that develops and markets CEMView, a software product, claimed that competing software developed by a former employee belonged to them.
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April 01, 2026
Carney mandates shortlist of 3+ bilingual western jurists for SCC, but only 2 were found last time
The Carney government has opted to stick with the predecessor Liberal government’s requirement that the prime minister be handed a shortlist of at least three bilingual qualified candidates to fill an impending western/northern vacancy on the Supreme Court of Canada, despite the inability of the advisory committee that created the shortlist for the last such vacancy to recommend more than two bilingual qualified jurists.
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April 01, 2026
Court blocks ex-CEO’s startup over fiduciary breaches and non-compete clause
The Alberta Court of King’s Bench granted an education technology company an injunction preventing its former CEO and his startup from competing against it, finding a strong prima facie case that he breached a non-compete clause and his fiduciary duties.
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March 31, 2026
Judicial council sanctions handful of federal judges but rejects hundreds of conduct complaints
The Canadian Judicial Council (CJC), which oversees the professional conduct of the country’s 1,184 federally appointed judges, says that five judges were reprimanded or received other disciplinary sanctions last year.
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March 31, 2026
Alberta pushes for constitutional change on judicial appointments
The Government of Alberta announced that it will introduce a motion calling for “constitutional amendments that give the province a say in superior court appointments.”
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March 30, 2026
PM launches process to select Justice Martin’s replacement on SCC bench
On March 30, Prime Minister Mark Carney launched the process to “select the next judge of the Supreme Court of Canada, who will fill the vacancy created by the upcoming retirement of Justice Sheilah L. Martin.”
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March 25, 2026
Ottawa & provinces roll out disparate views on the ‘notwithstanding’ clause at Supreme Court
Before the Supreme Court of Canada reserved its impending historic decision on March 26, the top court heard starkly different interpretations this week about the nature and operation of the Charter’s s. 33 “notwithstanding” clause.